LONDON, December 3 /PRNewswire/ --

With global economic recession having an impact on almost all industries,
videoconferencing and telepresence can present companies with an effective
solution to the challenges they now face. Experience from early recessions
and economic slow-downs suggests that companies that continue to invest in
their IT and communications capabilities are both better able to survive the
crisis and can be in a stronger position to ride the up-turn -- sometimes
grabbing market share from their competitors in the process.

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Videoconferencing, telepresence, and now unified communications, have
each an important potential role to play in helping organizations become more
flexible and resilient. These technologies, and the new generations of
pay-as-you-use services based upon them, can allow companies to reduce
the cost of travel, replacing many face-to-face meetings with effective
alternatives.

By implementing these communications tools, organizations can avoid the
costs, carbon emissions and general wear and tear to their employees that
accompany long-haul flights.

Additionally, firms planning to lay-off employees in order to survive the
recession must have the means of enabling their remaining people to be more
efficient and productive -- benefits that visual communications tools offer.

Furthermore, telepresence and videoconferencing, as key elements of real
time collaboration, can aid organisations in making faster business
decisions, increasing their agility and responsiveness to customer demand
while helping them to realise business goals more quickly.

Last but not least, today's telepresence and high definition
videoconferencing solutions -- particularly when linked to managed services
-- can achieve much higher usage rates, resulting in greater savings and
a significantly faster return on investment.

So will companies continue to embrace the very real benefits that visual
communications can offer, or will some simply avoid new investments of all
types, preferring instead to try to ride out the financial down turn?

Dominic Dodd, Frost & Sullivan Principal Analyst, notes: "For companies
able and willing to continuing their IT investments during the recession,
visual communications and collaboration products and services should become a
central part of their strategy for survival -- and for creating a dominant
position for themselves, come the upturn."

Frost & Sullivan has recently held an on-line debate on "How Telepresence
can Save the World!" with the participation of key executives from leading
players in the market, including BT Conferencing, HP, Polycom, Tandberg and
Teliris.

If you would like to receive a link to the recording of the above debate,
or would like to learn more on telepresence global markets, please send an
e-mail to Joanna Lewandowska, Corporate Communications, at
joanna.lewandowska@frost.com with your contact details. Upon receiving your
message, the information will be sent to you by email.

Frost & Sullivan, the Growth Partnership Company, partners with clients
to accelerate their growth. The company's TEAM Research, Growth Consulting
and Growth Team Membership(TM) empower clients to create a growth-focused
culture that generates, evaluates and implements effective growth strategies.
Frost & Sullivan employs over 45 years of experience in partnering with
Global 1000 companies, emerging businesses and the investment community from
more than 30 offices on six continents. For more information about Frost &
Sullivan's Growth Partnership Services, visit http://www.frost.com.

Contact:
    Joanna Lewandowska
    Corporate Communications - Europe
    P: +48-22-390-41-46
    E: joanna.lewandowska@frost.com