Videoconferencing has been used for collaboration, training, media events, company meetings and more.

even more compelling as companies worry more about travel costs, time, terrorism and even health risks in the wake of SARS. Moreover, videoconferencing is now an affordable option for a small business.

New Jersey-based Quay Corp. is an example of a growing business that turned to videoconferencing to enable managers to meet with customers without losing hours or even days each month to travel time. Along the way, the company discovered that videoconferencing was not simply a way to save time on the road. It also was a powerful tool for building stronger relationships with customers.

Quay (pronounced "key") is a small contract manufacturer that specializes in building electronic circuit boards — from prototypes to medium-volume production runs — for clients in technology, aerospace and government.

Despite the tough economy and particularly hard-hit manufacturing sector, Quay has continued to grow at more than 20% a year while improving its operating and profit margins. Perhaps more impressively, the company has achieved this growth without dramatically expanding and contracting its work force in a traditionally labor-intensive industry.

David Roessler, Quay's director of information systems, is the chief architect of the company's technology infrastructure. Roessler firmly believes that technology has played a major role in enabling Quay to stay a lean, efficient organization while consistently improving service to customers. And it is this level of service that Roessler says has helped the company attract stronger clients and build a loyal customer base of blue-chip companies.

"Every small business needs to be hawk-eyed about its spending," he says. "But videoconferencing should be viewed as a valued investment rather than a cost. Small businesses that don't look into videoconferencing today will be kicking themselves tomorrow."

'Nervous moments' alleviated

As Roessler explains, Quay's approach is to alleviate the anxiety that company executives often have when they turn over production of critical electronic components to a contract manufacturer. Those "nervous moments" might be due to unexpected design problems or schedule slips, problems that Roessler says can be alleviated with collaborative technologies such as videoconferencing.

Initially, Roessler implemented videoconferencing because key managers were away from the office for days at a time visiting customers. "All of that travel can add up to quite a bit for a small company," he says. "But we didn't want to reduce our customer-contact time either."

The company decided to invest in an IP-based videoconferencing room system and began holding new product and quality assurance reviews with customers, as well as cross-functional training sessions — all without delays or costly, time-consuming travel. "The reaction from customers has been beyond our expectations," Roessler says. "I'd say that our responsiveness has increased tenfold with videoconferencing."

The payback was almost immediately clear to Quay's management team. "Our customers expect very rapid turnaround from us, on the order of two or three days," Roessler says.

"In one instance there was a problem with a board, and we set up a videoconference with the customer. Our manufacturing team plugged their laptops into the videoconferencing room system so the customers could see the schematics on their PCs and mark up the drawings as they discussed the problem and alternative solutions. They could also zoom in on the actual board on the conference room table to visually inspect it. Working together they resolved the problem almost as soon as it was discovered, shaving at least 10 hours off an extremely tight production deadline."

Building the right network infrastructure

When Quay's old telephone system reached the end of its useful life, Roessler made the strategic decision to implement a converged network — a single IP-based network that could carry voice, data and video. "To take full advantage of the power of the Internet — to lower operating costs, improve internal productivity, and provide more services to customers — we knew that an IP-based network was the foundation we needed," Roessler says. The converged network solution carries all of the company's voice, data and video traffic.

With a converged network, Quay's videoconferencing capabilities are not limited to the company's room-based system. "The beauty of having a converged network is that every node on the network that has an IP address can be a videoconferencing endpoint. All you need is a Microsoft NetMeeting client on your laptop or desktop and a camera."

At some point, Roessler believes, Quay will use videoconferencing in conjunction with wireless LANs to enable someone to respond to a question by taking the laptop onto the manufacturing floor and looking at a board or process together with the customer.

Seeing partnerships differently

Roessler's team created a Partner Gateway on the Quay Web site that gives customers secure access to real-time information on their orders. Included is the ability to check inventory, quality data, work orders and schedules, sales order information and due dates, ship-to information, return material authorization and work-in-progress reporting.

"The core of our service philosophy is to make customers feel like they're an integral part of our process and in control," Roessler says. "This saves time, speeds decision-making, and catches and resolves potential problems more quickly."

Roessler is now planning to integrate videoconferencing capabilities into the Partner Gateway, to enable customers to schedule videoconferences themselves, sign up for scheduled video training classes, and more.

At one point Roessler considered an outsourced videoconferencing option. But he decided that having control of the videoconferencing network would give him more options for extending the system.

The company is now looking into setting up virtual private networks with some key customers and putting IP phones and IP videoconferencing equipment on customer sites so they don't have to pay to call or conference with Quay whenever they want.

Videoconferencing is useful within the company, as well. Roessler envisions using the technology to support telecommuters and to help human resources people interview job candidates remotely.