Two local companies find market’s ready for videoconferencing growth

Wouldn’t it be nice if you could see those people in London, New York and Tokyo you’re always talking to?

You can.

Videoconferencing is a booming business, and two local service providers can connect you to all points North, South, East and West.

Well, almost all points.

Frontier VideoConferencing, a Boulder-based subsidiary of Frontier Communications out of Rochester, N.Y., is a full-service provider of videoconferencing or “multi-point bridging.”

It offers its customers a plethora of services such as bridge hook-up, active call monitoring and call direction by operators for every call. Then there’s the technical support offered 24 hours a day, seven days a week for all meetings, the pre-certification of all customers’ video conference sites, and Frontier’s accurate, unbiased evaluation of videoconferencing equipment. Add to that NextLink, a fully-integrated database that organizes reservations — which can be made using the phone, e-mail, fax or the Web, at www.frontiervtc.com — schedulings, operations and billing into one easy-to-use system for fewer mistakes, and thus optimum efficiency.

Frontier, founded initially in 1993 as LINK-VTC, provides its customers with all of these services for use in organizing large international videoconferencing presentations or just a routine meeting between coasts.

Frontier also offers its customers, mostly U.S.-based multinationals, the special service of future planning, or scheduling and organizing companies’ in-house meeting or conference rooms and times, regardless of whether any videoconferencing is taking place.

Matt Fuller, senior product manager at Frontier, said his firm has seen a growth rate of 40 percent over the past year because lower equipment costs have made videoconferencing more affordable to smaller companies. Also, he said, through a “combination of quality people, processes and technology,” the hassle factor has been removed from the process.

“We’ve reduced or eliminated any single point of failure,” he said.

Frontier’s services cost $55 per hour per connected site, where anywhere from three to more than 100 sites can be connected with one another, and $60 for the call out to make the connection.

Based on a compilation of industry analysts’ projections, the annual revenue of domestic multi-point bridging service providers — of which there are between 15 and 20 — is estimated to be about $63 million. Frontier garners more than 25 percent of the market share.

Boulder-based videoconference service provider 800VideoOn can also connect you to your colleagues around the world for $55 per hour per connected site. The call out price from the firm varies, however, depending on the “bandwidth” of the connection, i.e how much information is carried and how clearly it comes out, and the distance it needs to travel. The most common connection runs $60.

Like Frontier, 800VideoOn has an operator or producer monitoring and/or assisting with every call at all times.

The company, which bills itself as offering “conferencing with a human touch,” was founded in January 1996 by President and Chief Executive Officer Gary Woodward. Though smaller in size, it offers similar, if not as many, services as Frontier.

Woodward notes that his company, which was partially funded with $7.75 million in venture capital from Wind Point Partners in Chicago, has seen “skyrocketing” growth — a 900 percent growth rate since he opened its doors. He also estimates that by year end, the annual revenue of 800VideoOn will exceed $15 million.

Both firms note that most of their clients are doing business in North America, western Europe and the Pacific Rim, with some new movement in South America and eastern Europe as technology advances in those areas.

Both Fuller and Woodward, along with Director of Operations Matt Harding and Director of Systems Engineering Mike Reetz believe the market will continue to grow and expand as costs go down — right now, videoconferencing equipment runs about $7,000 — and technology advances. All say videoconferencing’s integration with the Internet is eminent.

Both companies aim to make life, or, more specifically, business as simple as possible for their respective customers and, officials note, they have proven it with their respective abilities to facilitate meetings and control problems.

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