Video conferencing and networking giant Cisco surprised many at its recent Las Vegas conference by unveiling its latest product – an enterprise focused tablet computer.

The Cisco Cius aims to extend the productivity benefits of the company’s collaboration applications to a mobile platform. Running on a variation of the Android operating system, the tablet offers mobile computing and content sharing capabilities as well as full interoperability with Cisco’s Telepresence technology.

An open platform, the Cius is targeted at linking individual employees more effectively with central departments over a real-time, secure connection. Although users will be able to video conference through the small tablet device’s HD camera and audio pickup, the tablet also has the useful ability to physically dock or connect via Wi-Fi to existing video conferencing facilities, as well as a desktop PC.

This means that users could record videos and photos or work on files or documents on their Cius tablet, then share them with other participants directly during a video conference held at a Cisco Telepresence Studio. The device will go on trial with customers in the third quarter of 2010 with a view to becoming generally available in the first quarter of 2011.

Tony Bates, the senior VP and general manager of Cisco’s enterprise, commercial and small business arm said:”Cisco Cius epitomises how the network is changing the way we live, work, learn and play.”

The most important thing to have in the workplace is good communication skills, reports The Chartered Management Institute.

That’s according to half of business leaders who were questioned in a study by Orange. Over a third added that keeping up with, and using, new innovations such as video conferencing services to their advantage made a successful business leader.

In fact, according to a statement published by Orange, good communication skills top their list of the most common characteristics that appear to be conducive to running a successful business.

Martin Lyne, SME marketing director at Everything Everywhere said in a statement: “A desire to keep abreast of the latest innovations and technologies has given entrepreneurs access to new tools to help run their businesses.”

Video conferencing services can prove a significantly useful tool to entrepreneurs who are touting for new business. Instead of surrendering a multiple days out of the office to hold lengthy meetings, entrepreneurs can hold virtual meetings which are just as powerful as face-to-face, without losing so much time in travelling.

Video conferencing services also present the opportunity to save on overheads; holding a virtual meeting is significantly more cost effective than travelling to a meeting. As every entrepreneur knows, cashflow is vitally important so wasting cash on non-essential travel can be seen as wasteful.

This was reiterated by Mr Lyne, who pointed out that communication among teams doesn’t have to involve face-to-face contact. He said that tools such as video conferencing services, social networking websites and email can be used to bring workers together.

The U.S government has pledged to make huge changes to the working practises and procedures of federal agencies in an effort to cut down on carbon emissions, with ambitious plans to make greater use of video conferencing to cut down on travel.

The Federal Times reports that the federal government has pledged to cut greenhouse gas emissions from indirect sources – e.g. employee travel, waste disposal – by at least 13% by 2020. Working from the 2008 baseline of 16.8 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent, this would see the government reduce its carbon footprint by 2.19 million metric tons.

This target is in addition to a pledge made in January to cut emissions directly resulting from federal agency operations of purchases such as energy use by 28% by 2020.

In draft guidance released by the administration, White House federal environmental executive Michelle Moore said that employee travel was the largest indirect contributor to the government’s carbon footprint.

To cut down on these the government has proposed a massive expansion of the use of video conferencing services in the workplace. Federal employees would be encouraged to work from home, using collaboration software to work on documents whilst conducting routine meetings via video conference.

Two agencies have already announced that they will be focusing their efforts on cutting travel for employees, the Agriculture Department – where nearly 90% of indirect emissions stem from travel and commuting – and the Labour Department. The former has said it will curb the practise of flying regional managers to Washington, with its chief of environmental management Jeff Goodman stating that “we think we can be a little more aggressive on the business side of it with video conferencing, virtual meetings.”

“There are a lot of different ways agencies are going to be able to meet their goals,” said Michelle Moore. “It’s really about what agencies can do to support the employees in this effort.”

Cisco’s latest business video conferencing package aims to bring video conferencing solutions to the global events industry, helping event planners and executives extend the impact of trade shows and conferences.

Announced last week, Cisco’s ‘Collaboration for Events’ takes the companies Telepresence video conferencing technology and enterprise social software to help the events industry reach beyond the physical limitations of an events venue. The company hopes that these network based technologies will help organisers conduct interactive events on both physically and virtually.

One key benefit of video conferencing for the events industry will be the ability to circumvent the problems of traditional in-person events. By using high definition Telepresence suites to conduct keynote speeches and discussion panels, events planners will be able to overcome scheduling problems for both speakers and attendees.

Cisco also claims that the new package will help the events industry measure and increase its Return On Investment (ROI). They say that not only will the technology help streamline pre and post-event planning by sharing material and schedules to agencies and providers, it will also help drive interactions between speakers and attendees in multiple ways as well as offering the potential for significant carbon reductions associated with business travel via virtual participation.

The company’s own use of the package at its Cisco Live! event saw more than 5,000 people from 28 countries attend virtually. When used at it’s internal annual global sales meeting, Cisco says that it resulted in the cost per attendee dropping from $4050 to $520, with the company predicting that if fully implemented it could see overall attendance costs at corporate events drop by 78%.

“Today’s global technology-savvy audiences, coupled with rising economic pressures are driving the need for radical transformation in how we think of meetings, events and trade shows,” says Rick Hutley, vice president of Cisco’s Internet Business Solutions Group.

“By applying collaboration technology capabilities to events, organisations can reduce costs, boost attendance, enrich the attendee experience and greatly increase the event’s impact and all while reducing environmental impact.”

Cisco, the leading name in video conferencing technology and network services, has lauded an agreement between BT and Tata Communications as a “major step” towards interoperability between telepresence services.

Under the agreement customers of both Tata Communications and BT will be able to establish a video conference with their counterparts on the other companies video exchange. This intercompany service will see the number of connections possible to each video conferencing facility hosted by the BT or Tata exchanges expand dramatically.

BT has more than 350 Cisco Telepresence systems connected to 1,000 endpoints around the world. Tata Communications meanwhile has exchange hubs in Mumbai, New York and London, with 15 video conferencing facilities in locations across North America, Asia Pacific, India, London and Johannesburg.

The agreement is a significant development towards the overall goal of complete interoperability between telepresence systems. For some time Cisco has been working to create a common, interoperable standard for the video conferencing sector to allow its own systems to seamlessly communicate with those of third party providers.

These efforts took a significant step forward last month as Cisco announced its plans to integrate the in-house Telepresence Interoperability Protocol (TIP) on its newly acquired Tandberg Telepresence Server. This support now enables interoperability between multiscreen telepresence units from different vendors as well as between the full line of Tandberg products.

A new report has shown that the majority of people in the UK expect businesses to take up widespread use of video conferencing technology by the end of the year.

Techworld reports that new research from Cisco, one of the biggest names in video conferencing solutions, shows that 61% of people in the UK expect to be able to conduct work and business meetings via video conference by the end of 2010. This figure may seem striking as currently many companies are missing out on the benefits of video conferencing services, yet other findings from the survey reveal that the British public has an optimistic belief in the possibilities of modern technology.

The report also identified what the public believes are the main barriers to more widespread use of technological innovations.

The availability of the proper technology, such as broadband access, was seen as the major barrier to wider use of video conferencing by most of the public (24%). This may soon change though, as 65% of respondents said that by 2015, improvements to the UK’s communication infrastructure would make internet connections of 100mbps a possibility for users across the UK.

One video conferencing solution that the public were less confident about was the use of telemedicine – visiting a GP through a teleconference facility. Only 11% think they will be able to do this by the end of the year, though 52% believe that it will be possible within the decade, with 68% saying it will definitely be possible within their lifetimes.

A £120,000 technology centre has opened in Wales this week, which will allow pupils to interact with children across the world thanks to new video conferencing facilities.

As reported by South Wales Argus, the five-room zone at County Hall will allow groups of pupils will be able to visit the centre to share lessons with pupils in India, China, Africa, Canada and the USA through video conferencing.

The teacher development zone also includes a three-metre wide screen to broadcast 3D educational films, a recording studio and editing suite and state-of-the-art computers.

Pupils can even create their own news programmes or take cameras into the community to record films before editing them in the studio.

Primary school teacher Sian Penticost tried out the technology with her year six class. She said the interactive tools will help the children to remember what they’ve been taught whilst boosting their skills at the same time. “The technology is amazing and the potential is so huge,” she said.

It was funded by two local councils, and is expected to draw around 1,500 teachers from across Wales who can be trained in the latest advances in educational technology.

At the other end of the country, but in the same week, a similar room which cost £3.5 million to develop will be unveiled in Essex.

According to The Echo, the Collaborative Learning Centre will open at a school in Essex which boasts hi-tech music, art and IT facilities. In the evenings it will be open to locals.

The facility is home to video conferencing facilities, music and film software, plasma screens and projection facilities, amongst other features.

“This is a fantastic centre for local schools and the whole community,” said Derrick Louis, county councillor responsible for major projects. “It will offer school children experiences beyond the classroom.”

The disruption caused by volcano ash in April is one factor which pushed telepresence up the priority list for large and high-value business, according to CRN.

A series of in-depth interviews by market analyst Frost & Sullivan also found that, whilst the recession has dampened telepresence adoption, it also served to refocus business minds on cost control and return on investment.

Another reason behind the increasing adoption of telepresence technology was the “increasing globalisation and vitalisation of business”, according to the report. An increasing awareness of climate change “and the need for businesses to pro-actively demonstrate corporate social responsibility and mitigate carbon emission” were also labelled as influencing factors.

Dominic Dodd, principal analyst at Frost & Sullivan, explained that there has been a continued rise in demand for telepresence technology. Talking of the reasons behind the rising popularity of the technology he said: ”It is an overused phrase, the ‘perfect storm’, but what we have is the need there and the network infrastructure is now in place – and a couple of years ago it wasn’t. The network was still not really reliable for long-distance, end to end calls. So it is about all those things coming together.

The research found that smaller but high-value firms, such as the legal or financial services sectors, were increasingly looking to telepresence to help them communicate more effectively, whether that is in-house or across the world.

“We spoke to a lot of companies in the IT space … and people may be getting into these types of services for the first time,” explained Dodd. “All the feedback was very strongly positive. Obviously you have to take what you hear with a certain pinch of salt, but there was a consistent view that [telepresence] is a good opportunity to get into.”

The senior vice president of emerging technologies at a telepresence company told CRN: “We strongly believe that telepresence – along with our entire rich collaboration portfolio, powers this new way or working where everyone, everywhere, can be more productive through the pervasive use of video and face-to-face collaboration.”