Enterprise video solutions provider, Kontiki (News - Alert), has announced that its Enterprise Video Platform has been selected by Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. Kontiki will deliver high-quality video content to employees' desktops throughout the world to Starwood's 145,000 employees in nearly 100 countries.
This deployment was kicked off by both Starwood (which this week posted strong earnings) and Kontiki with a live, worldwide video event broadcast from Mexico City. The event was part of Starwood's live video broadcast series that features the company's top management sharing business updates from hotels from around the world to targeted groups of employees.
"Kontiki helped us address the challenge of communicating to our employees worldwide. Their unique SaaS (News - Alert)solution alleviates network bandwidth constraints, increases the quality of our communications and, more importantly, allows our executives to get in front of employees 'from wherever to wherever.' We are excited to launch this new live video showcase program with Kontiki," said Sandy Burgoyne, Vice President, Intranet Services & HR Technology, Starwood, in a statement.
Kontiki president and CEO, Eric Armstrong noted that the company's SaaS enterprise video delivery product was able to help Starwood to go live with their global video broadcast after a few weeks of planning and at a fraction of the cost of alternative approaches.
The deployment is timely given that Starwood just announced their operating results for the first quarter of 2010. Core earnings for the company rose to $7.5 million or $0.15 per share for the quarter that ended March 31, 2010. Net income for the same period was $5.9 million or $0.12 per common share. The company continues to aggressively pursue appropriate investments that drive predictable growth and safety in cash flow.
Videoconferencing applications are growing in popularity and demand is reaching new heights.
The deployment of video to employee desktops is a trend that is seeing greater traction in the enterprise space, according to research by industry firm Interactive Media Strategies (News - Alert). In a research report published on May 10, 2010, the analyst firm predicts that corporate spending on online business video will grow to more than $657 million for 2010, up from a level of $531 million in 2009.
"One of the key areas that many companies are looking to improve upon in the next 12 to 24 months is how to enable more employees in their organizations to view video content from the company right at their workstations without having to go to a conference room or auditorium," according to Paul Ritter (News - Alert), vice president of Interactive Media Strategies.
"One of the most efficient ways to deliver high quality video to employee desktops is by deploying a solution involving distributed client software on employee desktops. This means only one copy of each stream traverses the WAN into each office without the need for a multicast-enabled network or distributed hardware caches," according to Ritter. "Starwood is definitely part of the cutting edge of firms deploying video right to employees' own computer screens."
The applications for videoconferencing solutions reach far beyond industry boundaries and may even get to the government level. If a proposed bill makes it through the Senate and the House, a two-year pilot program will launch that will use video conferencing for visa interviews in nations such as China, India and Brazil. Such areas lack adequate regional U.S. consular offices and therefore the visa process can be a daunting one.
The new age of video has arrived and desktop video deployments are on the rise. For those companies taking advantage of this technology, they are enjoying measurable benefits that flatter the bottom line while driving collaboration, innovation and a Green approach to business.
Susan J. Campbell is a contributing editor for TMCnet and has also written for eastbiz.com. To read more of Susan's articles, please visit her columnist page.
Edited by Michael Dinan