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Note: Captech has reduced travel spending with video collaboration, but the SMB has added recruiting, training, and client interaction to its growing list of uses.
Slideshow: Cisco Umi Takes Telepresence To The Home(click image for larger view and for slideshow)Many small and midsize businesses deploy videoconferencing systems to cut travel costs, but the smart ones find that it can help in other ways.
Take Captech, a 300-person IT consulting firm headquartered in Richmond, Va. The 14-year-old company has indeed saved on travel costs, but that's not necessarily what they set out to do. IT operations manager Brett Bajcsi said in an interview that as Captech grew beyond one office--it now has five, plus other remote employees scattered around the country--it needed a way to keep people from feeling too, well, remote.
"As you find yourself distributed into more markets, it's harder to bring people together," Bajcsi said. "The big challenge for me is: How do I find a way to make people feel like they work for Captech?"
Bajcsi said a branch office could feel like a "rogue state" without the opportunity for regular, face-to-face interaction with the company's partners, management, and other teams. While videoconferencing isn't a complete...