Telepresence

As large companies make the switch over to telepresence technology there is always a cost involved by using this type of system. There is the cost of the equipment itself, whether you purchase the equipment directly or plan to lease it on a monthly basis. The telepresence rates you incur will depend on the system selected and the type of data transport you choose.

The cost of telepresence equipment will vary in price. When you select single user products, the telepresence rates will be lower. As an example, Cisco’s TelePresence System 500 has a list price that is almost $34,000. Intended for use by one individual, this is likely the lower end of the spectrum when it comes to costs incurred for the purchase of telepresence equipment.

On the other hand, if you’re looking for a larger system to facilitate more individuals in a meeting you can expect to pay upwards to $340,000 for the Cisco TelePresence System 3200. There are several other companies that are involved in selling this type of equipment and your telepresence rates for the equipment will vary. For a larger number of participants you can generally expect to pay around $200 to $400-thousand dollars for the equipment.

One must also consider the maintenance contracts that are available as part of their total telepresence rate charge. Although they are not that hefty, as we shopped around for several brands, we found contract rates that generally ran from $20-thousand upwards to $80-thousand per year depending on whether next day service was offered and the number of maintenance visits that occurred during the calendar year.

One must also consider the data line charge as part of the telepresence rate that is incurred. While rates will vary around the country, the cost of a T1 line can generally cost around $250 to $1,500 depending on your locality and the taxes that are included with the charge. If you want to increase the bandwidth to that of a T3 line, the costs can average between $4,000 and $16,000 a month with the same dependencies. You’ll also want to consider upgrading router equipment to make sure that it includes QoS (Quality of Service) benefits to bolster VoIP and video streaming data throughput.

When a company incurs telepresence rates in the purchase or lease of equipment, the cost of maintenance and line charges they should be looking at their ROI (return on investment) during the planning stage. The telepresence equipment should have a set level of use to make the investment worthwhile. The number of meetings held a various locations should be investigated and to whether the savings outweigh an actual conference with the participants.

We should mention that in several major cities, there are companies that have already purchased telepresence equipment and rent out the facility on an hourly basis. This may be an alternative to improving the return on investment if the number of meetings held is limited. On the other hand, if you have purchased the equipment and want to increase your ROI, you may wish to rent out your facility to others when it is not in use.