News and Case Studies

Videoconferencing as an Alternative / Supplement to Travel

As an alternative or supplement to business travel / face-to-face meetings, desktop videoconferencing delivers a number of measureable benefits including:

          1) Time Savings
          2) Cost Savings 
          3) Quick and Improved Access to Clients and Colleagues
          4) Improved Work / Life Balance

1) Time Savings

When asked about the time lost as a result of business travel, people naturally focus on the amount of time they are actually “in transit.” For example, ask a road warrior how long it takes to get from Atlanta to Los Angeles and the likely answer will be ~ 5 hours. However, the actual time in the air represents only a small portion of the actual time involved in business travel.
To illustrate this point, consider the example of a Manhattan-based sales person needing to visit an important potential client in Dallas, Texas. Such a business trip is likely to involve the following steps and time investment:
 

Location	Item	Estimated Time Required
New York	Plan trip / purchase tickets	0.5 hour
New York	Pack bag	0.5 hour
New York	Drive to the airport	1 hour
New York	Check in / go through security	1 hour
New York	Wait in terminal for departure	1 hour
In Transit	Fly from New York to Dallas	4 hour
Dallas	Drive from the airport to hotel	1 hour
Dallas	Drive from hotel to client’s office	0.5 hour
Dallas	Meet with client	2 hour
Dallas	Drive from client’s office to airport	1 hour
Dallas	Check in / go through security	1 hour
Dallas	Wait in terminal for departure	1 hour
In Transit	Fly from Dallas to New York	4 hour
New York	Drive from airport to home	1 hour
New York	Unpack bag	0.5 hours
TOTAL TIME		20 hours

In short, the sales person making this trip is likely to invest ~ 20 hours of his time just to visit his client for 2 hours. In addition, this calculation assumes that the travel goes as planned (without traffic delays driving to/from the airport, delays getting through security, flight delays, delays getting to the rental car / local transportation, etc.).

The above calculation does not consider that the sales person had to leave home (or the office) the night before in order to make this meeting. As a result, the actual time out of the office and away from home was much more than 20 hours. Finally, it is worth nothing that the time investment required for international trips tends to be even higher.

The time-efficient alternative would be to conduct this meeting via videoconference. Even better, this meeting could be conducted using desktop videoconferencing so that the attendees could participate without having to reserve and travel to a shared meeting room.
This shift from an onsite visit to a desktop video call could decrease the time required for this meeting by up to 90% (a two hour meeting would require only 2 hours). Imagine the revenue opportunity associated with an additional 18 hours of sales person effort!

2) Cost Savings

According to a recent American Express survey, the cost for a typical domestic business trip (including hotel, air, etc.) in North America is expected to increase by 1.2% to approximately $1,080. The cost for international business trips is expected to rise by 2.4% to $2,818.3 These are hard savings that organizations can realize by converting some of their travel meetings into videoconferences.

Savvy readers will recognize that these hard cost savings represent only a portion of the cost savings resulting from travel avoidance. The other significant savings is the value of the employee time saved. As described in the previous section, an employee who converts a domestic business travel meeting into a video session is likely to save 18 hours. At an employee cost of $50 / hour (assumes an annual salary of $80,000, a 25% additional expense for benefits, and a total of 250 work days of 8 hours each per year), an 18 hour time savings represents a soft savings of $900 per meeting. In today’s challenging economic climate, savings such as these cannot be ignored. More importantly, these funds can now be allocated toward revenue generating opportunities (sales, marketing, product development, etc.).

3) Improved Access to Clients and Colleagues

Few would argue that increased “face time” with partners, peers, and clients would result in better performance, productivity, and profitability. The ability to meet with these contacts anytime and without needing to make prior arrangements would yield even greater benefits.

Unfortunately, business travel is hardly ever ad-hoc. Even last minute travel tends to be prohibitively expensive. As a result, even if one decides that an onsite visit is a high priority, it is likely to be several days before a person can be “in front” of a client or partner.

Videoconferencing, on the other hand, allows people to gain immediate, ad-hoc, and fully interactive access to their contacts, regardless of their geographical location. This is especially
true for desktop videoconferencing which is always available (compared to room-based videoconferencing which typically requires one to find and reserve a shared, video-enabled meeting room). Savvy managers will mix in-person meetings with high-impact, cost-effective video sessions in order to stay in touch without breaking the bank.

4) Improved Work / Life Balance

A recent Microsoft survey found that 72% of business travelers categorized business travel as even more stressful than a visit to the dentist.4 Similarly, research findings presentations at the 2000 International Symposium on Stress revealed the following:

- three-quarters of business travelers report suffering more health problems when they travel
- many travelers report that travel impacts their sleep, their well-being, and their general performance both before and after their journey
- almost 100% of spouses / significant others report that business travel has a negative impact on their family life

By allowing employees to limit business travel, videoconferencing improves the work / life balance of key employees resulting in improved morale, increased employee retention, and better productivity. Desktop videoconferencing, in particular, enables employees to conduct high-impact communications sessions from home. Considering the need to communicate with others in different time zones, this equates to more time at home with family.

SOURCE:  Ira M. Weinstein, Wainhouse Research, October 2009

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