The VAR Guy

TelePresence is expensive (at the high-end, $300,000 per deployment) and bandwidth intensive. But if you get your customers to see it in action, TelePresence often sells itself, The VAR Guy hears. That’s why Cisco has deployed more than 100 TelePresence systems across the networking giant’s corporate offices, according to one trusted tipster.

The VAR Guy saw TelePresence in action last fall. He was impressed. Some people c0nsider TelePresence a next-generation video conferencing system — but that description doesn’t fully communicate the power of these solutions. Here’s some more background about TelePresence offerings from Cisco along with rival offerings, some of which cost $10,000 or less.

Ultimately, Cisco expects TelePresence to help the company cut its own corporate travel costs by about 20 percent annually.