Procter & Gamble (P&G) has deployed a Cisco Telepresence system in Latin America (Panama, Costa Rica, Mexico, Brazil, Chile and soon Venezuela).The Cisco TelePresence, a virtual meeting solution, creates “in-person” experiences between people, places and events in their work and personal lives when they are remotes.

P&G’s expectation is to enhance the quality of life of its employees by significantly reducing the amount of travel, since the Cisco TelePresence system will re-create the experience of a face-to-face meeting, enabling executives to interact and collaborate as if they were present at another location, showing people in life size and high definition.

“The goal is for the technology to allow us to increase employees’ productivity by accelerating the decision-making process in addition to optimizing internal and external communication with partners and customers”, said Luiz Alves, P&G’s information technology manager.

“The project is compatible with the company’s way of thinking, since innovation is one of our main priorities. When searching for continuous growth, innovation is key. And Procter & Gamble has been providing its customers products and services that use highly innovative technologies and processes”, Alves added. “In addition to reducing operational costs, by decreasing employees’ travel, and thereby offering them a better quality of life, P&G also helps to conserve the environment, since it decreases ground and air travel requirements”.

With the Cisco TelePresence deployment across 40 of its key sites globally, P&G estimates it will reduce around 1,000 business trips per month. This figure, multiplied by the average cost of a business trip, amounts to savings of several million dollars per month.

The project was developed for P&G using Cisco TelePresence technology. The solution enables projection of images on three large plasma screens, providing visualization of the participants in real size using three high-definition cameras in each room. There is also a spatial audio system that makes conversation even more real.

“The P&G case establishes a paradigm change in remote communications in companies, creating the same synergy as if employees were participating in face-to-face meetings. This generates savings for the company and enhances the quality of life of the teams.”, said Carlos Torales, Unified Communications manager for Cisco Latin America.