The average cost for installing a PC-based internet conferencing facility is approximately Rs 50,000. On the contrary, a giant screen videoconferencing facility is available in a variety of ranges, starting from Rs 4 lakh. Development of 'integrated collaboration' is the latest in distance conferencing. With integrated collaboration, documents, spreadsheets, models, sketches etc can be 'handed' across thousands of miles, commented upon, discussed or marked and 'handed' back. Teams can gather around the white board and brainstorm - even when the participants viewing the whiteboard are thousands of miles apart.
Groups can access websites and share what they find.
This facility deepens and broadens the benefits of videoconferencing. This simulates a real meeting-like experience. It helps an organisation in a number of ways. But with integrated collaboration, most of the benefits stem from increased effectiveness, improved productivity and the quality and speed of decision making. There are a large number of videoconferencing systems available to choose from, both as group system and personal system.