BT saves £238m with video conferencing

BT saved over £238m last year in reduced travel costs and improved productivity as a result of its increased use of video conferencing technology, the company has revealed.

Francois Barrault, chief executive of BT Global Services, said the organisation had cut travel and other associated costs by £135m and saved £103m worth of productive time by using video conferencing last year, most notably through the 20 Cisco TelePresence suites that the BT operates around the world.

The company said that the technology has also eliminated more than 860,000 face-to-face meetings and cut BT’s carbon footprint by at least 97,000 tonnes of CO2.

Barrault added that increased use of video conferencing, combined with BT's commitment to encouraging home working, had contributed to a reduction in the number of days lost to sick leave, which fell by 21 per cent last year.

Speaking at a roundtable event in London – hosted using a video conferencing suite – Barrault said he was a personal advocate of the technology, which he argues allows managers to travel less, while still enjoying many of the benefits of meeting face-to-face. "I did close to 150 trips last year and spent over 200 days on the road," he said. "Last week I decided to not travel and did all my meetings using telepresence technologies. It was great, I was home – but it was still like I was meeting people."

BT is now aiming to increase use of the technology across its operations. " We have made this investment [in 20 telepresence suites globally] and people will have to justify why they need travel," said Barrault.

In addition to cost savings, the technology also resulted in a reduction in carbon emissions, which Barrault said the company was committed to communicating to users. "We recently hosted a meeting with 1,000 managers using conferencing technologies and one of the main advantages of the conference according to the feedback we got was that it saved 40 tonnes of CO2," he explained.