IVCi and Adelman Travel Launch Unified Business Video Travel Service

By Carolyn J Dawson, TMCnet Contributor

As a leading integrator of HD videoconferencing solutions, IVCi partnered with the leading travel management company, Adelman Travel, to launch Unified Video Travel Service that will help organizations realize faster return on investment (ROI) of a videoconferencing system. Organizations can now obtain the innovative service to offer video meetings as an alternative, while doing travel bookings via Adelman’s Web portal customers.

As per the service offering, the user will be automatically notified in case a video meeting is available between the cities being traveled and will be given an option to choose the video alternative. In case the video option is not selected, the user’s reason for declining will be tracked and recorded for feedback purposes. On the other hand, if the video is accepted, the video call will be booked by the system thus allowing participants to enter respective meeting rooms at the scheduled time, after which the video meeting will be initiated.

In a press release, Adelman’s president and founder, Bob Swing, said, “IVCi's customers enjoy seamless video meetings thanks to our Managed Conferencing Services. Adelman Travel customers have come to rely on Adelman's ability to provide complete expense management when it comes to meetings and travel. This new service creates the ultimate solution for managing meetings and expenses, whether face-to-face or via video or tele-presence.”

IVCi will deploy the one-of-its-kind offering to provide reporting on video usage and travel avoidance. Included within the service is the real-time calculation of the road and air miles that was avoided by taking the video meeting alternative and also the cost of the actual ticket for each person who did not travel will also be estimated. The finance and procurement department will leverage this information to monitor the ratios of actual cost spent on travel versus the total cost on travel avoided. Moreover, calculated miles will also provide visibility into the amount of carbon dioxide saved.

In a statement, Ivan Imana, VP of Information Technology for Adelman Travel, said, “Adelman is pleased to be partnering with IVCi to create UVTS. Adelman's aim has always been to provide total expense management across all components of travel and entertainment. UVTS is an entirely new class of offering that will provide our customers with an opportunity to reduce their travel budget, while still providing best in class travel management.”

(source: http://business-video.tmcnet.com/topics/business-video/articles/115393-ivci-adelman-travel-launch-unified-business-video-travel.htm)