HSBC has begun implementing Cisco’s video conferencing and telepresence technology to conduct virtual meetings throughout the company’s disparate locations. The technology will allow instant face-to-face meetings around the globe.

Cisco’s video conferencing service provides life-size, high-definition video and recreates the “the interactivity, spontaneity and nuanced communications experience of an in-person meeting”, according to the company. The telepresence system provides a table that can include 6 people on the video conference, with displays, cameras, lighting and microphones, to simulate an actual meeting over the web.

HSBC CIOP, Ken Harvey:

Our current meeting and collaboration tools provide significant increases in productivity, but are no substitute for in-person meetings. Cisco Telepresence gives us the experience and benefit of actually being in the room with colleagues on the other side of the world, without having to pack a suitcase.

Initially, HSBC will install the video conferencing systems to connect locations in London, Chicago, Hong Kong, Mexico City, New York and Dubai. Cisco says the technology will save the bank thousands in travel costs and help promote a cleaner environment by reducing emissions spent through conventional business travel.

Large companies are taking note of successful alternative work styles and the shifting desire of many employees to work from home or at satellite offices closer to home. Many of these companies are attempting to tackle the problem with large-scale, expensive telepresence and video conferencing services that cost as much money as they save. Here are 7 keys to keep a remote workforce program successful:

1. You can keep a strong client / vendor relationship without ever meeting face-to-face. The concept of representatives flying around the world to meet clients is a thing of the past. While face-to-face still has its place and value, interacting by video conferencing, phone and email is no longer “impersonal” and can be quite intimate and engaging. Many workers these days are just as comfortable with colleagues they’ve never met as they are with their in-office counterparts.

2. Physical presence doesn’t necessarily mean quality presence. Old and large corporations live by the notion that if you aren’t sitting at your desk, you aren’t working. But being in the office does not guarantee that you are truly engaged in your work and by the same token, being away from the office doesn’t mean you’re not working. There are dozens of online project management tools - often including time tracking - that can help managers keep a handle on their remote workers.

3. Large telepresence systems may be overkill for smaller companies. Telepresence systems may be an ideal solution for large companies that have multiple satellite offices that have frequent online meetings, but there are many inexpensive, even free, teleconferencing and videoconferencing services like instantpresenter.com that can still make distributed teams incredibly productive for a fraction of the price.

4. Electronic “paper” trails increase accountability. Unlike face-to-face meetings or phone calls that are not taped, many remote online meeting tools have built-in recording features that can be archived and reviewed. Using project management tools in the work process can also track and archive all of your correspondence. Switching from standard meetings to online discussion boards helps make your “institutional memory” more readily available to all workers in the company, creating a knowledge management database and cutting down on needless searches for information.

5. Archived training videos and demos, along with archived webinars and webcasts are all right at your fingertips. They are also at your client’s or potential client’s fingertips any time of the day or night or in any time zone. Your sales tools are always at the ready.

6. Online web-work can help save the planet. All corporations are feeling the pressure to go green, and having employees work from home and not drive, and having clients meet via video conferencing and not fly are easy success stories that you can use to impress stakeholders. Save fossil fuels by implementing telecommuting and remote work processes. Corporate workers care about saving the planet, too.

7. Take advantage of web conferencing, audio conferencing and video conferencing services. Just because workers are out of the office (whether traveling, working in remote offices, or working from home) doesn’t mean that you have to be out of touch. There are many quality video conferencing and webcasting services available at very low costs such as InstantPresenter and WebEx.

On Thursday, New Yorkers and Londoners had a direct connection without benefit of cable TV or video conferencing, courtesy of an unusual live optical hookup created by a conceptual artist with a tale of a long-lost tunnel. The telectroscope is the invention of Paul St George, who instead of explaining the video conference technology involved in the project, prefers to stick to his story that the machine was started by his great-grandfather in Victorian times and transmits images via a tunnel under the ocean.

The “optical” device was placed at the Fulton Ferry Landing in Brooklyn and another one on the Thames River in London on Thursday. Passer-by’s on both sides of the Atlantic could see their trans-Atlantic counterparts, and many waved and wrote greetings to each other in real time on wipe-off message boards.

From St George’s website:

[He] has always been concerned with questioning the relationship between the viewer and what is viewed. His work is also often associated with different realities, spectacle and viewer participation.”

The telectroscope will remain operational and on display until June 15^th.