Anticipating phenomenal growth in the American market, a Scandinavian video conferencing company is opening its North American sales office in Mystic on Dec. 1.
Norway-based Easymeeting believes as more North American corporations desire to cut travel costs in a global economy, they will turn to better video technology to have more quality communications with remote clients.
“Video is becoming more mainstream, and we think it gives us a lot of room to grow,” said Cody Loughlean, channel sales manager for Easymeeting. “The difference between a video call and a conference call is night and day. To be able to read people’s body language, you can’t replace that.”
Video conferencing is nothing new and has been used for decades in Connecticut for tasks including taking legal depositions and performing job interviews. However, the technology is improving — including for better remote access — and the cost of entry is decreasing rapidly. Coupled with the economic recession and companies downgrading travel budgets, Easymeeting eyes a big break in the market.
“Every day, I go to Sweden; I go to Norway; I go to Madrid; and at 5 o’clock, I’m at home with my family,” Loughlean said.
A study used by New York video conferencing equipment provider Tandberg says the marketing for the industry reached $2 billion in 2009 in the United States. The market is expected to grow at least 15 percent annually for the next five years, putting the market at $4.3 billion in 2014.
“We are starting to really explode quickly,” Loughlean said. “It opens up businesses to the rest of the world.”
Hartford-based Brandon Smith Reporting & Video LLC opened its first video conferencing room eight years ago. Co-owner John Brandon expected the industry to have a shelf-life of five years, but today, “it is more popular than ever.”
The top reason companies use his now two video conferencing rooms is for job interviews with remote candidates. Brandon Smith also will help clients conduct depositions, testify in trials, set up international meetings and give presentations to seminars on other continents.
As a business providing the service, though, the market isn’t as viable as it once was, Brandon said. The cost is 35 percent of what it was eight years ago, and the low barrier to entry means more people are offering it, and many companies are installing the video conferencing equipment on their own.
“It used to be pretty lucrative, but now it is just volume,” Brandon said.
That’s where Easymeeting wants to come in. The Norwegian company wants to set up easy video conferencing for clients at their own facilities, so they can avoid the time and cost of traveling to a place such as Brandon Smith Reporting & Video.
Many large companies have their own setups already, so Easymeeting is targeting the small- and medium-sized companies. Easymeeting pitches clear, reliable video technology that can be installed in clients’ offices and at individual employees’ work stations where participants can dial a three-digit code to access the meeting.
“For the customer, it is easy to use but they also get a return on investment in the first week,” Loughlean said. “It is really unique technology that is exploding the ability to video conference.”
Easymeeting allows clients to access video conference from smartphone and tablet computers such as Apple’s iPad, which is a very popular feature, Loughlean said.
In providing easy-to-use technology, Easymeeting hopes to pilfer clients from places such as the Connecticut Business Center in Stamford, which has offered video conferencing since 1997.
Clients come to the Stamford business service provider to avoid all the technological complications that can arise on in-house equipment, said Maria Bistolas, administrative assistant at the Connecticut Business Center.
“A lot of people still aren’t on the up and up on the new (high-definition) equipment,” Bistolas said. “Unfortunately, you don’t have a lot of technical support with other corporations, and I know how to use my equipment here.”
Easymeeting has been making inroads into the U.S. market for a year, working off its European clients desire to expand the video services into America. The company’s U.S. headquarters has been New London, with its sales and demonstration office based in Ashaway, R.I.
The company will move its sales and demonstration office into the renovated Allen Spool Mill in Mystic on Dec. 1, with a hard launch for its major U.S. sales operations kicking off two weeks later.
Easymeeting chose Mystic because its chief executive officer — Evan Andriopoulous — is a native of East Lyme and he thinks the Mystic seashore community will be a good place to entertain clients. Plus, Connecticut is strategically positioned between New York City and Boston, where Easymeeting’s initial target clients are.
Yes, the video conferencing company still plans on entertaining potential clients by bringing them in for face-to-face meetings, as Easymeeting anticipates most companies do when they are building initial relationships.
But once those relationships are on firm ground, Easymeeting figures hopping on a two-hour video conference is much more efficient and cheaper than hopping on an airplane and checking into a hotel for a two-hour meeting in Los Angeles.
“We are not naive,” Loughlean said. “We know the best form of communication is face-to-face, but the next best is video conferencing.”
