Tom Szabo, CEO of Telanetix at Telepresence World

2007.06.05 by John Serrao

Tom Szabo, CEO of Telanetix, On Stage and On Screen

The CEO of Telanetix, Tom Szabo, delivered a presentation titled, "Driving Telepresence ROI with New Technology" which took at look at the driving forces behind growth in the Telepresence industry.

Reflecting on the current growth in the telepresence market, Szabo suggested that, "telepresence is turning into an overnight success that's been 20-years in the making."

It's all about driving the applications down to the user level. That's key to making this a big market.

Telepresence today, is largely a communications tool used between C-level employees within a company or between companies. However, Szabo explained that some of the biggest opportunities for improving business efficiency comes from getting this technology into the hands of mid-level employees like product developers, film production crews, and similar groups who do a lot of collaborative decision making throughout their business days.

He explained that sales are generally limited to only a small handful of units when sold as a C-level solution, but that number explodes when sold as solutions deeper within organizations.

Szabo summarized four drivers for growth in the telepresence industry:

1. Usability: It's only just in the past 12 months that telepresence has been as easy as pressing a button once set up. Telepresence systems have to be "CEO-proof" when sold as C-level as they are today.

2. Accommodation of Technology: Users shouldn't have to accommodate the technology in any way. Instead, they should be able to conduct business and communicate in ways that are comfortable for them rather than being forced to learn to communicate all over again. They should be able to walk around, use whiteboards, etc.

3. Data handling. Telepresence is currently a tool used by CEOs or high level managers who focus primarily on face to face interactions. Employees deeper in a country would benefit more from solutions that enable sharing applications or products. This form of collaboration has the potential to significantly decrease approval wait times. Sharing tools and applications in full resolution at a remote location is where things get interesting.

4. Cost: It has to be affordable to get it into the core part of businesses. Pricing has to be justifiable for rolling out telepresence solutions deep in companies.

Put another way, when telepresence systems are easier to use, more flexible, more powerful, and cheaper, this industry will really take off.