DOD i-Chats More Than Your Grandma
Remember when video chats were only used to show your grandmother a new baby?Or maybe for e-smooching your French study-abroad boyfriend? Well, last year,DOD employees logged a crazy amount ofminutes in video conferences (over a half billion). And a recent app update will make mobile video meetings even bigger in 2013.
At least 800,000 DOD employees spent 562 million minutes on web conferences last year through mobile app Defense Connect Online. And that was just when the app was Android available. Now it's on iOS. It's all part of Carahsoft's contract with DISA to build an enterprise collaboration service, says VP and DCO program manager Mark Mills. The work resulted in DCO with help from Adobe and Cisco.
Now Carahsoft is hoping it grabs the attention of other agencies by touting the app's travel cost savings. The company hasn't done an agency-wide cost analysis yet, but a distance learning program at Fort Leavenworth that has 1,000 users says it's saved $250M in the travel and moving costs associated with one of its year-long programs. Mark says some agencies are using mobile video conferencing in limited ways, but none have requested an enterprise-wide solution.
