Research Paper on:
Videoconferencing Benefits

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
because the company had lost the art of "face-to-face" communication with its clients, the company had lost one of the clients; who had been an old and valued client to  the firm. The owner then proceeded to hand out airline tickets to the employees, instructing them to go and meet the clients in person and to re-establish the personal touch.  When asked what he was going to do, the boss smiled and said, "Im going to pay a visit to that old friend of ours, the client who left us."  If that commercial had aired even five years later, however, the boss could have sincerely instructed his employees to set up videoconference meetings with the clients and could perhaps have  achieved the same results at less cost. At one time, the concept of videoconferencing - in other words, talking to someone via  a video screen - was considered something exotic and futuristic. As most businesses are finding, however, the future is already here. As technologies and bandwidths begin to improve, videoconferencing -  as opposed to physical travel - is becoming more and more the choice of businesses when it comes to meeting clients and/or colleagues. Videoconferencing is fast replacing the need for  people to meet on a face-to-fact basis. Before determining how, exactly, videoconferencing is beneficial, it is helpful to define what, exactly videoconferencing  is. According to Duke University, videoconferencing is "the ability to communicate using video and audio over a communications network for real-time interaction between two locations (point-to-point) or more than two  locations (multipoint)" (Videoconferencing Overview, 2002). Videoconferencing is conducted primarily through use of cameras, microphones, computers and other hardware (Videoconferencing Overview, 2002). The overall benefits of videoconferencing include reduced travel costs,