In November Nortel and Verizon Business announced that Nortel Global Services had been selected by Verizon to deliver a new telepresence managed services offering. The deal would combine Verizon Business' global IP network that spans 110 countries with Nortel's global network of eight Multimedia Network Operations Centers (MNOCs).  Here is an article on the partnership from Anamika Singh from TMCnet with Human Productivity Lab President Howard Lichtman's Thoughts and Analysis.   

Verizon Business Partners with Nortel Services to Offer Managed Telepresence Service

By Anamika Singh, TMCnet

Verizon Business has teamed up with Nortel to offer a managed Telepresence 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, 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 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.
 
"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.

Anamika Singh is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of Anamika's articles, please visit her columnist page.

[via TMCnet]

Human Productivity Lab President Howard Lichtman's Thoughts and Analysis

I have been meaning to post this article for a couple of weeks with my thoughts and analysis but have been covered up with a couple of consulting assignments, travel, and the start of the silly season.  For those that missed the official announcement of Verizon and Nortel announcement you can find it here.  

Verizon Business has partnered with Nortel to deliver telepresence managed services.  This is a big announcement for a couple of reasons but primarily because, by my back of the napkin calculations, the Verizon/Nortel partnership potentially represents the largest salesforce incentivized to prospect for, identify, and hand-off/close telepresence managed services deals. I say "potentially" because even a partnership with the best of intentions can fail if the proper sales incentives, training, and procedures are not in place so we will have to wait and see if the companies get it right.  Their closest competition would probably be AT&T which is a Cisco shop with a more limited portfolio and, as far as I can tell, less of a commitment to the space from a product strategy/product development roadmap.  AT&T seems to be offering the basics but Nortel is developing some serious capabilities. 

Nortel has been steadily investing in telepresence and hiring some heavy hitters.  In the past year the company has brought on Phil Keenan, who was previously GM at Polycom, as VP Multimedia and Telepresence Services; John Lytle and Neil Suhre who were both co-founders at VSPAN (Acquired by WireOne who was acquired by BT Conferencing), Bob Henning from BT Conferencing, and Aaron Roe, who was VP of New Business Development at telepresence pioneers TeleSuite & Iformata.  They join what was already an all-star line-up including GM Hugh McCullen and Chris Fidler (Martinez) led by Nortel's President of Global Services Dietmar Wendt who I have heard through the telepresence grapevine was the guy at Nortel who "Got It" and moved decisively into the space. 

The strategy is paying off.  The company has been winning major deals including managing telepresence and videoconferencing for Deloitte globally which was press released and I understand that they absolutely, positively have delivered a number of other big deals which have not yet been announced.  My understanding is that they are also white labeling telepresence managed services for the international division of an global telecommunications carrier and a major telepresence and videoconferencing manufacturer. 

And I haven't even really touched on the deal with Verizon yet... In addition to Verizon's global salesforce pushing Nortel's managed service offerings, the company should also have access to Verizon's global IP network to deliver services and their engineering resources to develop solutions especially in the area of inter-company telepresence / videoconferencing which I have long predicted will be the killer app for IP networking. This is where Verizon's bread get's buttered.  There is simply no other application(s) with as much potential to fill up the pipes than telepresence and effective visual collaboration.

Here is my updated list of top 5 reasons that Telepresence is the Killer App for IP Networking which I originally published in an article entitled Arming Cisco's Commission Driven Mercenaries in August of 2006 :

Reason # 5 - No other widely applicable application uses as much bandwidth as telepresence/effective visual collaboration.
Individual corporate group systems average from 1.5MB-45MB per room, and an organization might have multiple rooms in a single facility. Telepresence executive and desktop solutions use between 384K and 1.54Mbps + to each desktop.

Reason # 4 - Telepresence demands quality ... not just quantity.
Because real-time video is delay-and-jitter intolerant, not just any old bandwidth will do. Telepresence requires true QoS at high bandwidths which is the most profitable and differentiated service the carriers sell.

Reason #3 - Telepresence is a big ticket application that requires a lot of networking gear.
Telepresence group systems and distance learning environments can run $50,000 - $500,000+ per room and include lots of IP gizmos: switches, premise routers, equipment racks, network drops at each position, and dozens of IP addressable devices from camera to codecs to audio mixers.The managed services and networks that support telepresence produce high-dollar recurring revenue from stable companies which is Wall Street's favorite kind of revenue.

Reason #2 - Telepresence has a strong hard/soft dollar ROI in avoided travel
For the majority of the Global Fortune 5000 with distributed workforces, Telepresence offers a one-year or less ROI in avoided travel, productivity, time-to-market advantage, and business effectiveness. Even better, the ROI of telepresence GROWS EXPONENTIALLY as other sites join effective visual collaboration networks and companies begin using their systems for Inter-company business with vendors, partners, and customers globally. This market will expand rapidly to smaller companies, SMEs, law firms, advertising agencies, consulting, public accountancy, etc. through public availability of telepresence environments and, ultimately, telepresence in the home.

Reason #1 - Telepresence and effective visual collaboration networks are primed to grow exponentially!
Right now there are less than 40  250 companies deploying less than 300 2,000 telepresence group systems on a planet that has 700,000+ traditional videoconferencing endpoints that nobody likes and 25,000 executive aircraft that represent the next best alternative to effective face-to-face collaboration.

Here are some facts on Verizon's Global IP Network from the Verizon Website:

Other:
   


Powwow Virtual Update

Ever since Cisco launched their publicly available telepresence initiative in October I have been getting a lot of calls inquiring about the Human Productivity Lab's business model for publicly available telepresence: Powwow Virtual.  For those who are uninitiated with Powwow, the Human Producitivity Lab has a business model for multi-vendor publicly available telepresence conferencing centers that would double as showrooms for the enterprise sale of telepresence and videoconferencing solutions.  As long term readers can attest we have been dead-on accurate with respect to how esentially the entire telepresence industry has developed and have been precient on the economy, the collapse of the airlines, the importance of inter-company telepresence, the growth of telepresence managed services, and publicly available telepresence.  In short knowledge is specialized and we know what the future of publicly available telepresence is going to look like, we have the business model to capitalize on it, the technology roadmap to innovate where needed, designs for our own telepresence environments and "pro-modifications" to improve some of the existing solutions, we have a C-level team at arm's length ready to execute, relationships with essentially every major vendor and many of the "cool kids" who make this industry tick, and we have the largest audience in the world interested in telepresence to fill the seats and drive enterprise sales. 

What we don't have is the bandwidth and the manpower to give our partnership and fundraising the effort it deserves.  So I have decided to put the call out looking for a CEO or a partner that can help get us get Powwow off the ground. 

Our ideal candidates:

CEO - A seasoned CEO from the visual communications or networking/managed services industry that is looking for the opportunity of a lifetime:  A greenfield opportunity to revolutionize the way the world communicates globally in one of the few growth industrys that will thrive in a global economic depression.  A big idea in a world of tiny incremental ideas. The right candidate will have a track record of success in raising investment and should be prepared to put some skin in the game.  We estimate that it will take ~$30MM to do public availability right and build out enough locations/city pairs to prove the Reed's Law model of exponential growth. Serious inquires only!   

Potential Partners/Investors:

The telepresence hardware vendors - Cisco, HP Halo, LifeSize Communications, Polycom, Tandberg, Telanetix, Teliris, etc. Public availability lowers the cost of sales, improves the utility of the offering, and establishes a global network of demonstration facilities that pay for themselves.  For a more detailed treatment of the value to hardware vendors please review this article. 

The telepresence network and managed service providers - AT&T, BT, Glowpoint, Iformata, MASERGY, Nortel Telepresence Services, Verizon Business, Wire One, They already possess 1/2 the equation: Much of the video network infrastructure, QoS IP network, scheduling tools, help desk, etc. needed to support a global network of publicly available telepresence conferencing centers.  Who is interested in a global network of high-end sales centers for enterprise telepresence solutions that pay for themselves through rental income and dramatically improves the utility of your offering? Who wants to win and win big? 

The Airlines - Are the airlines in the business of moving people around the globe in flying aluminum cylinders or in facilitating meetings and commerce?  The airlines already have some of the best potential locations and owning the competition might keep them in business as a falling dollar (it'll be back in 3-6 months) and the declining global economy strain their existing business model of full planes and cheap flights.

The travel management companies - At one time the good folks at American Express Corporate Travel and Carson Wagonlit were both interested in the concept.  If any of the big travel management companies could move a fraction of the meetings/flights they facilitate on a daily basis from physical travel to virtual travel they could keep a network of publicly available telepresence conferencing centers packed!  It is a chance for them to keep doing what they are doing except with virtual travel they could own the "airplanes".

Private investors - This is a big idea in a world of tiny incremental ideas. This is an opportunity right for a visionary, deep pocketed technology investor.  Calling Richard Branson, Paul Allen, Mark Cuban, Steve Jobs, etc.

A big franchise player - While it is important to build an initial number of centers (8-20+) in the right demographic locations to create a critical mass of the most profitable city pairs (I.E. NYC-LA, NYC-London, San Francisco - Tokyo, Seattle-San Francisco, etc.) filling in the rest could be a combination of company stores and franchise locations. Unlike a McDonalds where a new location in

                   So who out there wants to revolutionize the world?
 

      

Telepresence People

Kevin Kennedy has joined Avaya as President and CEO

Scott Wilcoxen has joined TANDBERG as Telepresence Solution Architect

Patrick Micalleff has been appointed the Australian and New Zealand country manager for LifeSize Communications

Bob Hennig has joined Nortel as Multimedia Services and Strategy Manager (months ago but I just found out today)

Shawn Deer has joined Video Guidance as Senior Account Manager

John Farr has joined Video Guidance as Lead Integration Specialist

Scott Swingle has joined Video Guidance as Conference Specialist