Codian was Permira's choice originally because it was the only product with dynamic endpoint bandwidth management, meaning an endpoint working on a relatively low-speed network would not degrade endpoints on higher speed networks. "Codian was the first to say that it doesn't matter what endpoint bandwidths you have," she said. Codian's interoperability also gave Permira the chance to pick from a variety of endpoints.

Permira has seen "big growth in the last two years" in the use of videoconferencing for business meetings between lawyers, accountants and consultants, Lees said. "Videoconferencing is never going to replace face-to-face communications, but if you can provide a higher level of videoconferencing quality, you become used to that format."

Gone are the days when Lees worried whether the cost of videoconferencing was justified and whether it could save money over travel. "Videoconferencing for us is in-bred and people have several videoconferences a day."

Ira Weinstein, an analyst at Wainhouse Research in Boston, said Permira might be the kind of company that evaluates moving to a higher cost telepresence system from HP or Cisco. The kind of technology sold by Codian, Tandberg, Radvision, and Polycom is usually for group videoconferencing sessions, while telepresence is a more expensive concept aimed at C-level executives.

"Telepresence is the country club of videoconferencing," he said, noting that a company purchasing an HP Halo system will need to build two studios, not just one, since the technology is proprietary. That cost for two studios and gear could easily top $800,000, he said.