Twenty plus years ago the only companies that implemented videoconferencing were very large firms with likewise budgets. A videoconferencing endpoint in one conference room required at least a $65,000 budget. Often this budget was augmenting the aviation budget, funding corporate aircraft. Like the corporate aircraft requiring a pilot these legacy systems require a technician and only connected through proprietary algorithms. Needless to say there was a very low return on investment. Over time the technology become less costly and connectivity became much easier because algorithms and connecting protocols are now standardized. Today an endpoint for a conference room can be as little as $1,000 with the ability to connect anywhere and share content from a computer or mobile device. If you know how to make a cell phone call you already know how to make a video call — No technician required. Additionally, there are hosted services available that require no equipment or capital expense. 
Many small companies are serving larger firms well entrenched with videoconferencing and have the latest technology. With a dramatic cost reduction and improved reliability, this allows much better communication and access for a small firm to call on and service the larger firms.
So here are three ways a small company with no budget can implement videoconferencing:
- Use a hosted service that provides videoconferencing with collaboration; multi-site; live chat; and annotation. Make sure you have all the billing options, i.e. by the event; month or year. (See videoconferencing without equipment)
- Rent a public videoconferencing room. These are available worldwide through a variety of room brokers. (See Glowpoint)
- Ask a competitive local exchange carrier or phone company to include new equipment as part of your monthly circuit bill. (See Worry Free videoconferencing offer)
There is no excuse not to use videoconferencing. All of the above options connect on the ITU, (International Telecommunications Standards). Make sure whatever option you try works on the ITU standards. This is critical because any videoconferencing application or equipment not on the ITU standard will technically fall behind and be pigeon holed in a communication silo.
You can meet us on video anytime – Just call 330-677-5566 and reference this article. We will send you a link to download our standards based videoconferencing app and we can meet — and it won’t cost a dime.
J.W. Hornyak Videoconferencing & Telecommunications
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