Telepresence Consulting
What is Telepresence?Telepresence is the science and art of creating visual collaboration environments, networks, and strategies that duplicate in-person meeting experiences as completely as possible in both internal and external business communications. Effectively leveraging telepresence as an organizational and collaborative strategy can improve productivity and effectiveness by enhancing business communication, collaboration, and reducing physical travel.
A good telepresence strategy puts the human factors first, focusing on visual collaboration solutions that closely replicate the brain's innate preferences for interpersonal communications, separating from the unnatural "talking heads" experience of traditional videoconferencing. These cues include life-size participants, fluid motion, accurate flesh tones and the appearance of true eye contact.
How Can Human Productivity Lab Help Me?
The Human Productivity Lab offers a range of consulting services for
organizations and investors evaluating and implementing telepresence
solutions.Our extensive experience and knowledge of current and future technology trends, as well as our "big picture" focus on organizational and personal productivity, makes HPL the perfect partner for anyone interested in telepresence applications and the telepresence industry.
As the leading source of news, reviews and information on the emerging telepresence industry, HPL is a vendor-neutral, equal-opportunity critic. No one vendor has our loyalty, so we can recommend and utilize the best telepresence tools, effects or techniques for the job.
We come at every engagement from the client's perspective, focused specifically on their objectives. Our expertise isn't just academic - it's real-world, and our consulting principals have more real-world experience with telepresence and effective visual collaboration than any other consulting firm on the planet. Period! This expertise includes the following skill sets:
- Testing, evaluating, purchasing, and implementing visual collaboration solutions as end-users
- Designing and building visual collaboration solutions as solution architects
- Reselling and co-marketing visual collaboration solutions as channel partners
- Building secure carrier class internetworking and managed service solutions for Wall Street
- Researching, evaluating and publishing on telepresence solutions as industry analysts
- Creating RFI/RFPs and providing acquisition consulting for Fortune 25 Clients as consultants
With network connectivity and information security a major factor in
enterprise deployments, HPL clients can feel confident that we
understand these issues and can address them with the same level of
expertise we apply to telepresence solutions. Since we work with them
all, we know their technology, so the organizations who come to us for
help get the right hardware mix and the right telepresence solution for
their needs - not what a single-affiliated vendor wants to sell.View the HPL's Consulting Services Advertisement.
Drill down into all of the telepresence consulting services the HPL offers:
Asking the right questions with the vendors
HPL has written and reviewed RFP/RFI requirements for Enterprise Solutions for a wide range of clients, from Fortune 10 companies to those rising into the Fortune 5000. We are committed to achieving business objectives and goals within company budgets. We have a proven methodology that helps us understand each customer's needs, asks vendors the right questions, and provides a technically elegant solution your personnel can easily use.
In addition to our experience and knowledge, we are vendor-agnostic and will evaluate each and every project with no preconceived prejudices. With our help, you can shorten the time between conception and implementation. And we will work cooperatively with your in-house staff, adding their in-depth knowledge of your corporate climate and culture to the new project while allowing them to manage their daily work routines.
HPL has written and reviewed RFP/RFI requirements for Enterprise Solutions for a wide range of clients, from Fortune 10 companies to those rising into the Fortune 5000. We are committed to achieving business objectives and goals within company budgets. We have a proven methodology that helps us understand each customer's needs, asks vendors the right questions, and provides a technically elegant solution your personnel can easily use.
In addition to our experience and knowledge, we are vendor-agnostic and will evaluate each and every project with no preconceived prejudices. With our help, you can shorten the time between conception and implementation. And we will work cooperatively with your in-house staff, adding their in-depth knowledge of your corporate climate and culture to the new project while allowing them to manage their daily work routines.
Understanding your options and getting the best deal
HPL will manage the acquisition process, acting as a single point of contact for both the vendors and the company. This approach ensures fairness in the process and provides a "cushion" between the company and the hoards of vendors that will do anything to get your business. HPL has developed matrices to quantify the strengths and weaknesses of each vendor and remove the smoke and mirrors from the process. With our help, you can clearly and confidently assess each vendor and make an informed decision.
The HPL's strategy is designed around deploying visual collaboration solutions that achieve "end user acceptance," i.e. the willingness of senior executives and managers to adopt the technology, instead of flying, driving and/or walking to make an in-person meeting. To that end we focus on the "human factors" of deployment: ease-of-use, training, scheduling and getting the right data collaboration solutions in place to ensure success.
In addition, much of the promise of telepresence is not simply connecting to your own internal locations, but connecting to your outside vendors, customers and joint-venture partners. HPL's methodology analyses your important vendor, customer and joint venture relationships with a strategy towards connecting you together virtually.
HPL will assist in the negotiations between your company and the selected vendor. Our goal is to create a fair and reasonable agreement that benefits both parties, actually resulting in the often-elusive "win-win situation." HPL consultants have participated in many multi-million dollar negotiations and can assist with guiding you through the technical jargon that can overwhelm organizations. We work with contract lawyers and financial analysts who can identify legal pitfalls and determine the best accounting and procurement method to meet your unique financial requirements during the term of the contract.
HPL will manage the acquisition process, acting as a single point of contact for both the vendors and the company. This approach ensures fairness in the process and provides a "cushion" between the company and the hoards of vendors that will do anything to get your business. HPL has developed matrices to quantify the strengths and weaknesses of each vendor and remove the smoke and mirrors from the process. With our help, you can clearly and confidently assess each vendor and make an informed decision.
The HPL's strategy is designed around deploying visual collaboration solutions that achieve "end user acceptance," i.e. the willingness of senior executives and managers to adopt the technology, instead of flying, driving and/or walking to make an in-person meeting. To that end we focus on the "human factors" of deployment: ease-of-use, training, scheduling and getting the right data collaboration solutions in place to ensure success.
In addition, much of the promise of telepresence is not simply connecting to your own internal locations, but connecting to your outside vendors, customers and joint-venture partners. HPL's methodology analyses your important vendor, customer and joint venture relationships with a strategy towards connecting you together virtually.
HPL will assist in the negotiations between your company and the selected vendor. Our goal is to create a fair and reasonable agreement that benefits both parties, actually resulting in the often-elusive "win-win situation." HPL consultants have participated in many multi-million dollar negotiations and can assist with guiding you through the technical jargon that can overwhelm organizations. We work with contract lawyers and financial analysts who can identify legal pitfalls and determine the best accounting and procurement method to meet your unique financial requirements during the term of the contract.
Understanding and modeling the ROI of virtual communication internally and collaboratively with partners and external stakeholders
With today's renewed emphasis on corporate governance, understanding and accepting virtual communication internally and collaboratively with business partners demands ROI modeling. Investors, stock holders, boards of directors and government regulators demand well-conceived and meticulously implemented capital investments. Realistic ROI modeling has always been a demanding process, but can become even more demanding if the evaluators are unfamiliar with the specifics behind implementing telepresence solutions. The telepresence industry has unique deployment requirements that involve network connectivity, facility make-ready, information security, legacy videoconferencing capabilities and collaborative tools - requirements that must be followed precisely to achieve project goals and objectives.
HPL has the expertise to guide you in these endeavors. Certain factors in the ROI of a telepresence solution are just as important as the cost of the installed system: reduced travel costs, time-to-market advantage, and happier road warriors with increased productivity. HPL can make sure these very real benefits are part of your ROI equation.
With today's renewed emphasis on corporate governance, understanding and accepting virtual communication internally and collaboratively with business partners demands ROI modeling. Investors, stock holders, boards of directors and government regulators demand well-conceived and meticulously implemented capital investments. Realistic ROI modeling has always been a demanding process, but can become even more demanding if the evaluators are unfamiliar with the specifics behind implementing telepresence solutions. The telepresence industry has unique deployment requirements that involve network connectivity, facility make-ready, information security, legacy videoconferencing capabilities and collaborative tools - requirements that must be followed precisely to achieve project goals and objectives.
HPL has the expertise to guide you in these endeavors. Certain factors in the ROI of a telepresence solution are just as important as the cost of the installed system: reduced travel costs, time-to-market advantage, and happier road warriors with increased productivity. HPL can make sure these very real benefits are part of your ROI equation.
Helping you choose the right vendor and technology for your telepresence solution
HPL is perfectly positioned to assist in Vendor and Technology Assessments. Howard S. Lichtman, the founder of HPL, is the author of "Telepresence, Effective Visual Collaboration and the Future of Global Business at the Speed of Light (2006)," and was a contributing author to "Emerging Technologies for Teleconferencing and Telepresence (2005)." Howard has worked with numerous Fortune 500 clients as vice president of Business Development at telepresence pioneer TeleSuite Corporation, designed visual collaboration solutions as President and Chief Product Officer at Powwow Networks, and delivered true QoS internetworking and information security solutions for Wall Street as head of the financial industry sales organization at Savvis Communications (where he also tested, evaluated and deployed visual collaboration solutions to improve organizational productivity and business communications).
Howard's unique background in evaluating and deploying visual collaboration solutions as an end-user, delivering telepresence solutions for a telepresence vendor/managed service provider, and his on-going evaluation of the emerging telepresence industry as an analyst makes the HPL uniquely qualified to help you move from interest to evaluation to deployment with speed and confidence.
HPL makes the following type of "pro and con" recommendations to clients:
HPL is perfectly positioned to assist in Vendor and Technology Assessments. Howard S. Lichtman, the founder of HPL, is the author of "Telepresence, Effective Visual Collaboration and the Future of Global Business at the Speed of Light (2006)," and was a contributing author to "Emerging Technologies for Teleconferencing and Telepresence (2005)." Howard has worked with numerous Fortune 500 clients as vice president of Business Development at telepresence pioneer TeleSuite Corporation, designed visual collaboration solutions as President and Chief Product Officer at Powwow Networks, and delivered true QoS internetworking and information security solutions for Wall Street as head of the financial industry sales organization at Savvis Communications (where he also tested, evaluated and deployed visual collaboration solutions to improve organizational productivity and business communications).
Howard's unique background in evaluating and deploying visual collaboration solutions as an end-user, delivering telepresence solutions for a telepresence vendor/managed service provider, and his on-going evaluation of the emerging telepresence industry as an analyst makes the HPL uniquely qualified to help you move from interest to evaluation to deployment with speed and confidence.
HPL makes the following type of "pro and con" recommendations to clients:
- Technology: ultra-high definition, low-latency cameras and codecs
- Human factors: data collaboration, display technology, graphical user interfaces
- Backwards compatibility with legacy videoconferencing systems
- Vendor and system reliability
- Adoption potential
- Vendor technology road map: information security
- Vendor long-term strategies and potential: inter-company business potential
- Pricing: determining the price/performance ratios of different solutions
Custom telepresence solutions designed around your unique business challenges
Custom-designed multi-vendor solutions for:
Unfortunately, no single vendor carries a mature, complete portfolio of telepresence solutions. Some vendors can seat only six participants your organization may need 28 seats. Some vendors are backwards compatible with legacy videoconferencing, others are not. Some offer executive solutions for the desk, some don't. HPL works with our clients to understand their business objectives and budget to design and deliver custom multi-vendor solutions, whether this entails a solution that leverages subject matter experts among thousands of bank branches or extending telepresence to executives in their home offices.
Custom-designed multi-vendor solutions for:
- Executive and Board Level Communications
- Effective Meeting and Team Environments
- Distance Learning Environments
- Virtual Employee and Subject Matter Expert Solutions
- Virtual banking, pre-sales engineering, sales specialist, etc.
Unfortunately, no single vendor carries a mature, complete portfolio of telepresence solutions. Some vendors can seat only six participants your organization may need 28 seats. Some vendors are backwards compatible with legacy videoconferencing, others are not. Some offer executive solutions for the desk, some don't. HPL works with our clients to understand their business objectives and budget to design and deliver custom multi-vendor solutions, whether this entails a solution that leverages subject matter experts among thousands of bank branches or extending telepresence to executives in their home offices.
Information Security
Telepresence and effective visual collaboration solutions are often delivered as a managed service using an overlay network connection provided by the vendor or third party. With a background in providing network solutions to Wall Street for trading floor technology, HPL understands both the traditional information security risks inherent in third party networks and those of inter-company telepresence that potentially connects your organization directly to the competition. We conduct due diligence with vendors, recommend information security policies, and make sure the cameras in your telepresence studios aren't displaying what the previous team left on the whiteboard to your competitors during the next call - all to assure that you've covered your bases.
Best practice assessments include:
Telepresence and effective visual collaboration solutions are often delivered as a managed service using an overlay network connection provided by the vendor or third party. With a background in providing network solutions to Wall Street for trading floor technology, HPL understands both the traditional information security risks inherent in third party networks and those of inter-company telepresence that potentially connects your organization directly to the competition. We conduct due diligence with vendors, recommend information security policies, and make sure the cameras in your telepresence studios aren't displaying what the previous team left on the whiteboard to your competitors during the next call - all to assure that you've covered your bases.
Best practice assessments include:
- Information Security
- Due diligence, policy, strategy, penetration testing
- Technology Roadmaps
- Existing Videoconferencing assets (network)
- Project Management, Implementation and Training for Success
