As enterprises begin to increasingly use videoconferencing as an intra-company collaboration tool, the need for inter-company collaboration with their customers, suppliers and partners, which was more of a latent need earlier, is beginning to surface as a requirement in their collaboration strategy. Now, enterprises no longer want to be restricted to separate islands, but want to cross the boundaries and be part of an ecosystem where irrespective of the type of video equipment, network or service provider, they can seamlessly and securely establish inter-company video connections. This situation creates a unique opportunity to create a B2B Video Exchange capable of delivering inter-company connectivity with flexible service deployment models, instead of inter-connecting through standard ISDN and Internet technologies; both of which present difficulties in deployment due to issues around cost, scalability and performance.

With a growing demand in the marketplace for inter-company B2B connectivity, BCS Global has launched the PSVN initiative as a first step to recognize the need for a Public Global B2B Video Exchange within the industry. As part of the initiative, BCS Global aims to bring different managed videoconferencing service providers and carriers together from across the globe to create a collaborative effort in defining a Public Global B2B Video Exchange, and to develop a standard set of best practices, value added applications, processes and infrastructure that are required to inter-connect seamlessly.

BCS Global believes that this trend in the videoconferencing world is similar to the telephony industry, where the PSVN, just like PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network), will create a framework to allow disparate B2B video exchanges to inter-connect and facilitate video end-point communication to any other video end-point irrespective of the type of video equipment, network or service provider, time of day or geography.

The benefits of the proposed PSVN are three-fold:

• User Community: The PSVN framework will provide the ability for users to connect via video to anyone, anywhere, anytime and via any network or video device,  enabling true global presence for their business.
• Service Provider Community: Disparate service providers will be able to build a set of governing rules and regulations, best practices, ratify architecture and  tariffs, to deliver a high-quality video service that is easy to connect to, cost-effective and always on.
• Videoconferencing Industry: By making inter-company connectivity easier for both the service providers and the end-users, the PSVN framework will facilitate  increased usage of video communications by end-users for various applications resulting in mass adoption of videoconferencing technology for both intra- company and inter-company communications.

Filed under: Public Switched Video Network (PSVN), Telepresence, Videoconferencing