Posts Tagged ‘Control’

Customize your Conference Calls

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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Managing Large Conference Calls

Friday, January 22nd, 2010

There was a time when you would not even think about running an automated conference call for 20 or more participants.  If you were going to run a conference call of that size you would run the conference call with the assistance of an operator.  And even today, an Operator Assisted call might be the right conference call solution depending on your application, but the conference call technology has gotten to where running a large automated conference call is manageable if you know a few tricks.

The main problem with running a large conference call is the noise the audience can introduce during the call.  It is bad enough when there are just 4 or 5 participants and one of them introduces noise because they are on a cell phone, rustling papers on their desk, talking to people in their room, etc.  Just imagine having 100 people on the call.  The odds that someone is going to make noise during the conference call are pretty good.  In fact, virtually certain.  So, what can you do to hold an orderly conference call with a large audience?  Here are a few tips to make for a successful large conference call.

  • Turn Off any Tones –  Most conference call service companies provide tones on the conference clal so you know when a participant joins the call.  This is fine when you have 5 people on the conference call, but can be more than a distraction when there are 20 or more.
  • Mute All – The conference calling service should provide  a way to mute all participants as the Moderator of the conference call. 
  • Use an online interface if offered – Some conference call service companies offer an online conference call interface that allows you to see the callers and control the audio portion of the conference call.  This can be very helpful, especially if you intend to open up to questions from the audience.  That way you can see the callers and manage the call easier.
  • Use Web Conferencing – In addition to enhancing your conference call with visual presentations, a web conference can allow you to manage a Q&A session better than just using an audio conference.  With a Web Conference you are giving your participants a way to raise their hand for questions and a way for you to open up an individual line to allow them to ask their question.
  • Practice – The best thing you can do to insure your success with a large conference call is to run a practice session to make sure you are familiiar with all of the conference call controls and how to use them.

If you follow these tips you can run a large conference call successfully without the need to use an expensive Operator Assisted Conference Call.

www.zipconferencing.com

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Conference Call Hosting – Take Control of your Meetings

Tuesday, January 19th, 2010

If you are the organizer of a meeting, you are responsible for the meeting’s success.  When the meeting is a conference call there are a few things you can do to make sure you have an effective meeting.  Just like in a face to face meeting you need to establish control of the meeting right up front so that everyone knows you are in charge and what the ground rules are going to be.  Here are some ways to take control of the conference call if you are the host.

  • Be on Time – Especially as the Host of the conference call it is important that you are on time and that the participants know that the meeting will start on time.  This is respectful of the time of your participants and you will find that over time you will get better participation if they know the conference call will start and end on time.
  • Have an Agenda – Even if it is a skeletal outline of what is to be discussed, an agenda distributed ahead of the conference call will give the participants an opportunity to prepare for the meeting.  Participants are much more likely to participate if they are comfortable with the material being discussed and are ready for the topics.
  • Establish and Hold to a time frame – Make sure that you end the conference call on time.  Many times participants have back to back meetings and ending on time or ahead of schedule will encourage ongoing participation on the conference call. 
  • Eliminate or reduce any noise – With so many conference call participants joining the conference call by using a cell phone these days it is almost impossible for someone to not introduce noise into the conference call.  As a conference call Host you can mute all of the participants if there is no need for active participation in the beginning of your conference call and then open up all of the lines for discussion later in the conference call.  This will eliminate the introduction of any noise into the conference call.  Or you should make sure that participants know to mute themselves unless they are speaking in order to eliminate any introduction of noise into the conference call.
  • Encourage orderly participation – Ask your participants to introduce themselves when they are speaking so that all of the participants on the conference call know who is speaking.  And, as Host it is your job to act as gate keeper for who is speaking as well.
  • Review the Action Items and Next Steps – At the end of the call you should review what was discussed, review any actions items and who is responsible for them and then make sure everyone knows when the next conference call is if necessary.

As Host of the conference call you can ensure your success by taking charge of your meetings.

www.zipconferencing.com

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Web Conferencing for Remote Support

Tuesday, January 12th, 2010

Web conferencing has been adopted by sales organizations around the world as a way to do a presentation for a prospect from your desktop,  greatly reducing travel expenses and increasing productivity.  It is also widely recognized for its remote training abilities which allows participants to take a training class without the costly need to travel to a central location.  But another application for web conferencing that is being used, but maybe not as widely known is for the support of customers and employees remotely to troubleshoot software on their desktops.

Since web conferencing allows participants to see each other’s computer screens regardless of the application that is running.  It allows a technical support person to view the PC of a customer or employee which assists them in more easily diagnosing an issue.  A remote participant does not need to try to describe the issue they are having because the technician will be able to see exactly what they are talking about on the web conference.  And if the participant allows it, the technician can even take control of the remote user’s PC and fix the problem while the participant sits back and watches them do the work.

Needless to say, this application for web conferencing is a win-win for the company supporting the product and the customer, since the problem is fixed easily and quickly and any interpretation errors on exactly what the issue is are avoided because the technician is actually viewing the PC themselves.  Like all of the conference call services, the web conferencing in this application saves any travel costs that may have been associated with the service and makes the technician that much more productive since they can handle many of these types of service calls using web conferencing instead of travelling to customer locations.  In many cases, if you are selling your product across the country or around the world, travelling to customer locations to support your product is not even practical.  Especially for a small business that is trying to support their product, web conferencing offers a way to provide their customers an excellent level of service without spending a lot of money.  Supporting your customers using web conferencing just makes good business sense.

www.zipconferencing.com

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Conference Call Security

Thursday, January 7th, 2010

The big buzz word these days in the news is security, so I thought it might be appropriate to spend a little time to discuss conference call security.  In general conference calls are pretty secure.  It israther difficult to tap into a conference call from the conference call service provider side of things.  The conference call equipment is located in a secure environment, its directly connected to carrier networks and each piece of conference call service equipment has thousands of participants on hundreds of calls.  It would be pretty difficult to tap into a piece of conference call service equipment unless you are an operator for the conference call service company and listen in on a particular conference call.  That having been said, there are some people who want to make sure that their conference call is secure so here are some options on making a conference call even more secure.

  • Change the conference call passcode frequently – Many people use the same conference call pass code for all of their conference calls.  Like any password you have it is good practice to regularly change the passcode so that it cannot be compromised.
  • Add a PIN number to the conference call passcode – With some conference call service companies you can add an additional PIN number for each participant that requires them to input in order to join the conference call.  This adds a layer of security and identifies them on the conference call.
  • Lock the conference call – Most conference call service companies allow you to lock the conference call so that additional participants cannot enter the conference call after it is locked.  This feature usually locks out any operators from the conference call service company as well.
  • Monitor the conference call from your PC – Some conference call service companies provide a feature that allows you to monitor and control your conference call through a web interface on your PC.  That way you can see the participants and make sure that only the participants you have invited are on the conference call.
  • Roll Call – Whether using a PC interface or through the telephone you can usually automate a roll call with the participants on a conference call so that you know who is on the call.
  • Music on Hold – If you are concerned about the participants being able to speak before the Moderator joins or use the conference call information without the Moderator you can make it so that the conference call will not start without the Moderator and keeps the participants on hold with music.
  • End Conference when Moderator Exits – You can also configure a conference call so that when the Moderator exits the conference call ends and hangs up on the remaining participants.  This will also prevent the participants from being able to hold a conference call without the Moderator.

Even with all of these options there is no guarantee of security as someone could tap into an individual phone line like any phone conversation, but these conference call security measures will prevent the majority of any security concerns on a conference call.  All of these features are available with Zip Conferencing.

www.zipconferencing.com

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Conference Call Recordings can Save the Day

Monday, November 9th, 2009

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

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

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

www.zipconferencing.com

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Web Conference Features

Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009

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

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

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

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

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

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

www.zipconferencing.com

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Conference Calls with a Large Audience

Friday, September 11th, 2009

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

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

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

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

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

 

www.zipconferencing.com

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Web Conference vs. Conference Call

Tuesday, September 1st, 2009

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

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

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

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

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