Firms profiting from global office

SCREEN TIME: Allied Court Reporters and Video Conference Centers President Jeff Grenier, right, holds a video meeting with company scheduling coordinator Alex Martinez and Human Resources Manager Allison Grenier. The firm credits burdensome travel costs as a driver of videoconferencing. / PBN PHOTO/TRACY JENKINS
SCREEN TIME: Allied Court Reporters and Video Conference Centers President Jeff Grenier, right, holds a video meeting with company scheduling coordinator Alex Martinez and Human Resources Manager Allison Grenier. The firm credits burdensome travel costs as a driver of videoconferencing. / PBN PHOTO/TRACY JENKINS

In a small state like Rhode Island, videoconferencing and live streaming connect companies to the world, and the world to the Ocean State.
“We do a huge volume of videoconferencing every day,” said Jeff Grenier, president of Allied Court Reporters and Video Conference Centers in Cranston. “We’re available 24/7 because our clients are connecting with people in England, Hong Kong or Shanghai. I come in at 2 a.m. if we have a videoconference scheduled.”
Airport security since Sept. 11, the cost of travel and the nation’s economic woes have resulted in dramatic cutbacks in business travel. When that’s added to continuing technological developments in real-time video streaming over the Internet and videoconferencing, the global office means face-to-face communication even across hundreds or thousands of miles.
Allied Court Reporters and Video Conference Centers is benefiting from the intersection of technology and economic pressures.
“Our business has tripled in the past five years,” said Grenier.
The company was founded in 1969 by Grenier’s mother, Elaine Piccirilli, for court reporting, and Grenier joined the business in 1977.
“We had videoconferencing prior to 9/11, but no one knew about it and the technology was a little rough,” said Grenier. “After 9/11, with the airport security and the cost, people just didn’t want to fly as much.
“The technology for videoconferencing really took off in 2009 and in the last two years, with the addition of fiber optics, with T1 lines that are a dedicated network with the lines going underground, the speed is constant,” said Grenier. “With things like Skype, it can get choppy.”
About 90 percent of Allied’s business is with attorneys, but the client base is broadening. Video interviews are a growing segment of his business, with headhunters often using it for initial interviews as they whittle down the pool of candidates.
Cost varies by the company needs, with some of the most common uses averaging from $200 to $400 per conference, said Grenier.
In Rhode Island, the increasing ease and quality of video chats or video conferencing is an important advantage for some businesses, especially growing tech companies. It allows them to hire desperately needed talent who might work part time or full time from another state.
North Kingstown-based Amazing Charts’ parent company is Boston-based DBC Pri-Med, providing a continuing reason for video chats or video meetings. Then there’s the skills-gap issue.
“We have so many fabulous employees who are from Rhode Island and we’d love to hire more, but we just can’t find the talent,” said Kathleen Repoli, senior vice president for Amazing Charts, which develops, sells and supports electronic medical records for 8,000 practices across the country.
Other Rhode Island businesses are finding themselves offering their expertise via live streaming. Marine engineer Bob Fairbanks, of Fairbanks Engineering in Exeter, was on a panel of presenters in a Dec. 9 Narragansett public meeting on “Seawalls: Property Protection or Public Nuisance?”
The meeting, sent out in real-time over Livestream, a live-streaming-video platform, was for input in developing the Special Area Management Plan for Rhode Island’s coastline.
“I got a couple of questions that came from online,” said Fairbanks. “There were about 50 people there and it gives other people who couldn’t come a chance to watch it live or see it later. For us, it gives us an opportunity to educate more people.” •

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