Thought your car was a getaway? Think on

Videoconferencing has moved up a gear and is no longer a tool just for the bosses. Company cars may soon make you feel as if you never left the office.

Businesses are likely to benefit from videoconferencing as companies are willing to pay to increase efficiency. PorterNovelli via Bloomberg News

Smartphones and tablet computers will increasingly be used to enable business travellers and remote workers to have face-to-face meetings with colleagues. They will also be able to make eye contact with customers and others while on the road or in the office.

Until now, crystal-clear images and sound for corporate videoconferencing have been confined to high-cost, highly-equipped videoconferencing rooms.

But technologies created by multinational companies such as Polycom and Microsoft now enable high-quality images on mobile devices plus the ability to access corporate directories and colleagues' desktops remotely.

The chief drawback of consumer videoconferencing services, such as Skype, for larger companies is that these are essentially given away free. This means that highly complex organisational structures are offered the same one-size-fits-all videoconferencing to which any ordinary internet surfer has access. By subscribing to a paid service such as that provided by Polycom, companies can ensure the necessary quality and sustainability.

Ian Jacobs,an analyst in the United States for the research company Ovum, says Microsoft has been working with Polycom "for a long time to help provide the type of videoconferencing that businesses can rely on for quality and consistency".

Breaking into the 21st-century mobile-communications market has so far been an immense challenge for Microsoft. Essentially a company forged by the final 25 years of the last century, Microsoft tends to perform best in a stable and relatively controlled environment such as the home or the office. For the past dozen years it has struggled with competitors such as Apple, which provide stylish mobile communications in a popular format.

But the Seattle software giant is nothing if not persistent. Buoyed by its hold on the corporate market and its close relationship with the mobile-device maker Nokia, Microsoft is determined to dominate mobile communications in the business world.

Videoconferencing is likely to become far more profitable in the business sector than it has been in the leisure area as most companies are prepared to pay top dollar for anything that increases efficiency and cuts travel costs. Mobile videoconferencing ticks both boxes.

"Microsoft sees a huge opportunity to add mobile videoconferencing to other online communications services," says Mr Jacobs. But Microsoft "acknowledges that there is still a big market for videoconferencing rooms and is working with Polycom to provide both", he says.

Industry watches believe that despite the huge potential for mobile-business conferencing, the adoption of high-level videoconferencing rooms will also continue to grow. Rooms developed by the US-based communications networking giant Cisco, for example, enable high-quality, full-sized images of people on other continents. Fitted out with large screens on the walls, these rooms are ideal for high-level negotiations or multi-user conferencing in areas such as product development.

"There are real reasons why companies will continue to use a videoconferencing room when, for example, the chief executive is sealing a mega deal and the other party wishes to see every nuance of his facial expression during the final negotiations," says Mr Jacobs.

However, the kind of quality starting to be offered for mobile conferencing is now giving ordinary sales representatives and area managers access to the kind of technology previously available only to their superiors.

"There is a huge potential demand for mobile videoconferencing as videoconferencing rooms have several major drawbacks: most people in an organisation will not have access to the facility; in-room systems are expensive and complicated to run and they are difficult to use," says Mr Jacobs.

As yet, it is unclear exactly how businesses will employ mobile videoconferencing. Some companies will use it for face-to-face interaction with customers and contacts. Other organisations may prefer to employ it as a management tool to keep closer tabs on staff who may be on the road.

Microsoft is also aggressive in the in-car digital technology market.

Increasing numbers of new cars are now rolling off the production lines equipped with mobile-communications systems and various types of communications screens. Despite the debate surrounding the danger of driver distraction, it is likely that in-car videoconferencing will become increasingly popular.

Company cars may soon be equipped with a level of digital technology that will make drivers and passengers feel as if they have not left the office.

"Mobile-business, videoconferencing systems would mean that employees on the road would be able to have one-to-ones or multi-point conferencing, when people come on to a bridge in much the same way as phone conference. There are a great many applications for road-based staff," says Mr Jacobs.

Ovum estimates that today's business videoconferencing market is worth US$3 billion (Dh11bn) a year. But that figure looks set to grow fast as companies get a taste for using the new technology to monitor staff and interact face-to-face with customers and business contacts in any country.