The problem for many is how to justify its use before the technical planning starts. Technology is great if applied to the right users at the right time and the right price.I just finished the Cisco Press book, The Power of IP Video: Unleashing Productivity with Visual Networking, ISBN 978-1-58705-342-9. This is a book on the value, uses and justifications of IP video. If you looking for a technology book, then this is not the book for you. If, however you want to know how to apply IP video, then read this book. Some of the applications presented are not new so do not favor IP video as the only solution, just a recent implementation.
The book's authors have collected considerable knowledge and experience for applying IP video. The authors are or have been members of the Cisco staff, so the focus is on the Cisco perspective of TelePresence. What I found interesting is how Cisco has drunk its own Kool-aid and made use of IP video. The book is filled with applications that have been successful within Cisco. There are also many short case studies of demonstrating how Cisco customers have deployed IP video. The ideas provided can help the reader develop ROI calculation for IP video justification. Cost savings examples are plentiful.
The introduction to the book states "Today, we hear about quad-play, Unified Communications, TelePresence, IP video surveillance, video portals Web 2.0 mashups and various solutions developed to address a variety of business needs, all leading to visual networking." Visual networking is the marrying of social networking e.g. Web 2.0 and digital video technologies.
Chapter 1, "Quad-Play and the Curse of Interesting Times" provides a good prequel to the rest of the book and presentation of the primary drivers. It focuses on three trends:
* Virtualization--the ability to create the desired environment anytime and anywhere
* Globalization--The requirement that organizations are distributed but need to work together
* Consumer-led entry of applications--The Web 2.0 trend and social visual networking in use by millions that will impact business functions beyond IT
The authors spend a good deal of chapters 4 through 9 discussing how Cisco has adopted IP video. These chapters cover finance, investor relations, marketing, engineering teams and sales productivity. Each chapter provides anecdotes of the applications. So if you are a technology company, you may find many inspirations for IP video in your organization.
An interesting graphic in chapter 7 "Optimizing a Global Engineering Organization" shows the Cisco engineering group preferences. Visual meetings were preferred by the engineering team but much less so by executives. Video on demand was favored by executives but not by team members. Training was heavily biased toward video on demand, far less for virtual meetings. The conclusion I drew from this graphic was that IP video in its many forms will not be equally attractive to the users. I expected this but the chart demonstrated it. This may make justifying IP video more complex.
If however you are not a technology company, then chapters 10 through 13 are for you. Three main application areas are covered: education, finance and healthcare. A number of smaller application examples are demonstrated in chapter 13. Chapter 14 is more about what the future may hold. Chapter 15 begins with the 2008 Orlando VoiceCon conference linkup of John Chambers, Al Gore and two others located throughout the US and London (see video below). It then goes on to discuss the Green value (carbon emissions) of IP video.
Appendix A covers how Cisco uses video for training and corporate events. Appendix B contains forecasts for 2007 through 2012. I can not say these are incorrect. We will have to wait to determine the forecast accuracy.
I think that the forecasts will probably be off because IP requires capital investment that many organizations will not make in 2009 to 2010. The forecasts also assume that the authors have imagined all the important influences to come. The introduction of applications, Twitter for example, could not have been predicted 2 years ago, so take the forecast with a grain of salt and do not rely on them for justifications for IP video.
