31/12/2008 - Virtual meetings 'may save money'
Businesses are being urged to consider a hi-tech way of making savings which could remove the need to travel to meetings.
A lecturer at the University of Portsmouth is leading the project to create a virtual business environment using the Sony PlayStation 3 games console.
Dr Nipan Maniar said that the technology would allow people from different companies, as well as home workers, to meet in a "virtual world" over the internet, offering them the chance to cut their travel costs as well as reduce their impact on the environment.
Dr Maniar said: "There is no doubt that business life of the future will include a greater use of virtual world technologies.
"In the current economic climate, where renting office space is often the second biggest overhead, it makes good business sense for companies to explore the opportunities and benefits of workforce mobility and using virtual worlds as places to get business done more effectively and at a lesser cost than in the physical world."
Copyright © Press Association 2008
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