Posts Tagged ‘Conference Call Service’
Wednesday, January 18th, 2012
Everyone likes to save money but can you trust low cost conference calls to be high quality? The answer is yes, but you still need to be careful to choose a low cost conference call provider that has taken the steps necessary to provide high quality conference calls. So what are the things you should look for if you are looking for a conference call company? Here are a few of things to look for when you are shopping for a conference call service provider.
Direct Digital Connections – One of the most important areas to ensure a high quality conference call is where the equipment is connected to the telephone network. It may sound like a simple idea but having a direct digital connection to the long distance carrier’s network is not always available or provided depending on the location of the conferencing equipment and the carrier and other factors. Zip Conferencing maintains direct digital connections with its long distance carriers that enables us to provide the clearest connections possible.
New Equipment – Conferencing bridges are the pieces of equipment that make conference calls possible and having the latest equipment ensures that you are getting the best quality and latest features available. Zip Conferencing has the latest conference bridges available and provides its customers more features than most other conferencing companies.
Back Up Systems – A big part of providing high quality low cost conference calls is making sure the service is reliable and available when you need it. After all, no matter how good the service is if it is out of service it is no good. Zip Conferencing maintains back up conferencing equipment that is available without interruption of service in the event of an equipment failure.
Back up Power – Just like the equipment, if there is a power outage your conferencing service will be out of service unless they maintain back up power. Zip Conferencing has battery and generator back up power that ensures the equipment will remain in service indefinitely in the event of a power outage.
Support – Many low cost conference call providers have limited support for their customers which certainly helps maintain low cost but also leaves you in the dark if you need assistance. Zip Conferencing has support available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year and is even available to join you on your conference call if you need assistance.
Zip Conferencing shows that you can have high quality low cost conference calls. Make sure the conferencing provider you use can say the same thing.
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Wednesday, January 11th, 2012
Conference calls are used by businesses in every industry because they are still the most convenient and cost effective way to meet with people across distances large and small. And because of this conference calls are used by a variety of people. And luckily, people are different and have different tastes in things so why not conference calls too? You should not have to eat the same flavor of conferencing options as everyone else in the world and not even in the same company. So Zip Conferencing has designed a system that allows every conference moderator to customize their calls with a variety of options. Here are just some of the things you can control on your conference calls.
Entry/Exit Tones – The system will play a tone across the conference when a participant joins or exits a call. You can control if the tone plays only when someone joins or only when someone exits are not at all.
Music on Hold – Many times people will want their participants to be able to talk to each other when they join the conference call even if the moderator of the call has not yet joined. But if you would like you can make it so the participants listen to music on hold until the moderator joins the call.
Name Announce – Instead of just playing a tone when someone joins your conference call you can have the system record their names when they join the call and play it across the conference. You can even conduct a roll call when you join the call as the moderator and have all of the names played.
Post Conference Report – Ever wonder how long your conference call was and how many participants were on it? Our system allows you to receive a post conference report by email following your call that details the number of participants, the time they joined the call and even the number they dialed in from.
So why settle for the vanilla of conference calls when you can have any flavor you want? Customize your conference calls today with Zip Conferencing.
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Tuesday, January 3rd, 2012
Happy New Year! I hope you had a good 2011 and you have an even better 2012. It looks like the economy could be on its way for better year which means we will all be that much busier. If you are still on the side lines it is time to use conference call services to help you get the most out of your time in 2012. Let’s face it, the past couple of years have meant downsizing and ultimately more work for those that still have a job. And management expects everyone to do more with less. So if you are looking for ways to save some money and increase productivity for yourself or those around you a quality conference call service is just the ticket for you in 2012. Although there are many benefits to using conference calls for your business there are none more powerful than saving time and money.
Save Money – Conference call services have enjoyed extraordinary growth over the past 15 years partly due to all the money a conference call saves compared to an in person meeting. Even if your meeting is fairly local it still costs money to get everyone together. When you start traveling the cost really adds up. If you are traveling by car there is the gas, tolls and mileage you are going to incur when you go to the meeting. And if the meeting is across the country the costs are even greater with airline, rental car, hotels and restaurants all figured into the mix. And I am sure you have noticed that none of these costs have gone down over the past few years. But remarkably the costs of conference call services have declined over the past few years to all time lows. For a combined cost of just a few dollars a group of people can get together and hold a meeting even if the participants are spread across the country. And if you use a web conference along with the conference call you can have all the same tools at your disposal as if you were in a meeting room.
Save Time – If you are one of the many companies trying to do more with less resources you know how important your productivity is. Wasting time in traffic or airports and airplanes can really cost you. If you never had to travel to a customer again as a salesperson how many more customers could you sell? I am certainly not advocating you never see a customer again but reducing the number of in person meetings increases the time you can spend acquiring new customers or dealing with the ones you already have. A quality conference call service gives you everything you need to meet with people over great distances and be as productive as possible.
So I am sure when you look back on 2011 like me you will wonder where it went. Time flies and there really is no time to waste. So make 2012 the year you embrace conference call services and use our services to your advantage. You will be glad you did.
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Monday, December 19th, 2011
If you are looking for a new conference call services provider you should ask for an audio conferencing demo before you choose your provider. After all companies can claim quality and reliability but how do you know what you are buying unless you try it first? Especially if you are going to make a commitment with all of your company’s conference call business. An Audio Conferencing Demo will let you try all of the features that come with audio conferencing so you can decide if the features fit your needs as well. With Zip Conferencing every customer that signs up for a Monthly Minute Plan gets their first 60 minutes FREE so they can try the service out and also access all of their account features. Here are just some of the things that you can do with the Zip Conferencing Audio Conferencing Demo.
- Online Account Access – With every audio conferencing demo you have access to all of your online account management tools. You can access conference options where you are able to control many aspects of the conference call like the entry and exit tones, music on hold and post conference reporting. You can even control your conference call from your PC where you can adjust volume, mute participants and record the conference call.
- Conference Call Features – During the audio conferencing demo itself you can try out the many features available using a touch tone phone. Like the online controls you can also control the volume, muting, conduct sub-conferences and record the conference call using commands on your telephone.
- Conference Call Quality – And probably the most important thing you can experience during your audio conferencing demo is the call quality. The only way to really test a conference call for its quality is to do a call and see for yourself. Join with as many participants as you like and see if you aren’t impressed with the quality of the call.
Zip Conferencing is proud of the network we have built for our conference calls and is happy to provide every Monthly Plan customer with the opportunity to try the service and see for the themselves just how good the call sounds. And the online features available to users means that you will be able to control virtually every aspect of the conference call so you can have it just the way you want it. There is no need to settle for a conference call service that only provides one flavor when you can decide exactly what you want. Try Zip Conferencing’s audio conferencing demo today!
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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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Tuesday, December 6th, 2011
It is the time of year for holiday parties but today many businesses have remote employees scattered around the country so why not include all of your employees with a virtual holiday party using a conference call service? For most businesses it is just too costly to bring all of your employees in for a holiday party but there is no reason not to include them in the festivities. Using a conference call service you can connect all of your remote employees into the party and have them still participate and interact with the rest of your employees. Today you can host a virtual party easily using conference call services like audio conferencing and web conferencing. The technology today allows you to share the audio, any presentation materials you may use and even video of the event while it is taking place. And the cost of the event will not break your budget.
Audio Conferencing – The simplest way to connect your remote participants to your virtual holiday party using a conference call service is by using a conference call. You certainly may not keep a conference call up for the full duration of the party but usually management likes to take a minute in the beginning or end of the vent to thank and recognize employees for the past year’s accomplishments. So if you establish a conference call for the beginning of the party you can include the remote participants easily in the festivities. After announcements you can end the conference call portion and continue with the party but at least your remote employees were included at the beginning.
Web Conferencing – With Web Conferencing you can provide a visual aspect to your virtual holiday party. If you do any employee recognition you can provide a presentation that includes the names and their achievements and a picture of the recipient so all participants can be included. Most conference call services that provide web conferencing have desktop video included as well. So if you have a desktop video camera you can have the remote employees see the venue and be seen as well. If you want to get real elaborate you can have your A/V source provide a large screen to enhance this interaction. The remote participants can also interact using web conferencing tools so they feel like a part of the party.
Zip Conferencing is a conference call service provider that has all the tools you need to do virtual meetings for any event including your virtual holiday party. Speak to a representative today who can assist you in planning your next remote event.
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Tuesday, November 8th, 2011
If you have been shopping for an audio conference calling service you may think that the only difference is price. But there are actually some big differences between audio conference calling service companies. And if you are not careful you may not get what you thought you were getting. Here are some of the things you should think about when you are looking for audio conference calling services.
- Quality – The most important aspect of a audio conference calling service is the quality. What good is a cheap conference call service if you have static on the line or can’t even get your parties on the call? The best conference call service companies have direct connections to the telecommunications network and use the latest in conference call equipment. It is difficult, however, to know what companies do this. Thankfully, there is one way to tell if the call quality is good. Do a test call. Any conference call company out there should be willing to give a trial to see if the quality is good before you hire them. Zip Conferencing uses direct digital connections and the latest equipment and also offers a free trial of its service to prove the quality of the conference calls.
- Reliability- Some of the reliability of an audio conference calling service is the telecommunications connection and quality of the equipment used. But one major area that matters is power availability. Without back up power the network and equipment will not work. So a conference call service company should have adequate back up power systems that can run indefinitely to support their systems. Another thing that can be done is having back up conference call equipment available in case of a failure. Many companies do not take this step because it is costly to have back up systems sitting around. Zip Conferencing has taken every step possible including back up systems on standby to insure our audio conference calling services are available.
- Features – If you look closely you will see that the features offered by conference call companies are not the same. If you hire a full feature service you will never miss some of the features that enhance your conference call experience. Zip Conferencing is a full feature provider that also offers some capabilities like customizable conference calls that other companies do not offer.
- Support- Another area that some conference call companies will shortcut is in the area of support. Some companies only offer support during certain times of the day or by email only. Zip Conferencing offers support 24/7/365 and will even provide support on your conference call if you like to assist with features or issues.
So look closely and you will see that all audio conference calling services are not the same.
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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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Tuesday, October 25th, 2011
So here you are searching for a conference call service provider and there are companies advertising a free telephone conference call service. Free is good, right? Why shouldn’t you use a free telephone conference call ervice? Let’s examine how a free telephone conference call service works and see if you are still interested in trusting your business to a free conference call service.
- A Free telephone conference call service is not really Free – The Free conference call service companies are advertising on the internet and other places so if they are truly free how are they making money? These companies make money by working out a deal with a local phone company to terminate calls within their equipment. That’s because the local phone company makes money when a long distance call terminates on their equipment. It doesn’t pay a lot but when you consider the volume of calls that can be generated it does add up to enough money to pay for the equipment over time. The problem is they don’t make enough to provide all of the services a regular conference call service provider does and they are usually a little thin in other areas of their business as well. The main problem is that you are the one paying the bill. Because you and your participants are dialing a long distance number to join the conference call. So it appears free until you get your long distance bill or cell bill and see all the minutes on it. And if the local number connection was so good why do all of the “Free” conference call companies offer toll free access?
- Quality – A Free telephone conference call service is not concerned with providing a reliable and quality service to its customers. It doesn’t have to because it is free. It is hard to argue with free so people put up with capacity issues, unavailability and noisy connections. Do you want to trust your important business calls to a free service where quality and reliability are not assured? Also you will find that many of the features you expect to have on a conference call service are not there on a free telephone conference call service. They can’t afford the best equipment with the latest features.
- Support – Lastly, probably the biggest hole in the services for a free telephone conference call service is the support you will receive. You will find that support is given to their customers that pay for the upgrade to toll free service but little is provided to the free conference call customers. Its free so who can complain.
If you will look at the free telephone conference call service companies you will see they all offer a toll free service option but at rates higher than Zip Conferencing. So why fool around with a service that will cost you anyway when you can get a toll free service that is highly reliable and high quality from the start for less money?
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Friday, October 21st, 2011
There is a reason that everyone doesn’t drive the same car and audio conference calling services are no different. Different people like different options, colors and equipment no matter what you are talking about. So why do so many people put up with the same audio conference calling service options? Even in the same company why would the President of the company want to have the same options for their audio conference calling services as everyone else in the company? With Zip Conferencing we allow you to customize the options within your audio conference calling so it is just the way you like it. Here are some of the audio conference calling options that you can control with Zip Conferencing.
- Entry and Exit Tones – One of the main things people like to alter with our audio conference calling services are the entry and exit tones in the conference call. With most conference call service providers you either get entry and exit tones, which are the tones that sound when participants enter and exit the conference call, or you do not. With Zip Conferencing you decide if you want a tone to sound when a participant joins the conference call or when they exit. You can also have their name announced when they enter the conference call.
- Music on Hold – With our audio conference calling services you can allow participants to speak to each other before the Moderator or Host of the conference call joins or you can make it so the participants listen to music on hold until the Host joins the call.
- PIN number entry – For additional security with our audio conference calling services you can require participants to enter a PIN, Personal Identification Number, when they join the conference call. This will also identify for you who has joined the call.
- Record Name/Roll Call – As Host of the conference call you can require participants to record their name when they join the conference call. As Host of the call you can then listen to a roll call of participants when you join the call or have their names announced when they enter and exit the conference call.
- End conference when Moderator exits – As a Host of our audio conference calling services you are also in control of when the conference call ends. You can let the participants keep talking, enter a command on your phone to end the call or set the call up ahead of time to end when you exit the call.
- Post Conference Report – As host of the conference call you can also get a post conference report that shows the detail of the call via email. On the report you will see the participants, the number they dialed in from and the duration they were on the call as well as the total duration of the conference call.
In addition to the options listed here, as a Host, you also have commands you can access while on a conference call. You can mute lines, control volume and even record the conference call by using touch tone commands on your telephone. So why settle for whatever the conference call provider wants to give you when flexible conference calling services are so much better.
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Monday, October 10th, 2011
Happy Columbus Day! If you are like me and don’t work for the government or a bank or one of the other establishments that has today off you are working. But your kids are off so whether your company is off or not you might be home anyway. But thanks to technology working from home is now more the norm and you can still attend those meetings with Columbus Day conference calls. A conference call service for your business allows you to continue to have meetings no matter what comes your way, including holidays that require your business to keep on going.
Columbus Day is one of the holidays where you just might find yourself working from home and you still need to attend meetings with co-workers and customers. Conference calls mean you can attend those meetings no matter where you are and when the calls take place. Conference calling is taken for granted by many businesses because it ultimately saves them time and money. But there are still a lot of companies out there that have not incorporated conference calls into there standard way of doing business. And no better time to kick off using a conference call service than on a holiday or other time when you find yourself out of the office but you still need to attend meetings with co-workers like you are still in the office.
Conference calls not only help your business save time and money but they allow you to still participate in work meetings without being at work. Time with family, vacations and commitments at home can be saved with the use of conference calls. And with Zip Conferencing you can have a conference call service with no cost until you use the service. So there is no excuse not to sign up for conference calls with Zip Conferencing because sign up is free and you will pay nothing until you use the service. That way you can have the conference call service information at your disposal for those times when you need it.
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Tuesday, October 4th, 2011
Anyone who has been on a conference call has experienced interruptions during the call. I am going to provide some recommendations to keeping these interruptions to a minimum so you can have the most productive meeting possible. Here are some of the ways that conference calls suffer interruptions and the ways to avoid those interruptions.
- Sounds when people enter/exit the call – There is a feature used by most conference call service providers that has a tone play when a participant enters or exits the conference call. Some people like this feature because they are able to know when a new person has joined a conference call. But if you are less concerned about keeping track of people joining then you are about the noise this introduces into the call with Zip Conferencing you can turn these tones off. In fact with our customizable conference options you can have a tone play only when participants enter the call or when they exit the call or none at all. You can even have their name play instead of just a tone.
- Background noise from participants- Many times people will multi-task when they are on a conference call. The sound of typing is a very common noise heard on conference calls as participants do work while they listen to a call. And today many people work from home and introduce all the sounds of their home into the conference call as well. Kids, dogs and doorbells are all noises you are likely to hear on a conference call. And then there is the cell phone which can make it easy to participate in a conference call from anywhere but introduce the noises from anywhere onto the call. The best way to combat all of the exterior noises is to make sure all of the participants use the mute feature whenever they are not speaking. With Zip Conferencing it is a simple *6 command on your telephone to mute and unmute yourself. So as the Host simply make people aware at the start of the call to use mute whenever they are not adding anything to the discussion and you will save yourself a lot of noise interruptions.
- Unidentified speakers- You may find yourself on a call with a number of people you are not completely familiar with so when someone speaks you may not recognize their voice. It is good conference call etiquette to introduce yourself when you are speaking. A simple introduction will avoid any mistaken identity issues and keep everyone on the same page. With Zip Conferencing you can also log into the conference call using your PC and see who is speaking by observing the talk icon on the screen.
- Participants joining late – As a host it is important to start conference calls on time so people get used to the fact that your meetings will start on time. As a further enforcement you can lock the conference call after you start your call so that no one else can join. The *94 command will lock the call and not allow additional participants. This may be a bit harsh but people will remember to join on time the next time.
Zip Conferencing has a number of tools to assist you with keeping the noise on a conference call to a dull roar.
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Wednesday, September 28th, 2011
A conference call has been a good option for businesses for many years because of the expense savings and increased productivity. And as time has gone on the lowly conference call just keeps making more sense than ever. In fact I can not think of a time since I have been in the business that a conference call has made more sense than right now. Here are just a few thoughts on why a conference call should be the preferred method of communication for any business.
- Travel Costs – Okay, so you have to meet with a customer or internally and they are in Texas and you are in New Jersey. The natural reaction is to schedule a trip to Texas for the meeting. Have you seen the cost of air travel these days? If you book 30 days in advance you might be able to get there for less than $500 but if it is in the next 2 weeks it will cost you over $1,000. And that doesn’t include all the crazy fees they charge these days. Once you get to Texas you will need a car, a room, dinners…you get the idea. It is so expensive to travel these days you can save enough in travel costs to hold a conference call every day with the participants and still save money.
- Travel Hassle – On top of the costs to go to Texas you get to put up with all the convenience of air travel these days. Travel to and from the airport, the security lines, baggage checks and on and on. I have had more fun on days I was sick than what they are putting you through these days.
- Lost Productivity – How many hours of useful work are you going to lose by travelling to Texas. The flight time is only a few hours but you need to get to the airport and then to the office on the other end. And what are the chances the plane takes off and lands on time. That conference call keeps getting more and more attractive.
I know you can’t do away with all in person meetings for conference calls. It is just not possible. But if I were you I would think long and hard about using conference call services whenever you can. You will be happier and so will your budget.
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Thursday, September 8th, 2011
If you live in the Northeast you can certainly relate to the title of my blog today. I have barely been out of the house it seems in the past two weeks as I have been on conference calls dodging the rain drops. A hurricane followed by a tropical storm have spurred people to contemplate building an Ark. My home and our conference call service offices have been spared any damage but many people have not. And to them I send my thoughts and prayers for a speedy recovery from what is some of the worst flooding ever. Especially my friends and customers in Vermont who really had no warning for some of the worst damage the storms could impart.
As devastating as the weather has been over the past couple of weeks, our customers have had the advantage of continuous communications throughout with our conference call service. I have suggested many times on this blog to have conference call information at the ready in case of emergency and it has certainly come in handy for our customers. We have customers in Vermont who literally could not get to their place of business if they wanted to and were ostensibly cut off. But conference calls with their employees enabled them to maintain lines of communication and continue their businesses without interruption. And with the Zip Conferencing Pay As You Go service there isn’t even any cost unless you use the service so there is no excuse not to have conference call information in case of emergency.
And the hurricane season is not over. Another named storm is brewing in the Atlantic and could once again threaten the East coast with wind and rain. We were lucky that Irene did not have the damaging winds that were possible but the rain certainly did its damage. Next time we may not be so lucky so be prepared. Also, when the hurricane season ends the next thing we get to deal with is the snow. And if last year was any indication we can’t wait for global warming to get us out of trouble any time soon. Several times in the Northeast last year we were paralyzed and could not get to office buildings. Our business was not affecting thanks to careful planning, is yours? Make sure you have a back up communication plan in place with conference calls and web conferencing just in case you need them.
So anyway, rain, rain, go away and help poor Texas anyway.
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Tuesday, September 6th, 2011
If you are like most companies you are trying to get more done with fewer resources than ever before. It is simply the nature of business these days. There is no easier more cost effective way to increase your productivity than by using conference calls as part of your company’s communications plan. Here are some ideas on how conference calls increase your productivity.
- Save Travel Time – One of the biggest wastes of time for anyone in business is travel time. Going to and from meetings can eat up a large amount of time. Even when the meeting is in your own office you still have to get to a conference room and wait for the meeting to start and then get back to your desk when the meeting is over. With conference calls you can sit at your desk and continue to be productive until the meeting starts and then get right back to the work at end when the conference call is over.
- Multi-Task – Depending on your role in the meeting you may be able to get other work done during the meeting while on a conference call. As long as you put your phone on mute you can continue to work on other things without disturbing the meeting. Many people who host meeting don’t like this about conference calls but the fact is you get more participation from attendees that don’t have the time to attend an in person meeting and all you have to do is engage people when necessary and you can have a productive meeting.
- Collaborate – Certainly one of the benefits of conference calls is the same with an in person meeting. You get people to collaborate on a project. Ultimately bringing additional participants into the process will help move the project along and improve over all communications.
And in case you aren’t sure what activities you can do with conference calls here are a few common applications that you can easily do with a conference call.
- Sales Meetings – Sales teams are famous for getting together on conference calls. Many times the sales team is spread over a great distance and it would not only cost a great deal to pull everyone together but think of all the lost productivity. It is just not practical to get together physically so a conference call is a natural.
- Company Announcements – If you need to make a company announcement you can easily do it on a conference call without having to pull everyone off their jobs to do it. Depending on your business you are also saving any travel involved and at the same time making sure everyone gets the message timely and first hand.
- Project updates – Project management would be difficult without conference calls. Keeping vendors and employees up to date on a project and making sure dates are met can only be done with regular communication and many times would be impossible without conference calls.
With the low cost of conference calls these days there is no excuse not to incorporate conference calls into your communications plan and you will find your productivity increase along the way.
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Friday, August 26th, 2011
As I sit here in New Jersey and wait for the arrival of Hurricane Irene I am inundated with news reports on how to prepare for a hurricane. You are supposed to get batteries, water, gas for your car and non-perishable food among other items. But for a business the most important thing you should make sure you get in place is a good communication plan in the event of a disaster that includes a conference call service. If you don’t have a conference call service yet now would be a great time to get a service and be ready to conduct business remotely. If you can’t travel the roads and get to the office you can still do a conference call and keep your business going. These days most businesses are national if not global in nature and your customers don’t really care if your office is in harms way. If you are supposed to have a meeting on Monday they expect you to have the meeting. A conference call service can give you the tool you need to continue to have meetings without leaving your home. Here are some of the reasons to line up a conference call service.
- Natural Disaster – Like Hurricane Irene you just don’t know when a natural disaster is going to prevent you from getting to your office or your customers as well. Having a conference call service as part of your business communications will allow you to schedule meetings and be able to attend the meetings no matter what the circumstances. In addition to being able to attend customer meetings you can also have conference calls with your employees to prepare your response to the disaster and continue to plan in its aftermath.
- Technical Issues – If your business experiences technical issues and needs to hold emergency meetings you can have a conference call at the ready and participants informed in an instant. Everyone gets the same message and your technical issues are dealt with more expeditiously.
- Company Announcements – If you need to communicate with your entire employee base all at once you can use a conference call. Our conference calls hold up to 300 participants so capacity is not an issue. You can instantly communicate with everyone at the same time to inform them of personnel changes, acquisitions and any other issues that may arise.
- Planning – And if you know that the disaster is coming , like hurricane Irene, you can plan for it with groups of people who are otherwise separated my geography.
So if you have a conference call service in your tool box you can simply pull it out and plan or respond to a disaster. With Zip Conferencing’s Pay As You Go service there are no charges unless you use the service so why not be prepared all the time?
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Tuesday, August 2nd, 2011
I still talk to people all the time that have not hosted a conference call before so it does not come as a shock to know that most people have not tried a web conference yet. Let’s face it, you have to learn a new thing on your PC and who has the time for that? Besides a web conference is hard to do and everyone joining the call has to learn something new too, right? Well I am hear to tell you that I don’t like having to learn new things either but today’s web conference is so easy to use there really isn’t anything to learn. You can literally sign in to the Zip Conferencing web conference for the first time and be up on a web conference with your participants in just a couple of minutes. And as easy as it is for the host of the web conference it is even easier for the participants. There is no software to install and all they have to do is click on a link you send them and they are on the web conference. In case you did not know here are some of the things you can do on a web conference.
- Share Your Desktop – By far the most popular thing that people do on a web conference is share their desktop or an application with their participants. Basically what you are doing is allowing your participants to see whatever you have on your PC. If you want to show your participants a web site your are browsing or a application on your computer you can on a web conference. That way you and your participants are literally on the same page when you are talking on a conference call.
- Collaborate on a Document – Not only can you share an application during a web conference but you can also allow your participants to provide input on a document or spreadsheet by giving them control of an application. If a participant has an idea for updating a formula in Excel, for instance, you can give them control and let them put the new formula in on the spreadsheet on your PC.
- Do a Q&A session – If you are conducting a seminar or training session the hardest thing is keeping your audience engaged. With a web conference you can conduct a Q&A session and poll your audience. You can then share the results with your audience. Interaction like this will keep your audience on their toes and involved in your discussion.
And the best thing is you can try a web conference for free with a FREE demo from Zip Conferencing. That’s right, the first 30 days are free! So what are you waiting for? Try a web conference today!
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Monday, July 18th, 2011
What are the factors that make up conference call quality? After all, isn’t the ability to interact with the other participants like they are in the same room the most important factor in any conference call service? At Zip Conferencing the quality and reliability of the conference call is the top priority. Here are some of the steps we have taken to insure you have a quality conference call.
- Network Quality – The most important factor in determining the quality of a conference call is the network it is connected through. Just like any other long distance call if you have a bad connection it doesn’t matter how good the equipment is on the end of the call. To insure our conference call quality is the best we have direct digital connections to our long distance provider’s networks. Eliminating other switches eliminates additional trouble areas and pieces of equipment that can introduce noise as well. We also only use top tier long distance providers for our conference call services. We may be able to save a little money by using a smaller provider but since their networks are not as large as a top tier provider it introduces other networks to the equation further introduces trouble points. We also use multiple carriers so that our network has a back up in place in the event of a major outage with one of the carriers.
- New Equipment – Since our conference call company is fairly new, we have put the latest equipment in place to process the conference calls. The newer equipment delivers a higher quality conference call and also is less prone to outages itself. In addition, our conference call equipment has the latest features incorporated into it. We also employ back ups of our conference call equipment so that we have full back ups in the case of an outage with the equipment.
- Back Up Systems – Now that we have built out a network that delivers high quality conference calls we have also installed measures to insure the reliability of the network. We have battery and generator back up systems in place to make sure that our network has power in the event of an outage. As mentioned, we have back up long distance provider connections in the event of a major outage at the network level. And we have back up equipment in the vent of an equipment outage.
When you do a conference call you just assume it will work, but as you can see, it is up to the conference call service provider to make sure there is conference call quality.
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Monday, July 11th, 2011
I still get people who ask me about the basics of an audio conference so I thought I would spend today describing just how easy and affordable a conference call can be.
- Ease of Use- An audio conference was not always as easy to use as they are today. It used to be that you had to get the names and numbers of the people you wanted on an audio conference to an operator who would schedule the conference call and when the time came call out to all the parties. There was work up front for the moderator to assemble this information and then call a conference call service and relay that information to them so the audio conference could begin. And then for the participants on the conference call you had to be at the phone number you supplied at the time of the call or you were not going to get on the audio conference. Of course this was before cell phones were real prevalent and most people had to stay at their desks a little more than today anyway but still I can tell you that many calls were missing participants because people just were not always where they were supposed to be when the audio conference began. As a conference call service provider we spent a lot of time chasing people down or putting them into the correct conference calls when they called back into our service center. Now it is much easier for everyone. Zip Conferencing provides you with a toll free dial in number that never changes and pass codes for you and your participants that never change. There is no need to schedule your audio conference now. You simply tell your participants when you want to meet and supply them with the toll free dial in number and pass code. At the time of the conference call you and your participants simply dial the access number and put in the pass code and you are joined in the conference call.
- Affordable- Over time just as the audio conference has gotten a lot easier to use it has also become more affordable. The average rate per minute of a toll free conference call in 1995 was $.50 per minute. Today Zip Conferencing has toll free conference call rates as low as $.024 per minute. The combination of ease of use and price has resulted in explosive growth for conference calls. You can meet with a large group of people for a small amount of money and it cost nothing for your participants to join.
An audio conference is the easiest and most affordable way to meet with a group of people.
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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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Friday, June 24th, 2011
If you are shopping for a conference calling provider it can be pretty maddening on trying to tell the difference in the services. Some of that is created by the conference calling providers themselves. When I look at some of the ads that are used to attract new customers and then look into the actual offers it is easy to understand how people can get confused. Here are some of the things you should look for when shopping for a conference calling provider.
- Quality and Reliability – It is funny, but when I talk to customers I rarely get asked about the quality of the conference call service. Maybe conference calling has really become a commodity in customer’s eyes and they simply assume that the service will work no matter which conference calling service provider they choose. Having been in the teleconferencing industry for over 16 years I have intimate knowledge of what goes into making sure that there is quality and reliability in a conference call service. And I can tell you that not every service is the same in respect to quality and reliability. It takes a real commitment on the part of ownership to make sure you do everything to insure the service is available and ready when people need it to be. At Zip Conferencing we have done everything possible to make sure we are delivering the highest quality and reliability available. After all, isn’t this the most important aspect of the conference calling service?
- Toll Free Service- When you look at many of the advertisements of the conference calling service providers out there you will see some pretty low rates and even “free” conference calling services. The last thing you want is to have your participants paying hidden charges to attend your conference call. Imagine inviting prospects to your presentation only to have them paying to get there. It certainly takes something away from your presentation. Nothing beats the convenience and peace of mind that toll free conference call services can provide. And at the low rates they are available today why would you want to do anything else?
- Features- You may not use every conference calling feature that is out there because there are many. But there is also no reason to try to save money by signing up with a service that has only limited features available. Zip Conferencing is a conference calling provider that offers low rates with a full featured service. Many of the features simply make your life easier before and during your conference call and some are essential conference call tools. Why not have them and a great rate too?
- Support – Hopefully a conference calling provider service will not require a whole lot of support because it works and is easily understandable. But if you should need support, especially when you are in the middle of an important conference call, wouldn’t you want it to be there? Zip Conferencing is a conference calling provider that has support available 24/7 and can even join your conference call for assistance if necessary. You may never need it but isn’t it nice to know it is there if you do?
Conference calling services are an important communications piece of your business. Make sure you look closely under the hood before you buy and get a service you will be happy with for years to come.
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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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Wednesday, June 8th, 2011
Most people are pretty familiar with running or at least attending a conference call. But what if you have international participants? What is different about an international conference call service? How do participants join your conference call if they are out of the country. Conference call service providers offer a number of ways to connect to a conference call from outside the United States. Zip Conferencing offers a number of international conference call service options for its customers.
- Local Number Dial In Access – This international conference call service option is available from most every conference call provider. Basically when you get a dial in reservation from the conference call service provider they give you a local number here in the United States. And like any other local number you can dial into this number from anywhere in the world. The cost to the Host of the call is usually the same as if someone dialed in from somewhere in the United States. For the participant, however, they will pay whatever toll charges they would normally pay to dial into a local number in the United States. Depending on where in the world they are this can get quite expensive for the participant.
- International Local Access – A few conference call service providers, like Zip Conferencing, have local numbers in countries outside the United States that participants can dial into. The international conference call service company transports the call back to the conference call system in the United States. That way someone in another country can dial a local number but actually conenct to a call int eh United States. They only pay for the call in their country and since it is a local call the cost is usuall minimal for free. The cost to the Host of the call is more than if the participant used the local number in the United States but still less than an international toll free number.
- International Toll Free Access – The most expensive, but certainly most convenient method for international conference call services is the international toll free number. Zip Conferencing has toll free numbers in over 40 countries that terminate into their systems in teh United States. That way the participant dials a toll free number in their country and connect to the conference call in the United States.
The main thing to consider when looking at international conference call service options is whether you want your participant to pay for any portion of the conference call. The next deciding factor is whether they are near one of the local access point around the world. And then depending on your relationship with your participant you may want to make sure they get the most convenient no cost option which is toll free.
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Wednesday, June 1st, 2011
There are a number of conference call service providers out there and all of them provide the same basic service. So what makes Zip Conferencing so special? Our Quality and Dependability are second to none but that is a difficult thing to experience until you have an issue with another provider you may think they are good in that department as well. So, here are some of the features you can experience that help separate Zip Conferencing from all the other conference call service providers.
- Online Account Management – One of the main complaints I hear from prospective new customers with their existing conference call service providers is getting through to a customer service agent to make a minor change. Often times when the customer wants to make these changes it is off hours or the customer service department is busy. With Zip Conferencing you can access your account and make most changes with the click of a button. The online system is easy to use and available 24 hours a day. You can add as many moderators and conferences to your account as you like and you can even give the moderators access to their own portion of the system so they can make changes without having to bother you if you like.
- Customizable Conference Calls – Zip Conferencing has Host Controls available from within the conference call that allow you to mute and unmute participants, control the volume and record the conference call. What we also allow you to do is customize the way the conference call works. For instance, you may like to have tones play when a participant joins a conference call but not when they exit. You can decide whether a tone plays on entry or exit or have the participant’s name announced. Or you can decide whether the participants can talk to each other without the moderator on the conference call.
- Outlook Meeting Toolbar – Zip Conferencing has an Outlook Toolbar add on that integrates your conference call information with Outlook to make it easy to schedule a meeting with participants from within your Outlook Calendar. It stores your conference call information so you don’t need to remember it every time and even will start the meeting at the click of a button.
- International Access – Zip Conferencing makes it easy for international participants to join your conference call. With access point around the globe your participants can join by dialing a local number in their country or by using a toll free number. With over 40 access points and toll free numbers in over 40 countries your participants are covered around the world.
- Easy to Use Web Conferencing – Web Conferencing from most providers is complicated and requires you to speak through your PC in order to hold a meeting. Web Conferencing with Zip Conferencing is easy to use and fully integrated with our audio conferencing. You can control the audio portion of the call from within the application and easily share PowerPoint presentations or anything else on your desktop. You can even share your desktop video with your participants and our service will work with up to 125 participants.
- Support – No provider will support you better than Zip Conferencing. As a customer you will have dedicated Account Manager who will oversee your account’s overall satisfaction. In addition, our customer service representatives are available 24/7 and can even join your conference call to assist you if necessary.
There really is a difference in which conference call service provider you choose. Why not use the company that gives you the most features for your money and the highest quality service available?
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Thursday, May 26th, 2011
They say that nothing in life is free and I usually agree. But here at Zip Conferencing we truly let you try our conference calls and web conferencing for free. There is no better way to convince you about the quality, service and features we offer for our conference call service than to let you try it yourself. Let me explain how the free trials work and what is included.
Conference Call Free Trial – The conference call free trial provides of 60 minutes of conferencing free to people who sign up for our monthly minute plans. That way since you are making a commitment to use the service regularly you can first try it for free to make sure it suits your needs. When you sign up for the free trial you will have access to the full set of features and options as any regular customer of Zip Conferencing. You can log into your online account and explore the conference options, see how easy it is to add Moderators and conferences and explore the reporting options available online. Then you can conduct a conference call and test out the quality of the service and the see what Host controls are available during the conference call. If you are not completely satisfied with the service you can simply cancel your account and you will not be charged anything.
Web Conferencing Free Trial – The web conferencing free trial is available to all subscribers to the Zip Conferencing service and lets you use the web conferencing service for 30 days for free. When you sign up for the web conferencing free trial you will have access to all of the features we offer including desktop video, chat and application sharing. The web conferencing service is so easy to use you will be amazed at what you can do during a meeting. At the end of the 30 days if you are not completely satisfied you can simply cancel the service and you will not be charged.
Zip Conferencing lets you try our services for free and has no contracts because we are confident that if you try our services you will become a customer like the thousands of loyal customers who already enjoy all of the features, service and value that Zip Conferencing offers.
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Tuesday, May 24th, 2011
I have been in the conference call service industry long enough to see most of the innovations introduced over the years. Every time a new feature is introduced I wonder how much easier you can possibly make a conference call. Ever since the invention of the reservationless conference call it has become pretty easy to hold a conference call. Yet the conference call services industry continues to improve and make holding a conference call easier and easier. The latest innovation, the integration of the invitation process with Microsoft Outlook is no exception. Zip Conferencing now offers the ability to integrate its conference call service into your Outlook with an Outlook Toolbar that can get your conference call going in just a click of the mouse.
The Microsft Outlook Meeting Toolbar from Zip Conferencing has a number of features that make assembling a conference call even easier.
- Outlook Toolbar retains your conference call service information – Once you load the toolbar you never have to try to remember your conference call information again.
- One click to start a meeting - The start a Meeting button means just that, one click and your audio or web and audio meeting begins.
- Connect Me Service – Dial into the meeting as you always have or you can have the Zip Conferencing system dial out to your phone to connect you to the meeting.
- PC Controls – Controls on your PC allow you to control the meeting including volume, muting and recording of the conference call.
- Web Conferencing – From within an audio meeting you can easily switch to a web meeting or start a web meeting as easily as an audio meeting.
- Invite Participants – Since the Toolbar is integrated with your Outlook you can easily invite participants using Outlooks’ scheduling tool. That way you can easily send invitations to participants who are in your Outlook contact list. You can do this for a meeting you want to start right now or one you want to schedule for later.
- Online Account Access – The Toolbar also provides easy access to your online account where you can add Moderators, conference calls and control other options of your conference call service.
Zip Conferencing continues to make improvements to its conference call service that truly make it easier to do conference calls than ever before.
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Thursday, April 14th, 2011
Since I have been in the conference call business for over 15 years I regularly forget that most people don't understand the conference call service business. Conference calls have become such an integral part of businesses these days it is difficult to find someone who has not been on a conference call. But the fact is that there are a lot of people who have not been on a conference call and an even larger number who have never hosted one. So, for these people I would like to offer some basics about how a conference call works.
- Automated Dial In - The type of conference call that most people are familiar with these days is the automated dial in call. With this type of call you connect to the call by dialing an access number and then entering a passcode on your telephone to enter the conference. Basically anyone who dials the access number and passcode at the same time will be put into the same conference call.
- Reservationless - Another popular feature of conference calls today is called a reservationless conference call because once the conference call company provides you with the information for the call you can use it at any time without having to make a reservation. This feature made conference calls much easier to use and is in big part the reason for the growth of conference calls over the past 15 years.
- Hosting a Conference Call - So, maybe you have been on a reservationless automated dial in conference call but you have never hosted a call. To host a conference call is not much more difficult than joining one as a participant. As Host of the call you simply need to inform your participants when the conference call is going to take place and distribute the information. Usually the Host will simply email their participants with the date, time and dial in information. As Host you also simply need to dial in at the same time and enter a passcode to join the conference call. That's it.
- Host Controls - With Zip Conferencing, the Host is supplied with a different passcode than the participants. The Host passcode enables the Host to access special features that the participants cannot access. Host controls include the ability to mute/unmute all participants, control volume and record the conference call. The Host is also able to control a number of aspects of the conference call through their online account management system. Those options will be discussed in other posts here.
If you have never hosted a conference call have no fear as it is just as easy as joining one hosted by someone else.
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Wednesday, April 6th, 2011
The worldwide marketplace has really opened up with the Internet and many small businesses are finding themselves with the prospect of being able to sell their goods and services internationally. But many of these businesses hesitate because of the expense of trying to sell to companies overseas. With an International Conference Call you begin to forge relationships with companies overseas without ever leaving your office. An international conference call can bring you together with customers and prospects around the world at a minimal cost. Zip Conferencing offers several ways to have your international participants connect to your international conference call. You can choose the method based on where your participants are located and the cost of the connection.
- US Local Number - The least costly way for you to have participants connect to your international conference call is to have them dial the local number here in the United States that comes with your conference call reservation. The local number is reachable from anywhere in the world. The only drawback to this method is that your participants will have to pay for the long distance call to reach the number here in the United States.
- International Local Number- The next best option from a price perspective for your international conference call is to give your participants a phone number located in their country. Zip Conferencing has local access numbers in over 40 countries around the world. Participants in Paris, France, fro instance, would dial a number in Paris and be connected to your international conference call here in the United States. Your participant will only pay whatever it costs them to dial a local number in their country.
- International Toll Free Number – The most convenient way for international participants to connect to your international conference call is to dial a toll free number in their country. That way they do not incur any charges associated with your conference call. This is also the most expensive way to connect to your international conference call. Zip Conferencing has toll free access numbers in over 40 countries around the world.
With Zip Conferencing’s International Conference Call service you can take your company global without much expense to you or your customers. So what are you waiting for? Go global with an international conference call.
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Wednesday, March 30th, 2011
Conference calls have gone the way of long distance with ever decreasing prices and a seemingly endless list of providers. But there is a lot more to a conference call than you think and the right conference call company can make a big difference in the quality of the call and the features available that can greatly enhance your experience. Zip Conferencing has taken great care in creating a network that can deliver the highest quality conference calls to its customers and built a platform that provides an extraordinary amount of features that make our conference call service easy to use but feature rich. Here are a few of the things we have done to ensure that we are the best conference call company in the industry.
- Reliable Network – Like the foundation of a building, a conference call company needs to build their business on a network that can support the traffic they generate and be able to avoid outages at all costs. But not all conference call companies have taken all of the steps that Zip Conferencing has because a solid network can be expensive. Zip Conferencing has multiple telecommunications carriers installed in cae one of the companies has an outage. We only will accept companies that can provide a direct digital connection to their network so we can have the clearest connections possible. Our equipment is powered by a back up battery and generator supported power grid to avoid any power outages.
- State of the Art Equipment – Our conference call company uses the latest conference call equipment that is more reliable than older equipment. It also offers features many conference call companies don’t have because their equipment is out of date. We also have spare conference call equipment that is powered up and connected to the network available to take the place of any piece of equipment that experiences any issues. Most conference call companies don’t do this because it is expensive.
- Feature Rich Services – Our conference call company has built features that enable our customers and make it easier to do business with us. As a customer of Zip Conferencing you have access to your account online that enables you to access your account and see usage, add/edit moderators and conferences and order additional services. But we also give you the ability to customize your conference call experience by being able to control many aspects of the conference call. For instance, you can decide whether a tone should play when a participant joins or exits the conference call.
- Superior Customer Support – If there is one area many conference call companies will try to save money it is in the area of customer service. Our conference call company still provides personal service to its customers 24/7 and you can even get support while on a conference call by hitting *0 on your telephone.
A conference call is not just a telephone call and many times the conference calls your company does are some of the most important communications you will have. So, shouldn’t you deal with a conference call company that takes their role in your business communications seriously?
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Thursday, March 24th, 2011
For anyone who has done a conference call you probably just think that there is nothing much to it. You dial an access number to get tot he conference call and then put in a passcode and you are in the meeting. Don’t get me wrong, a conference call doesn’t need to be complicated. In fact, the reason conference calls are so popular is the fact that they are affordable and easy to use. But that doesn’t mean that having conference call features needs to be complicated or cumbersome either. Once you try some of the conference call features out there you may not know how you lived without them. Here is a list of just some of the conference call features available with Zip Conferencing.
- Mute/UnMute Lines – If you are the moderator of the conference call you can mute all of the participants in the meeting. This is especially helpful if you are having a large conference call. If you have 50 people in the conference call there would be too much noise if all their lines were open. You and your participants can also mute and unmute their own line which helps if you are on a cell phone in your car for instance and you would impart noise into the conference call.
- Volume Control – You and you participants can control the volume of the conference call coming into your phone and also the volume of your line into the conference call. So if you find yourself in a situation where participants are having a hard time hearing you then you can turn up the volume of your line.
- Roll Call – You can have participants record their name when they enter the conference call and then if you are the moderator you can play back a roll call when you join the conference call and hear everyone who is on the call. That way you know exactly who is on the conference call without having to take a live conference call after you join the meeting.
- SubConferencing - If you have something you want to discuss with some of the people on the conference call but not all then you can have a subconference with those participants and then rejoin the conference call. This is used extensively by the legal community when they need to have a discussion with a client during a conference call between both sides of a case.
- Conference Call Introduction – You can personalize your conference call by recording an introduction. That way participants will hear your personal greeting when they join the conference call.
- Post Conference Call Report – Would you like to know how many people were on your conference call? When did they join the call? How many minutes did the conference call generate? You can receive an email containing all of the essential information of the conference call when it has ended.
All of these conference call features are free and part of the service at Zip Conferencing. So why just have a conference call when you can have a fabulous conference call?
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Thursday, February 24th, 2011
Toll free conference calling has been around for a long time and hands down the most popular method of conference calling. The reason has always been pretty simple. No one hosting a conference call wants to subject their participants to having to pay to get on to their conference call. Toll free conference calling means there are no charges to dial into the conference call from your long distance provider. The only person that incurs any cost is the host of the conference call. So, the participants can dial into the conference call from anywhere and not worry about how much it costs. Who wants to think about where people are dialing in from? Here are the alternatives to toll free conference calling and their disadvantages explained.
- Free Conference Calls – Free conference calls are not really free like toll free conference calling to the participants. If you do a free conference call you will be given an access number somewhere in the country where you have to dial a long distance number to get to it. That is you and your participants. Depending on your calling plan the free conference call could easily end up costing you more than toll free conference calling. The reason that companies can offer you a free conference call is because they get paid by the local phone company to terminate your long distance call in their facility. And that is because you and your participants are paying someone for the ability to make that long distance phone call to connect to the conference call. With toll free conference calling you are paying the conference call service provider to transport you and your participants to the conference call. There is no mystery to who is paying for the call and the charges are not hidden somewhere.
- Toll Conference Calls - Toll conference calls are similar to free conference calls only on top of paying to get to the conference call you are also paying the conference call service company. If you are going to pay for the conference call why not pay for toll free conference calling? A toll conference call means you are going to get a phone number somewhere in the country to dial into to access the conference call and you will have to pay long distance charges to get to the call and for the duration of the call. Toll free conference calling means no one pays any long distance charges to participate in your conference call. And you might think that since some people use a cell phone to dial into the conference call that they are not paying for long distance anyway. But they are paying for long distance. It is figured in their monthly plan which also has a certain number of minutes included. Do you want your participants to have to use up their airtime minutes on your conference call? With toll free conference calling the participants can dial in from a land line and not worry about long distance charges.
Toll free conference calling is still better for everyone because there are no hidden charges for people. I am sure you would not want your participants to have to pay to get on your conference call and since toll free conference calling is so inexpensive why not give them an easy, toll free way to access the call?
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Wednesday, February 2nd, 2011
The phone conference call has been around for quite some time. And over the past 15 years that I have been in the industry there have been a lot of changes in technology but the phone conference call continues to thrive. Why is that? Certainly there must be a new phone app or PC program that would make a phone conference call disappear. I mean today you can have a video conference on your cell phone with another person. You can hook your PC up and use the Internet to call thousands of miles for nothing more than the price of your Internet connection. So a plain old phone conference call? Really? Let’s look at some of the competing technologies that have come about in the past 15 and some of the reasons they have not had the same success as the plain old phone conference call.
- Video Conferencing – The phone conference call has survived 15 years of advancements in video conferencing. The equipment you need to do a video conference call used to be very expensive and require a huge amount of bandwidth. So the telecommunications expense to have the ability to do a video conference was also huge. The video conference now can be done at home using your Internet connection and equipment that can be purchased just about anywhere. Businesses can purchase a small video conference system and have it installed on existing telecommunications infrastructure. So video conferencing is now easy and cheap. Why isn’t everyone talking to each other on a video phone like the Jetsons? A number of reasons have slowed the growth of video conferencing while the phone conference call continues to grow. You must go to where the system is and that means you need to be in the office. The home systems are not really business capable and the mobile application is not there yet either and universally available as you need a certain type of phone. A phone conference call can be done from anywhere and today business people are very mobile so having to be in a central location to do all your conference calls is not really practical. And the biggest reason I think is that people are just not comfortable with themselves on TV. Maybe the next generation, the YouTube generation will be more comfortable with it but most people I know do not like being in front of a video camera.
- VOIP Conferencing – Everyone now has a good Internet connection so why aren’t we talking to our PCs yet? One reason is you need to be in front of your PC in order to talk through it and again people are now mobile. Quality is much better than it used to be but VOIP quality is still only as good as the connection and some people still have bandwidth issues. And a lot of people don’t even have a microphone connected to their PC. It is just not what we are used to doing. A phone conference call only requires the same device everyone is familiar with, the phone.
- In House Systems – Over the years every phone system manufacturer has developed a way to do a phone conference call through their system. But the quality of the connection is limited and so are the number of people you can connect to the conference call. And it also requires the moderator to dial out to people and connect them to the conference call. The in-house conference call systems you can buy are hard to justify from an expense point of view and require someone to maintain. A conference call service can do the job better and cheaper than an in-house system.
So, you can see that a phone conference call continues to grow because none of the other options are as universally known, easy to use and inexpensive.
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Wednesday, January 19th, 2011
As companies start to use a lot of conference call services the question will often come up as to whether they should buy a teleconferencing bridge. And like many services that you can bring in house a large part of the argument is born from economics. If you are spending thousands of dollars a month on a conference call service provider doesn’t it make sense to buy a teleconferencing bridge and you will save money? Well, this argument used to hold a lot more weight when conference call services cost 50 cents per minute and you could buy the long distance connection for 5 cents or less. But these days it is hard to build a compelling argument for a company to buy a teleconferencing bridge. Here are some of the reasons you may want to stay with a teleconferencing services provider.
- Capital Cost of the Teleconferencing Bridge – The first expense you will have to incur with a teleconferencing bridge is the expense of the equipment itself. Today there are some low cost teleconferencing bridges available in the market but given the importance of the conference calls you probably won’t risk your business on a low priced teleconferencing bridge. A high end teleconferencing bridge like the ones used by Zip Conferencing can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.
- Telecommunications Cost to connect to the Teleconferencing Bridge – The next thing you will need to do is connect the teleconferencing bridge to a telephone network so you can dial into it and conduct your conference calls. You will need to spend a monthly fee to have a connection that can handle hundreds or thousands of callers whether you use it or not. Depending on the type of connection it can cost thousands of dollars a month. In addition, you will also pay the per minute charge for participants to connect to your teleconferencing bridge toll free or they will pay a long distance charge to connect to conference calls. Zip Conferencing uses only the highest quality digital connections tied directly to the telecommunications network.
- Maintenance Cost of the Teleconferencing Bridge – In order to keep your teleconferencing bridge up to date and within a warranty you will need to spend money on maintenence for the teleconferencing bridge and its software. You also may want to have a back up teleconferencing bridge or at least components in case something happens to the equipment. Zip Conferencing has hot stand by backup teleconferencing bridges and maintains all of its equipment regularly.
- Personnel Cost to Manage your Teleconferencing Bridge - No matter how automated the teleconferencing bridge is you will still need someone in your company to be the administrator. This person will need to access the teleconferencing bridge to configure the system and manage settings within the teleconferencing bridge regularly.
As you can see, it is difficult these days to make the argument that a teleconferencing bridge will actually save you money. With a company like Zip Conferencing available that provides full featured conference call services for as little as 2.4 cents per minute for toll free access why would you want to take on the headache of managing a teleconferencing bridge. Like most service provider arguments it is probably best to concentrate on what you do for a living and let the experts worry about the rest.
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Friday, January 14th, 2011
A business conference call can make all the difference in the success of your business. Yet, today it is estimated that the market for conference calls has only been penetrated 58% which means that 42% of the businesses that should be doing business conference calls are not. That is a pretty amazing statistic when you think of it. And I bet many of you are thinking that there is no way people don’t know about using a business conference call to get people together on issues for their business. But I can tell you from experience that a lot of businesses still are not using a business conference call yet. I can tell through the conversation I have with potential customers that there are still a lot of people out there who are not using a business conference call for their business. And it is hard to believe. Especially in this economy and the number of new businesses being started up. A business conference call offers so many benefits to your business without a large expenditure. Large businesses are big users of business conference calls because they have long understood the benefits they get from conducting regular conference calls with their staff and customers. Here are some of the benefits you can expect from incorporating a business conference call into your regular business processes.
- A Business Conference Call Saves Time- When you are a small or medium business or better yet, a brand new business, the one thing you will never have enough of is time. By utilizing a business conference call when you can you will find yourself saving valuable time that otherwise would have been spent travelling to an in person meeting. Travel time is very unproductive even with all of today’s gadgets that help keep you informed and allow you to do work away from the office. You can hardly be working on a document when you are walking through an airport or driving your car. The more time you can find yourself at your desk the better you will be in the long run. A business conference call can be used for the initial contact with the customer especially if you need to pull multiple people from your company into the discussion or if the customer has several contacts that need to hear your pitch. And during the implementation process a business conference call can keep your project on time and make sure that everyone gets the same message all the time.
- A Business Conference Call Saves Money – The other thing you can’t get enough of is money. Especially if you are starting out your capital is a precious commodity. A business conference call is much less expensive than any in person meeting you can have with your staff or customers. Many small businesses have staff scattered throughout the country or the world and the expense to travel to visit these people on a consistent basis is just too much. A business conference call allows you to stay in touch with everyone for a fraction of the cost of travelling to them in person. And the cost of the travel is one thing. What about the cost of the hotel, meals, rental car and everything else that goes along with it? A business conference call can save you thousands of dollars on one trip.
- A Business Conference Call Increases Productivity – And usually if you own a small business or are just starting a new on you will never have as many people on the job as you would like. So you need every person as productive as they can be in order to get the job done. A business conference call allows you to stay at your desk for the meeting and return to work immediately following the conference call. Aside from the time saving productivity you gain with a business conference call you also benefit by working together to accomplish the task and keep all informed along the way. A business conference call can prevent a lot of back and forth communication between you and the other parties.
The bottom line is a business conference call can make all the difference in the world for your business.
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Friday, January 7th, 2011
With Audio Conference Calls the one thing you should not have to think about is reliability. When you go to an in person meeting in a conference room you take it for granted that the lights in the conference room will work. A conference call should be no different. Audio conference calls have been around for a long time and at this point if the conference call service company has taken the proper precautions reliability should not be an issue. Here are some of the steps that Zip Conferencing has taken to ensure that our customers can quality and reliability with every conference call.
- Direct Digital Connections to the Public Telecommunications Network – The Public Telecommunications Network is the main network that all of us use to complete phone calls. Audio conference calls are no different than a regular phone call except our teleconferencing equipment is what you call into and makes it possible for multiple parties to speak together. So the better the connection to the network the better audio conference calls will sound. Zip Conferencing employs direct digital connections to ensure a high quality reliable connection.
- Multiple Telecommunications Carriers – What happens to audio conference calls if the telecommunications carrier has an issue? If there is a major outage on the carrier the ability to connect to the conference call will be compromised. Zip Conferencing uses multiple telecommunication carriers in case one has a major outage we can reroute the traffic to another carrier so that you can get to your conference call.
- Back Up Power Systems – Audio conference calls are dependent on the equipment that makes them possible and they need consistent power in order to operate. Zip Conferencing has a battery and generator power back up system in place that provides for uninterrupted power in case of emergency. The generator will continue to operate as long as is necessary making sure your conference calls are there when you need them.
- Back Up Conference Call Equipment – Audio conference calls are conducted on a piece of equipment referred to as a conference call bridge. It is basically a computer with thousands of connections for conference call participants. And like any computer, despite regular maintenance they sometimes fail. Zip Conferencing has constructed a network that includes back up live equipment so that if anything happens to a conference call bridge we can switch to a working piece of equipment without any loss in traffic.
If you are looking for a conference call service provider for your audio conference calls you should be looking for quality and reliability first. If you select Zip Conferencing you will get quality, reliability and the most affordable rates anywhere.
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Monday, January 3rd, 2011
I think what has been lost in the sea of various rates and services you can get from all the conference calling service companies out there is the value that the conference call service brings to your business. Even at the rates that conference calls were being sold in the early 1990′s a conference calling service easily pays for itself. But a conference call has become so integrated into the fabric of businesses these days it has simply been expected as part of any businesses communications strategy and the benefits are often overlooked and taken for granted. A conference calling service provides two main benefits, they save time and money.
- A Conference Calling Service Saves Time- Think of all the time that is wasted if you have to leave your desk and travel to a meeting. The meeting could be down the hall, around the corner or around the world. The longer the travel the more time you waste just getting to and from the meeting. And even with today’s communication environment there are going to be times during that travel period that you are simply unavailable and can’t work on anything because you are travelling. And once you get to the meeting there is a lot of wasted time as people do the meet and greet process and everyone waits for the host of the meeting to get things together and so forth. I know people who have travelled across the country to attend a one hour meeting. And like everyone I agree with and endorse face to face meetings for certain situations but a conference calling service can save countless hours. And the saved time naturally translates into increased productivity since you can attend a conference call without leaving your own desk.
- A Conference Calling Service Saves Money- It really doesn’t matter what you pay per minute cost for a conference calling service because if you analyze it against an in person meeting you will see that a conference call will save you money every time. The cost of travelling to the meeting is the first place you save. There are also the costs of the meeting itself. If you are meeting in person the host many times will feel compelled to provide refreshments for the participants and may even have to rent a room to stage the meeting. And if you have travelled a great distance you have the cost of local accommodations in addition to the travel cost itself. There just isn’t a less expensive or more convenient way to hold a meeting. And if you choose a high quality provider like Zip Conferencing you will be able to conduct your meeting just like you were in the room together without any loss in fidelity and pay a great deal less than many other providers in the market today.
No matter what your circumstance you will quickly realize that a conference calling service pays for itself.
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Thursday, December 9th, 2010
It wasn’t too long ago that I was with a conference call services provider and we were offering low cost conference calls for 50 cents per minute. And at that rate we were saving customers of AT&T over 40%! Well, even at that rate conference calls were easily justified to large businesses because of the savings they recognized in travel and the increased productivity. But now, with toll free conference calls priced less than 10 cents per minute, this powerful business tool is available to businesses of all sizes.
There was a time when the majority of my customers had over 50 employees. But low cost conference calls has really changed that dynamic. Now there is a much wider mix of companies utlizing low cost conference calls. I have many 1 – 3 employee companies who have realized that conference calls can help them be more productive and provide a very important communication link to their customers. Small home construction companies are using conference calls to keep their customers up to speed on their home building developments and coordinating with building supply vendors to make selections for their home. Small Accounting firms and CPAs are using low cost conference calls to keep their customers informed and to have meetings with investment firms and attorneys with their customers. Small law firms are using low cost conference calls to hold conference calls with opposing council and their customers.
And not only have low cost conference calls now opened up the advantages of conference calling to businesses of all sizes but the service itself is richer than ever. Zip Conferencing allows its customers to customize their conference calls in such a way that they have full control over all of the facets of the conference call. With Zip Conferencing you can decide whether participants are announced into the conference call with a tone, their name or not at all. Customers can have their participants listen to music or provide them the ability to speak without the moderator present and engage a number of security measures to insure their privacy on the conference calls. And much more. So now companies of all sizes have the same high quality, feature rich conference call services available to them as large companies. And with small companies the ability to save money on travel and be more productive are no less important than to large companies.
Low cost conference calls have truly leveled the playing field for companies of all sizes in many ways.
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Tuesday, November 23rd, 2010
They are reporting that 40 million people will travel for Thanksgiving, but many families just can’t get together for a variety of reasons which makes residential conference calls important around the holidays. No doubt you have been on a business conference call at one time or another. For businesses the conference call has become an essential tool that provides savings in time and money and makes meetings possible that otherwise would not be due to the location of the participants. Residential conference calls fill the same need for families that would like to get together but just can’t physically get in the same location.
There are a number of reasons that families need to get together like a family emergency, a birth or death in the family, a wedding or around the holidays. With Thanksgiving this week many family members will make the trek to be with their family despite all of the travel hassles and expense to get there. And there is no substitute for sitting down to Thanksgiving dinner with your family. But just as many people who travel can’t make the trip for one reason or another.
Usually when a family member can’t make it we give them a call and pass the phone around the room so everyone can speak tot hem. Then when the call is over we try to piece together all that was spoken of to all the different people. Why not use a residential conference call and get everyone in the same place at the same time?
Residential conference calls can be very affordable because the number of participants is usually small since many members of the family are probably in one place and you are just trying to include the few people who couldn’t make it into your gathering. With only two or three participants total you can hold a residential conference call with Zip Conferencing for an hour for less than $10. You could even include the missing members at your table to enjoy the entire meal if you want for less than the cost of desert!
So, this holiday season if everyone can’t make it to your house why not try a residential conference call, the next best thing to being there.
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Monday, November 8th, 2010
For something like conference calls you would not think that you could have so many way to price the service. Conference call pricing does not need to be so mysterious. There are just a few things to keep in mind when shopping for conference calls so you can be sure you are looking at an apples to apples comparison of conference call pricing.
- Toll vs. Toll Free – The first thing to verify is whether the conference call pricing you are looking at is for toll or toll free access. Toll access means that you and your participants have to dial a local number somewhere in the country to connect to the conference call. You and your participants will be charged by your long distance phone company for calling that number the entire time you are on the conference call. Depending on what kind of rate plan you may have this can be substantially more than getting a toll free plan. These hidden charges can be costly and embarrassing. Do you want your customer to get a bill to join your conference call? All of the rates quoted for Zip Conferencing are for toll free access. No hidden charges.
- Number of Participants – One of the ways that some conference call service companies reduce their conference call pricing is by reducing the number of participants that can join a conference call at any one time. And you may not need 300 participants at a time like Zip Conferencing offers. But the reason that other companies limit the number of participants is that they have limited capacity and they are trying to get by with less equipment. The real problem here is whether any capacity will be available when you need it. Zip Conferencing maintains an abundance of capacity and is constantly adding to insure the capacity will be there when you need it.
- Billing – Companies that offer discounts in conference call pricing will limit the choices you have for invoicing as well. Many of these providers will require you to sign a long term contract or buy a prepaid amount of minutes. Most will not offer corporate billing where you can pay by company check. Zip Conferencing has no contracts and also has a pay by company check option for corporate accounts.
- Features – One if the biggest places where conference call service providers will cut corners is with features. Conference call pricing with these companies is low but you can’t record the conference call or access many of the features you may be used to. With Zip Conferencing you can customize your conference call and access a myriad of features just like premium priced conference call services.
- Customer Service – And of course, if you need customer service with many of the companies with low conference call pricing, you may be out of luck. With Zip Conferencing we offer customer service 24/7 including operator assistance during the conference call itself.
So if you are looking for good honest conference call pricing made easy try Zip Conferencing. You will not be disappointed in the quality, reliability or service you receive.
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Thursday, October 28th, 2010
Everyone likes to save money and conference calls are no different. There are a lot of cheap conference calls out there but make sure you get quality too or you will be disappointed. That’s right cheap conference calls are everywhere. You can even get free conference calls if you want. So what is the difference? Are all conference calls the same? If I buy cheap conference calls will the quality always be poor?
- Free Conference Calls – As you might suspect, free conference calls are not really free. The catch here is that you and your participants have to pay toll charges to connect to the conference call because they don’t provide a toll free number. And do you really think that someone who gives away their service is going to provide a high level of quality? Really?
- Are all conference calls the same? – The short answer to this question is no, all conference calls are not the same. The conference call service provider has everything to do with how the call sounds, how reliable the service is and what customer service they provide. In this case what you don’t know can hurt you. If the conference call service company cut corners setting up their network or used inferior equipment you could find yourself with an inferior connection.
- Cheap conference calls – You can find a high quality cheap conference call but you need to know what to look for. Zip Conferencing has taken steps to insure that the quality of the conference calls are as good as any conference call service available. You can for yourself and experience the quality of the calls. In addition, you should look for a service that offers as many conference call options and features as other services. You don’t want to find yourself without being able to access features like recordings and roll call because you wanted to save some money.
The bottom line is that you want to shop quality first in a conference call service. Cheap conference calls can be quite good but look for a reputable provider like Zip Conferencing that will give you all of the features and conference call options you need and the high quality and reliability you deserve.
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Friday, October 22nd, 2010
When I tell people what I do for a living I am still amazed that people don’t know that companies like Zip Conferencing exist. Most people do a telephone conference call on a regular basis or have certainly been on one recently but don’t know where they come from. I guess many of these people are in a company where the buying decision for conference call services is made by someone else and they just know how easy it is to get on a telephone conference call. And that is why a regular telephone conference call still makes the most sense.
Let’s face it, technology has come a long way in the past 15 years since I started my career in teleconferencing so why is the regular telephone conference call still growing in use? Well, in the past 15 years I have heard the prediction of the demise of the telephone conference call with the invention of every new group communication technology that has come along. But there are several reasons why the regular telephone conference call is still the easiest, most convenient and least expensive way for a group of people to get together.
- Universal Connectivity- A telephone conference call uses a device that everyone is familiar with, the telephone. You don’t have to teach people how to use a telephone and these days most people know how to connect to a conference call as well. And with a telephone conference call all you need is a telephone. And any telephone will do. When I started in 1995 we still had to help people who had rotary phones onto conference calls that require you to enter a pass code but that is no longer the case. And cell phones were not as reliable as they are today and would cause issues on conference calls as well. But today any telephone can connect to a conference call with ease.
- Easy to Use- With the invention of reservationless pass code entry telephone conference calls the usage in conference calls skyrocketed. That’s because the industry made the service easy to use. And over the years it has exposed just about everyone to a universal method of joining a telephone conference call. Everyone pretty much knows that you have to dial an access number and then put in a pass code to connect to a conference call. There is no need to get participants to learn a new technology or download something onto their computers.
- Convenient- Today you can access a telephone conference call from anywhere in the world from any telephone. You don’t have to worry if you can get an Internet connection or anything. All you need to do is make a telephone call and you can connect to a telephone conference call. So, you can be travelling, at home or in the office and connect to the conference call. So it is convenient to the host and participants alike.
So, despite all of the predictions about its early death, telephone conference calls still make the most sense if you want to hold a group meeting with people in disparate locations. And until they replace the telephone it will continue to be the group meeting method of choice.
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Thursday, October 21st, 2010
I know. The way the economy has been the last couple of years the price is very important. And I agree. Even with something as important as a conference call the rate is an important factor in deciding who to choose for a conference call service provider. With Zip Conferencing the conference call rate is just the beginning.
At Zip Conferencing we believe that you should be able to get a quality conference call service and a good conference call rate. In fact, our company was designed from the ground up to do just that. First, we installed nothing but the latest equipment and connected it to the best phone networks available. The quality of the conference call itself is the single most important factor in providing our customers a quality experience. We also made sure that the equipment and network were fully backed up with hot stand by equipment and power back up to make sure the service is available 100% of the time. Next, we designed our systems around the customer experience to provide a better way for our customers to maintain their accounts. For this, we installed an online account interface that allows our customers to access their accounts themselves. In addition, we gave our customers the ability to customize their own experience by giving them access to many of the popular conference options and letting them decide how their conference call should run. For all of these features a conference call rate was not considered because we believe you need to have a quality experience above all else.
To mkae sure you get a conference call rate we did, however, design our company differently than other conference call service providers. The main difference you will find is that we have automated all of the back office processes to keep costs down. We also do not have expensive offices or field sales people. Do you really need to see a salesperson in order to get your conference call service? I think not. We do not print paper bills which is not just environmentally friendly but saves money as well. But none of the changes we have made to give you a good conference call rate diminish your experience. We still provide 24/7 customer service and the highest quality conference calls and web conferences available in the market today. But with our lower overhead we can also give you the best conference call rate available today.
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Monday, October 18th, 2010
A customer recently called and needed to speak to all of their employees quickly in order to make an announcement about the acquisition of the company. They are not a regular conference call user but thought that it may suit their needs. Well, needless to say, this company was so impressed by the capabilities of our service they have since become a regular user of conference calls for more applications within their business. Why are conference calls so well suited to making a company announcement?
Many times a company announcement is necessary to quickly get the word out to employees about an important milestone in your company’s history. A conference call is best suited for these types of announcements because it would otherwise be impossible in most cases to get the employees together quickly. Many times the employees are scattered around the country or around the world and just can’t physically get together that easily. Then there is the cost of getting everyone together. Even if you have the time to pull everyone together the cost of getting a group of employees together can be exorbitant. A conference call allows you to get the employees together quickly and easily for a relatively small amount of money.
Depending on the size of the group you may want to customize your conference call with some features that will make the call a success. With Zip Conferencing you can do this yourself by selecting the conference options you want on the conference call through your own interface. A couple of options I would recommend would be the Music on Hold option and silence entry and exit. Music on Hold makes it so your participants will listen to music until the moderator joins the conference call. Otherwise a large group of participants will be making noise and your audience will wonder when the conference call will begin. Entry and exit tones silenced for the conference call will also reduce distracting noises for the participants and the moderator alike. Another conference call option you may want use is muting all participants. As moderator of the call you have the ability to mute all participants on the conference call. That way your audience will not hear any distracting noises while you make your announcement. After you have made your announcement you can then open up the lines for questions or comments.
With Zip Conferencing you can host up to 300 participants on a conference call and do a company announcement without having to pull all of the employees together.
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Thursday, April 22nd, 2010
Earth Day reminds us to do whatever we can to help save our environment because its resources are limited and fragile. And one of the things we now understand is reducing our “carbon footprint”. This means to reduce our emissions and use of resources and one of the easiest ways to do this is to reduce our travel whether it is by car, train or plane. There is no easier way to reduce your business travel then to replace your in person meetings with a conference call or a web conference.
In person meetings are great. You get to shake hands, look people in the eye and connect with others the way you can’t when you are on a remote meeting. But every meeting doesn’t need to be in person. If you know the people you are meeting with and have met before you don’t really need to meet in person every time. And by doing some of your meetings by way of conference calls and web conferencing you can hold just as effective a meeting as if you were in person without the travel expense and do your part to reduce your carbon footprint. Holding a conference call or web conference has never been easier. Services are widely available, affordable and very easy to use. At this point just about everyone has been on a conference call that utilizes a toll free number and a pass code. You simply dial the access number and put in your code and you are connected to the other people that did the same. You can meet with hundreds of people at once if you like and you can meet any time you like. A web conference is just as easy and allows you to share your desktop or do a presentation from your PC as easily as if the people were in the same room. You can even use a camera and send participants your own video feed if you really want to add that in person feeling. And while you are being a good steward of the Earth you also will be saving a good amount of money and time using conference call services as an alternative.
If only a fraction of meetings today were replaced with conference calls and web conferencing we would save millions of tons of carbon emissions. And lets face it, there are a lot of meetings that are not worth the gas to get there.
And using a conference call instead of driving to an appointment is many times just a matter of thinking to do it. So on Earth Day it gives us one more reason to think to do a conference call benefiting everyone concerned, even the Earth.
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Thursday, April 15th, 2010
As web conferencing has become more popular chances are that you have attended an online seminar where the presentation has been done via web conferencing. Usually you are simply sitting in the audience on a conference call listening while watching the presentation on the web conference with little or no interaction with the speaker. Although this is the most used method of web conferencing, the people who first came up with the idea had much bigger plans for web conferencing.
When web conferencing was first invented a lot of effort was made to make the service a collaborative tool where people could work on a document together from great distance. This ability to collaborate was seen as the the killer application. The adoption of web conferencing services is more and more widespread but interactive web conferencing is still lagging in its use overall. Here are some of the features that allow for interactive web conferencing.
- Application Sharing – Application sharing provides users the ability to share their desktop with the other participants on the web conference and permits any participant to control another computer. This means that participants can actually control a document or spreadsheet and input or edit data on it. Much like you would pass around a piece of paper in an in person meeting for people to mark up, you can actually change the document on the fly while on the web conference.
- Whiteboarding- This application permits participants to mark up a virtual whiteboard seen by all participants while on an interactive web conference. Much like someone would go up to a whiteboard to discuss things while in a conference room, participants can easily do the same on the web conference.
- Polling/Q&A – Even a presentation can be an interactive web conference through the use of polling and Q&A features. By engaging the audience you will have a more stimulating meeting and have better retention of the material. Polling permits you to survey your audience during an interactive web conference and the Q&A feature allows you to conduct an orderly Q&A session for the presentation.
It seems that maybe people don’t work in a collaborative manner and allowing someone to control your PC is a little scary to some people as well. But even if you are only doing a presentation using a web conferencing service you can make it an interactive web conference by adding polling and Q&A to your web conference. You will find that the more you can make it an interactive web conference the more your participants will stay engaged with your presentation.
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Tuesday, April 6th, 2010
The simple definition of a conference call provider is a company that owns and maintains conference call service equipment and provides access for its customers to the equipment for a fee. But what are all of the responsibilities of a conference call provider? Is simply providing access to the conference call equipment enough?
Conference calls have become an important piece of business services that is now used around the world to help people communicate. A conference call provider plays a role in each of its customers’ businesses that it cannot ignore. Vital communications are being done everyday via conference calls and the responsibility to provide a reliable, high quality conference call service cannot be taken lightly. There are many different options for conference call equipment and the way the telecommunications network that is set up on the equipment. The level of service provided its customers is as varied as the equipment and the pricing options available can be confusing as well. When selecting a conference call provider you should consider the following points.
- Conference Call Equipment – Is the equipment the latest equipment available? Are there back up systems available in case of an outage? How much capacity does the conference call provider have?
- Service Availability – Does the conference call provider have personnel available 24/7 to assist you in case there is a question or issue? Can you easily reach someone from within the conference call?
- Features – Does the conference call provider have the features you expect? Can you customize the way your conference call works?
- Support – Does the conference call provider have adequate support documentation? Do they offer personal service representatives?
A conference call provider should be considered your partner in your business and provide a service that you are proud of because the conference calls you hold for your business are a reflection on you. You cannot afford to have an issue in the middle of an important business discussion. The conference call service needs to be available and provide a clear reliable connection. And if there is ever any kind of an issue you need to be able to get assistance easily from the provider. So, taking a little time up front to investigate the provider will pay dividends for a long time to come.
Zip Conferencing provides reliable, high quality conference calls for less. If you spend the time to compare Zip Conferencing to other conference call providers you will see that Zip Conferencing is hard to beat. The latest conference call equipment, installed directly on carrier networks provide feature rich conference calls. Dedicated 24/7 support insures that you will be supported regardless of your needs.
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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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Monday, March 29th, 2010
Just about everyone has done a conference call in their business life. Conference calls have become universally known for their convenience and ability to save people time and money compared to an in person meeting. But can you also use a conference call service for your residential conference call needs? Sure you can, here are some of the uses we have seen for residential conference calls.
- Family Party Planning – Many times you may want to have a party with your family and you need to work on logistics like during the holidays. If you have a dispersed family and you need to get everyone on the same page a conference call will allow you to get all of the family members on the same page.
- Family Emergencies- If you have a family emergency you need to deal with such as a death or hospitalization of a family member and you need to coordinate with the other family members you can do a conference call to get together more easily.
- Birth of a child – A new family member is a great excuse to get everyone on the phone so you can celebrate with everyone in the family.
- Local Organization – If you have a local club or organization that you organize you can use a conference call to coordinate your efforts with the other members of the organization.
Basically, anything you can think of where you need to get multiple parties together to discuss something you can coordinate with a conference call. Conference call rates have gotten low enough where even for residential conference calls it makes sense rather than an in person meeting if you would like to save money and time.
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Wednesday, March 17th, 2010
So, you think you want free conference call services? Think again! Like most things in life, nothing really comes for free. And before you risk your reputation and business you will want to understand what free conference call services are all about.
When the first free conference call service was introduced everyone in the conference call industry kind of shrugged and figured everyone would understand the deficiencies with the service and steer clear of them. Well, free conference call services have survived because everyone likes something “free” so its attraction can not be underestimated. But, is it truly free? And what is the difference between free conference call services and paid conference call services? Here are the details behind free conference call services.
- Free Doesn’t mean No Cost- True, after the conference call is over you may not owe the free conference call service provider anything, but that doesn’t mean it didn’t cost you anything. That is because all free conference call service providers give you a local number to access your conference call. That “local” number is usually not local for anyone on the conference call which means you and you participants have to make a long distance call to connect to your conference. Do you want your customer or prospect to get long distance charges on their phone bill for attending your conference call?
- Will it be available when you dial in – The way a free conference call service company makes money is by getting the termination fee for having you call into a location where long distance providers pay the local telephone company to terminate the call. The amount they are paid is very small so they can’t afford the best conference call equipment and have a limitation on capacity. There is no guarantee that when you call in for your conference call that the capacity will be there for you. Do you want to chance having the conference call available?
- Toll Free at a Price – You can usually get a toll free access number for your conference call, but you will pay for it. And if you find that if you shopped around the competition you could find a better toll free conference call rate from a company with better features and more reliable conference call equipment.
- Support is Not Free – And if you need any support, how much support do you expect if the service is free?
So, if you want to make sure your conference call is there when you need and not get hit with hidden charges you may want to examine what it means to be a free conference call service.
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Monday, March 15th, 2010
A term used in the teleconferencing industry to describe telephone conference calls is audio conferencing. We adopted this term to distinguish the normal conference call from a web conference. And truth be told the term “audio” is used to describe something you listen to so it makes sense. It is just not a word that people use everyday so many times people are confused when I talk about audio conferencing.
Audio conferencing is just another way of saying conference call and specifically is describing a conference call on a telephone whose main communication method is using sound/speech over the telephone. An audio conference today has become a fairly standard offering as far as the way it works and many of its features. Generally, an audio conference is held by dialing an access number and then putting in a pass code when you are connected to the conference call service equipment. The conference call service equipment then places you in the appropriate conference call based on the pass code you input. Basically all of the participants that enter that code will be placed into the same conference call. Most conference call services will provide a separate pass code for the Host of the call so they can access certain features within the conference call.
The most common features available to the Host on a conference call are the ability to mute all participants, raise and lower the volume and disconnect some or all of the participants. Some conference call service companies will offer additional features like the ability to conduct a roll call and even record the conference call. Zip Conferencing offers these features and more.
So, if you hear of someone referring to an Audio Conference you know it is just a plain old conference call.
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