Posts Tagged ‘Advantage’

What is a Web Conference Call?

Friday, June 10th, 2011

Conference Call Service Providers that have web conferencing  in their service offering provide the audio component of the web meeting in a couple of ways.  So I thought it would be helpful to explain what a web conference call was and the advantages and disadvantages of each.

  • VOIP conference call – One way to connect with your participants during a web conference call is to have the audio portion of the conference call go through the PC along with the web conferencing component.  The advantage to this is there is typically no additional cost to having parties connect using this method.  The disadvantages are that some people are not set up to listen through their PC or they are at work and can’t disturb the people around them by playing sound through their PC.  And most people do not have the ability to talk through their PC either.  That means it will be difficult to have your audience participate in the conference call.  Another disadvantage is that you are using up bandwidth by talking over the same Internet connection as the web conference.  This can create additional quality issues with the audio portion or web portion of the web conference call.
  • Local Access Number – Most web conferencing providers will provide a local access number to connect to the audio portion of the web conference call over a telephone.  The advantage to this method is that you are allowing participants to connect using a telephone and they don’t have to be on their PC to hear the conference call.  If someone is on the road and can’t access their PC they can still participate.  Also, the quality issue is now solved by separating the PC traffic from the voice traffic.  The disadvantage is that participants have to dial a local number somewhere and may get charged by their telephone company to connect to your conference call.
  • Toll Free Access Number – The toll free access number using a regular telephone conference call that is integrated to the web conference incorporates the advantages of using a regular telephone call with the convenience of a toll free connection.  Now you know that your participants will not see any hidden charges when they connect to your web conference call.

So when you are shopping for a web conferencing service provider you may want to pay attention to the web conference call connection methods they provide.  Zip Conferencing provides local and toll free access numbers using a regular telephone conference call for the maximum quality and convenience.

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Discounted Conference Calling Services

Thursday, February 25th, 2010

What goes into the cost of a conference call service?  How good are discounted conference calling services?  Does cheaper conference calls mean bad quality conference calls?  Not necessarily.  If you understand the cost model of a conference call service company you will understand how you can get discounted conference calling services without sacrificing quality and reliability.

  • Sales Cost – A conference call service company that has been in existence for a while probably grew using typical Sales and Marketing efforts with salespeople doing cold calls to produce sales.  That means the conference call service company had to pay salespeople and probably has sales offices around the country or a telemarketing center which has fixed costs that must pay.  A newer conference call service company offering discounted conference calling services can take advantage of internet marketing without the need for a large sales force or remote offices.
  • Operations Cost – The older conference call service equipment requires more personnel to operate than newer equipment.  Operators needed to man the switch and baby site the equipment more than today’s equipment.  A larger group of operators and office space adds costs to the conference call service company.  A newer conference call service company offering discounted conference calling services can avoid some of these costs through more modern, automated equipment that requires less space and maintenance. 
  • Customer Service Cost – An older conference call service company has existing procedures and probably has not automated their operation too much over time.  A newer conference call service company offering discounted conference calling services can automate just about everything and provide the customer the ability to service their own account which reduces the number of customer service people required to service their customers thus reducing cost.
  • Back Office Cost – The older conference call service companies have not automated their billing, collections and other activities and have a higher cost to operate.  A newer conference call service company offering discounted conference calling services can automate billing, collections and virtually all back office operations which greatly reduces the cost to the company.

All of the efforts to reduce cost in a conference call service company do not take away from the quality of the conference call service itself if you do it right.  At Zip Conferencing, you get all of the same services at a discounted rate because we have designed and built a company to provide a high quality service but eliminated a lot of the cost associated with an older conference call service company.

www.zipconferencing.com

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