Conference Calling An Important Business Asset

Operating and profiting from a business has never been exactly what you would call easy, even in the best of times. But it seems like in today's global business environment that the margins have been squeezed even thinner. Even the tiniest gain in efficiency and effectiveness could have an impact on your bottom line. That's why conference calling can be considered an important business asset. Your business's profitability will be improved any time you can achieve the same or even greater effectiveness at a lower cost.

Business travel and physical business meetings have become more expensive and more dangerous. The price of oil has risen to historic highs and the cost of airline tickets and even road travel have increased accordingly. The threat of terrorism and the phenomenon of kidnapping for-profit have made large gatherings, especially at offshore locations, dangerous and unwise. Yet at the same time, companies have become more geographically dispersed. Workgroups that may have formerly been located in different parts of the building might now be located in different parts of the world. Product supplies, developers and customer support are often located away from the executive core.

E-mail can help but it will never replace personal contact. There's no way to be sure that you have communicated your ideas effectively in writing. There's no guarantee of understanding on the other hand. Even Internet chat cannot replace the give-and-take of a real face-to-face conversation. Conference calling provides the best solution to this dilemma.

Actually, conference calls have been around for decades. Announcing that you had to return to the office for a crucial conference call was like wearing a badge of success. Conference calls were serious business. But in the beginning they required operator set up, allowed only a limited number of participants and were not the most reliable form of communication. Today's conference calling is a quantum leap above your father's conference call. Internet technology and computerized automation make setting up a conference call as easy as calling home.

There's no argument about whether conference calling is amazing technology or not. The real question is how can conference calling be an asset to your business? First of all, conference calling is an excellent way to provide highly secure conferences. This is not just about the attractive terrorist target that a gathering of important businessmen might make. What about the hotel worker who comes in and refills your water glasses during the meeting? Is he really part of the catering staff, or is he listening in for valuable business intelligence? Conference calling offers secure, encrypted security for your crucial company communications.

Does your business have employees or workgroups scattered around the country, or even the world? Conference calling provides an inexpensive way to link all of your remote workgroups. It allows them to collaborate on the creation of documents and share presentations. Your business may include committees, an executive board or satellite chapters. Conference calling is an outstanding way to accomplish a quick gathering of committee members or board members. If you need to discuss an issue and get a quick decision, you can't do better than conference calling. You're not requiring anyone to travel or even leave their office. Their participation is a simple as picking up a telephone.

With the constant introduction of new products, software and other productivity tools, effective training is vital to the success of any business. But what if your employees are scattered out in different locations? Conference calling, videoconferencing and web conferencing can enhance the learning process. It doesn't matter if your employees are located in different cities or just different parts of the building. By not requiring them to physically attend a training meeting, you'll save time and money. Training can be accomplished quicker and can be scheduled on shorter notice.

Companies of all sizes can benefit from conference calling. There are many conference call providers that offer a complete range of services for different budgets. Most provide the capability to set up an online account and get started in minutes. Take a look at your business processes and see if the introduction of conference calling could make those processes more efficient, effective and profitable. You owe it to your bottom line.

By: Jim McDonald

Web Conference Call Services Saves You Time And Money

Web conference call, as obvious from the name, is a process of holding meetings or live presentations using Internet as the platform. It should be noted that web conference calling is different from the discussion boards, as it involves the idea of real-time and live presentations; whereas, in discussion groups, only text messages are allowed. Though very recently, with the use of video cameras and other techniques, web conference calling is adopting almost whole of the video teleconferencing process, and sometimes experts refer to them as the same thing.

Any web conference calling requires some initial setup for each of the participants involved in it. Each one must have a computer, and every computer should be connected to other participants through a reliable Internet connection. A Web conference call involves the features of audio and video. The presenter or the calling party shares the screen of its computer with other participants so as to enable them to see what is on its screen. The audio part is accompanied to this screen through telephone equipments or VOIP. Though it is not mandatory to use audio part in web conferencing, and some parties do like to use text versions to convey their messages.
Sometimes conventional corporate professionals and people who are not versed in the advanced technologies find it very difficult to adapt to the new system of conferencing, which is gaining firm hold in the business world. The use of web conferencing is breaking the boundaries of corporate sector and entering new arenas also. Web conference calling provides economic arrangement of meetings, and eliminates the need of travelling for conventional face-to-face meetings. Web conference calling is quick in its operation and saves a lot of time, apart from the fact that web conference calls can be recorded for playback option at later times.

Web conference calls are also helpful in business sectors that are more dependent of IT tools and computers. Application and file sharing features of web conference calls make it a must for all IT-based businesses. So, we can well-judge that web conference calling offers new vistas for the technology-based business, and at the same time, saves a lot of time and money for the other types of business.

By: Max Stephen

Conference Call Services - Effective

Irrespective of the service provider, at the end of the day, the user may find that conference call services are the most cost effective way to arrange a trans-continental business meeting.
Conference call services are service providers facilitating conference call facilities to all those who want to perform an audio or web conference at a short notice. The clients can avail their services for a definite fee - that may vary from service provider to provider - and the users in turn are offered the best of services and support all through the session. The costs of a session are generally affordable, especially when compared with the expenses of a business travel and hotel accommodations, but may vary from one provider to the other. But, irrespective of the service provider, at the end of the day, the user may find that conference call services are the most cost effective way to arrange a trans-continental business meeting.
The conference call services ? as offered by the conference call service providers ? vary from simple audio conferencing to web conferencing, and each comes with different schemes and special offers. Audio conference call services or audio conference calls are for those who want to communicate things verbally, the same way as one does in a round table meeting, without any visual data exchange. On the other hand, web conference calling involves not only talking, but the participants can also see each other and share a document or parts of a document online if wished so. Audio conference call services are usually charged on a per minute basis while online conference calls levies a fee on a per seat per month basis. It may be $100-150 for a web conference session on an average and $60 for audio conferencing. Concessional rates may be offered to those who are using these conference call services quite frequently.
The communication domain is a fast changing one and hence it is only a matter of time before newer and better technologies emerge and replace the existing ones. In other words, web and audio conferencing, as it exists now, may be substituted by newer technologies in the near future. But until that happens, business will continue to rely on conference call services for their mass business communication, as a cheaper alternative for the costlier business travels, since conference call services are easy, cheap, and effective.

The Conference Calls

A conference call is a telephone call in which the calling party wishes to have more than one called party listen in to the audio portion of the call. The conference calls may be designed to allow the called party to participate during the call, or the call may be set up so that the called party merely listens into the call and cannot speak. It is often referred to as an ATC (Audio Tele-Conference)
Conference calls can be designed so that the calling party calls the other participants and adds them to the call. In most cases, the participants are able call into the conference call themselves. They do so either:
.by dialing into a "conference bridge" (a specialized type of equipment that links telephone lines.
.by using a special telephone number set up for that purpose.
Usually, most companies use a specialized service provider who maintains the conference bridge, or who provides the phone numbers and PIN codes that participants dial to access the meeting or conference call.
Three-way calling is available (usually at an extra charge) for most customers on their home or office phone line. To three way call you call the first person you wish to talk to. Then you must press the Hook Flash button and dial the other person's phone number. While it is ringing press flash again. This will put your three people together. This option allows callers to add a second outgoing call to an already connected call.