In the 1980's this technology required a major business investment ranging from $300,000 to $1,000,000 per site. Today video conferencing facilities are available for substantially less.

Benefits
In the past users have always turned to travel savings to justify video teleconferencing.

• Travel: Air Fair, Hotel, Rental Car, and Food
• Time savings allowing for more productive tasks

However, it is the non-quantitative benefits (soft benefits) which users have found to be the greatest benefit.

Found to shorten meetings. When travel to another office participants feel guilty if meeting only lasts an hour, thus tendency is to lengthen meeting for an entire morning or afternoon.

Meetings are easier to schedule, resulting in faster decisions and more productive meetings.

Participants feel they are attending a more important event than a typical conference.

Improved quality and productivity in several applications such as recruiting and training.

Ability to convey gesture and expression which as proved to create information which demands immediate action.