Posts Tagged ‘Conference Bridge’

Looking for a Conference Call Bridge? Really?

Monday, December 12th, 2011

I remember when large companies that did a lot of conference calls would naturally think about getting a conference call bridge of their own because they could save a lot of money over time instead of using a service.  This made a lot of sense 15 years ago when the average rate for a conference call service was 50 cents per minute.  Companies that were spending literally millions of dollars a year on a conference call service could buy a conference call bridge for $100,000+ and make up the amount spent in capital dollars rather quickly.  But now that the rates have come down for a conference call service does it still make any sense to look for a conference call bridge?  Here are a few things to think about if you are shopping for a conference call bridge.

  • Cost of the Equipment – The cost of a conference call bridge has also come down just like the rates for conference calls.  But as I point out, the cost of the conference call bridge is just the first cost you will need to pay.  The cost of the equipment varies greatly as well depending on the type of equipment you get and whether you are going to connect it to an IP connection or regular phone circuits.  But even if someone gives you a conference call bridge you may want to think again before you accept it because the cost of the equipment is a one time cost but the other costs will be with you forever.
  • Telecommunications Cost- Once you have a conference call bridge you need to conenct it to the network so people can talk to each other.  No matter what type of connection you have for the equipment you will need to dedicate circuits to the bridge.  The cost of the circuits is a monthly constant and then you need to pay for the usage on the circuits because even with an IP type connection you still have to have telephone numbers come into the circuits and if you want a toll free connection that is another factor.
  • Maintenance Cost – The equipment, like any PC or similar piece of equipment will need to be maintained.  The company that sold you the equipment may discount the equipment itself but they will always get you with the maintenance.  You really can’t let maintenance lapse as you will want support if somethings goes wrong.
  • Personnel Cost – Even an automated type conference call bridge is going to eat up personnel resources in your company.  Someone needs to maintain the equipment, add users, troubleshoot, etc.  So you need to make sure you have someone in your company that is technically savvy enough to deal with all of the elements involved.

As you can see, buying and maintaining your own conference call bridge is not an easy proposition.  It is easy to see why the conference call services industry continues to grow.   You are generally much better concentrating on what you do best and leaving the conference calls to the experts like Zip Conferencing.

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Discounted Conference Calling Services can be Reliable

Thursday, November 3rd, 2011

If you are looking at getting a conference call service provider for your business and you have looked at some of the long distance carriers and other providers that still charge 10 cents or more a minute you may be a little skeptical of discounted conference calling services.  But just because the service is less expensive does not necessarily mean that the service is of a lower quality or less reliable.  You do still need to be careful as some of the conference call providers have not taken the same steps to ensure quality and reliability like Zip Conferencing has done.  Here are some of the areas that any discounted conference calling services company needs to pay attention to in order to maintain high quality and reliability.

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    • Back Up Power - All of the equipment for conference calling services should be connected to to battery and generator back up power. This makes sure that no matter what power outages are experienced at their place of business your conference calls will not be impacted.  Zip Conferencing uses back up power systems on all of its equipment and can maintain power to these systems for an indefinite amount of time. 
    • Back Up Systems – A key component for conference calling services is the conference call bridge. This is the equipment that creates the conference calls from independent callers into the system.  It is an expensive proposition to maintain back up equipment so many discounted conference calling services companies do not take this step.  But if something happens to this equipment your conference call will be affected.  Zip Conferencing has designed their conference calling services with back up conference call bridges so that if there is ever an issue the traffic can be redirected to the back up system.
    • Telecommunications Redundancy – What happens if the long distance carrier used by the discounted conference calling services company has an outage?  If they do not have another carrier as back up you will not be able to get to your conference call.  Zip Conferencing uses multiple telecommunications carriers that insures that if one of the carriers experiences a disastrous outage they can still perform your conference call. 
    • Support – One of the areas that discounted conference calling services will differ is with support.  You may not need support very often but when you do you need it to be there for you.  Zip Conferencing offers conference calling services with an award winning support team. Our operators are monitoring our conference calling services 24/7 and can even join on your conference call if you need assistance.  No mater what time of day you can access support and get the help you need.

So, discounted conference calling services can be reliable but you need to investigate and make sure that discounted doesn’t mean your conference call quality or reliability will suffer.

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Why doesn’t Zip Conferencing offer a Free Conference Call Service?

Thursday, July 7th, 2011

When I started Zip Conferencing I formed the company around a strong foundation of offering a high quality, reliable conference call service with outstanding customer service.  And the idea of offering a free conference call service just did not match up well with these principals.  So why doesn’t Zip Conferencing offer a free conference call service?

  • Quality – The first thing to suffer when a company offers a free conference call service is the quality of the conference call.  In order to be able to provide a free conference call service the conference call service provider needs to keep their costs way down.  That is because they only earn money from the local phone company where their equipment is and the rate they earn is very small.  That is because the conference call service provider makes money on a free conference call by getting paid to terminate long distance calls on the local provider’s network.  And you and all of your participants are required to dial long distance to get to the conference call bridge.  The local phone company is paid by the long distance carriers to terminate calls and they in turn pay the free conference call service company.  So, typically the conference call equipment is not the best available and many times it is VOIP based and believe me you will hear the difference.  Zip Conferencing uses the latest conference call service equipment directly connected to the long distance carrier networks to insure the highest quality conference calls possible.
  • Reliability- Quality and reliability go hand and hand and if you are not using the best equipment you tend to have more issues than if your equipment is top of the line.  In addition, to keep costs down the free conference call service companies usually do not have as extensive a back up network in place in case there is an issue.  It cost money to have back up equipment on standby and to have back up generators and other systems in place to insure the conference call service is in place when you need it.  Zip Conferencing has back up systems and power in place for the highest standard in reliability.
  • Cost- Lastly is the cost.  But it is Free right?  Actually no.  A free conference call service makes you call a long distance number to connect to it.  So you and all of your participants are going to pay a long distance charge to connect to the conference call.  Do you really want your participants to have to pay to get on your conference call?  This hidden cost is the main reason to avoid using a free conference call service.  With rates for toll free conference calls as low as Zip Conferencing’s why make your participants pay?

So why should Zip Conferencing offer a free confernece call service when it can provide the highest quality, most reliable conference calls at rates that beat even the free conference call service providers?

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Conference Call Bridge

Tuesday, March 30th, 2010

A conference call bridge is the name for the piece of telecommunications equipment that enables multiple participants from various telephone connections to be placed into the same call to create a conference call.  If you do a significant amount of conference calling you may think that buying your own conference call bridge would end up being a good investment because you could reduce your costs for conference calls.  Here are a few things that you will need to consider if you think about buying a conference call bridge yourself.

  • Equipment Cost – First thing is the cost of the equipment.  The cost of conference call bridges has come down over the years but the cost of a conference call bridge like the ones used by conference call service companies is still hundreds of thousands of dollars.
  • Telecommunications Connections – You will need to dedicate telecommunications connections to the conference call bridge.  There is a cost to just maintain the connections to the conference call bridge.
  • Equipment Maintenance- You will need to pay the manufacturer of the conference call bridge equipment a maintenance fee to keep the hardware and software up to date.
  • Support Cost – You will need to pay for support on the conference call bridge equipment in case there is an issue.  Typically this may be included for the first year in your maintenance cost.
  • Internal Support – You will need someone in your organization to maintain the conference call bridge.  No matter how self serving the equipment is you will need someone to play administrator for the conference call bridge.
  • Long Distance Cost – There is a variable telecommunications cost for having toll free access and you will need to pay the long distance connection per minute charges for your participants to get to the conference call bridge.

So when you add up all of the cost to run your own conference call bridge you may find that the cost per minute to operate your own equipment may be higher than if you use a conference call service.  Especially now that the conference call rates are as low as they are it really is hard to justify having your own conference call bridge.

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What is Teleconferencing?

Thursday, March 4th, 2010

Like anyone else who has been in a technology business for a while you tend to develop your own language.  I am no different.  I have been in the telecommunications industry since 1981 and if any industry has its own language telecommunications certainly does.  The glossary for all the telecommunications acronyms being used would probably be 4 inches thick.  It really is its own language.  Teleconferencing as an off shoot of telecommunications is certainly guilty of this too but certainly not so bad.  But for those novices to teleconferencing, otherwise known as conference calls, I thought it might be helpful to explain a few of the main terms used in the industry to help you better understand what you are dealing with.

  • Access Code (Also known as the Pass Code) -  
    The personal access code that allows you to join a conference call. There are both Host and Guest codes used to access a conference call.
  • Access Phone Number – The telephone number used to reach the teleconferencing equipment where you input your Access Code to enter your conference call.
  • Bridge - The piece of equipment that performs the act of connecting multiple callers on a singe conference call.
  • CSP- This is the acronym for Conference Service Provider.  It refer to the companies that provide conference call services.
  • Digital Record and Playback –  A service offered by conference call service companies that allows you to record your conference call and play it back at a later time.
  • Host – The leader or Moderator of the conference call.
  • Mute- The Mute function on a conference call allows the participants to turn off the ability to be heard during the conference call.  The Host also has the abilitiy to Mute all participants.
  • Reservationless - Reservationless means that no scheduling, reservation or advanced notification is required for this type of conference call.  Once you have the Access number and Pass Code you can hold a conference call whenever you want.
  • Teleconferencing - Otherwise known as conference calling or audio conferencing, it refers to a telephone call where 3 or more people are connected and able to talk to each other at the same time.

This is by no means a complete list of terms used in the conference call service, or teleconferencing industry but this sampling should get you well on your way to being fluent in teleconferencing speak.

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Web Conferencing changes Everything

Tuesday, July 7th, 2009

Web Conferencing started out as something you did on your company’s network and only if you and the person you wanted to web conference with had the same software installed on their machine.  The internet was still coming of age so many of the things we now take for granted did not exist.  In fact, I remember in 1995 taking some of the available software, buying a card for a computer that allowed multiple network connections and building a web conference bridge you could dial into so that up to 5 people could get on the same web conference.  As long as the 5 people had a good connection to the internet.

When I think about that now I laugh.  In the past 10 years the technology has come a long way.  Today you can easily hold a web conference with up to 100 people and you don’t even have to download any software.  High speed internet connections are taken for granted and conference calls are completed integrated into the experience to add voice and visual communications on a conference call. 

With the advent of web conferencing, you can easily add a visual element to your conference calls.  This makes your confernece call more compelling, encourages audience participation and helps with retention.  The applications are wide spread and more and more people are utilizing web conferencing services to help sell, train and inform to internal and external clients throughout the world. 

I don’ t know if anyone has attempted to calculate the savings in hours of productivity, travel costs and fossil fuels, but it must be enormous. The amount spent on web conferencing in 2007 was over $700,000,000 in the US alone and even as the service continues to be more affordable, it is expected that the amount spent in five years will be almost double what it is today.  That is because web conferencing services make sense to such a wide range of industries and applications.  Just like conference call volume has seen a tremendous amount of growth in the past 15 years, web conferencing is now enjoying that same growth.  That is because it is truly easy to use and affordable to everyone.

So the next time you register for that online “webinar” think about how what you would have to do to get that same seminar without web conferencing.  because web confernecing changes everything.

www.zipconferencing.com

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