Posts Tagged ‘Meeting Room’

2012 is the Year for Conference Call Services

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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Audio Conference Calls should be Reliable

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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Conference Calls Are the Best Option

Friday, September 24th, 2010

I was speaking to someone yesterday and he asked me what I do and when I said that I run a conference call business he could not say enough about what a benefit conference calls have had on his business.  I love talking to people about conference calls because it is usually a very positive conversation.  I ended up talking to this gentleman for a while about how his company uses conference calls and I thought I would share some of his thoughts with you.

One of his first reactions was to tell me how much his company spends on conference calls which is not uncommon.  But he quickly turned that part of the conversation into how much money his company was saving by doing conference calls instead of travelling.  Like  all companies, he is trying to keep his costs down and reducing the travel budget by using conference calls instead is a great way to do that.  He did some quick calculations in his head and told me that his company was literally saving millions of dollars by doing conference calls.  And then the conversation turned to  how people in his company including himself are also using conference calls to increase productivity because it was so easy to pull a meeting together.  A quick meeting with a conference call usually averted issues and kept projects moving forward that otherwise would get bogged down.  And he said that many times they would hold a conference call as an adjunct to a physical meeting in a conference room and give people the choice of joining in person or on the conference call.  And even though the physical meeting may only be down the hall many time the participants would join via conference call so that they could stay at their desk and be productive.

And finally he asked if I did video conferencing and I said no but we offer a service that allows you to share a presentation on your PC and he immediately knew what I was referring to, web conferencing.  To this he said how web conferencing has really enhanced the way his company presents its services to new customers and ultimately has increased sales.  And he said they also use web conferencing internally to collaborate and do training.  At the end of the conversation I told him I could not have found a better pitch man for the benefits of conference calls.  And he said he did not realize how much conference calls were intertwined with his business until he started talking about it but certainly did not know what he would do without it.  Without a doubt, conference calls are the best option. 

www.zipconferencing.com

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I Resolve to do more Web Conferencing

Tuesday, December 29th, 2009

Its that time of year again.  Everyone sets expectations for themselves in the new year.  Many of the resolutions we commit to we do not stick with and some we don’t even attempt.  Maybe this is the year to set some realistic goals for ourselves that will benefit us personally and also help in our own little way the world around us.  Why not resolve to do more web conferencing?  I am going to add it to my list.  Because I am as guilty as the next person.  It is easier to stick with the familiar than to try something new and if you have never conducted a web conference before it can be a little intimidating.  But the benefits to you and the world are real!

  • Save Time – A web conference can save you time on the front end by simply eliminating the need to travel to a meeting.  Even if the meeting is in the same building with people you work with you still have to get up off your seat and go to a meeting room.  You have to remember to bring all the materials you will need or you may need to return to your desk to get additional materials or reschedule another meeting so you can bring other things, etc.  You can instantly attend your meeting right from your desk and have all of your materials at your fingertips to share with everyone at the meeting if you do a web conference.
  • Save Money – The cost to travel to your meeting locally or at a great distance is saved if you do it from your desk using a web conference.  If you have to travel across the country all of the travel costs will be saved which can add up to thousands of dollars.
  • Increase Productivity – You will find that by doing a web conference you are better prepared for your meeting and can extend the discussion since you have access to everything you need.  You also will be able to work during the time you would otherwise have to travel.
  • Save the Environment – By using a web conference instead of travelling to a meeting you are being very eco-friendly.  Think of all the carbon emissions you are avoiding during the travel you have avoided.  And all of the participants in the web conference also have avoided all of the travel and associated emissions.

So, for your benefits and in a small part, all of mankind, it is time to resolve to do more web conferencing.  And unlike the resolutions you are unlikely to stick to you will find this one is easy to keep once you feel the benefits.

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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Web Conferencing makes the Meeting Room

Thursday, August 13th, 2009

The mass adoption of web conferencing hasn’t really happened yet, but it is surely well along the adoption path lifecycle.  Don’t get me wrong, web conferencing is growing like a weed and is today almost a $1B business in North America.  But when you look at the sheer number of conference calls going on today and the number of them that contain a web conferencing element to them it is a drop in the bucket.  What we ahve seen in the industry so far is the adoption of web conferencing for the killer applications and those users love it and use it extensively.  That segment continues to grow as more and more people discover that they can conduct online seminars, sales presentations and training sessions remotely using web conferencing services.  What hasn’t quite happened yet is the use of the web conferencing element on an everyday conference call.  Conference call moderators don’t think “Maybe I should start a web conference with this conference call just in case we want to share something.”

This use of web conferencing as an integrated part of the conference call is the next step in getting web conferencing to be a part of the online meeting experience.  The technology certainly is there.  Web conferencing is easy to use and can actually enhance the conference call without even sharing any visuals.  When you have a web conference up and with it an integrated audio conference call you can actually see the participants talking and know who is talking and as a moderator you can control the audio element of the call through online controls in the web conference.  And the pricing is certainly there.  Most web conferencing service providers today offer an unlimited seat package.  That means there is no additional cost to having a web conference up during every conference call.

If you happen to have a web conference up during every conference call someone might share something they otherwise would not be able to since they can share the visual element that was missing before.  Have you ever been in a meeting room that does not have a white board or flip chart for use?  Most have them there because during any meeting it is sometimes much easier to explain something using visual cues than simply trying to talk through the issue.  And the same hold true for the virtual meeting room on a conference call.  If the capability exists to share something visually and participants are used to having those tools available, they will begin to use the tools more often.  This will encourage more participation from the people attending the conference call and improve the communication in the meeting.

So, what are you waiting for?  Try using web conferencing with every conference call and see if it doesn’t start a better conversation in your next meeting.  www.zipconferencing.com

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