Looking to cut its annual travel costs by $1.5 million, Crossmark started looking into videoconferencing. The company provides professional business services such as sales, marketing, and consulting to manufacturers of consumer packaged goods. In layman's terms, the Plano, Texas-based company acts as a manufacturer's representative, so travel traditionally has been absolutely necessary for communication with clients.
Crossmark chose Tandberg 6000 videoconferencing systems for its boardrooms and meeting rooms. Two 32in. monovision screens sit on a cart for mobility within company headquarters and remote offices. The company uses H.320 and H.323 transport types, with a supported bandwidth of 2Mbps and 3Mbps, respectively, relying on full PRIs instead of ISDN. Crossmark maintains an enterprise contract for the systems with service provider WorldCom. Chief communications officer Jeff Rice estimates that the Tandberg 6000 systems are used inhouse 20% of the time — with the remaining bulk of usage reserved for video-conferences with clients.
Rice says that Crossmark already had an aggressive videoconferencing strategy, but recent events have spurred the company to compress its two-year timeline for adding four new conference sites down to one year.
Crossmark is also looking into purchasing Tandberg 1000 units — they're more basic, single-screen versions of the 6000 — for offices both in the United States and abroad.
