Venture Capitalist Scenario In order to take a bigger piece and to make their investments more successful, a known venture capital firm decided it must take a more active role than that of passive investor. The firm added people with high tech industry background who had the experience and skill sets to help emerging high tech companies. The company also decided to find and exploit synergies amongst its investees. The firm had its headquarters and key people in Toronto but found that is was making investments in other cities, such as Vancouver. Additionally, it found itself making investments with partners from around North America. Initially, the partners used conference calls and emails to aid their investees and to review results and they used the same methods to review investment opportunities with their investor partners. On a planned, but more and more on an ad-hoc basis, the partners found that they were flying around the continent. As the portfolio grew this meant that they were spending less and less time managing their investments and opportunities and they were having trouble synergising their investees effectively. When they received some unexpected shocks they recognized that they needed a better way to have frequent face to face meeting with their investees and partners. The firm started examining technology that would enhance their ability to communicate and to cut down their travel costs, both financial and physical. They also wanted to bring their value add to bear more effectively to help their investees. Videoconferencing seemed the only alternative. The firm found that there would be great utility in using videoconferencing. They were concerned, however, by the expensive, variable costs of ISDN and bridging. Additionally, they were not especially keen to go to public conference rooms or to use boardrooms to have simple meetings. Public conference rooms meant wasted time and boardroom meetings meant that some documents, usually stored on a participant's personal computer, wouldn't be close at hand. At this point in their analysis the firm found BCS. BCS offered them flat rate, unlimited usage videoconferencing and real time collaboration for a low monthly fee - this removed the variable high cost scenario. Additionally, the firm was made aware that as part of BCS's service, they would have an ISDN dial in gateway so that companies and investors from around the world with access to ISDN could conference with them. The firm also determined that BCS's Virtual Presence Network offered 30 frame per second (TV quality) video and telephone quality audio as well as very tight security. Furthermore they found that for approximately $1,000 Canadian they could equip desktop personal computers with the necessary hardware to use the service. And because BCS offered a service, they didn't need to make large capital expenditures or hire expensive people. They quickly recognized that travel savings alone would pay for the service and that there were a myriad of other benefits. They brought all of their investees onto the network, enabling the firm to add the value of their experienced people to help the companies and to synergise them. They could also quit flying to San Jose as their partners could reach them through the Toronto based gateway to review everything from business plans to term sheets and excel spreadsheets with valuation scenarios. BCS saved them time, saved them money and helped their investments grow.