Last week, American Express Business Travel, a unit of American Express Co. (AXP) announced an agreement with Cisco Systems (CSCO) to provide Cisco TelePresence Suites via its virtual meetings solution –“eXpert (vmX)”.
TelePresence is a conference system that includes high-quality video and audio as well as presentations. It is in essence the latest generation of video conference technology. Cisco TelePresence interoperates with other videoconferencing systems.
Last year around the same time, American Express rolled out its virtual meetings eXpert solution. The system is available on American Express Business Travel and is intended to assist business travelers to decide whether they should make a business trip or not after taking into consideration factors such as the purpose, cost, duration of travel and so on.
eXpert solution serves as a central hub that connects the internal network of companies to external public meeting rooms. It thus brings together all the private networks of these companies under one umbrella. Once connected the next step is to enable interaction between these private networks, which is where the Cisco technology steps in. Cisco’s TelePresence suites (or more simply, a host of software programs) use HD video and audio to give a real-life appearance to the participants of a meeting, thus making the virtual meeting much more realistic.
Virtual meeting conducted via Cisco Telepresence rooms provides real face-to-face meeting experience, which is enabled by Cisco’s superior video and audio technology. It appears that the members are sitting around the conference table though some of them may be present in different locations. Cisco’s technology provides life-like and life-size picture of the participants.
Cisco teleconference rooms provide easy access to business executives to connect, communicate and hold meetings with their counterparts. The virtual meetings are gaining quick acceptance as they reduce traveling expenses and save time.
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