While peer-to-peer technology is most commonly associated with teens downloading the latest 'NSync single, the technology does have the potential to eliminate some of the bandwidth challenges confronting companies that commonly stream audio or video. If, for example, a company makes a speech by its CEO available over the Internet via peer-to-peer technology, the technique could help eliminate the bandwidth clogs created by people downloading the stream directly from a Web page.
Radio Free Virgin, a Los Angeles-based online radio station run and owned by the media conglomerate Virgin Audio Holdings, is currently beta testing software that allows it to create peered networks on the fly. Radio Free Virgin has 46 stations with continuous streams, and it tested the peer-to-peer technology on one of its channels.
CTO Brendon Cassidy says that between four and seven out of every 10 listeners ended up downloading the stream directly from another listener rather than the company's server, saving the company 40 per cent to 70 per cent of its bandwidth costs.
Other peer-to-peer technologies such as instant messaging (including ICQ and AOL's Instant Messenger) and collaborative tools from vendors such as Groove Networks and NextPage allow users to trade text messages or files directly without hosts. These technologies are potentially more cost effective and efficient than traditional Web-based tools because they take advantage of the user's computer to store data and use direct connections to avoid company servers.
Of course, these benefits come at the cost of some control. The decentralised nature of peer-to-peer essentially means that there is no one point from which to monitor the network. Business-oriented vendors are starting to build management and reporting tools into their products.
All the aforementioned technologies can work, but each has quirks and kinks that need to be managed. Establishing a communications strategy, as opposed to letting employees adopt technologies at random, will help mitigate risks and control costs.
Using the right technology for the task at hand helps as well. In general, follow the progression from voice to data to video. If you want to discuss a document, e-mail it ahead of time and then talk on the phone. If you want to edit a document, try a data conference. And if you want to negotiate over it, use video.
While a monthly bill or licence fee will let you know how much you spend on communications tools, it's hard to measure the value of using the tools. Of course, until (and if) business travel returns to its previous levels, the greatest benefit could just be the ability to communicate at all.
The war against terrorism has grounded business travel, but CIOs can provide the tools to get companies meeting again. Here's what you need to know about conferencing technologies and their strengths, weaknesses and costs.
Between the economy and the attacks of September 11, companies are turning to other means of doing business besides air travel. If conferencing technology wasn't something CIOs paid attention to before, now it should be. Employees are turning to a variety of communications tools that put stress on networks and can in some cases open up holes in firewalls. The tools are coming - business needs will dictate that - but how they are introduced in a company is up to the CIO. It can unfold in an ad hoc manner, or the CIO can build a comprehensive communications strategy, including a controlled tool set and an understanding of when to use each. In other words, by sticking to the right set of communications technologies CIOs will be able to drive down costs, reduce bandwidth clogs and generally help their company through these difficult times. The following facts about each of the three major communications tools as well as emerging peer-to-peer technology will help you form your own communications strategy.
Teleconferencing
Phone calls are already a part of daily business, and no one really considers them cutting-edge IT. "There aren't a lot of challenges, and the technology is all well known," says the CIO of a global management consultancy. "It all comes down to how much [calling] you do. And if you do a lot of it you need to come up with a low-cost solution."
Teleconferencing software typically offers a set number of ports (each port supports one caller), the caller's access point and the ability to create connections that allow multiple parties to join a call, known as bridges. If teleconferencing is part of your company's daily life, buying a teleconference package - as opposed to setting up one-off calls through a carrier - can save you money.
Buy enough ports and you can negotiate your rates. Buying a package may also let you integrate the service with other communications tools such as e-mail and calendars, allowing employees to set up a conference call when they schedule a meeting. The software can even keep track of the total available ports and alert employees if there aren't enough for a requested call. Employees can then reschedule at a different time or set up the call through a carrier.
Beyond plain teleconferencing, some companies are beginning to deploy voice-over-IP (VoIP) networks. With VoIP, voice and data travel over the same network, which allows for some useful features, such as the capability to let callers on VoIP phones connect automatically to their scheduled call instead of having to remember access numbers. As an added bonus, the quality of service over the new network is actually better than it had been with the traditional system it replaced, says Chris Duncan, global leader for e-communications technology at Michigan-based Dow Chemical.
But there are caveats with VoIP. Lewis Ward, a senior analyst with Collaborative Strategies, says that while the cost per call of voice-over-IP may be cheaper, building an IP network is expensive. (Duncan says the cost of Dow's five-year project "starts with a B".) Furthermore, Ward says, packets could be bounced when calls travel over the public Internet, reassembling the speaker's words out of order.
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