Wainhouse Research has found in its latest WebMetrics Survey that energy and gas prices are greatly impacting how business is being conducted, leading to expanded use of existing and addition of new collaboration technologies.

The latest WebMetrics Survey explores attitudes towards Telework and environmental initiatives, brand perceptions, usage habits and feature preferences as they relate to web conferencing for the first half of the year 2008.

One key finding is that almost 2 out of 5 (39%) reported that their organizations have launched some type of "green" initiative. One third (34%) of respondent organizations have expanded or have plans to expand their existing conferencing and collaboration technologies and 22% have added or plan to add new conferencing and collaboration technologies. In addition, more than one quarter (26%) of those who responded say their organizations have expanded their Telework programs, enabling employees to work from home more frequently.

"Rising energy prices have resulted in an amazing surge in use of conferencing and collaboration technologies, and Telework is one of several silver bullets that are helping enterprises programmatically add collaboration technologies to their way of doing business," said Alan Greenberg, senior analyst & partner, Wainhouse Research. "Though about 1/3 of our panel's organizations are lagging, clearly 2/3 are rapidly addressing tough economic realities through evolving business practices that include new communications tools."

The panel also reveals a shift from brick-and-mortar to online meetings through the increased use of Instant Messaging, applications integrated with web conferencing, and directory services to launch ad hoc meetings. "We're seeing more enterprise-grade IM services, more small-group, ad hoc meetings, and greater desire from end users for quick launches of ad hoc sessions from within IM systems and applications," added Andy Nilssen, senior analyst & partner. Wainhouse Research. "While we expected some growth, we're seeing a total of 41% of the panel - an increase of 10% over this time last year - taking advantage of enterprise-grade IM technologies."

This WebMetrics report was compiled using data collected from 149 end user panelists qualified as individuals in enterprises, small to medium business, education or government and military. Vendors, resellers and service providers in the conferencing industry were not included in the report. Survey responses were collected between 26 June and 10 August 2008.