Australians all let us retreat

Beverley Head
Wednesday, 10 November 2010 16:13

Business IT - Networking

Company retreats, boardroom meetings, coffee catch ups are the preferred option for Australian business communications. Online meetings, teleconferences and videoconferencing just don't cut it - turns out we like to eyeball one another in person rather than online.

According to a survey conducted by Forrester Consulting 45 per cent of Australian employees insist on organising face to face team meetings each day. For 90 per cent it's important to monitor body language during business interactions.

Commissioned by Citrix Online, the results give some clue as to why the penetration of its web conferencing tools in Australia remains very low. H.R. Shiever, managing director, for Citrix Online Asia Pacific, said that only 10 per cent of Australians had ever participated in a web conference compared to 28 per cent of Americans.

While he didn't know the exact penetration of web conferencing in Australia, he said it would be less than 5 per cent.

Back in March Citrix Online launched a local version of its web conferencing service, aimed at individuals and small business owners, who could access unlimited web conferences for up to 15 people for $65 a month. While demand had grown through the year, penetration was low and it was 'Still really early in the adoption phase,' said Mr Shiever.

'The US is far ahead of Australia,' he said, in terms of adoption of online tools to facilitate business communications. As a result Australians could be missing out on the opportunity to be more efficient.

While he acknowledged the value of a first face to face meeting to build trust, Mr Shiever said that could be followed by online meetings.