Competitive small enterprises can stand to benefit from looking at ways to foster internal collaboration, as long as these new methods do not significantly increase day-to-day costs. Desktop videoconferencing solutions have matured significantly, and today several business-friendly products exist that can help bolster teamwork and productivity in small enterprises – without compromising existing IT security policies.

Promoting Collaboration: Videoconferencing

As discussed in the Info-Tech Advisor research note, “Collaboration Tools: Separating the Myth from the Reality,” collaboration involves a number of different technologies, each delivering different benefits. While videoconferencing has had a less than stellar track record as an enterprise collaboration technology due to various technical hurdles, the concept itself has always been sound. Providing an enterprise-wide video platform can deliver such benefits as:

• More frequent collaboration and teamwork between distributed parties.
• Reduced travel requirements and expenses.
• Improved, more timely communications across the organization.

Enterprises typically have two options for videoconferencing: room-based or PC desktop-based solutions. For many small enterprises, the primary barrier to deploying room-based videoconferencing systems is the high cost of entry. For a small company, acquiring and installing specialized codec, camera, and display equipment is expensive, as is the IT overhead required to support these systems. In addition, fixed systems are often difficult to justify for smaller enterprises simply because they have fewer sites large enough to ensure sufficient usage of dedicated equipment.

Realistically, desktop-based solutions are better suited to small business needs. However, desktop-based solutions have typically been perceived as inadequate for enterprise use. While simple and inexpensive to deploy or enable for individual users, many products that have been associated with consumer usage are considered security risks within enterprise environments. Fortunately, enterprise-ready desktop videoconferencing solutions are currently available that offer both robust performance and the ability to securely fit into an existing IT environment.

Practical Options for the Small Enterprise

While there are numerous Windows-based videoconferencing options available today, in reality, few are designed for the purpose of enterprise collaboration. Today, VoIP and IM products such as Skype, Windows Live Messenger, and Yahoo! Messenger support free webcam-based video sessions, but most enterprises either have policies against the use of these solutions or are putting themselves at risk by not controlling usage. For example, some businesses have enacted policies to ban Skype due to its network port-hopping and firewall bypass capabilities, which can potentially allow malicious traffic into the enterprise environment.

As a cost-effective and secure alternative to consumer-class videoconferencing products, enterprises should investigate solutions that are specifically designed for business usage. Two leading desktop videoconferencing products that fit this profile, Sightspeed, developed by Sightspeed Inc., and VSee, developed by VSee Lab, offer multi-party video and audio conferencing with a focus on secure communications. Pricing and further details on these solutions are given below:

Product	Pricing	Key Features
Sightspeed PRO	$4.95 per user per month. $49.95 per user per year.	Multi-party video and audio conferencing for up to 3 parties. Video at 30 frames per second. Live video and audio call recording. Comprehensive call reporting. Access to priority technical support.
VSee	Free for internal use. Inter-enterprise use at $39 per user per month.	Multi-party video and audio conferencing for up to 6 parties. Live video and audio call recording. Full desktop and application sharing. Drag-and-drop file sharing. AES 256-bit encryption.

With the recent increased vendor focus on collaboration and bringing Web 2.0 concepts to the enterprise, the desktop videoconferencing space will continue to evolve. Google’s 2007 acquisition of videoconferencing software startup Marratech, Cisco’s acquisition of Web conferencing leader WebEx, and Microsoft’s unified communications roadmap all support the view that video collaboration at the enterprise-user desktop will be in high future demand.

Recommendations

1. Investigate the need for desktop videoconferencing. If the enterprise has users that are regularly telecommuting or engaged in business travel that affects productivity, investigating a low cost desktop videoconferencing tool is a worthwhile undertaking.
2. Avoid tools that conflict with enterprise security standards. Potential videoconferencing solutions such as Skype, Windows Live Messenger, and Yahoo! Messenger are unmanaged products that typically fail to meet enterprise security and acceptable use standards, due to public IM capabilities or proxying techniques. Enterprises should establish or revisit existing IM policies to control usage of these applications; use the Info-Tech Advisor “IM Security Policy” as a reference.
3. Evaluate business-friendly solutions. Download evaluation versions of enterprise-ready desktop videoconferencing solutions and select a set of mobile or telecommuting users to conduct an initial trial. Identify basic requirements and limitations before rolling out capabilities to a broader set of users or formally designating as a business collaboration tool.

Bottom Line

Desktop-based videoconferencing can be particularly valuable for smaller organizations that are unwilling or unable to accommodate the expenses and employee downtime associated with frequent travel. Investigate these practical small enterprise solutions.