I Resolve to do more Web Conferencing

December 29th, 2009

Its that time of year again. Everyone sets expectations for themselves in the new year. Many of the resolutions we commit to we do not stick with and some we don’t even attempt. Maybe this is the year to set some realistic goals for ourselves that will benefit us personally and also help in our own little way the world around us. Why not resolve to do more web conferencing? I am going to add it to my list. Because I am as guilty as the next person. It is easier to stick with the familiar than to try something new and if you have never conducted a web conference before it can be a little intimidating. But the benefits to you and the world are real!

Save Time – A web conference can save you time on the front end by simply eliminating the need to travel to a meeting. Even if the meeting is in the same building with people you work with you still have to get up off your seat and go to a meeting room. You have to remember to bring all the materials you will need or you may need to return to your desk to get additional materials or reschedule another meeting so you can bring other things, etc. You can instantly attend your meeting right from your desk and have all of your materials at your fingertips to share with everyone at the meeting if you do a web conference.
Save Money – The cost to travel to your meeting locally or at a great distance is saved if you do it from your desk using a web conference. If you have to travel across the country all of the travel costs will be saved which can add up to thousands of dollars.
Increase Productivity – You will find that by doing a web conference you are better prepared for your meeting and can extend the discussion since you have access to everything you need. You also will be able to work during the time you would otherwise have to travel.
Save the Environment – By using a web conference instead of travelling to a meeting you are being very eco-friendly. Think of all the carbon emissions you are avoiding during the travel you have avoided. And all of the participants in the web conference also have avoided all of the travel and associated emissions.

So, for your benefits and in a small part, all of mankind, it is time to resolve to do more web conferencing. And unlike the resolutions you are unlikely to stick to you will find this one is easy to keep once you feel the benefits.

www.zipconferencing.com

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The Conference Call versus Travel Argument gets Stronger

December 28th, 2009

Certainly all meetings can’t be virtual. Sometimes you just have to get face to face with your customer, prospect or employee. A conference call does offer, however, a compelling alternative under any circumstances. It is easy to see where you can save money and increase your productivity using a conference call or web conference instead of travelling to the location and having a meeting. But now more than ever the conference call versus travelling argument is getting even stronger.

With the recent attempted terrorist attack on the flight landing in Detroit, the security at the airports has gotten tighter and the experience during the flight more uncomfortable. Now you have to arrive at the airport three or four hours before your flight because the line at security will be that much worse. And once you get on the plane the new regulations require you to remain in your seat in the final hour of the flight and even some of the entertainment options on the flights have been curtailed. You have to REALLY need to get where you are going and be ready to put up with the added inconveniences the new regulations will bring. And again, for some meetings there is no choice. You just have to be there in person no matter what. But I think this latest round of travel inconveniences will make more and more people look into alternatives like the conference call or a web conference because it is not just about the money anymore.

A conference call and a web conference can provide you all the tools you would have in a regular conference room setting without having to travel to the location. You can freely speak together on the conference call and share any documents, presentations and even a video feed with the people at the other end. All for a fraction of the cost of getting there in person and without any of the hassle. So the next time you are requested to attend a meeting in another city or country think of the alternatives and ask yourself if it is REALLY necessary to be there in person or will a conference call do the same thing.

www.zipconferencing.com

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A Conference Call Service is a basic business need

December 21st, 2009

If you were to start a new business today you would put some thought into all the things you will need to outfit your business. No matter what business you are in there are some basic things you will probably want like a copier, some envelopes, paper, business cards and so forth. One thing you should definitely consider for outfitting your company is a conference call service. Zip Conferencing, like many providers of conference call services does not charge you anything to sign up for their service and you are not charged anything unless you use the service. It is just like putting a stapler in your drawer so you can pull it out when you need it.

A conference call service provides you a high quality, low cost way to communicate effectively with your prospects and employees. Let’s face it, as a new business you have to be careful of cash flow. You can’t really afford to fly around the country to meet with prospects and clients. But you do need to meet with prospects if you want to sell anything, so what do you do? A conference call service will allow you to meet with parties around the country without leaving your desk. It is easy to see that you will save a lot of money if some of your meetings are done using a conference call service. And from the prospective customer’s perspective, people are very used to being on a conference call or a web conference and it is more than acceptable to hold a meeting using a conference call service. It is now standard business practice to hold a preliminary sale s call using a web conference. And you can share everything you would share in an in person meeting using a very affordable platform that eliminates the need to travel. In addition to the cost you will save by reducing the travel expeses you will also get a whole lot extra time to do things other than travel. And with a new business time is a commodity you simply can’t get enough of.

So, if you are just starting out in business, a conference call service is an essential business tool you should hire for your company. It is a basic tool that will definitely come in handy and you don’t want to have to find one when you do need it. Hire one now and then it will be there when you need it.

www.zipconferencing.com

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Design your own Conference Call

December 17th, 2009

Why settle with the way things are with your conference call? Maybe you really don’t like the fact that there is a tone that plays every time someone joins or leaves your conference call. Or maybe you don’t want the participants to be able to join the call unless the Moderator is present. With most conference call service companies you don’t really have a choice. You get your conference call the way they are giving it to you and you either like it or you don’t. Most conference call service companies set the features on the conference call one way and that is the way that all of their customer’s call are configured. Well, that is not the way it has to be or should be. With Zip Conferencing you can log into your own account and design the conference call the way you want it.

There are a number of features that can be set on a conference call. Here is a run down of all of the conference call options that you can control with Zip Conferencing.

Entry/Exit tones – You have three options for tones when a participant joins the conference call. You can have silence, a tone or their name announced. Each of these options can be enabled for entry, exit or both. So you can have a tone when they enter but silence when they leave and so forth.
Music on Hold – You can have participants listen to music until the Moderator joins the conference call.
Prompt Moderator for ID/code – The Moderator is prompted for their Client ID and pass code. This is an additional layer of security on the conference call.
Prompt Moderator for Billing Code – This will enable you to track by billing code the activity of each Moderator.
Prompt participants for PIN – This is an additional code for entry into the conference call for additional security.
Abort Conference if no Moderaotr Joins – The conference call will be disconnected if the Moderaotr does not join the conference call.
End Conference when Moderator Exits – The conference call will be disconnected when the Moderator leaves the conference call.
Record Participants Name for Roll-Call – When a participant joins the conference call they will be prompted to record their name and then the names will be played for the Moderator as a Roll-Call.
Post Conference Report – At the end of each conference call an email with the usage detail from the conference call will be delivered.
Client Matter number – The system will record a Client Matter number to help with charge back billing clients at the end of the month.

As you can see, there are a variety of features that you can control with Zip Conferencing conference calls to enable you to design and customize your conference call the way that you like it.

www.zipconferencing.com

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Conference Calls in Sports

December 9th, 2009

The ability to communicate with a widely dispersed audience quickly and easily using a conference call is helpful to many industries and the same principles of saving time and money benefit sports organizations both amateur and professionals alike. I have had the privilege of providing conference call services to many of the major sports teams and organizations and many amateur organizations as well. And although the content of their conference calls may be a little different the aim is the same, save time and money using conference calls.

Professional sports organizations have many applications for conference calls within their organizations. Internally they have staff scattered over the entire country and sometimes the world. The staff is focused on doing scouting missions for the organizations looking at the competition or looking for new talent. A conference call allows the entire staff to get together on a regular basis to share successes and insight and make sure they are on the same page. The teams are regularly on the road during the season so they also use conference calls to stay in touch with the staff travelling with the team. Staff meetings can continue using a conference call even while the team is on the road. Professional sports teams also have an obligation to communicate regularly with the press in their sport. Many times a face to face meeting is not possible with all of the interested press people so they will do a conference call to make sure they are getting their news out to all of the news outlets interested. And beyond the team itself, a conference call is used in many other capacities to aid in press communications. One example is when players were elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame we would provide the conference call for the player to talk to the press which was done many times from their residence immediately following their notification of their election.

Amateur sports have many of the same challenges as the professional organizations. And many times the organizations are international in scope as they support their support in many countries. Given the geography and certainly the budget of these organizations the only realistic solution for them to communicate is a conference call. The leadership of the organization in the different countries will regular get together to discuss rule changes, tournaments and event planning for their sport. These meetings can take place from anywhere at anytime using a conference call and saves the organization a lot of money compared to trying to hold an in-person meeting.

www.zipconferencing.com

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A Conference Call Service Provider should be Your Partner

December 3rd, 2009

I think that everyone is aware that conference calls can save you time and money. It is easy to figure that holding a conference call is going to save you money if the alternative is flying to someone’s location to hold a meeting. But what I think a lot of people miss are all of the options available with a good conference call service provider. I know when I started in the teleconferencing industry in 1995 I had been on conference calls and just assumed that it was just a simple matter of getting a dial in access number and a pass code and holding your conference call. Boy, was I wrong. Most people have no idea of all of the options available for audio conferences and web conferences. And that is why a good conference call service company should act as your partner and help you discover all of the options available so that you can customize the conference calls you hold to fit the needs of your company.

Even just a plain automated conference call can be customized with a number options. For instance you can vary how and whether you are notified when a participant enters or exits your conference call. With Zip Conferencing you can have a tone play, play the participants name or have no sound at all when they enter or exit the conference call. And all three options can be enabled when entering, exiting or both. Some people want to make sure that the conference call can not be used when the Moderator of the conference call is not present. You can set the option to have the participants listen to music while they wait for the moderator to join the conference call. This prevents participants from being able to use the conference call information to hold their own conference call. Another measure to ensure that participants are only able to use the conference call when the participants are present is the ability to close the conference call when the Moderator exits the call.

There are also tracking features that some people like to keep tabs on what the call was about. For instance, an attorney want to track the calls so that they can charge back their clients for the cost of the conference call. You can enable a feature on the conference call that requires a Moderator to enter an accounting code at the start of the conference call. An attorney would enter a Client Matter # and then they could track this back to the client at the end of the month.

All of these options and more are available, but most people don’t use them. It is most likely because their conference call service provider has not taken the time to describe these option, listen to their business needs and suggest ways to best use the conference call service to fit their business needs. That is where the conference call service provider can be an invaluable partner for your business.

www.zipconferencing.com

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Conference Calls for Non-Profits

December 2nd, 2009

Working in the conference call service business as long as I have has exposed me to many businesses and industries. And all of the businesses I have encountered and used my conference call services have benefited by saving time and money. One of the areas which really benefits using conference calls to save both is a non-profit company.

Sure, there are non-profit organizations out there that have a lot of money and their CEOs make more money than most of us, but that is not the norm. Most non-profit orgranizations have a very limited budget and need to squeeze every last penny from their budget in order to make ends meet. But they also need to have meetings, solicit donations and so forth. That is where the conference calls come in handy. In fact, in some cases the non-profit organization doesn’t even have an office to hold an in person meeting if they wanted to. A conference call is the only way to get their employees or volunteers together. And it does so less expensively than any other method.

The non-profit organizations need to solicit money from donors and sometime they will hold a seminar for a number of potential donors at the same time. They find that holding a conference call with multiple donors actually helps their overall success. Getting their entire team of employees and volunteers on the same page is done more efficiently with a conference call. And if they are a national organization, the ability to hold regular meetings with a widely dispersed team is easy to do and very cost effective using a conference call.

The cost of the conference calls is very important to a non-profit organization as they can use the money for other means if they save money. And being more productive by not travelling to a meeting and doing a conference call instead is also very helpful. Just like any for profit company, a non-profit can take the money they save by doing conference calls and put it right on their bottom line.

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A Conference Call Service Reflects on Your Company

November 23rd, 2009

As a business we sometimes get caught up in saving money on the things we use in the business and forget to think about how it will reflect on the image of our company. Let’s face it. We’ve all done it. Save a little money by replacing a reliable service or product with a cheaper one only to find that in most case, you really do get what you pay for. It is the same with a conference call service company. It is okay to switch to a new conference call vendor to save some money, but you do need to be careful about the service you are getting as the participants on the conference calls you run will see the conference call service you use as a reflection of your company.

You see, you are going to invite customers and prospects to attend meetings you hold via a conference call or web conference. And it is important that the meeting have the kind of quality and reliability you expect. After all, you would not invite your guests to a roadside motel where the lights don’t work for a meeting, right? With a conference call service company it is not always so apparent to see the differences in the companies, but if you know what to look for, at least you will have a chance.

First of all something for free is rarely free. In some way or another you are paying for the service. Many times there are advertisements associated with free conference call service that the company is putting in front of your audience. And invariably, the conference call service is not as good as a fee based service either. Free conference calls make the participants pay to connect to the conference call because they have to dial a long distance number to connect to the call. And the conference call service company can’t afford the latest equipment or services, or the best connections tot he telephone network either. And they might not even have the conference call capacity to support your call when you need it. All of these things cost money and free doesn’t pay for them.

Some of the conference call service companies are now offering unlimited capacity and rates that are less expensive than a long distance phone call. How do they do that? Well, they are probably offering a service based on VOIP technology. Don’t get me wrong, VOIP has come a long way in the past 5 years, but would you trust your business to it? Again, if it looks too good to be true it probably is.

In the end you should be looking for a conference call service company that uses the latest conference call equipment, solid connections to the telephone network, back up network provisi0ns and provides service to back up their conference calls like Zip Conferencing. Because when you hold an audio or web conference, the conference call service company you choose will reflect on your company.

www.zipconferencing.com

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Conference Calls in Agriculture

November 20th, 2009

Just to help make the point that conference calls and now more than ever, web conferencing can help any business save money and be more productive I have decided to talk about another industry who you would not think uses conference calls. Certainly when you think of agriculture you think of a farmer who raises a crop or livestock and then sells to a market. What use could agriculture possibly have with conference calls and web conferencing?

Well you would be surprised. Agriculture is just another business, a big business in fact, that is always looking for ways to reduce cost and improve productivity so naturally they use conference calls. The market that buys the crops or livestock is having conference calls with the farmers it buys from to keep them informed of prices and stock levels and other market factors. By having one conference call with all of their suppliers they are saving time from calling each farmer individually. The farmers are able to speak amongst themselves and share tips on how to better manage their farms. If the farmers belong to a cooperative, the cooperative is using conference calls to better communicate between all of the farmers in the cooperative and share information. And up the supply chain the distributors are able to talk to all of the markets and give them information on demand and pricing and so forth. The level of communication in the entire supply chain has improved with the use of conference calls.

And all of the vendors that touch this industry have also found that conference calls and web conferencing are helping them communicate with their audience faster and more effectively. The companies that make farming equipment are holding regular seminars on the latest equipment and its uses. The companies that make the feed for the animals and the seed for the crops are holding conference calls with the farmers to discuss the availability of their goods, pricing and effective uses. And all of this communication via conference call and web conferences is saving everyone a lot of time and money. Farms by their nature are spread out over vast areas and it is very difficult and time consuming to have personal meetings with each farmer. The use of conference calls and web conferences in agriculture is a natural fit!

www.zipconferencing.com

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Conference Calls in Healthcare

November 19th, 2009

There is a lot of talk surrounding healthcare these days, so I thought I would point out some of the many applications for conference calls in the Healthcare industry. Although healthcare is a largely one on one experience ina local surrounding, the healthcare industry is actually a large user of audio conferencing and web conferencing. Just like any other business, the Healthcare industry tackles many of the same issues on a daily basis as any other industry and is always looking for ways to reduce costs and improve productivity.

For physicians, using a conference call is mainly done as a participant. Doctors regularly are being trained on the latest techniques and therapies to assist their patients and many times these trainings are done remotely using audio conferencing and web conferencing. Not only are the doctors incented to attend these training seminars, but the companies that are vendors in this industry are also incented to conduct the training seminar. Pharmaceutical companies for instance need to promote their drugs and what better way then to hold a free seminar for doctors that describes the drug, its uses, efficacy and side effects. That way the doctors are getting the information first hand from the experts on the drug. And by conducting the training seminar using a conference call and a web conference, the drug company is able to reach more doctors in less time and much more cost effectively than if they attempted an in person meeting. In addition, the drug companies have found that getting a doctor to attend a remote meeting via a conference call is easier than trying to get them to take the time to meet at a location. Even as a participant, the doctors benefit from attending the seminar via a conference call by reducing their cost and increasing their productivity.

Another user of conference calls and web conferencing you may not expect are the hospitals. Many times hospitals are regional in nature and have affiliations with other hospital location in an area. The administration offices are often shared to reduce their overhead. So, you have a business that has multiple locations where employees need to share information and meet on a regular basis. The perfect scenario for the use of conference calls and web conferencing. Similarly, physician and nurse staffing organizations exist that supply personnel to hospitals and healthcare clinics across a regional area and also need to communicate with their employees via conference calls. And another maybe obvious example is when there is a company that owns multiple walk in healthcare clinics across an area. These are basically small outlets for healthcare that are part of the same company spread across a region. Like any other business, the managers of the locations are in need of regular communication with headquarters and are big users of conference calls and web conferencing.

Yes, like most industries, the Healthcare industry finds many benefits by using conference calls and web conferencing.

www.zipconferencing.com

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Our Conference Call Service offers Service Beyond the Call

November 16th, 2009

I am sure there are several conference call service companies that offer a good conference call from a technical point of view. What I mean is that you can call into the conference call without too many problems and the conference call quality once connected is decent and so forth. But what happens if you need help? Is the conference call service company there for you when you need them to be?

At Zip Conferencing we pride ourselves on not just providing the highest quality audio conferencing and web conferencing services available, but we also want to make sure that your needs are taken care of as well. That is why we provide customer service 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. And, because we know that people like to communicate in different ways we have supplied many different ways to communicate with us. You can call us on the phone to speak to a representative or if you prefer, you can also chat with one of our representatives 24 hours a day as well. The representatives that are available by chat are the same representatives that answer the phones and are well schooled in all of services and features of Zip Conferencing. Or you can send us a Support Request Form via the web site to get an answer to your conference call question if you do not need an immediate answer.

In addition to the people behind the scenes at Zip Conferencing that are ready to assist you, you will find a helpful knowledge base of important conference call and web conferencing information. The information is organized between conference call FAQs, How Tos and Billing questions. You can even search the plentiful knowledge base or ask a question.

We believe that just providing a conference call is not enough. Standing behind the audio and web conferences that we provide with service is one of the important differentiators between us and other conference call service companies. And if you ever have a questions about your conference call service I am sure you will agree.

www.zipconferencing.com

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Conference Calls make the World a Smaller Place

November 11th, 2009

A conference call has the ability to bring people together from great distances so that they can meet when it otherwise would be impossible. And today, with the globalization of many companies there really is no better option than a conference call to keep your organization going around the world. And with Zip Conferencing you can even have your participants around the world dial into the conference in their country. We routinely have customers who will have participants on a conference call that are in Europe, Asia and the US at the same time. There is not an easier more cost effective solution to hold a meeting with participants in these locations than a conference call.

There are currently 40 cities where you can dial a local number in that city to connect to a conference call with Zip Conferencing that can have participants on it from around the world. Any size company can look like a large company when you have the ability to have your customer in Paris dial a local number to get on a conference call with you in the United States and you can also share a presentation by using web conferencing as well. The way it works is there are 40 cities around the world that have a local access number that transports the participant to the United States conferencing center through our network. So, what looks like a local number to them is actually a connection all the way back in the United States to the conference call.

Another way to connect from around the world is by using an International Toll Free access number that is available in over 30 countries around the world. If someone is in France but not local to Paris they can still join the conference call by dialing a toll free number in France and they will get connected to the conference call in the United States with you. The Toll Free access is a little more expensive but certainly impressive when your customer or prospect is dialing a toll free number outside the United States to join your conference call.

As technology progresses the world continues to get smaller and with an International conference call you can help make the world a lot smaller for your company.

www.zipconferencing.com

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Conference Call Recordings can Save the Day

November 9th, 2009

Once you begin to use conference calls in your everyday business you quickly find that they are indispensable. A conference call is able to bring people together who otherwise may be able to meet due to time or distance constraints. And as you begin to rely more and more on a conference call for your meetings you will undoubtedly find yourself in a situation where someone is unable to attend your conference call and it is important that they hear the content of the meeting. In a physical meeting you can usually only rely on someone to take good notes of the meeting to share with the participant who missed the meeting. With a conference call you have another option. You can record the conference call and allow the participant who missed the conference call the opportunity to listen to the actual meeting when they can. With Zip Conferencing there are a couple of ways to provide the recording to the participants who did not attend the live conference call.

Digital Playback – First, you can record the conference call and then provide anyone who missed the conference call the ability to dial a toll free number and enter a passcode and listen to the meeting when their schedule permits. The advantages of this method are that the participant can dial in from anywhere to listen to the call and control the pace of the recording. You can fast forward, rewind or pause the recording using touch tone commands on the telephone. The recording is available shortly after the completion of the conference call and multiple people can access the recording at the same time.
CD Copy – You can also order a copy of the conference call on a CD in several formats. The CD is shipped to your location and you can decide who to distribute the CD to and when, controlling the dissemination of the content.
Transcription – You can also order a complete transcription of a conference call. That way you have a full documentation of the conference call for missing participants or just to retain for your records.

So, if you find yourself in a situation where an important participant is going to miss your conference call there is no need to cancel the meeting. You can simply record the conference call and allow them to hear the entire conference call after it is completed. Now that is a clear advantage to holding a meeting in person!

www.zipconferencing.com

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Conference Calls can Help Gauge the Economy

November 6th, 2009

I heard that it is a good thing that the Yankees won the World Series because the stock market has an average gain of 10% in the year following a win by them in the World Series. Well, as a Red Sox fan I have a hard time feeling good about them winning it all but at least there is a fringe benefit. And we can’t win it all every year after all. The point I wanted to talk about today was how you can get a read on the economy by the usage of conference calls as well. And it is probably a little more reliable than the connection between a baseball game and the economy too.

Over the eyars of being in the conference call industry I have noticed a couple of interesting things that can help indicate how my day is going to go. The first thing I notice is the traffic on the way to work. If it is a busy traffic morning there are going to be a lot of conference calls held that day. Now, in some respects you would think just the opposite. If people stay home they would need to hold meetings remotely and a conference call is a sure bet. But actually, most of the conference calls are being attended by people in their place of business and when people are staying home they are probably on holiday and are not doing conference calls. So, as business traffic picks up, so do the number of conference calls.

The other thing I notice is the type of businesses that sign up for a conference call service is a good indicator of the health of that segment of the business. And when I see a greater number of sign ups than business in that area is probably picking up. Lately I have seen a number of real estate offices and associations signing up for our service. And after speaking to some Realtors I know it appears that the real estate market is picking up some steam after a tough couple of years. That is good news for all of us since that is one of the leading indicators in the economy.

Beyond the signing up for a conference call service I also notice the amount of conference calling done by my customers in general is a good indicator of the economy. And certainly over the past year the financial sector has been especially hard hit. So, companies that do mortgages for instance, just aren’t writing as many mortgages so they are not doing as many conference calls with their offices and vendors to talk about mortgages. And so forth. But again the good news is that the volume of conference calls is starting to pick up in a number of industries that have suffered over the past year or two. It has a ways to go, but in general based on the number of conference calls being done it appears that the economy is on the mend. Maybe we can thank the Yankees and conference calls for the good market over the next year!

www.zipconferencing.com

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Web Conferencing System Compatibility

November 5th, 2009

In the early days of web conferencing you actually had to install software on the PCs that you were going to connect so that they would be compatible with each other and be able to share screens. Then, along came services that required you to do the same thing, but only handled it a little more elegantly by doing a quick download onto your machine. The web conferencing industry leader, who shall remain nameless, still does it this way. Most of the other providers, Zip Conferencing included, have designed their web conferencing software using an open platform mentality using software that exists on most PCs already, Java. By using this philosophy the users do not need to download any software, unless they are missing Java, in order to join a web conference. And the system requirements for someone to participate in a web conference for Zip Conferencing’s service is pretty basic. The system requirements are as follow:

Hardware: Pentium III+, 256 MB RAM, DSL or cable modem
Operating System:
Presenters: Microsoft Windows 2000^®, Windows XP^®, Windows Server 2003^®, Windows Vista ^® , or Windows 7 ^®
Attendees: Microsoft Windows 2000^®, Windows XP^®, Windows Server 2003^®, Windows Vista^®, Windows 7 ^®, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3.0
Browser:Internet Explorer 6.0 or 7.0, Firefox 3.01 or later
Java: Sun Java 1.4.2_06, 1.5.0_06, 1.5.0_10, 1.6.0_01 or later
Download FREE http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/download/download.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash
JavaScript and Cookies: Must be enabled.
Flash: Version 9.0 or higher.
PresenterAppSharing test:To use the Appshare annotation feature, Presenters must be using Microsoft Windows 2000^®, Windows XP^®, Windows Vista^® or Windows Server 2003^®, with a color depth of 16-bit or higher.

To playback a conference recording:
To view and listen to an audio recording or a Web recording you must have the following:

Operating System: Windows 2000^®, Windows XP^®, Windows Server 2003, or Windows Vista^®
Browser:Internet Explorer 6.0 or 7.0, Firefox 3.01 or higher
Web Conferencing Player Download FREE http://zipdemo.conferencinghub.com/utilities/playbacktest.aspx
Windows Media Player or Real Player
OR

Download FREE http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/player/download/download.aspx

Download FREE http://www.real.com/

Two recent developments have further extended the reach of Zip Conferencing’s web conferencing platform. Our web conferencing service is now compatible with Mac operating systems and Windows 7. So now there is virtually no system out there that can’t join in a web conference.

www.zipconferencing.com

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Are Conference Calls Simply a Commodity?

November 3rd, 2009

When I first joined the conference call service industry 14 years ago the average cost of a conference call was around $.20 per minute per participant, today it is around $.07 per minute and it is fore casted to decline to around $.05 per minute average by the year 2013. What has driven this decline and are conference calls simply a commodity that should be judged on price alone?

The decline in the cost of conference calls has been driven over the years by competition in the industry. The lowering of the telecommunications costs associated with providing the conference calls has allowed conference call service companies to lower their rates in order to capture business from the competition. Also, the conference call service equipment has evolved over the years and the price of the equipment to provide conference calls has also come down in cost as the technology has gotten better. Like the long distance call itself, as the costs have declined and competition increased we have seen a constant pressure on conference call service companies to deliver conference calls at an ever decreasing revenue. Ultimately, as the prices continue to decline some of the service associated with conference call services will suffer unless people recognize that conference calls are not a commodity and are willing to pay a little more for the service part of it.

I have detailed in other blog posts about all that goes on behind the scenes at a conference call service company, so I won’t go into great detail here, but here is a quick summary. First, you need high quality telecommunications connections from a large carrier that provides redundancy in their network or you risk quality issues and outage possibilities. You then need to get the best conference call service equipment or you will not get the best results. Your own network needs to be constructed with fail-over and back up contingencies. And finally, you need to provide a level of customer service that provides your customers with a good customer experience. All of these things cost money to the conference call service providers. I don’t think that customers will be happy with a conference call service that has quality issues or doesn’t answer the phone when they need help or has an outage because the telecommunications carrier they use had a lengthy outage. So, customers want to pay as little as possible for a conference call but certainly do not want to have an inferior service.

So here we are in the conference call service industry. Given today’s available telecommunications rates which are not going down any more, the price of the conference call service equipment which is also not declining and the cost of personnel and I think you can see that the cost of the conference call is approaching the point where it cannot go any lower without sacrifice. And I think if you ask the customers you will find that although they like to save money, a conference call is important enough to their business that the quality, reliability and service really do matter. Conference calls are not simply a commodity.

www.zipconferencing.com

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Conference Calls help you Go Green

October 30th, 2009

I have addressed the money saving opportunities a number of times on this blog, but another great benefit that conference calls provide is the environmental benefits. Yes, conference calls can help you go green!

Conference calls do offer a number of benefits to it users in saving money and increasing productivity. Conference calls also give its users the ability to conduct their meetings without travel which is where the opportunity to help save the environment comes in. I am not aware of any study that has come up with but if you just use the numbers we know you come up with some staggering statistics. In 2009 it is estimated that there will be about 50 Billion minutes of audio conferencing alone done in just the US. If you use an average conference call of 5 people for 45 minutes you get approximately 225,000,000 conference calls being held with an average of 5 people. If the 5 participants in these conference calls only had to travel an average of five miles to get together face to face they would have to travel a total of 5.5 billion miles. And if you use an average of 18 miles per gallon of fuel you will see that they used a total of 300 million gallons of gasoline to travel to these meetings. That is the total amount of gasoline the US burns in a single day.

And I think if you think about the calculation you quickly realize that I used some pretty soft numbers, like the 5 miles average travel distance. I would bet that it is closer to 100 miles or more considering that people are doing conference calls on a global basis and most people would not even be able to drive to a meeting that has been replaced by a conference call. If you include flights and taxis and rental cars that would be involved in all these meetings I would not be surprised to hear that replacing 225 million conference calls with in-person meetings would save over a billion gallons of gasoline.

So, as you can see, using conference calls instead of doing in-person meetings doesn’t just save you money and time, but it also helps save the environment.

www.zipconferencing.com

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Conference Calls for Small Businesses

October 29th, 2009

According to a lot of the pundits out there, including President Obama, there is a surge in the number of new businesses that are getting started. This is because people have been laid off from their existing jobs and are starting out on their own instead of trying to find a job which is difficult at best right now. And with the start of all these businesses a lot of entrepreneurs are trying to figure out how to promote their businesses and stretch their precious capital. This is just another reason why conference calls continue to grow, because they are a great way to reduce expenses but still get the job done.

New small businesses need to get their ideas to new customers, investors and prospects without breaking the bank. One of the ways to do this is with a conference call instead of the expense of traveling. It has been well documented in this blog how companies are saving thousands of dollars by choosing to conduct a conference call or a web conference instead of travelling to an in-person meeting. Nowhere is it more important to save money than in a new small business. Most small businesses just don’t have the money to be travelling around the country. But with a conference call and a web conference a small business owner can present their product or service to potential customers around the country without leaving their office. And the cost of doing a conference call or web conference these days is very affordable to even the small business owner. In fact, with the advent of the Internet which has allowed small businesses to sell their products and services globally, the need to present to customers in remote locations has increased even more. The ability to present to people from great distances using conference calls has expanded the marketplace for small businesses. No longer are their goods and services limited to a local area. The technology now available has literally helped some small businesses survive where they otherwise would not. A conference call and web conferencing can also make a small business look bigger in the eyes of the customer by allowing them to present to anyone, anywhere. And their office is simply a PC and a telephone.

If you have a small business and you are not taking advantage of conference calls and web conferencing in your business I urge you to examine your processes and try using the technology available to help expand your business and reduce your costs. It may just make the difference in the life or death of your business.

www.zipconferencing.com

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Web Conferencing Saves a Company Thousands of Dollars

October 28th, 2009

I know I have blogged about conference calls and web conferencing and how it can save you money. But I thought it would be useful to use a real life example to illustrate just how dramatic the savings can be when you choose to conduct a meeting using a web conference instead of an in person meeting.

A customer had an instance where they really needed to go to Hong Kong from New Jersey to have a meeting with a new customer to discuss the implementation of their services. And under normal conditions this type of meeting in person is very typical for this customer and they would not use a web conference for the implementation phase of their service. But in this case the customer had an issue where they wanted to have a pre-m eeting with this vendor and discuss how the implementation would work with one of their contacts before they had the actual meeting. So, the customer requested that the vendor come out and have a meeting and then return to have the actual implementation meeting. This meant that two employees would need to fly from New Jersey to Hong Kong which is a 16 hour flight for a four hour meeting and then return to New Jersey only to go back to Hong Kong the following week. And for those of you who have not had to do this flight it is not only long, it is expensive. It costs $1,800 for a coach seat and almost $9,000 for a business class seat each. The bottom line for the vendor was that the four hour meeting was going to cost about $5,000 and several days of productivity from two employees.

In steps Web Conferencing to save the day. The vendor convinced the customer that they could do a web conference for the pre-meeting at least and spend as much time as is necessary to go through the implementation planning. The customer agreed and the web conference went off without a hitch and made the customer feel comfortable about the upcoming meeting. The customer and the vendor were able to interact on the web conference just like they were in the same conference room and accomplish everything that needed to be done. The meeting ended up lasting about 3 hours and cost the vendor $29 using Zip Conferencing’s web conference service. Using web conferencing saved the vendor $5,000 and allowed them to conduct the meeting without any sacrifice in results and also saved a lot of time for the employees increasing the company’s productivity.

These kind of events happen all the time and is the reason that web conferencing is growing so fast. Customers immediately experience the real life benefits of conducting a web conference instead of an in-person meeting.

www.zipconferencing.com

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Conference Call Telephones

October 27th, 2009

One of the best reasons to use a conference call service instead of trying to do it yourself is the quality of the connections. A conference call service company uses equipment that provides full duplex transmission between all of the parties on the conference call. That means that more than one person can talk at the same time and all of the voices will be heard equally the same across the conference call. It is just like being in the same room together. What people experience when they are on a conference call, however, may not be the same thing. That is because many times the terminal equipment or telephone the participants are using are not full duplex. So you see, the conference call is only as good as the telephones that are connected to it.

For many years there have been a handful of manufacturers of high end telephone equipment that uses similar technology as conference call equipment and provides a full duplex transmission through the speakerphone. If you have ever been in a conference room you have probably noticed one of these funny shaped telephones sitting on the conference table. The telephone is designed to pick up voices from around the conference table so many times they have a triangular or star shape to them. And sometimes the conference speakerphone has been installed in such a manner to allow a separate microphone at each station at the table to allow individual participants to mute themselves at their seat. The main mission of these funny looking telephones is to provide a full duplex speakerphone for the conference room. That way the participants who connect to the conference call can hear everyone in the conference room and the conference room participants can talk freely without interruption and converse with conference call participants just like they are in the room together.

Without a full duplex speakerphone, once a participant has taken the talk path no one else can talk until that person stops talking. This can make for a very frustrating experience on a conference call. If you are unable to add discussion points while someone is talking the whole concept of being able to interact at a distance using a conference call has been lost.

There are a number of manufacturers of these types of telephones. The one manufacturer that everyone is familiar with is the Polycom. They were the first to develop and manufacturer this type of specialized conference call phone and have become the Kleenex of the full duplex speakerphone. Many times people will simply refer to the telephone as a Polycom regardless of the manufacturer. As long you make sure that the speakerphone has full duplex capabilities you will have a good experience using a speakerphone for your conference calls.

www.zipconferencing.com

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From Russia with Conference Calls

October 26th, 2009

I guess the cold war has really officially ended. Zip Conferencing now offers local number access for participants of your conference calls from Moscow and St. Petersburg. That’s right, you can access our conference calls from Russia.

The world continues to shrink and businesses continue to expand so it is only normal to have enough demand for conference call services in places all over the world including Russia. In fact there are participants on our conference calls from all corners of the globe. That is why over time we have continues to expand the coverage of our network to include access from every major city in the world. There are a couple of ways to access conference calls from outside the United States.

Toll Number Access – The most common way to access a conference call from outside the United States has always been by using the toll or local number provided with a conference call. That is because the toll free number is not accessible from outside the Untied States, but you can call a local number in the United States from anywhere. The one drawback to this type of access is that the participants have to pay the long distance charges to access the call from outside the Untied States. Which if it is an internal company call this may not be a bad thing, but you certainly don’t want a customer or prospect to have to pay to join your call.

International Local Access – Zip Conferencing provides access through local numbers in a number of large cites internationally. That way if a participant is in that city they simply have to call a local number in their city to get on a conference call in the United States. Thay way they also don’t need to pay any long distacne charges to access the conference call. It is just like any other local call to them.

International Toll Free Access – For participants who are not located in a major city that has a local access number, they can dial into the conference call using an International Toll Free access number. No matter where they are in that country they can dial the toll free access number in their country and not incur any charges to access the conference call. The only drawback to this service is that it is the most expensive way to access an international conference call.

The bottom line is that there are now many options on how to access a conference call from an international location. And now with the addition of Moscow and St. Petersburg, there are very few locations that do not have an access number.

www.zipconferencing.com

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Conference Call Issues Unmasked

October 23rd, 2009

Being in the conference call industry for over 14 years I have seen a lot of issues with conference calls. And many of them are directly related to the conference call service company. The technology to make a conference call is sophisticated and involves many components that can fail. So naturally, no matter what measures a conference call company takes to prevent a conference call issue, they can still happen. Luckily, over the years the technology has gotten better, and the other components have also gotten better. Today, the conference calls are clearer and more reliable than ever. So why do people still have problems on conference calls. Some of the issues that occur on a conference call will never go away, because the issue is caused by the people on the conference call and that will never change. Here are some of the common issues you will find on a conference call.

Echo – Echo on a conference call can be caused by many things, including issues with the telephone carrier. But these days the issues that used to occur on a long distance call have largely been reduced to the point where it is unlikely that the long distance telecommunications carrier was the culprit. Usually echo on a conference call is caused by one of the participants having more than one connection on the conference call up in close proximity to another connection. Sometimes someone in a conference room with a speaker phone will also have another phone connected to the conference call. To eliminate the echo you simply need to mute the offending connection and it will go away.
Noise on the call – It is not impossible for the telecommunications carrier or conference call service provider to have an issue, but these days the biggest introduction of noise onto a conference call is one of the participants. Usually it is someone on a cellular phone and they are either in a moving vehicle or in a high noise situation like an airport. The best way to eliminate the noise is for that participant to mute their line until they need to speak on the conference call and then they can just unmute themselves.
Hold Music on the call – Many people do not realize what their phone system sounds like to a caller when they place that caller on hold. So, usually what happens is a participant will step away for a minute and place their phone on hold while they are in the conference call. This will introduce whatever is on their phone system onto the entire conference call. The way to eliminate this issue is to use the mute function in the conference call instead of placing your phone on hold.
Too little or too much volume – Sometimes a connection will have a low or high volume when connected to the conference call. This can happen for many reasons. Conference call service equipment adjusts connections automatically to compensate for different levels but you can also adjust the volume of individual participants from within the conference call.

So, as you can see most of the issues on a conference call these days are caused by the participants themselves. And fixing these issues is usually not a big problem. To assist with the correction of conference call issues, Zip Conferencing has operators available 24/7 from within the conference call to help identify and eliminate these problems. You can reach an operator anytime by pressing *0 on your telephone from within the conference call.

www.zipconferencing.com

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A Conference Call Service for Today

October 21st, 2009

If you were going to sit back and design a conference call service, what would it look like? What features would it have? Given all the options in the service and technology industries you could really put together a service that delivers high quality conference calls at a low cost and contained all the convenient attributes you have come to expect in a service company these days. Well, that is just what we did when we designed the Zip Conferencing conference call service. Here is a list of some of the things you should expect in a conference call service designed for today.

High Quality – Nothing but the latest conference call service equipment connected directly to the best telecommunications carriers. The entire conference call service network designed with back up power and equipment to insure reliability.
Full Featured – All of the features you would expect to find in a conference call service like line muting, call recording and roll call. And even some features you may not expect like the ability to record your conference call and download a copy.
Personalization – The ability to design your own personal web space for conference calls and have your own greeting for your conference calls. You can even upload your logo and customize the colors of your web interface to match your company’s.
Account Access – The account access and convenience of an ATM with the ability to have control over all aspects of your account. You can add Moderators and conferences and control conference call options like music on hold.
Personal Service – The ability to talk to a person 24/7 if you have any questions. Our representatives are here to assist you whenever you have any questions about how to use the service. Our technical representatives will assist you and your participants onto a conference call and can even assist you from within your conference call.
Flexible Pricing Plans – An easy to understand pricing plan that includes options for low and high volume users. Our Pay-As-You-Go conference call service pricing plan has no recurring monthly charges so you only pay for what you use.
No Long Term Contracts – A service that keeps its customers because it delivers great service at a great price and not because customers have to sign long term contracts.

Zip Conferencing provides all this and more. We are proud to have designed a conference call service that is designed for today’s market. If you compare all of the features and services that Zip Conferencing provides I think you will agree that there is no better option in the market today for a conference call service.

www.zipconferencing.com

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Conference Calls are Still a Great Value

October 19th, 2009

There have been many predictions ofValue the conference calls’ demise over the years. First, the video conference was going to be on everyone’s desktop and people wouldn’t bother with regular conference calls anymore. Then services came along that purported to provide free conference calls. Then everyone was going to be speaking into their PCs and wouldn’t use a phone anymore. And on, and on. The fact that conference calls done over the telephone are not only still here but doing so well is the basic fact that there is no better value if you want to have a high quality connection and be able to speak to a group of people at a distance.

Video conferencing has been around for a long time. So why aren’t we all looking at each other during our calls already. There are probably many reasons. But first and foremost it is not as easy as a conference call and not necessarily available to everyone. I mean these days it is hard to buy a PC without a webcam attached, but many people don’t use them or know how to use them. And the quality of the connection still has a lot to be desired. If anything, the call can be more distracting than anything. And then you have the whole social aspect. The fact that most people don’t feel comfortable having their image in front of themselves and broadcast to many people. It will be quite a while before video conferencing is as easy to use as a telephone.

I’ve addressed the concept of the free conference call in other posts, but in short nothing is really free. You simply can’t get a high quality conference call with toll free access for nothing. And toll free access for your participants is simply the right thing to do. And if you want to make sure the call is there when you need it to be and want a good sound would you trust it to a free service?

And we are also still a long way away from having an integrated device on our desktop that does all of our phone tasks as well. Can you do it today? Of course, but the complexities of getting it done is worse than getting the video camera to work and if you still have to connect to people using a telephone you still have to connect to the telephone network to do a conference call so you really aren’t gaining anything unless you eliminate that aspect.

One of the big drivers for new technology is saving money. Today, the costs of conference calls have come down to the point where it is difficult to justify putting up with any inconvenience to try to save a little money. Let’s face it, everyone has a telephone and that is really all you need to have and know how to use in order to join a conference call. And you will get a clear, high quality connection without any issues.

So, given all the choices that are out there, conference calls continue to grow because they still deliver the best value for the money.

www.zipconferencing.com

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Web Conference Recording

October 16th, 2009

Being able to record a conference call has been around for a while. It is fairly simple to press a command on your phone and initiate a recording of a conference call and then allow people to dial into a system to listen to the recording or download a copy of the recording to share with others. A web conference, however, presents a different set of issues. The web conference is on one platform and the audio portion of your web conference may be on another platform. In fact, in the early days of web conferencing, the only way to record the web conference and the audio of that conference was to have a separate recording of the audio portion made using an adaptor that plugged into your PC and fed the audio portion back into the recording for the web conference. That was fun. Customers could not believe the gyrations they had to perform to record a web conference.

Today, recording a web conference is very simple and it provides a recording that is full audio and web and can easily be played back for participants. Zip Conferencing’s web conference service has a one click mechanism to start the recording of both the audio and web conference portion of the conference call. The recording of the web conference can be stored and viewed by you or your participants or you can download a copy of the web conference recording and distribute it as you see fit. Like many aspects of web conferencing, as the recording has been simplified there are not only more recordings of web conferences being done, but people are thinking of ways to use the service that we in the industry never thought of ourselves.

Why hold the same seminar over and over again for different audiences? If the subject matter for your web conference is not going to change you can just record the material once and then invite different people to observe the web conference to absorb the material. Maybe there is a web conference when the participants were especially intriguing. Record the meeting and you can share the insightful observations of one audience with another. If you cannot attend a meeting live, but you still need to present the material you can record the meeting ahead of time and then share with your audience later.

The ability to easily record a web conference with the audio portion of the call has opened up a world of possibilities.

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Conference Calling goes Mainstream

October 15th, 2009

I have had the fortune to be involved in a few industries as they have gone from the early adoption phase to the accepted norm stage. I was in the telecommunications industry shortly after the divestiture of AT&T. I was in the paging industry as it grew wildly and then died just as quickly with the adoption of the cell phone. And then I joined the conference call industry and over the past 14+ years I have seen the conference call service industry go from a niche application mostly used by the legal industry to a widely used business tool. Conference calling has truly reached the level of mainstream acceptance.

I am not sure how an expert would judge whether conference calling has reached mainstream acceptance, but I am sure the growth of the industry is certainly one of the factors. And no one can deny that the conference calling industry has been fortunate to realize exponential growth over the past 14 years. One of the biggest factors for the growth in the conference calling industry is the change to a reservationless system where you don’t need an operator or schedule a conference call with anyone. The ease of use of conference call technology has also contributed to the growth.

When I started in the conference calling industry we received many calls from people at businesses who were trying to understand how to get multiple parties on the conference call and they really were not familiar with the technology. Now we receive calls from people who have inevitably been on a conference call but maybe they have never hosted a conference call before, but now plan to use the service. The method of conference calling has become somewhat standardized and everyone seems to know what the experience will be like on a conference call. So, now we spend a lot more time telling customers about the benefits of our service over others and educating them on the small differences between conference call service companies instead of educating them on how a conference call works.

But probably one of the biggest indicators I have seen in the past few years that conference calling has hit the mainstream is the use of conference calls for personal use. Because so many people have been exposed at work to conference calls, they are now finding applications in their personal lives to use conference calling. The wide availability and lower costs of conference calling have really helped this new area of applications. We have had people use conference calling for wedding and event planning like family reunions where the participants are not able to meet physically. Recently we even had a family use a conference call so that the missing family members could attend a grave side service because they all could not attend the service in person. I think that the conference call industry will continue to grow with the advent of new applications as more and more people think up new ways that they can use conference calling to their benefit.

www.zipconferencing.com

that is widely used

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The Difference in Conference Call Services is Service

October 13th, 2009

Since I have been in the conference call service industry for over 14 years, I have tried to share some of my knowledge of what is behind the curtain at a conference call service company. And there are a number of differences that you can and cannot see when you look at different conference call service companies. But many times you will never feel the difference unless you have an issue with a conference call service company you may not notice if they have a back up system, etc. What you can feel and should feel right from the start is service.

With the declining rates for conference calls many conference call companies are looking for ways to cut costs just like any other industry. And in the conference call industry the two biggest expenses are the telecommunication costs and the cost of personnel. Since the telecommunications costs are near the bottom, the only place to really save any money is on personnel. The problem is that customers want a low rate but they also want to be able to talk to a person if they have questions or problems. So, when a conference call company takes away a customers ability to talk to a person there is a definite drop in the level of service the customer receives. That is why at Zip Conferencing I have refused to reduce the number of personnel that interface with the customer. In fact, I continue to grow that staff in relationship to the number of customers because I am a customer myself and I know how much I value the availability of a human being when I have a question or problem.

Here at Zip Conferencing, there is a person available to speak to you 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. And every account is assigned an Account Manager to help them with their conference calls. That way each customer will have a positive experience and I believe the best way to build a business is through referrals. How does the saying go? Have a good customer experience and you will tell 3 people, but have a bad customer experience and you will tell 10 people. So, the long term benefits of providing exceptional customer service in a conference call service company easily outweigh the short term economics of slashing personnel to attempt to improve profitability.

www.zipconferencing.com

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Conference Calls help make Holidays happen

October 12th, 2009

Sitting here on Columbus Day and working, as I always have, has made me think about all the holidays I have had to work and how conference calls have helped make them happen. It seems over the past ten years especially, the pressure to produce more with less in the American work place has made it normal to work on holidays. And it seems there are fewer and fewer holidays that we celebrate. So how do you keep up with work expectations and still make time for family and friends on the holidays. It isn’t the only answer certainly, but conference calls have save more than one holiday for me.

Here you are, it is Columbus Day and you have planned to take a personal day or floating holiday to spend with your family because the company you work for doesn’t recognize Columbus Day as a paid company holiday. And just as you are heading out of the door on the Friday before the holiday you are asked to hold a meeting to discuss a very important topic that is time sensitive and must happen on Monday, your day off. How can you manage to keep everyone happy and still keep your day off? Why a conference call of course! The beauty of technology world we live in is the ability to conduct business from just about anywhere. As long as you can get a signal on your cell phone and an internet connection, most people can continue to do all of their job functions without missing a beat. And a conference call allows you to put that technology to work and conduct a group meeting from a distance without sacrificing anything. With a conference call you can meeting with your group just as you would in person and use a web conference to further enhance your meeting with pictures as well.

So, enjoy your holidays. Even when something comes up that requires you to meeting with a group of people you can still have your meeting without physically having the need to go to your office by using a conference call.

www.zipconferencing.com

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Conference Call Services with No Contracts

October 3rd, 2009

I have been in this business for a long time and in a service business like this I feel it is important to build a conference call service that customers will appreciate so that they will continue to use the conference call service for a long time. And this philosophy has paid off over the years as customers have referred other customers to my conference call service company and thus the business has grown. What surprises me, in this day and age with all the competition available, that some conference call service companies can make you sign a long term contract in order to buy their service.

Now don’t get me wrong, as a business person I certainly understand the value of a contract with a customer, but in the end a customer will get out of a contract if they want to. So, what is the value of having someone sign a contract for your conference call service if they are simply going to leave you when the contract expires because they don’t like your service. It seems to me that you really are only as good as your last conference call and as a conference call service provider you should be confident enough in the level of your service that you don’t need to strap people down in order to be confident that they are not going to leave you.

Another reason I feel conference call service companies should be flexible with customers is sometimes customers don’t need to run a conference call every month or sometimes their business needs change and as a service provider I feel a conference call service provider should be aware of that.

Anyway, as a customer I would certainly be wary of any service that I am going to subscribe to that makes me sign a contract right away. With Zip Conferencing there are no contracts and no long term commitments for our conference call services and I think that is the way it should be.

www.zipconferencing.com

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Conference Calls in Education

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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?

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

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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Conference Call Access – Toll or Toll Free

August 31st, 2009

There are two basic ways to connect to a conference call, through a toll or toll free phone number. Which one is best for you?

Originally, the way you were connected to a conference call was to have the conference call operator call out to you and connect you to the conference call. You didn’t have to worry about access numbers or codes, you simply waited for the call from the operator to come to you and connect you to the conference call. These types of calls still exist, but they are generally expensive since an operator is involved in the process. They are also not very convenient or even realistic in today’s environment when you could just as easily be joining the conference call from your cell phone while travelling. So, when the reservationless type conference call was invented where you dial an access number and put in a passcode to connect to the conference call there were two main ways to connect, a toll free access number or a toll access number. Ten years ago the cost of telecommunications was much higher and the cost of toll free access was much higher. So, having an alternative made a lot of sense to some people. Let’s examine both w2ays to connect to a conference call and see if having the local or toll connection still makes sense.

Toll or Local Access – A toll or local access number for a conference call is simply a number that is local to where the conference call equipment is located. Since the conference call service company does not have to pay any long distance charges to get you connected to the equipment they can offer a lower rate to you. Another advantage of this type of conference call access number is the fact that you access this number from anywhere in the world. The disadvantage of this type of conference call access number is that you and your participants have to pay a toll charge to call this number. Let’s say the conference call equipment is in Boston, MA and you are calling from California. You will pay your long distance phone company a per minute charge to be connected tot he conference call quipment and the toll access charge to the conference call service company. If you do not want you customer, prospect or employee to incur any charges for attending your conference call then you should not use this type of number.

Toll Free Access – A toll free access number for a conference call is an 800, 866 or 877 number that you would dial to connect to the conference call. The conference call service company is typically going to charge a little more for this type of access because they are paying the long distance charges to connect you to the conference call. The advantage on this type of number is that you or your participants do not have to pay any access charges to your long distance company to access the conference call. This type of call is good if you do not want your participants to incur any hcarges to attend your conference call.

As prices for long distance have declined over the years there has become a smaller difference between the cost of local versus toll free access. Today some companies, like Zip Conferencing, have rates so low that there is no difference between the cost of local and toll free access to the conference call. And with rates less than 5 cents per minute it is hard to justify the reason to go with a local number since all of your participants will have to pay to get to your conference call. The most convenient and now the lowest cost method to access a conference call these days is using a toll free access number. www.zipconferencing.com

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Conference Call Quality

August 28th, 2009

There are a fair number of conference call service providers in the market today offering conference call services at some pretty low rates. Among these conference call service providers are a host of different features available for conference call users to choose from. I have touched on some of these features in previous posts, but what is really important about a conference call? The most important aspect of any conference call is that is work flawlessly. And even though this is taken for granted, if the conference call service provider does not design their network correctly you can have lots of problems.

The first thing that you need to have is availability. To make sure that your conference call is available when you go to use it, the conference call service provider needs to build redundancy and capacity into their network. Conference call equipment is very complicated and like any piece of high tech equipment can have issues from time to time. If you use a conference call service provider that does not have provisions for redundant equipment and the conference call equipment hosting your conference call has a problem you will have a problem. The capacity of the conference call service provider network can also be a problem if they get unexpected traffic on their network.

The telecommunications network that your conference call service provider connects to is an important factor as well. If the conference call service provider chooses a telecommunications provider solely on price, they may be playing with fire if their provider does not have a network with sufficient back up and networking options. If a back hoe cuts a fiber link do they have a way to route around it and continue service without interruption? If the telecommunications provider that connects to your conference call service provider has an issue and can’t get your call around the issue your conference call can’t happen.

The conference call is like the light in the conference room. You just assume it will work, but if it doesn’t you cannot hold your meeting. The network and equipment used by Zip Conferencing has been designed with one priority in mind, the quality of the service. Because no matter what the price is for the service, if the service is not available and of high quality then customers will not be satisfied. After 15 years of providing conference call services I understand that the quality of the service is the foundation of success in being a conference call service provider. www.zipconferencing.com

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Conference Call Service or Do-It-Yourself?

August 27th, 2009

There have been do-it-yourself conference call service appliances available on the market for many years. And like the conference call service pricing, the appliances have gotten less and less expensive. So does it make financial sense to buy an in house solution or continue to use a conference call service?

There are several issues to consider if you think that you do enough conference calls to think about buying an in house solution. The biggest reason to even think about firing your conference call service provider is cost. And most of the things to consider revolve around some aspect of cost. What are some of the costs when you want to do conference calls yourself?

Cost of the Conference Call Appliance
Telecommunications Cost
Maintenance Cost
Personnel Cost

Cost of the Conference Call Appliance – The cost of a conference call appliance can be anywhere from one thousand to hundreds of thousands of dollars. The equipment used by conference call service providers, like Zip Conferencing, is hundreds of thousands of dollars. But if you want to try to do-it-yourself with a lower cost piece of conference call equipment your are going to pay at least a thousand dollars for it.

Telecommunications Cost – The biggest cost to providing a conference call service is the telecommunications cost. You have to get circuits terminated to the equipment and there is a monthly cost to that and then you have to pay the variable cost of the calls themselves.

Maintenance Cost – Buying a piece of conference call equipment is just the beginning. Next you will need to pay a maintenance fee to the manufacturer of the equipment to remain up to date with the software that runs the machine. Like any other computer on your network, you will need keep the machine up to date if you expect to have the latest security, patches anf eatures to keep the conference call equipment up to date.

Personnel Cost – And lastly, you will need to have someone in your company assigned to maintaining the conference call equipment. No matter how self service the conference call equipment is, you will still need to maintain it and administer it. If someone in your company is performing this function there is a cost to you.

So, let’s say you can pay $.01 per minute for toll free traffic to the conference call equipment. On the surface sounds like you could buy a piece of conference call equipment and save money. The circuits for the telecommunications connections are at least $1,000 per month for a T-1 which only provides 24 circuits. So if you want more than 24 total conference call connections at a time in your company you will need more than 1 circuit. Maintenance on the equipment is going to be at hundreds or thousands of dollars a year depending on the equipment and then someone is going to need to administer the conference call equipment.

You can see how your per minute cost for conference calls can quickly get over $.05 per minute and that is if you do thousands of minutes per month. It is hard to beat using a conference call service when you get the latest features, no maintenance and 24/7 support for less than $.05 per minute. A conference call service provider like Zip Conferencing is a better choice for anyone needing a conference call service. www.zipconferencing.com

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Conference Calls – The Public Service Application

August 26th, 2009

Conference calls are used for many reasons in business and personal walks of life. But the need to speak with a group of people is not uniques to business or to family needs. There are also a number of applications that apply to the public service sector and assist them in communicating to a large displaced group.

Because conference calls provide the ability to instantly communicate with a group of people, they are especially good for emergency communications. You can have a conference call that is all set up for the personnel in a city or state governemnt to dial into in the event of a natural disaster for instance. The conference call enable the same message to be delivered to multiple people at the same time ensuring accurate and timely communications. In the event of a disaster, this kind of timely communication is essential to insuring the public’s safety.

Another application that many people would not think of for conference calls is the application within the religious community. Today, all denominations of religious belief have found confernece calls to be useful when trying to continue to provide religious services to people that are unable to attend their church in person. This service provided through a conference call is a welcome means of communication to people that are shut in their homes due to disablity or sickness. The comfort provided by their church in these times is immmeasurable.

Another institution that benefits from conducting regular conference call is the educational system. At all levels of education the ability to communicate information to a large audience via a conference call is essential in today’s environment. Schools use conference calls to communicate to parents and within their staff to stay current on school events, teacher issues and student forums.

Another institution that benefits greatly from conference calls is the press. Not only does the news media use conference calls regularly amongst their staff to communicate about daily issues, but they also rely on conference calls to get informed about daily events from the people generating newsworthy content. The ability to communicate a newsworthy event to a large audience of press people via a conference call insures that all of the press people get the same story at the same time.

Conference calls benefit people in all walks of life including many applications in the public service sector. www.zipconferencing.com

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