Are Your Meetings Costing Too Much Green?; Free Tool from Genesys Conferencing Shows How Companies Can Save Millions of Hours, Billions of Dollars and Billions of Pounds of CO2 Emissions

Business Wire, March 20, 2006

RESTON, Va. & MONTPELLIER, France -- Even as the world observes today, the 36th annual Earth Day, most companies are unaware that unnecessary face-to-face meetings take not only a financial toll but also an environmental one. However, they have the opportunity to prevent the emission of tons of carbon dioxide (CO2), save billions of dollars and gain millions of hours of productive time currently being squandered by in-person meetings. A new tool launched by Genesys Conferencing, a global multimedia conferencing leader (Euronext Eurolist: FR0004270270) (Nasdaq:GNSY), clearly demonstrates the savings that can be achieved.

The savings possibilities of using multimedia services to hold virtual meetings are staggering. For a typical monthly sales meeting in New York, where two people from regional offices in San Francisco, Chicago, Houston and Denver join a two-hour meeting, the following savings can result:

--32,392 miles of travel avoided

--134 man-hours saved

--96% saving on travel costs (travel costs of $9,625 vs. a multimedia conference costing $367)

If the company in this example replaced just half of its monthly sales meetings with virtual meetings using the latest online meeting technology, they would save $57,750 per year and prevent the emission of 103.5 tons (207,066 pounds) of CO2, equivalent to the annual average CO2 emissions of 19 US citizens (1).

According to a recent customer survey conducted by Genesys Conferencing, usage of its multimedia conferencing service has risen over 40% during the past 12 months as more and more companies see the benefits of virtual conferencing and collaboration. For example, a large public utility company in Northern California has experienced a dramatic reduction in automobile costs and emissions when utilizing virtual conferences to replace weekly physical visits and quarterly training sessions in regional substations.

But many companies still remain unaware of the environmental effects associated with their meeting practices. The new free tool which Genesys Conferencing has added to its web site at http://www.genesys.com/save enables visitors to see how the environment can benefit and how much time and money can be saved by using a multimedia conference instead of having participants physically travel to a meeting. This enables organizations to rapidly calculate the benefits of eliminating unnecessary travel.

The tool takes seconds to use. To work out the environmental benefits of not travelling to meetings, you simply enter basic details such as the duration of a meeting and your office location, together with those of the attendees and the number of people involved. The system then instantly estimates the savings in terms of CO2 emissions, travel costs, man-hours and miles of travel.

"As we celebrate International Earth Day, we should resolve to think before we travel," said Denise Persson, Genesys Conferencing Executive Vice President of Global Marketing. "We believe it is essential to recognize the environmental impact of our business decisions. While the time- and cost-saving benefits of using multimedia conferencing services are obvious and recognized by more and more companies, the environmental implications are not as apparent and traditionally have been much more difficult to measure. This tool was developed to allow a quick, simple illustration of the difference each of us can make by choosing the most appropriate way to meet," said Persson.

(1)Source:
http://www.esrcsocietytoday.ac.uk/ESRCInfoCentre/facts/index10.aspx
103.5 metric tons divided by 5.40 metric tons (average US per capita
emissions) equals the equivalent of 19.2 persons.

About Genesys Conferencing

Genesys Conferencing (Euronext Eurolist:FR0004270270) (NASDAQ:GNSY) is a leading provider of integrated Web, audio and video conferencing services to thousands of organizations worldwide, including more than 200 of the Fortune Global 500. The company's services are designed to meet the full range of communication needs within the large enterprise, from collaborative team meetings to high-profile online events. The company's flagship product, Genesys Meeting Center, provides a single-platform multimedia conferencing solution that is easy to use and available on demand. With offices in more than 20 countries across North America, Europe and Asia Pacific, the company offers an unmatched global presence and strong local support. Genesys Conferencing is publicly traded on Euronext in France (ISIN FR0004270270) and on the NASDAQ in the U.S. (GNSY). Additional information is available at www.genesys.com.