Posts Tagged ‘Redundancy’

Discounted Conference Calling Services can be Reliable

Thursday, November 3rd, 2011

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

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

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

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Are Conference Calls Simply a Commodity?

Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009

When I first joined the conference call service industry 14 years ago the average cost of a conference call was around $.20 per minute per participant, today it is around $.07 per minute and it is fore casted to decline to around $.05 per minute average by the year 2013.  What has driven this decline and are conference calls simply a commodity that should be judged on price alone?

The decline in the cost of conference calls has been driven over the years by competition in the industry.  The lowering of the telecommunications costs associated with providing the conference calls has allowed conference call service companies to lower their rates in order to capture business from the competition.  Also, the conference call service equipment has evolved over the years and the price of the equipment to provide conference calls has also come down in cost as the technology has gotten better.  Like the long distance call itself, as the costs have declined and competition increased we have seen a constant pressure on conference call service companies to deliver conference calls at an ever decreasing revenue.  Ultimately, as the prices continue to decline some of the service associated with conference call services will suffer unless people recognize that conference calls are not a commodity and are willing to pay a little more for the service part of it.

I have detailed in other blog posts about all that goes on behind the scenes at a conference call service company, so I won’t go into great detail here, but here is a quick summary.  First, you need high quality telecommunications connections from a large carrier that provides redundancy in their network or you risk quality issues and outage possibilities.  You then need to get the best conference call service equipment or you will not get the best results.  Your own network needs to be constructed with fail-over and back up contingencies.  And finally, you need to provide a level of customer service that provides your customers with a good customer experience.  All of these things cost money to the conference call service providers.  I don’t think that customers will be happy with a conference call service that has quality issues or doesn’t answer the phone when they need help or has an outage because the telecommunications carrier they use had a lengthy outage.  So, customers want to pay as little as possible for a conference call but certainly do not want to have an inferior service.

So here we are in the conference call service industry.  Given today’s available telecommunications rates which are not going down any more, the price of the conference call service equipment which is also not declining and the cost of personnel and I think you can see that the cost of the conference call is approaching the point where it cannot go any lower without sacrifice.  And I think if you ask the customers you will find that although they like to save money, a conference call is important enough to their business that the quality, reliability and service really do matter.  Conference calls are not simply a commodity.

www.zipconferencing.com

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Conference Call Quality

Friday, August 28th, 2009

There are a  fair number of conference call service providers in the market today offering conference call services at some pretty low rates.  Among these conference call service providers are a host of different features available for conference call users to choose from.  I have touched on some of these features in previous posts, but what is really important about a conference call?  The most important aspect of any conference call is that is work flawlessly.  And even though this is taken for granted, if the conference call service provider does not design their network correctly you can have lots of problems.

The first thing that you need to have is availability.  To make sure that your conference call is available when you go to use it, the conference call service provider needs to build redundancy and capacity into their network.  Conference call equipment is very complicated and like any piece of high tech equipment can have issues from time to time.  If you use a conference call service provider that does not have provisions for redundant equipment and the conference call equipment hosting your conference call has a problem you will have a problem.  The capacity of the conference call service provider network can also be a problem if they get unexpected traffic on their network.

The telecommunications network that your conference call service provider connects to is an important factor as well.  If the conference call service provider chooses a telecommunications provider solely on price, they may be playing with fire if their provider does not have a network with sufficient back up and networking options.  If a back hoe cuts a fiber link do they have a way to route around it and continue service without interruption?  If the telecommunications provider that connects to your conference call service provider has an issue and can’t get your call around the issue your conference call can’t happen.

The conference call is like the light in the conference room.  You just assume it will work, but if it doesn’t you cannot hold your meeting.  The network and equipment used by Zip Conferencing has been designed with one priority in mind, the quality of the service.  Because no matter what the price is for the service, if the service is not available and of high quality then customers will not be satisfied.   After 15 years of providing conference call services I understand that the quality of the service is the foundation of success in being a conference call service provider.  www.zipconferencing.com

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