Comments on: HP Vs. Cisco Will Bolster TelePresence

By: The VAR Guy

The VAR Guy — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 01:46:35 +0000

Wow. The Cisco police are out in full force. But that’s ok. Good to see them patrolling our site because they weigh in with the facts rather than heavy spin. Yes, TelePresence connections are that easy to set up. It’s like turning on your TV…

By: LT

LT — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 00:17:16 +0000

I know the VARGuy has seen Cisco Telepresence and as an average Joe he appreciates the high quality aduio and video that he has only seen while watching his beloved Mets at the local sports bar. But as a business man the ability to conduct a video conference with one click of the button as opposed to requiring to 3-5 Aduio/Video sepcialist has to be one of his favorite features. Setting up a telepresence meeting is actually simpler than a phone call and that’s a huge competitive advantage for Cisco, wouldn’t you agree?

By: Elizabeth

Elizabeth — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 01:52:56 +0000

The productivity and cost benefits: both direct savings and positive side effects from less travel is remarkably high for Telepresence. Depending on what type of worker, the travel cost saving per month alone can be $500-3000.

Telepresence is also proving to be a very powerful collaboration tool. Being able to connect teams around the world will fuel innovation faster than ever before.

But, yes, Cisco Telepresence does come with some requirements in order to deliver a superior, simple user experience. Cisco does requires customers to deploy Cisco Unified Communications Manager with Cisco TelePresence. This, in conjunction with integration to enterprise groupware, provides one button to push simplicity for call launch, both for point-to-point and multipoint calls.

By: The VAR Guy

The VAR Guy — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 16:07:05 +0000

Luther: I don't have an itemized list of the total solution. We agree that prices have to come down. But seeing is also believing. The VAR Guy has participated in several TelePresence sessions in New York and Las Vegas. He was impressed. But more importantly, CEOs with deep corporate wallets were impressed with the demos as well.

A TelePresence solution is more than bolting a desk to a speaker phone and a plasma TV. It's an immersive solution where each component is designed to blend with every other component. That deserves a price premium.

Still you may have a point: The premium is still too high for many customers. For those looking to save money and get their feet wet, there are entry-level systems like Lifesize.com

By the way, are you a Cisco VAR/partner? Or do you represent someone else? Just trying to get a feel for your background.

Thanks for taking the time to comment. - TVG

By: luther

luther — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 15:52:47 +0000

$250,000 is too much. what is the monthly support and bandwidth costs?

Break it down.
3 displays screens 10k
2 servers $10k or less
codec 20k
interface????built for 4k
echo cancellor, speakers, other AV equip $8k
lighting retro $4k
accoustics??? $7k
Table $10k

All these prices are high, comes out to about 70k per location….
And HP is charging $250k.

Please tell me my mistake in the numbers.
in cisoc’s case, you get a call manager with the system….its useless.