Vendors urge channel to push green issues

Videoconferencing (VC) vendors are waking up to the fact that the green benefits of video communications could be a key driver in growing sales and are encouraging their channel partners to push the green message of VC to their customers.

Craig Malloy, chief executive of vendor LifeSize, told CRN: “Video communications are a concrete action that organisations can take to reduce their carbon footprint and with LifeSize’s high-definition (HD) systems there is very little loss of the face-to-face experience.

“A lot of companies have made a decision to reduce their carbon footprint but haven’t realised that VC can help them do that.”

Kees Hoogstraate, Sony’s European VC product marketing manager, said: “We are very aware that businesses are now more considerate of saving the planet and are pitching this message to our channel. Sony tried to push the green message of VC a couple of years ago but it wasn’t high on people’s agenda. Being environmentally friendly is now a hot topic so we feel it is time to re-address it.”

Sony plans to do this with the launch of a sales book for its resellers, part of which will address the green benefits of VC. It also plans to engage with the press more on the subject and run online campaigns.

“To date we are not seeing VC being sold purely for its green benefits but in the future I think it will be,” Hoogstraate added.

According to Ray McGroarty, director of solutions and products at Polycom, resellers now have the ear of the senior management in a way they have not before.

“Being green has definitely become a senior management consideration,” McGroarty said. “Businesses are setting themselves targets of becoming carbon neutral, but aren’t sure how to go about it which is where resellers can step in and explain how VC can play a big part in helping them reach their target.

“I read that if you cut out just one return flight to the US East Coast from the UK it would be the equivalent of not driving your car for a year in terms of the emissions you’d save. We’re working on a toolkit to enable resellers to articulate the green benefits of VC to customers.”

Last year Tandberg launched an online tool called the Business Advantage Calculator, which enables companies to work out the advantage to them of using VC.

Barnaby Meadows, Tandberg’s marketing manager UK and Ireland, told CRN: “If you had a company of 500 people, for example, it would work out how much travel they do and equate that into CO2 emissions. It would then tell them the cost they’d save if they didn’t make those trips but used VC instead. Resellers can use it to show customers they can be green and save money at the same time.”

Meadows added: “VC can improve productivity and drive efficiencies as well as helping to off-set travel. At a recent Institute of Director’s conference they said that the UK can’t rely on the government to make the change. I think businesses are starting to sit up and realise they need to reduce their CO2 footprints and video can help them do that.”

Sam McMaster, managing director of VC VAR Questmark, said: “We have been pushing the green message for years so in our case the drive to promote the green benefits of VC is coming from us. We actually tell vendors to push the green message more as it could be a key factor in growing the industry.”

As CRN went to press Questmark had just finished calculating the environmental impact of all the VC systems it had sold.

“My install base in the UK keeps 26 million miles worth of traffic off the roads per month,” McMaster said. “Just imagine the amount of CO2 that has saved.”

Ian Vickerage, managing director of VC distributor Imago, said: “I don’t think people are buying VC purely for the environmental benefits, but it assists the sale.

“I haven’t seen many of the big vendors pushing the green message as much as they should. It is one that they could push harder.”

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