Videoconferencing Apps will Grow Rapidly in Latin America

There's little doubt about the continued adoption of videoconferencing and telepresence applications over the past few years. Clearly, growth has been fueled by the increasing popularity of video communications among multinational companies around the world -- particularly with mobile video chat applications that utilize new handheld devices.

According to IDC's latest market assessment, the videoconferencing and telepresence market will continue to be one of the fastest growing networking markets for the foreseeable future.

"Growth has been spurred on by more well-defined video use cases among organizations across a range of vertical market segments, including healthcare, higher education, financial services, legal, law enforcement, manufacturing, and retail," said Rich Costello, senior analyst, Enterprise Communications Infrastructure, at IDC.

Other industry analysts are equally enthusiastic about the market outlook, as more enterprise users find new ways to connect and collaborate with internal and external stakeholders via traditional video meeting rooms and other more flexible video endpoints.

Enterprise Video Communications Market Results

Infonetics Research released excerpts from its fourth quarter (4Q11) "Enterprise Telepresence and Video Conferencing Equipment" report, which analyzes markets and vendors by region.

"Sales of telepresence and videoconferencing equipment surged in the past two years, with growth accelerating in 2011 as video took off on enterprise IP PBX systems" said Matthias Machowinski, directing analyst for enterprise networks and video at Infonetics Research.

The video conferencing market is being fueled by a confluence of factors, including the proliferation of video-capable equipment, demographic and communication trends that favor video, and industry use cases -- such as tele-learning and tele-medicine.

Most importantly, the video collaboration market is being driven by increasing demand across a growing number of industry verticals that use the technology today.

The Infonetics market study highlights include:

• The global enterprise video conferencing and telepresence market jumped 15 percent to $882 million between the third and fourth quarters of 2011, setting a record high for quarterly revenue.
• For the full year 2011, sales of videoconferencing and telepresence equipment are up 34 percent to $2.99 billion.
• Infonetics expects a cumulative $22 billion to be spent by enterprises on videoconferencing and telepresence hardware and software from 2012 to 2016.
• PBX-based systems had the strongest performance for the year, growing 80 percent, as they offer a cost-effective way to enjoy multi-modal communication using existing infrastructure.
• Market leader Cisco shows no signs of slowing down: its 4Q11 telepresence and videoconferencing revenue jumped 25 percent sequentially and market share is up 3 points to 52.5 percent.
• Dedicated multi-purpose room video systems made up over half the enterprise videoconferencing equipment market in 2011 and will continue to be the biggest revenue-generator among enterprise video solutions.
• Sales of videoconferencing infrastructure and endpoints are strong in all major world regions, but the standout region is the Caribbean and Latin America (CALA), which saw sales nearly double in 2011.

How TelePresence Improves Public Health Care in Chile

The hospitals in Talcahuano (Las Higueras), San Carlos and Linares have inaugurated Cisco TelePresence units -- the high-definition video technology that allows them to interact with their patients via tele-consultations, examinations and interviews. The TelePresence technology also helps them find solutions for cardiovascular pathologies, the main public health problem facing Chilean society that has resulted in great human and economic impact.

This HD video communication solution enables the hospitals in Linares and San Carlos to connect with specialists in Las Higueras Hospital in Talcahuano and carry out remote specialized consultations -- as a result accelerating the process of attending to patients.

As an example, now the time taken for a specialist's first response has been significantly reduced (from 12 months to 54 hours), as well as the time taken to resolve the problem that gave rise to the initial consultation (from as long as two years down to one month).

Enabling Just-in-Time Healthcare to Citizens

The Cisco TelePresence solution is a pilot project that forms part of and complements the Galileo Telemedical Program, developed in the Hemodynamic and Electrophysiology Unit of Las Higueras Hospital in Talcahuano as a solution for pathologies in the cardiovascular area, illnesses that produce long waiting lists and high mortality rates in Chile.

This managed solution is a contribution made by Telefónica Empresas -- based on Cisco´s technology -- in collaboration with the Talcahuano Health Services and Las Higueras Hospital, showing the positive impact of public-private partnerships in the implementation of technologies that can transform peoples' lives. This solution works through the Chilean Ministry of Health's communication network (administered by Movistar), and it includes three Cisco TelePresence System 1300 Series units.

This new system deployment facilitates effective and timely access to specialized health care for all citizens -- no matter where they live. It improves the quality of patient care and the efficiency of medical attention, helping to reduce or eliminate waiting lists for health care services.

Pilot Project Delivers Cost-Effective Treatment Options

It makes prioritization of referrals easier, improving the access of the most seriously ill patients to critical operations. It reduces the number of referrals to the specialty center, which saves money for the health care system overall, as well as for patients and their families. There are also benefits for the individual such as in terms of reduction in the number of trips needed to be made, hours or days missed from work or school, and avoiding disruption in family life.

It provides a solution within the system, optimizing current resources in an efficient way by empowering initiatives that are already present within the existing health care system.

Movistar is providing this Cisco technology as a pilot project at no cost to local health services in order to evaluate its impact and effectiveness. They do this as part of their corporate social responsibility initiatives in an effort to provide innovative solutions to the health care system's most critical needs and to alleviate the extra difficulties these hospitals have had to face after the 2010 earthquake due to the reduction of their operative capacity.

The Galileo Project is an initiative of Las Higueras Hospital's Hemodynamic and Electrophysiology Unit, unique in the country's health care services. It was promoted by Dr. Francisco Albornoz, and it defines a new modality of services to improve the quality of cardiovascular treatments by means of teleprocesses in medical administration. The project consists of Web-based solutions and integrates electronic joint consultations, electrocardiography in its different modes, and echocardiography, connecting remote sites of referrals to one specialty center, maintaining the concept of efficiency in clinical decision making and therapeutic resolution.

"The telemedicine project in Talcahuano is in line with the corporate e-health program whose objective is to make high-end technologies available for the benefit of every Chilean. Health is one of the great concerns, and this service will shorten waiting times, facilitate opportune diagnosis, and keep illnesses from getting worse. At Movistar we are very happy since, as strategic partners with the country and the government, we believe we are fulfilling the promise we made to our clients, that of making high-end technologies available wherever they are needed," said Pedro Pablo Laso, general manager of Telefónica Empresas.