Verizon Business has teamed up with Nortel to offer a managed Telepresence (News - Alert) service for their enterprises.

 

Telepresence refers to a set of technologies which allows a person to feel as if they were present at a location other than their true location. That means one can meet people without travel, thus saving time as well as money. The Telepresence service requires IP networks to transmit both image and voice in real time to give an “in-person” experience.

 

Through this partnership, the two companies will be able to leverage each others strength – expansive global private IP network of Verizon Business with Nortel managed Telepresence services.

 

Joel Hackney (News - Alert), president, Enterprise Solutions, Nortel stated, "The power of our joint telepresence solution with Verizon Business is of major value to customers. We're delivering the best possible user experience with an industry-unique model that supports standards-based telepresence, high definition, standard definition and desktop video conferencing platforms."

 

"This new Nortel (News - Alert)-based managed service addresses the growing demand for advanced video collaboration services among our multinational customers," said Nancy Gofus, senior vice president of global business products for Verizon (News - Alert).

 

"Combining Nortel's capabilities with the power of Verizon Private IP and leading video platforms enables us to deliver a high definition and high-performance meeting experience for our customers."

 

It brings significant improvement in people productivity, lowers operating cost and reduces environmental impact as well. Nortel estimates that a company spending as much as US$23 million annually on travel can use telepresence to recover as many as 385,000 hours of lost productivity, reduce its carbon footprint by up to 4,200 tons and save up to US$7 million.

 

The return on investment is quick too. Wachovia claimed to have saved $1.5 Million in T&E in a year and half on its investment of $1.5 million on Telepresence implementation.

 

The managed service ensures that complete set-up and management is taken care of including web-based reservations, pre-configured, pre-connected conferences, proactive testing, round-the-clock network performance monitoring, recording, on-demand playback and metrics reporting.

"Working with Verizon in this manner supports Nortel's goal to become the preferred partner in unifying all communications through leading products, software and services." Hackney concluded.