With the global economic downturn biting hard, corporations everywhere are looking around for costs to save, budgets to trim. It's thus little surprise that one area to suffer already has been business travel.

Based on dozens of interviews and 140 surveys among staff in a global chemicals company, the paper was intended to fill what the authors perceived as a gap in understanding in this area.

The evidence is everywhere. As early as August last year, a leading UK company specializing in business trips warned of "challenging" trade conditions, saying many of its clients, banks in particular, were cutting back on sending executives abroad.

After a series of airlines warned that they were also feeling the squeeze, the International Air Transport Association warned in February that far fewer passengers were traveling business and first class, while business hotels have also reported lower takings.

All well and good in the era of global connectivity, in which colleagues can be connected digitally at the touch of a button inside the video conference suite? Well, yes and no.

A pioneering study by professors at two leading U.S. business schools warns that companies which cut out the possibility of face time between people in distant offices risk also losing out on a sort of trust and cohesiveness which can, the paper suggests, only be achieved when people get together in person.

"The long and the short of it is that you gain a specific type of knowledge if you spend time in another place," Mark Mortensen, a professor of Management at the MIT Sloan School of Management, told CNN.

"If, for example, you spend some time in Tokyo you learn about the customs, the way people work, the way of thinking. But there is also this idea we call reflected knowledge -- you also learn about the way they see you, the way your home office comes across."

"That was what you might call the big 'A ha!' moment," said Mortensen, who co-authored the paper with Tsedal Beyene from Harvard Business School.

"You see your home office as it comes across to others, and that can be very important. It creates a lot of mutual trust, and a different kind of trust."

Whether this level of mutual trust can be built up within a week-long stopover or if it requires, say, a permanent presence, is currently being looked at, he added: "We're still not sure what the decay rate is -- for example do you get 80% of the benefit inside one week or does it help if you have an expatriate member of staff there for the long term? It's another piece of the puzzle."

The message to the corporate cost cutters, however, seems clear: think twice before you slash the travel budget as this might prove a false economy.

"It could be," Mortensen said. "I can't say for sure that you shouldn't send people somewhere else, and I certainly wouldn't say that video conferencing doesn't help, but it is something for managers to think about.

"There's cost-benefit factors to take into account, but you certainly don't want to get rid of it without any thought. This study helps them make an educated decision Spending time in another office does seem to build up a different level of trust."

Before the advent of unified communications (UC), the way for people to access a range of features was through their telephone handset. In other words, the fancier the phone, the more you could do, for example voicemail, conference call, handsfree, etc. These days, UC has replaced these hardware-based features with a software-based system which resides on a PC.

While the wheels of change have turned on the technology front, an equally important shift has to happen for the power of UC to be realised. This is the transformation in organisational culture, and the shift in the mindset of employees. Because functionality has historically resided with the handset, many people—senior managers in particular—have become attached to their phones. A big fancy phone on the desk has become some kind of a status symbol that many are not happy to relinquish.

In a country like South Africa, where the use of a personal assistant (PA) is still prevalent in company culture, this phenomenon is particularly relevant. In the US, Europe and the UK for example, the role of the traditional PA to a manager has virtually disappeared, but in SA, many senior managers still have PAs fielding their calls. As a result, many want to operate as they always have, and if any changes need to happen in the way they communicate, those will be borne by their PAs.

While software vendors can easily cater for these divergent needs in an organisation, UC is at its most powerful when everyone in the organisation has access to it and uses it actively. The value comes from functionality such as presence management and instant messaging.

Presence management enables an employee to change his/her status depending on what he/she is doing. For example, if the employee is in a meeting, he/she changes his/her status on the UC system. Anyone in the company can see at a glance that the employee is not available, enabling them to seek a solution with another member of staff.

Similarly, employees working from home can transfer their office telephone number to their cellphone so that customers trying to reach them can do so without even knowing that the employee is not in the office that day. These tools lead to greater efficiency, enhanced customer service and streamlined operations for the company and individuals.

While UC offers a way to make employees lives and jobs easier, there is, of course, the initial adoption phase. But usually a small amount of training and the involvement of the HR department take care of the transition quickly and easily.

In addition, the growth of social networking sites such as Facebook and My Space, as well as the entry of the so-called Y Generation into the working world is having an impact on the uptake of UC. Social networkers and the techno-savvy 20-somethings are accustomed to changing their status on these sites, telling their friends what they are doing. They are constantly in contact with each other via messaging services, be it SMS or instant messaging. For them, UC is not a significant mindshift—it is already part of how they operate every day.

Predictably, it seems then that it is the older generation that is slow to adapt their work habits, even if the small change means enhanced efficiency and time-saving in the long run. But if we consider trends in recent history, perhaps this sector of society will also embrace UC. Ten years ago, large portions of the population were mobile-free; today cellphones are almost ubiquitous from the ages of eight to 80.

Like the cellphone, perhaps UC will in time prove itself to be worth the initial adoption phase because of the overwhelming benefits it can bring. It seems possible then, that even traditional South African industries like mining, manufacturing and engineering will soon recognise the potential of UC and tap into its power.