It is true that organizations of all sizes can improve their business performance if they integrate collaborative tools into their business processes -- and video is no exception. The Verizon visual communications strategy provides a variety of scalable options so that video conferencing customers may tailor the services to meet their needs. For the small and medium business, Verizon offers a traditional video conferencing service based on a hosted bridging infrastructure and standards-based video endpoints. This type of service alleviates the need for customers to purchase their own bridging infrastructure while allowing them to select their equipment based on the features and functions they need. Over time, we’ve scaled the service to support enhanced video conferencing features such as high-definition video conferencing, providing our customers with high-quality conferencing at an affordable price point, so even small and mid-sized customers can take advantage this collaborative technology.

Our Meetings Around the World II study was a Frost & Sullivan study sponsored by Verizon and Cisco and is the first of its kind to develop a model for measuring return on collaboration investment. The Return on Collaboration (ROC) index established a progressive impact of deploying advanced collaboration technology and organizational practices and uncovered that organizations which deploy the most advanced Internet Protocol-based collaboration technologies achieve more than two times the return on their collaboration investment and perform better than their less collaborative peers. There were more than 3,600 respondents from seven vertical industries from 10 countries. The survey included both line-of-business and IT decision-makers and surveyed organizations from large business and government as well as small and medium-sized business and found that the larger the organization deploying advanced collaboration tools, the greater the positive impact on that organization. The pattern across all business critical process areas is the same, yet larger organizations tend to get more value and return than smaller organizations, so the economic trade off between multinational corporations versus national or regional players will likely follow this same hypothesis. While organizations of all sizes can achieve a substantial return on their collaboration deployment, organizations deploying progressively more advanced collaboration tools, experience a correspondingly higher return on their collaboration. Verizon has a Global Reach with 321 Offices in 75 countries spanning six continents, an IP Network which covers 2,700 cities in 159 countries and provides access through the Verizon Wireless Network to more than 290 million people - nearly the entire United States population

Today, the decision on how to deploy collaborative technology is not as simple as it was just a few years ago. While converging applications onto IP simplifies the network issues, new, multiple applications and services add another level of complexity to the decision-making process. These applications and services provide a simpler and intuitive “front-end” service, but can complicate the back office administration and management. There are numerous factors influencing decision criteria and these factors should be considered in light of an organization’s specific needs and requirements. Factors such as considering the importance of delivering secure, high-quality services on a consistent basis is paramount and needs to be balanced against the needs for economic pricing, integration of collaborative technologies from multiple vendors and the drive to achieve global reach. Using a service provider such as Verizon to provide these services provides flexibility, scalability and an economy of scale which is difficult with an in-house solution. Verizon can help design, implement, and manage the network customers need to give secure access to their resources and applications as well as helping leverage existing technology throughout their business and connect everything together with one IP-based infrastructure for all of their voice and data traffic.

There are numerous decision points that organizations must consider when planning the path on whether to implement a private, managed in-house solution, or using an existing service provider to deliver collaboration solutions. These decision points will include, the organization’s character, size, and scope, the need to connect to others outside their organization, the pace of new developments in technology and the ever changing nature of every enterprise. As a collaboration service provider, Verizon possesses the core competency in providing services that are secure, flexible, and scalable. Businesses need to consider the cost of staff, network, equipment, software, and the 24 x 7 support that needs to be spread over a larger group of users if they are to purchase and manage their own private solution. Verizon provides services that are scalable across our global IP network, providing the platform to deliver a range of unified communications and collaboration (UC&C) capabilities to the extended enterprise. We can offer everything from hardware, to software, to consulting services - to help our customers embark on their journey toward an effective UC&C solution. In addition, our Teleworking solution is an key to UC&C and provides the tools that teleworkers need to perform effectively and simplify the way remote and mobile workers communicate and collaborate.