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Computerworld - Dow Chemical has nearly completed the rollout of IP videoconferencing to 500 offices worldwide using Polycom iPower units, and it plans to eliminate 125 ISDN-based systems. Chris Duncan, global leader for e-communication technology, spoke with Computerworld's Robert L. Mitchell about how the project is working out.

Why did you pursue IP videoconferencing? One reason was the reliability of ISDN. Those 125 sites were in 40 countries, and because of the questionable reliability of ISDN, it was never fully accepted beyond an executive tool. It didn't become part of the culture. We wanted to find a way to expand the endpoints, and video over IP seemed to make a lot of sense.

What's the payback? IP is significantly less money [than ISDN]. If we're going from the States to Pacific [Rim countries, it costs] probably 75% less. We're using the same bandwidth we use for everything else. We've allocated certain percentages of our [wide-area network] bandwidth to video only. It's the same pipe, but we've segmented the network. We have three-quarters of our deployment done. We're in 18 or 19 countries now.

Chris Duncan, global leader for e-communication technology at Dow Chemical

How does the quality compare with that of ISDN? We had been running our IDSN at 128K bit/sec. Some of that was due to cost. When we decided to upgrade with the new iPower systems, we decided that we had to improve not only the reliability but also the picture quality. We're running 384K bit/sec. It's a minimum of three times better. There is some jerkiness in 384K bit/sec., but it's not as annoying.

Why not use audioconferencing? You really need to have some face-to-face to read the body language to see what's going on. If we can avoid one trip per month per room, the entire system pays for itself.

How are users accepting videoconferencing? We haven't seen a notable reduction [in travel] yet. The harder part is the cultural change. People are comfortable meeting face to face. When you put a monitor in between, you have to focus on the cultural changes. There are certain etiquettes that are different. And if your call goes down for two minutes, you have to understand that the meeting still saved you 30 hours [of travel].

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