TMCnet News
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[March 03, 2004] The Agence France-Presse Enhances Global Communications With First Virtual Communications' Click To Meet First Virtual Communications (Nasdaq: FVCX), a provider of infrastructure and solutions for real time rich media communications, announced that their Click to Meet rich media communications solution has been deployed within the Agence France-Presse (AFP), a world leading news and photo agency. Installed by SILICOMP Réseaux, a French network integrator, Click to Meet enables the AFP to leverage internal communications between its dispersed offices, as well as help face new challenges and reduce potentially dangerous travel for information professionals throughout the world.“With more than 100 sites connected on a private enterprise network, our news agency faced the need to combine all the telecommunication resources used through the development of new services that would allow us to optimize working conditions of sites with limited means and reduce existing communication costs,” indicated Philippe Sensi, technical head of the special events department at the AFP. Mr. Sensi continued, “We decided to deploy a conferencing solution that could enhance communications between the 1,200 workers located in Paris, Washington and Hong-Kong, our main regional headquarter locations. After evaluating many different conferencing technologies available on the market, we selected Click to Meet, as it met all of our specific requirements, including deployment over the intranet for global use while fitting into our bandwidth restrictions. We found Click to Meet easy to use, robust and affordable.” With 110 offices spread throughout the world and more than 2,000 employees, of which 900 work outside of France, the AFP was concerned by the management of a globally dispersed organization and the need to provide work groups with the right communication tools. Click to Meet enables journalists and other employees to meet and collaborate remotely from their desktop, providing capabilities for distance learning, remote presentation and online white-board sessions, thus reducing travel and associated costs. Furthermore, Click to Meet offers an alternative to travel during unsettling, and yet critical, times of coverage. “The AFP was looking for a collaboration solution that could be integrated into their traditional conferencing systems, as well as extend to the desktop,” stated David Weinstein, vice president of marketing at First Virtual Communications. “We’re seeing organizations like AFP looking to implement business continuity strategies to ensure effective operations no matter where their people are located. Increasingly, real-time rich media communications is becoming part of that continuity planning to help keep people learning, working and communicating even through unfortunate events.” The AFP was looking for a rich media communications solution with collaboration capabilities that could be integrated into their existing traditional conferencing system, as well as extend the number of endpoints to their desktops. The solution had to be an “all IP” conferencing solution, in line with the current technological migration within their enterprise. The AFP selected Click to Meet for its integration of audio, interactive video and data collaboration capabilities in one single application. With its auto-installing browser-based client that can be deployed on virtually any PC, Click to Meet enables any user to participate in fully interactive, multi-participant online meetings. As a web-based application, Click to Meet is easy to use, and does not require any specific training. This rich media communications solution is easy to install and is centrally managed, which simplifies the deployment in a distributed environment such as AFP’s. Interoperability with existing conferencing systems enabled AFP to leverage their existing investments, while moving forward with a more advanced solution. Regarding the deployment of Click to Meet within the AFP, Mr. Sensi further added, “We first deployed the solution on specific desktops used for communications between the Paris headquarters and our Hong Kong and Washington regional headquarters. Due to the highly satisfying initial results, we are extending the solution to other desktops and offices. The next step will be to equip our Middle-East and South America regional headquarters.” |