Posts Tagged ‘Lot’

Audio Conferencing can Save a Road Trip

Thursday, January 26th, 2012

Audio Conferencing is one of those things that I wonder what we did without it.  And not just because I am in the business.  Conference calls are so wide spread that I just can’t imagine life without them.  Especially if you are a road warrior or even just someone who finds themselves out of the office on a regular basis.  After all let’s face it there is a lot of down time when you are on the road and there is no reason you can’t remain productive.  Because audio conferencing can really save a road trip.  There are any number of ways that conferencing can save the day on the road.

  • Attend Regular Meetings – When you are out of the office there is no need to miss the regular meetings that keep you in touch.  Simply get an audio conference set up and hold the meeting from the road.
  • Impromptu Meetings – You get the email and need to pull a group together but you are hundreds of miles away.  No problem, just use audio conferencing to pull together the people you need to discuss whatever situation is thrown at you.
  • Handle Emergencies – Every business gets hit with an emergency from time to time and customers know that as well.  It is how you handle the emergencies that will distinguish you.  Pulling together the people necessary to deal with the emergency and making sure everyone is on the same page will do a lot to contain any issues the emergency will uncover.  Audio conferencing allows you to pull together the emergency team in a moments notice no matter where you are at the time.
  • Personal Use – Yes, personal use.  I bet you have not used a conference call for your personal use before but for all the same reasons it can really help.  If there is a personal emergency or even if you just want to congratulate a son or daughter on a big accomplishment why not get everyone on the phone at the same time?

So the next time you are getting ready to go on the road and you are packing make sure you bring along audio conferencing.  You never know when you might need it and it can really save your road trip.

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Looking for a Conference Call Bridge? Really?

Monday, December 12th, 2011

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

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

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

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A Conference Calling Company is your Partner

Tuesday, July 26th, 2011

A conference calling company takes on a role in your company’s business that you may not realize.  When you think about what is discussed on conference calls in your company and who is on the calls you start to understand why the decision on which conference calling company to use is so important.  Many times a company’s most important and sensitive discussions are on conference calls.  And many times the top executives in a company use conference calling services extensively.  So, in today’s environment where there are a lot of conference calling companies and they all seem like they offer the same services how do you choose the right conference calling company?  Actually the most important attribute to look for in a conference calling company are hard if not impossible to see.  But here are some of things you should look for if you are looking for a high quality, reliable conference calling company.

  • Reliable Network – Since you and your participants need to call into any conference calling company to connect to your conference call you should make sure they are connected to a high quality network.  Zip Conferencing, for instance, using only top tier long distance providers and has direct connections into their networks.  Also, the reason we have multiple carriers is to make sure that if one of the carriers has an outage we have a back up network in place to carry our traffic.  The direct connections make sure that we have the highest quality connection possible.
  • Back Up Systems – For a conference calling company, back up systems are expensive.  But I have been in the teleconferencing industry for over 15 years and I can tell you first hand that occasionally the technology will rear its head and you will have issues.  It is inevitable.  The only way to avoid an outage is to put back up systems in place that can take over when the primary systems fail.  At Zip Conferencing we have back up conference call equipment that is live and ready to handle traffic in the case of an outage.  We also have power back up systems to keep all of our equipment powered up in the case of a power outage.  If an issue arises our customers will not be affected. 
  • Full Featured – Some conference calling companies will cut corners on the services that they offer.  This makes it easier to manage and the equipment they use does not need to be as sophisticated.  But the customer experience is not as good.  At Zip Conferencing we use the latest conference calling equipment with all of the features you should expect from a conference calling company.  In fact, our equipment and online account management allow you to customize your conference calls unlike most other conference calling companies.
  • Support – And when you have an issue you need your partner to be able to support your needs.  A conference calling company that takes their partnership in your company seriously will back it up with the kind of support you would expect from such an important service provider for your company.  Zip Conferencing offer support 24/7 365 days a year and can even join you on your conference call to assist if you need assistance.

If you are looking for a true partner to provide conference calls to your company you need to look closer than the rates they offer.  Once you look “under the hood” you will see that Zip Conferencing is the best value in conference calls today.

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A Phone Conference Call is Still the Way to Go

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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Should you buy a Teleconferencing Bridge?

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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Cheap Conference Calls are Great if you get Quality Too

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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Free Web Conferencing

Monday, March 8th, 2010

One of the surest ways to get traffic to your web site is to give something away for free.  But how is it that a service that a lot of people are willing to pay for can be offered by another company for free.  Well, I have gone through free conference calls before and explained how that can happen, but what about free web conferencing? 

A conference call service company that provides web conferencing to its customers has to pay for a number of things in order to provide the service.  Some of those cost items include the following.

  • Software development – If the conference call service company has developed the service themselves then they had to pay to have the software developed in the first place.  And like any software you develop the development doesn’t end there.  There are on going improvements, bug fixes and so forth to fund.
  • Reseller fees- Some conference call services don’t develop their own software, they simply resell someone elses technology.  In this case there is always a cost to the company who is reselling the service.
  • Hosting environment – If you are supporting your own software you need to have a server or servers depending on the number of users to host the software and make it available to your customers. 
  • Internet Connectivity- If you are hosting your own web conferencing service you need to connect it to the internet and the connection needs to allow many users fast access so you will also need a very good and potentially expensive connection.
  • Support Costs – And like any other conference call service you will need to support your web conferencing service with sales and service personnel.

So, if there are all these costs, how does anyone provide free web conferencing?  Well, some conference call service companies will offer a dumbed down version for free hoping you will upgrade because the free version doesn’t do much.  Or the web conferencing service they offer for free is an old version they no longer support and instead of retiring it they simply give it away so you will come to their site and but the other version.  Either way, if you investigate the free web conferencing versions out there you will see that they are not a full version, current representative of what web conferencing can do.  And it just may not have the reliability and capacity you would expect with a service you pay for.  After all it is free so how hard can you complain?

If you really need a good web conferencing service don’t use a free one.  For a low monthly fee you can have access to a web conferencing service that save you time and money wihtout breaking the bank.

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How to Participate on a Conference Call

Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010

I have spent a lot of time talking about how to host an effective conference call.  But what should you do if you are a participant?  In order to have a godd conference call it takes a well prepared host and it also takes participants who know how to behave on a conference call.  Here are a few tips if you are a participant on a conference call that will help you get the most out of the conference call.

  • Be On Time – The first thing you can do as a participant is show up for the conference call on time.  When you don’t show up on time you are showing a lack of consideration for the Host and the other participants alike.  Because even if the Host starts the conference call on time wihtout you or not you are causing a delay and/or an interruption to the meeting.  And you have to assume you were invited to the conference call because you are recognized as a valuable contributor to the conference call.  Given that assumption you need to be on time to the meeting and ready to participate.
  • Be Prepared – Hopefully the Host sent out an agenda for the conference call ahead of time.  At the very least you should have an idea of what the conference call is meant to address and you have a responsibility to be prepared for the meeting.  That could mean reviewing related documents or actually being prepared to present during the conference call.
  • Mute Your Phone – This is not always necessary, but all participants should be aware that even if you are being quiet the other people on the conference call can hear you.  Our conference call service equipment produces a very clear audio connection so even just the typing on your computer is easily picked up by the microphone on your phone and is transmitted across the conference call to all participants.  It is always the best idea to simply mute your phone unless you are speaking.  Most phones these days have a mute button and if not the conference call service should have a way to enter a command through the phone to mute your line.
  • Identify Yourself – On a conference call there is no way for the Host or other participants to identify you unless you do it.  The best practice is to state your name when you are going to speak so people know who is spoeaking.
  • Participate – It is easy to get distracted on a conference cll because you are usually at your desk and still have access to computers, papers, etc.  But you were invited to the meeting because your participation was deemed important and if you were in a face to face meeting you would not even consider answering emails while in the meeting.  So on a conference call participate just like you would in a face to face meeting.

If you treat your participation on a conference call just like you would an in person meeting then your conference call participation will be a success.

www.zipconferencing.com

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Conference Call Issues Unmasked

Friday, October 23rd, 2009

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

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

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

www.zipconferencing.com

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Conference Calls are Still a Great Value

Monday, October 19th, 2009

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

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

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

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

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

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

www.zipconferencing.com

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Conference Call Options – Keep it Simple

Friday, September 18th, 2009

With Zip Conferencing, like many conference call service providers today, you can add a lot of options to your conference calls.  But, like most things, it may be best to just keep it simple.

Let’s take the way the conference call is set to start.  With Zip Conferencing, the default setting says that participants can speak to each other before the Moderator or Host of the conference call joins the conference call.  For most meetings this is preferable and participants are not left wondering where everyone is while they wait for the Host to join the conference call.  The other way to run the start of a conference call is to have the participants listen to music until the Host joins the conference call.  If the Host does not join the conference call the participants are left wondering what is happening.  So, for smaller meetings I would suggest you go with the open meeting approach which mirrors a regular in person meeting. 

Now that you have the participants on the call most people like to know who is on the conference call and at least know when someone joins the conference call.  This can be accomplished a couple of different ways.  The easiest is to allow a tone to play when a participants joins or leaves the conference call.  The tone is short and unobtrusive if there are not too many participants and if the participants are generally on time.  Another way to handle this is to have the participants name play in the conference call when they join or leave the conference.  But depending on how their name recording goes, this method can be a little disruptive during a conference call in my opinion. 

Another setting that can be troublesome if you are not careful is when a conference call is set to disconnect all participants when the Host leaves the conference call.  I think that many Hosts will tell you that the idea of this is good, but in practice the participants may want to carry on the conversation at the end of the meeting after the Host has disconnected.  If the Host enables this feature the participants are left to try to contact each other another way if the Host leaves the call.

I find that the use of too many of these bells and whistles only complicate things and can actually make what should be a simple thing, holding a conference call, complex and annoying.  So, my suggestion, like many things in life, keep it simple and you will probably be better served.

www.zipconferencing.com

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Is a Conference Call Service a Commodity?

Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009

In the past 15 years I have watched the average cost of a conference call service go from over 20 cents per minute to less than 10 cents per minute.  In that time one of the fundamental costs of the conference call service business, the cost of telecommunications, has dropped a lot so conference call service companies have been able to get more aggressive in their pursuit of new business by dropping rates as well.  As prices continue to fall and conference call service companies continue to think up new ways to package pricing to make the rates more attractive I thought it would be good to examine if a conference call service is a commodity.

In the eyes of the consumer on the surface it is difficult to see any difference certainly in a conference call service, especially if you are not too familiar with conference call features and so forth.  But, behind the curtain there are many things that distinguish differences in conference call services.  Some are plain to see, like the type of access the conference call service company offers.  A local access number is less cost to the conference call service company so they can charge less, but you will incur hidden cost by having to call a long distance number to connect to the conference call.  Another obvious difference can be the number of participants allowed on a conference call.  The more participants you can get on a call raises the cost of available equipment to the conference call service company.  And support is another cost that cannot be hidden.  If the conference call service company offers 24/7 support, which you would want, they will need to pass that cost on as well.

Some of the costs that you may not see, but you should look for in a conference call service company are the quality of its network, a redundant network to avoid catastrophic failure and the personal support you need to help you when you need it.  Zip Conferencing has taken all of the possible precautions to make sure that your conference calls are available when you need them and the support you need to make sure you get the most out of the service.  And all of the things that make for a high quality experience with a conference call service company have a cost to them.  So, even though they may all look the same on the outside, conference call service companies are not all the same.  And because of all the differences you can and cannot see, a conference call service is not a commodity.

www.zipconferencing.com

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Conference Call Service Pricing Options

Friday, August 14th, 2009

There certainly are a lot of choices out there for conference call service companies.  It seems like there are a dizzying number of choices, so I thought I would pull back the curtain and boil down what is really going on with the pricing options out there.  If you are thinking about choosing a conference call service company and you can’t tell what the difference is in the pricing you may want to read this article.

There are really just a few different flavors of conference call service pricing.

  • Toll Free or Toll per minute billing
  •  Flat Rate Billing
  • Monthly Subscription Plans

Toll Free or Toll per minute billing- The industry standard has always been the Toll Free or Toll per minute billing method.  The price per minute is calculated using a standard formula in the industry to determine conference call minutes.  Since a conference call is like having several long distance calls all going at the same time, the calculation of conference call minutes is on a per participant basis.  That means that the price per minute you pay is multiplied by the number of participants on the call.  And usually the minutes are calculated by the connection time of each participant.  That way if a participant on the conference call is only on the call for 5 minutes and the conference call lasted 60 minutes, you will only pay for 5 minutes for that participant.  So the formula goes like this, # of participants X # of minutes = total conference call minutes.  So this pricing method simply takes the total number of minutes you did and multiplies it times the rate per minute you pay.  This pricing method is good if you don’t know how much you will use a conference call service or if you only use the service infrequently.

A couple of things to be aware of with this method.  First, the access method Toll or Toll Free.  Although many conference call service companies will put out an attractive rate for conference calls on the internet, it many times is for a toll connection.  The problem here is that a toll connection has hidden costs for the participants as they will need to dial a long distance number to connect to the call.  The last thing you want if you are inviting guests to a meeting is have them incur any costs.  Second, is if the conference call service company rounds minutes on calls to a minimum such as 10 minutes per participant minimum on a call it can really add up and end up costing you a lot more. 

Flat Rate Billing – This method of pricing is based on you paying one set price and then you can do as many conference calls as you want monthly.  Typically this method has some restrictions that go along with it.  You will usually only be able to have a small number of participants on the call and you may have to pay a separate monthly subscription for each user in your company.  It also it usually for only toll access which again means that your participants will have to pay a long distance charge to get to your conference call.  In the end, these types of services can end up costing you more than the per minute billing method depending on how you use the service.  The economics for conference call service companies are no different.  We pay for long distance like everyone else, so no one is going to give it away.

Monthly Subscription Plans – This pricing method has become popular lately since you can obtain a pretty good discount if you use a conference call service regularly and you know how many minutes you typically do a month.  The pricing works just like your cell hone plan.  You subscribe to a certain number of minutes per month and pay a monthly fee for those minutes.  If you go over the minutes in the plan you will pay a charge for the minutes over the included minutes in the plan.  Rates as low as 2.5 cents per minutes are available from Zip Conferencing if you subscribe to one of these plans.  You did need to watch out for the small print in some of the offers  in the marketplace for these plans.  Some conference call service companies will set participant minimums, restrict the number of participants and make you buy a plan for each moderator.

I hope this helps explain some of the conference call service pricing options available.  www.zipconferencing.com

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