Cisco's MeetingPlace lets you see them sweat

Those of us who "do" conference calls would agree that voice-only calls come up short on conveying the mood and intent of our fellow participants. After all, an involuntary condescending shrug orturned eyebrowis not detectable over the phone.

In fact, I was involved in such a conference call earlier this year. One of the remote participants knew less than he was saying, and was not being straight with us about his lack of knowledge. If we had access to visual cues, then we might have been able to steer the conversation away from his uninformed generalizations, thus averting snickers after the call ended from influential people in the room.

That's why Cisco's MeetingPlace 5.3 is an important leap forward. The latest version of the IP-based conferencing tool has video capability. Itoffers this functionalityin concert with Cisco's IP PBX CallManager 4.0 software, and Cisco'sIPVC 3500 Series video MCU videoconferencing server.

CallManager has had video capability for several months, but MeetingPlace adds an integrated IP conferencing functionality not available before.

I have two questions. Isvideo conferencing important enough for you to either jump into the Internet Telephony pool, or upgrade your current service set to a video conferencing and collaboration solution such as MeetingPlace 5.3?