prawling international law firm DLA Piper has upgraded
from videoconferencing to telepresence,
which will save the firm nearly $1 million per year in
reduced travel costs and lost productivity. The conferencing
gear that simulates across-the-table meetings has “a provable
and achievable return on investment over five years, and may
actually pay for itself before then,” says Don Jaycox, CIO of
DLA Piper U.S.
This involves an “immersive video experience,” or technology
that provides high-end, high-definition visual and
audio communications in a completely integrated environment.
The goal is to make anyone involved in these meetings
feel as if they’re actually in the room with the other
meeting participants, regardless of where everyone is physically
based.
“Rescheduling half the firm’s in-person board meetings
as telepresence conferences and relying on at least two attorneys
per week to use telepresence rather than travel accounts
for significant savings when lost productivity for
travel time is factored in,” says Jaycox.
“If I look at my total telepresence project cost, which
includes equipment, room construction, implementation
services, maintenance contract, financing costs, etc., then
amortize that over the expected five-year life of the system,
it works out to be just a hair under $500,000 per year for our
six U.S. sites,” he says. “Our early experience suggests that a
more accurate number of avoided trips is closer to four or
five per week, so the $970,000 projection almost certainly
underestimates our actual savings,” he notes.
The sites were selected so they put 80 percent of the attorneys
within a one-hour drive of a telepresence room.