Archive for September, 2009

Conference Calls in Education

Wednesday, September 30th, 2009

Its that time of year again.  Back to School.  And with everyone getting back to school come applications for conference calls within the educational system, because just like many other areas, education derives many benefits from using conference calls in place of in person meetings.

Conference calls in education applications come in many forms.  Probably the first conference call application you can think of is in the teacher/student relationship.  There are many teachers that teach in multiple campuses because they may have an expertise that is more rare than your standard English or geography discipline.  So, in some cases, instead of being in person for all of the classes the teacher will use a conference call to teach a class instead of being in person for all of the classes.  In fact, there are examples where a class is conducted completely virtual using conference calls and web conferencing to lecture to students from a distance.  With the advent of conference call and web conferencing technology this is entirely possible and the students do not miss anything by attending the class remotely with the use of conference calls and web conferencing.  Entire educational programs are now offered to students without attending any campus at all.  An example of this is the programs of the University of Phoenix.  Their curriculum is meant to be attended remotely by students. 

Another area where conference calls are used in education is in the administration area.  Colleges and Universities in particular are really just another form of business and have many of the same needs.  The administration needs to stay in touch with its board of trustees so they do regular conference calls.  Alumni associations need to organize events and solicit donations through conference calls.  And faculty members need to stay in touch with their unions and associations via conference calls.

We also see a lot of use by the student body with the organization of events using conference calls, student organizations having remote meetings via conference calls and off campus organizations like fraternities staying in touch with national agendas by way of the conference call.

So, as you can see, education also is able to save time and money by using conference calls in place of in person meetings.

 

www.zipconferencing.com

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Conference Call Service Reviews

Monday, September 28th, 2009

So, what makes for a good conference call service?  Is there a difference in conference call service providers?  What are the main things that you should make sure you get in a conference call service.

I have been in the conference call service business for over 14 years, so I know a lot about what goes on behind the scenes in a conference call service company.  But, for the average user, has no idea and so many of the conference call service providers look the same from the outside how would anyone know the difference?  Maybe I can shed some light on some of the main things to look for in a conference call service company so you know what to look for and what to watch out for when selecting a provider.

  • Services
  • Quality
  • Reliability
  • Support

Services

First, you should make sure that the conference call service provider you are looking at has the service to match your needs.  You will need to know how many conference calls per month your company does.  This is easily calculated by finding out what the average number of people on a conference call is and how long, in minutes that they are typically on the conference call.  If most calls have 4 – 5 people for about an hour you simply take the number of participants (4) times the number of minutes (60 for an hour) and you will see that you generate 240 minutes per conference call.  Then by taking the number of conference calls per week that you do you can determine the number of minutes per month.  If you do about 3 conference calls per week then 3 times 240 times 4 weeks in a month gives you 2,880 conference call minutes per month.

Now that you know how much conferencing you do you should confirm the features that the conference call service provider offers to make sure it is what you expect.  Most conference calls that you have probably used in the past are the type that is called reservationless.  You are assigned a toll free access number and a passcode to get into the conference call.  Unless you want your participants to have to pay long distance charges while they access your conference calls you should make sure that the access is toll free.

There are a number of other features that you may or may not need so you should make a list of the things you need in a conference call service and confirm that the provider you are looking at does offer them because not all conference call service providers offer the same services.  A few features to consider are recording of conference calls, transcription, host controls, online account access and volume control on the conference call.

Quality

Quality really comes down to one simple thing.  Does the conference call sound good?  The sound on a conference call is really based on two factors, the conference call equipment itself and the network that connects the conference call equipment to the telephone network itself.  Since there are many options for a conference call service provider to choose from here, your best indication of quality is the conference call itself.  Can you clearly hear the participants, etc.  Most conference call service companies will offer a free trial of some sort to hear the quality of the conference call.

Reliability

Reliability is a tough thing to measure when looking at a conference call service company.  But you can find out a little about their infrastructure to give you an idea of how reliable their network may prove to be.  Does the company have more than one piece of conference call equipment?  If there is a problem on the conference call equipment your conference call is on can they move your conference call to another piece of equipment?  What long distance network are they using?  A major provider like AT&T or Sprint will have a network that provides some redundancy in the event of a problem where a smaller provider may not. 

Support

And finally, support.  You may never need to lean on a conference call service provider’s support team, but if you do will they be there when you need them?  Does the conference call service company offer 24/7 support?  Do they assign a representative to your account to provide a contact in case you have questions or issues that need to be addressed?  What about online support?  Does the conference call service company offer online self help in the form of a searchable database, user guides and account access tools so that you can make changes to your conference calls yourself?

So, when you are reviewing conference call service companies, remember that price alone should not be the only thing you look at to determine which company is right for you.

www.zipconferencing.com

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Conference Calls for Non-Profits

Thursday, September 24th, 2009

In this blog I have spoken a lot about how businesses benefit from using conference calls to reduce their expenses and increase their profitability.  Well, the benefits of conference calls is not exclusive to companies that make a profit, non-profit entities can benefit as well from the use of conference calls.

The inherent nature of a non-profit is that they are supposed to be trying to leave the bulk of their money for the use of the charity, whatever that is, but they still have activites that need to be performed to keep the non-profit going.  One of the thise activities is soliciting donations and conference calls work well when you are trying to get a group together to get donations.  Many of the non-profits have found that soliciting donations in a group setting is more effective than doing it one on one.  There is a herd mentality when someone provides a donation and others are present.  The other participants do not want ot be out done and are more willing to contribute.  A conference call allows a non-profit to perform this type of activity without the need for an in person meeting.  And just like a for profit company, they save time and money by performing it on a conference call.  And the participants benefit as well since they do not have to leave their home or office to participate on a conference call.

Another activity that would be very costly for a non-profit without the help of conference calls is the regular board meetings that need to tak place to run their charity.  Usually there is a benefactor and a board of trustees that needs to meet on a regular basis to help runa non-profit organization and many times they are spread around the country.  Without the help of a conference call the participants would need to travel to a central location and incur the high cost of travel and so forth to attend the meeting.  Not only is it more expensive, but many of the members would not be able to attend without the conference call.

And, in many cases the actual activities of the non-profit itself are assisted by the use of a conference call.  Depending on what the charity provides, the use of conference calls allows them to perform their charity without the need to physically be present where they are doing their work.  Sometimes this means they can assist more people across a wider geographic area because they can do it remotely.  It also means they can perform more work because they are not incurring the high cost of travel, even within their local area to perform some of their activities.

So, don’t think that conference calls only help the bottom line of a for profit company, they help non-profits as well.

www.zipconferencing.com

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Conference Calls in a Tough Economy

Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009

I get asked all the time, “How is the conference call business doing?” and I always answer “Great!  Because in the 14+ years I have been in the industry there has always been a good reason why more and more businesses are adopting conference calls.  And in a tough economy there is all the more reason for businesses to be doing conference calls.

Let’s look at the recent events and see why the conference call service business continues to grow while other businesses are shrinking.  The first thing that has hit many businesses is the reduction in force that they have taken to combat the reduction in business.  In many cases the reduction in the numbers of personnel to run their business was not in direct relation to the reduction in business they felt.  So, one of the things these businesses are facing is trying to do more business with fewer employees.  This artificial need to increase productivity is a reality that the employees that are left to run the business have to face whether they like it or not.  Conference calls are an easy way to help improve the productivity of your employees.  When someone does a conference call it is usually in lieu of an in person meeting.  And whether you would normally be meeting across town or across the country, the conference call eliminates the time you would spend to get to the meeting and return to work.  In fact you don’t even have to leave your desk to attend a conference call so you have more time to do work thus increasing your productivity.

The next priority for businesses is reducing expenses so that they can remain profitable during times when sales may be lower than normal.  And one of the big areas targeted for reducing expenses is the travel budget.  So businesses are looking for ways to continue to meet with other employees, customers and prospects without having to travel to their location.  A conference call provides an easy way to eliminate the travel expense without eliminating the meeting itself.  Because let’s face it, you still have to have these meetings or the business can not continue to operate and grow.  A web conference and a conference call combination gives you everything you need to meet with a prospect or customer and have the same fulfilling, engaging meeting you would have if they were in person.  Don’t get me wrong, a conference call does not eliminate the need to get together with remote employees, customers and prospects,but the use of conference calls can eliminate some of the travel you may otherwise have taken.  And with the expense of travelling these days, every trip you can eliminate can really add up to your bottom line.

Conference calls and web conferences provide businesses the ability to remain effective while reducing expenses and increasing productivity.  So in a tough economy, the conference call service business continues to thrive and grow as more and more businesses realize the benefits that conference calls can offer.

www.zipconferencing.com

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Web Conference Features

Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009

Ever since a web conference has been available there have been a few features that have always been available. 

Whiteboarding – One of them is the ability to white board with your participants.  The concept is that if you could do it in a physical meeting room you would want to do it in a web conference since it is meant to simulate that meeting environment.  The web conference version of whiteboarding allows participants and the host of the web conference to draw freestyle on the whiteboard in the meeting space and all participants are able to see the results of the drawing on the board and also to participate themselves.  This particular feature has some uses but this web conference capability has not seen wide adoption I think because people are not as used to drawing with their mouse and it is not as easy to do as walking up to a whiteboard, grabbing a marker and drawing.  Don’t get me wrong, I think it is pretty easy to use, but people are just not as apt to do it as they would be in a physical meeting room situation.

PowerPoint Sharing – The ability to share a PowerPoint slide show with your participants during a web conference is a key feature that has helped lead the way to web conferencing’s success.  People have quickly become comfortable with doing a remote presentation using a web conference and sharing a PowerPoint slide show.  I think that the sense of detachment is easier to comprehend for a host since in a presentation environment you are basically by yourself showing slide and sharing comments whether you are in a person to person meeting or not.

Application Sharing – When application sharing first came out the thought was that participants could truly collaborate on a web conference by sharing applications and letting others control the application to get tasks done on a web conference.  I am not sure this has really happened yet, but people do find that simply sharing their desktop or an application on a web conference is easy to use and understand for the host and participants alike.  All you have to do is click on the application and all the participants are seeing what is on your desktop.  Its that simple.

Now there are a few more features that have been introduced on some web conference platforms that really enhance the experience.  One of them is the ability to record the web conference.  With a push of a button you can record the web conference and the audio portion of the call.  This makes sharing the presentation with people who missed the live web conference simple.  Another cool feature that is gaining momentum is the ability to provide files for the participants to download from the web conference.  The equivalent of hand outs in a physical meeting, this web conference feature makes it easy to provide materials to your attendees as part of the meeting.  And another feature people seem to like is the ability to send a meeting thank you and survey following the meeting as an integrated part of the web conference.  This is especially liked by people who a re running seminars as they are trying to connect to a n audience that they are many times trying to sell something to. 

The web conference feature list continues to grow because the use in web conferencing is on the rise and people want to better emulate the person to person meeting.  Look for more web conference features in the future as more and more people continue to adopt this valuable service.

www.zipconferencing.com

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Conference Calls in the Courts

Monday, September 21st, 2009

In the past 14 plus years I have seen conference calls used in a variety of applications that I would not have thought of myself.  As people in different industries became familiar with conference calls and how they worked, they developed applications within their businesses themselves.  One of the applications that uses conference calls very effectively is in the court system. 

Many of you may have heard of or seen the application of video conferencing in the court system where a defendant is able to appear before a judge without the need to leave the jail and appear in person.  Well, it seems there is a place for conference calls as well.  Our company was approached by a court clerk about the possibility of using conference calls to allow attorneys, defendants and litigants to appear before a judge without the need to physically appear in the courtroom.  With the very crowded legal system it was thought that this would save valuable court time and offer advantages to the participants as well.  So, we designed a method of bringing people before the judge in an orderly fashion and it saved the judge the time and effort of getting in front of the participants.  Because, in many areas of the country a judge appears in several court rooms across a wide area because they do not have a dedicated judge for the court.  And many of the appearances are pre-trial non-evidentiary appearances that do not require an in person appearance.  Thus the court conference call was born.

This practice still exists today and is widely used in many parts of the country.  It has saved countless hours of time and energy for the courts, attorneys and their clients.  The way it works is a conference call is set up for the participants on the date and time of their appearance.  The attorneys and their clients dial into the conference call and the judge will go through the courts docket over the conference call just as if the participants were in the courtroom.  Everyone agrees to appear on the telephone a head of time and the conference call can be attended from anywhere.  The clients save money because the attorney does not take all day to go to the court to attend a minor proceeding that otherwise only takes a few minutes.

Sometimes the best conference call applications are the ones that the customers think up for themselves.

www.zipconferencing.com

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Conference Call Options – Keep it Simple

Friday, September 18th, 2009

With Zip Conferencing, like many conference call service providers today, you can add a lot of options to your conference calls.  But, like most things, it may be best to just keep it simple.

Let’s take the way the conference call is set to start.  With Zip Conferencing, the default setting says that participants can speak to each other before the Moderator or Host of the conference call joins the conference call.  For most meetings this is preferable and participants are not left wondering where everyone is while they wait for the Host to join the conference call.  The other way to run the start of a conference call is to have the participants listen to music until the Host joins the conference call.  If the Host does not join the conference call the participants are left wondering what is happening.  So, for smaller meetings I would suggest you go with the open meeting approach which mirrors a regular in person meeting. 

Now that you have the participants on the call most people like to know who is on the conference call and at least know when someone joins the conference call.  This can be accomplished a couple of different ways.  The easiest is to allow a tone to play when a participants joins or leaves the conference call.  The tone is short and unobtrusive if there are not too many participants and if the participants are generally on time.  Another way to handle this is to have the participants name play in the conference call when they join or leave the conference.  But depending on how their name recording goes, this method can be a little disruptive during a conference call in my opinion. 

Another setting that can be troublesome if you are not careful is when a conference call is set to disconnect all participants when the Host leaves the conference call.  I think that many Hosts will tell you that the idea of this is good, but in practice the participants may want to carry on the conversation at the end of the meeting after the Host has disconnected.  If the Host enables this feature the participants are left to try to contact each other another way if the Host leaves the call.

I find that the use of too many of these bells and whistles only complicate things and can actually make what should be a simple thing, holding a conference call, complex and annoying.  So, my suggestion, like many things in life, keep it simple and you will probably be better served.

www.zipconferencing.com

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Conference Calls for Human Resources

Wednesday, September 16th, 2009

Clearly, one of the main missions for Human Resources departments is to clearly and concisely communicate with the employees in a company.  And with the employees in a company becoming more and more spread out how does the Human Resources department continue to handle effective communications with these remote employees.  Why through conference calls of course!

Conference calls enable the Human Resources department to do their job effectively without the need for extensive travel to remote employee locations.  All of the necessary regulations can be satisfied by holding conference calls and providing information to the employees separately.  Or you can hold a web conference and go through the information live with the employees.  The need for signatures on any documents acknowledging receipt of the information can be accomplished through the mail.  And all while the Human Resources personnel sit at their desk.

What about a new employee, especially one who is working remote?  The Human Resources personnel can use conference calls to introduce multiple new employees to company policies and benefits.  By doing several new employees at the same time the Human Resources department saves time and makes sure that all employees are getting the same materials at the same time.  Questions that the new employees have can be shared which helps avoid answering the same question multiple times if handled on a separate phone call instead of a conference call.

And there is no more effective way to conduct training than using conference calls or a web conference.  Many companies do not have the room necessary to pull employees into a central location and train them even if the cost to do so is not a barrier.  Using conference calls for training allows you to share the same information across the employee base in a fast, efficient and affordable manner.  Using a web conference combined with conference calls allows you to not just share information with the participants, but you can also insert questions into the presentation to encourage participation and increase retention.  You can even upload files into the web conference that participants can download during the presentation if necessary.

Today with smaller numbers of staff in Human Resources shouldering an increasing responsibilty for disseminating information and training to  remote employees, conference calls have become an essential tool.

www.zipconferencing.com

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Managing a Sales Team with Conference Calls

Tuesday, September 15th, 2009

I have managed remote sales teams in the past and it is difficult to say the least.  If you want your salespeople to be spread around geographically so that they can be close to your customers you probably have salespeople working out of their homes.  So how do you make sure that the salespeople are being productive?  How do you have these salespeople share in their successes with the other team members?  Why conference calls of course!

Conference calls are a great way to manage a remote sales team.  A conference call every morning sets the tone with the entire sales team.  You can communicate up to the minute details about what good or services you are selling so that everyone is informed.  A conference call also allows you to have sales team members share their winning strategies with the other salespeople.  By sharing winning strategies across your sales team you will be able to spread the successful strategy much easier than in any written format.  Conference calls can also enable the sales team to share competitive information.  Being up to date on what the competition is doing will provide valuable information to the salespeople on handling objections and positioning your company better.

A weekly conference call with your sales team can give you an opportunity to announce weekly sales to the team and congratulate winning salespeople.  This type of positive reinforcement helps encourage salespeople to be on top so that they can be recognized.  It also provides reinforcement to reps who may have a tough week that you can sell the goods or services you are offering and be successful doing it.  The weekly conference calls can provide a way to plan out the week coming up as well.  Discussion of plans and goals helps set the tone for the coming week and sets expectations to the salespeople.

A monthly conference call with your sales team will give you an opportunity to announce the salesperson of the month.  This type of recognition builds competitiveness in the team and also strong reinforcement to the best salespeople on the team.  Any monthly company announcements like promotions for the following month can be discussed.  And the monthly conference call can be used to establish goals for the team as well. 

The key to managing a remote sales team is good communication and providing a way to make the members of the team feel like part of the team.  This can be accomplished by holding regular conference calls so that the salespeople can share their struggles and successes as a team.  Conference calls and sales team meetings are a natural and provide many companies the secret to sales success with a remote sales team.

www.zipconferencing.com

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The Joy of being a Conference Call Service Provider

Monday, September 14th, 2009

I have been in the telecommunications business over 25 years and been a conference call service provider business since 1995.  When I first started in this industry I had no idea of the complexity of the business, the amazing number of applications the service is used for and the importance of a quality conference call service to the customers that use it everyday.  Now after fourteen years of providing such a valuable business service I can not imagine doing anything else.

Conference call services have evolved over the past fourteen years but their value to businesses has only grown and grown.  Especially in an economy like we are going through today, a quality conference call service provides businesses a way to cut costs without having their business processes suffer.  Meetings can still happen without the need to travel to far reaching locations, sales can meet with customers, employees can still be trained to provide a higher level of service to customers without having to attend a training class in some distant city and a conference call service provides an alternative to countless other costly travel plans. 

In an effort to save money, companies are discovering the other benefits of conference calls such as shortening the sales cycle.  Without conference calls, sales would have to travel to the customer site to perform a presentation or sales demonstration.  With the aid of web conferencing and a conference call, sales can perform a full scale sales presentation right from their desktop.  Beyond the cost of the visit, the salesperson has more time to perform other demonstrations for more customers.  A conference call service is more convenient for the salesperson and their prospective customer.  The same goes for other departments as well.  With a conference call, people don’t have to spend time getting to a conference room, waiting for the meeting to start and then returning to their desk.  Conference call service meeting attendees simply hang up the phone and return to work.  This increase in productivity is very important when your business is trying to do more work with less personnel.

And throughout your business, you will find that communication improves in general.  Making sure that everyone is on the same page is essential to running an effective business and staying in touch through a conference call service makes sure that even remote employees get the same message at the same time as the other employees. 

Now that I have been providing this essential service to businesses for over fourteen years I understand the importance of it in their everyday lives.  Providing a high quality conference call service is not an option it is a necessity.  Businesses rely on conference calls like never before and being able to provide this essential service is a very rewarding experience.  I take my responsibility in being a conference call service provider very seriously and I hope you value the service enough to make sure you get the best service available.

www.zipconferencing.com

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Conference Calls with a Large Audience

Friday, September 11th, 2009

The majority of conference calls are with less than five people and last around 45 minutes.  With a small group like that you can simply get on the conference call and talk amongst yourselves like you are in a room together and manage to keep the conversation orderly.  With this many participants the only thing you really have to worry about is when one of the participants is introducing outside noise to the conference call like if they are driving in their car with a headset on or outside on a cell phone.  And that participant usually knows enough that they will mute themselves during the conference call unless they need to speak and then they can simply un-mute themselves using controls on their cell phone or from within the conference call.  But the dynamic changes when you need to have 20, 30 or even 100 people on a conference call at the same time.  How do you keep control of the conference call and keep the intrusion to a minimum?

It used to be that if you wanted more than a few people on a conference call at the same time you would need to have an operator help you run the call and you still can do that, but it can get rather expensive.  So here are some ideas on how to best manage a large conference call using only a standard conference call.

First, as the Host you need to be extra organized.  The planning before the conference call should include an agenda that you follow although you might not distribute to the participants in advance it will keep you on track.  You will need to adjust your conference call options to make sure they are set correctly for this type of call.  If you normally have tones sound when participants join the call you will want to turn that off as it will interrupt your call when participants join the conference call late.  You will also want to have your participants join the conference call and listen to music prior to the Host joining.  If participants are allowed to talk before you join there may be noise and confusion among the participants.  And you will want to mute all participants when you join the call to make sure that extra noise does not enter the conference call.  All of these controls are available to you as host of a conference call with Zip Conferencing through your phone or a web interface whichever you prefer.

Once you are all set you can present your materials or have a discussion with the other hosts on the call and then open it up for comments or questions at the end of the call.  If you are going to open up the lines on a large conference call you should instruct participants to mute themselves unless they have something to add as this will also keep any interruptions to a minimum.  When the conference call has ended you can set the call to disconnect when the host hangs up which will make sure that all participants are disconnected and you will not incur any charges beyond what you expected during the conference call.

Today it is possible to run a large conference call without the assistance of an operator and much more cost effective too.

 

www.zipconferencing.com

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Free Conference Calls

Thursday, September 10th, 2009

I am sure you have seen them if you have done a search for conference calls on the internet.  Free conference calls.  So what is the deal?  Are they really free?  How do they afford to do that?

Well I am sure you have also heard the saying, “There is no such thing as a Free Lunch” and with free conference calls it is all too true.  First of all who had the idea in the first place and how do they make money?  A number of years ago someone had the idea to give away conference calls in order to generate traffic to a carriers’ network, because the carrier gets paid by the long distance carriers a small amount of money to terminate the call on the local network.  So, even though to you the conference call is “free” the conference call service provider is paid by the carrier for the traffic they are generating.  So, then it is a Free Conference Call, right?  Not exactly.

The problem with the free conference call is that you have to pay a long distance charge to whoever your long distance provider is in order to get to the location where their conference call equipment is installed.  Let’s say that their equipment is in Kansas City for instance.  You and all of your participants have to pay the long distance charge, per minute to connect to Kansas City.  Now that rates for toll free conference calls have come down, why would you want to have hidden charges for you and your participants?

There are other problems with many of these free conference call services.  Some are using VOIP to connect the call resulting in poor quality.  Many will have capacity issues because they really can’t afford to have lots of equipment sitting idle because their financial model is so thin.  Many of the conference call features you will get with a toll free conference call service provider are not available with a free conference call service provider.  In order to compensate for some of these shortfalls some of the free providers started offering toll free conference calls as well.  But the pricing for these services is higher than some of the conference call service providers that are built to provide a high quality service like Zip Conferencing.  So, you end up paying a higher price for a lower grade of service. 

So, why would anyone use a free conference call service?  Because its “free”.  In the end, like so many other things in life, with conference calls you get what you pay for.

www.zipconferencing.com

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Conference Call Security

Wednesday, September 9th, 2009

Conference calls have done great things to improve corporate communications, productivity and expenses, but what about security?  Many customers are concerned that since you have an open conference call you are open to having an unwanted participant join the call.  Or maybe you had to let an employee go and you need to make sure they don’t enter your regular conference call that they have the participant information for.  Or maybe you are concerned about corporate spying.  Whatever your concern, I would like to address the different areas of conference call security and suggest ways to make sure your conference calls are secure.

First of all, the conference call equipment itself needs to be secure.  Zip Conferencing has taken steps to make sure that the network connected to our conference call equipment is dedicated to us and directly connected to our conference call equipment.  The equipment and network are located in state of the art data warehouses with top of the line security in place to prevent any tampering at the conference call equipment level.  Every conference call is protected by having a unique set of dial in numbers and pass codes that allow access to the conference calls.  So, the provider end of the equation has insured that the conference call is as secure as it can possibly be on the back end.

For the user, there are a number of practices and features you can use to make sure your conference call is equally secure on the front end.  FIrst, your conference call information security is up to you.  Make sure that you do not share the conference call information with anyone other than the intended participants on your conference call.  If you have personnel changes you should change your conference call information immediately.  With Zip Conferencing this is easily done with your online account manager.  If you are concerned about having permanent conference call information you can even do one time scheduled conference calls where the conference call information only works one time and then does not work again.

Once you have made sure that the conference call information is secure and you have joined the conference call, how do you know that the participants you invited are the only ones that can join the call.  FIrst, you can put music on hold so no one to speak to each other until the Host joins.  When you join the conference call you set the call to do a roll call to verify the participants.  Or you can view the call using an online interface to see the participants and their dial in numbers.  Once you have established that the participants that are on the conference call are correct, you can lock the conference call to prevent anyone else from joining the call.  This is easily accomplished by using the Host Controls from within the conference.  This will prevent anyone from dialing into the conference call or even an operator from joining the call.

So, you see, there are a number of ways to insure the security on a conference call.  It starts with a good conference calls ervice provider like ZIp Conferencing that has engineered a secure network and provides a full featured conference call service that provides these security options.

For more on conference call security options visit Zip Conferencing’s Knowledgebase http://www.zipconferencing.com/kb/Conference-Call-Host-Controls-31-Activate/Deactivate-Conference-Security-Code_132.html

www.zipconferencing.com

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Web Conferencing with Video

Tuesday, September 8th, 2009

Maybe I am dating myself a little bit, but even young people these days have heard of the Jetsons.  When I was growing up the Jetsons were a popular cartoon on Saturday mornings and the concepts of flying cars, pushing buttons for a living and video telephones were introduced to a generation.  Certainly some of the ideas used in the cartoon may never come to pass and others already have to a degree.  But the one idea I think many people thought would have taken off by now is the video telephone.  Video conferencing has been around for a while and many people thought every business would have a video conference room at one point.  Then the concept of video conferencing was brought to the desktop and people again thought this it it, everyone will be doing it.  Well, as conference calls and web conferencing have continued to grow, video conferencing has not.

There are plenty of theories on why video conferencing has not grown much in the past ten years.  I think that several factors contribute to it, but I think mainly as a stand alone technology it is simply not as practical for businesses as web conferencing.  Just being able to see someone at distance while you talk to them is not adding much to the equation.  But now with web conferencing you can have integrated video within the web conferencing tool itself.  This marriage of steak and sizzle puts web conferencing in a position where you can have the added comfort of being able to see the presenter and focus on the materials in a presentation. 

In our web conferencing service is an integrated desktop video conferencing tool that is simple to use and provides the ability to see multiple parties as part of your conference call.  If you have a laptop with a camera integrated into the system or have added a camera to your laptop or desktop, you can now share your live image with the participants on your web conference by simply clicking a button.  As presenter on the conference call you can decide if the participants can also share their images with the other participants during the web conferencing.  A scroll bar allows you to look across multiple video feeds at once and have some control over the picture as well.

As an integrated part of a web conference, video helps connect you with your audience and yet keeps the focus where it should be, on the materials.

 

www.zipconferencing.com

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Conference Call Sub-Conferencing

Thursday, September 3rd, 2009

There are a number of features that are available as Host of a conference call.  People who regularly conduct conference calls are familiar with some of the more widely used Host Controls on a conference call like mute, un-mute and conference call recording.  But, many customers do not familiarize themselves with all of the Host Controls that are available because if they did they would probably be used more often.  A perfect example of this is the sub-conference feature available with Zip Conferencing’s conference call service.

Sub-conferencing allows you to place participants in a separate conference room so that you as the host of the conference call can have a private conversation with the participant.  This can come in very handy in many situations and relieve you of the need to have a separate conference call with participants.  One of the applications that immediately comes to mind with this feature is in the legal community.  If a defendant and their attorney are meeting with a litigant and their attorney they frequently have a need to talk privately amongst themselves to discuss settlement offers, strategy and so forth.  If they are in the same location when they are on the conference call then they can simply mute themselves and have a discussion and then rejoin the conference call.  But if they are in separate locations they can’t accomplish this.  With sub-conferencing they can go into their own conference call and have the discussion and then rejoin the main conference call when they are ready to continue the main discussion.

To engage a sub-conference from within the conference call, a Host would simple press *21 on their touch tone phone and follow the prompts.  You can have as many as nine separate sub-conferences going on any conference call.  Essentially you simply have participants enter one of the nine sub-conferences by entering the sub-conference room number between one and nine.  The participants do need to be careful to enter the correct number of the sub-conference on the conference call.  Any number between one and nine is valid when you engage the sub-conference feature so you want to make sure you go to the correct sub-conference.

Sub-conferencing is one of the many features available to the Host of the conference call by using the Host Control menu.

www.zipconferencing.com

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Is a Conference Call Service a Commodity?

Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009

In the past 15 years I have watched the average cost of a conference call service go from over 20 cents per minute to less than 10 cents per minute.  In that time one of the fundamental costs of the conference call service business, the cost of telecommunications, has dropped a lot so conference call service companies have been able to get more aggressive in their pursuit of new business by dropping rates as well.  As prices continue to fall and conference call service companies continue to think up new ways to package pricing to make the rates more attractive I thought it would be good to examine if a conference call service is a commodity.

In the eyes of the consumer on the surface it is difficult to see any difference certainly in a conference call service, especially if you are not too familiar with conference call features and so forth.  But, behind the curtain there are many things that distinguish differences in conference call services.  Some are plain to see, like the type of access the conference call service company offers.  A local access number is less cost to the conference call service company so they can charge less, but you will incur hidden cost by having to call a long distance number to connect to the conference call.  Another obvious difference can be the number of participants allowed on a conference call.  The more participants you can get on a call raises the cost of available equipment to the conference call service company.  And support is another cost that cannot be hidden.  If the conference call service company offers 24/7 support, which you would want, they will need to pass that cost on as well.

Some of the costs that you may not see, but you should look for in a conference call service company are the quality of its network, a redundant network to avoid catastrophic failure and the personal support you need to help you when you need it.  Zip Conferencing has taken all of the possible precautions to make sure that your conference calls are available when you need them and the support you need to make sure you get the most out of the service.  And all of the things that make for a high quality experience with a conference call service company have a cost to them.  So, even though they may all look the same on the outside, conference call service companies are not all the same.  And because of all the differences you can and cannot see, a conference call service is not a commodity.

www.zipconferencing.com

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Web Conference vs. Conference Call

Tuesday, September 1st, 2009

A Web Conference versus a Conference Call, is it a fair fight?  It is hard in some respects to compare a web conference with a conference call.  A conference call is held on a telephone and has no visual element to it unless everyone looks at the same document at the same time you sent to them previously.  But then, you really don’t know if they are looking at that document do you?  A web conference on the other hand allows you to show documents, web sites, applications, etc to all of the participants on your web conference at the same time.  It even allows you to edit the document real time and can even allow the participants to edit the document on your computer.  And a web conference generally has a conference call component to it unless you are meeting with a single participant.  Then you can just call them on the phone.  So, is it really a contest.

Well, no.  It really isn’t, but most people are choosing to hold a conference call instead of a web conference so why is that.  A conference call has certainly become easy to use and most people have been exposed to the practice of dialing an access number and putting in a pass codeto enter a conference all these days that we rarely have to explain the technology anymore.  And no one is intimidated by using a telephone to access a system and provide commands to the system using a touch tone command like you do to control a conference call.  People are just used to it.  And a conference call provides the basic means needed to communicate with other people over long distance, a voice connection.  Let’s face it, the telephone has been used to communicate over great distances and has been accepted by everyone as an essential means to communicate for business and personal reasons.  On a conference call you can discuss anything and refer to documents if everyone has access to them or was distributed them prior to the meeting.

A web conference on the other hand is relatively new.  It has really only been in existence less than 15 years and only in the last five or so become widely accepted by businesses.  But web conferencing can do what a regular conference call just can’t do.  A web conference can allow the host to share visuals with the participants on a conference call.  And as the saying goes “A picture is worth a thousand words”.  So adding a visual element to any meeting helps with the retention of the material and the engagement of the audience.  I think the only reason that every conference call is a web conference is that people are just not that used to communicating using their computers as they are with their telephones.  As people continue to integrate they way they use their computers with their telephones there will be a shift in the way we communicate and using visuals to help communicate will be the norm.

So, is it fair to compare a conference call and a web conference.  Not really, a web conference wins hands down.  But for now, the telephone has a 100 year head start in establishing itself as the de facto communication device and is winning the race.  For more on Web conferencing visit www.zipconferencing.com

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