travel costs

The rise in fuel costs has far-reaching implications, even in the contact center industry. While this phenomenon has been attributed to the rise in home-based agents, it is also causing a rise in contact center interactions as a result of an increase in Internet use among rural residents.
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Jill Smart, an Accenture executive, was skeptical the first time she stepped into the consulting firm's new videoconferencing room in Chicago for a meeting with a group of colleagues in London. But the videoconferencing technology, known as telepresence, delivered an experience so lifelike, Smart recalled, that "10 minutes into it you forget you are not in the room with them."

The airlines' pain is videoconferencing's gain.

As companies cut travel budgets because of higher costs and a softer U.S. economy, they are increasingly adopting technology that allows employees to collaborate face-to-face without boarding a plane.

The businesses that make such technology, like Polycom, Cisco Systems and Hewlett-Packard, are seeing profits from videoconferencing rise alongside the price of jet fuel and gasoline.

Even though he drives a fuel-efficient car, real estate agent Harlan Comee of Yorba Linda, Calif., says that unrelenting gas-price increases are forcing him to rethink his sales strategy.

He's narrowed his geographic focus when looking for new homes to represent. And when with clients, he tries to show as many properties in one area as possible to curb some of the back-and-forth trips he used to make. "Now, I try to say, 'We're going to concentrate on the north today,'" he says.