Posts Tagged ‘Reservationless Conference Call’

Conference Call Services keep getting Easier

Tuesday, May 24th, 2011

I have been in the conference call service industry long enough to see most of the innovations introduced over the years.  Every time a new feature is introduced I wonder how much easier you can possibly make a conference call.  Ever since the invention of the reservationless conference call it has become pretty easy to hold a conference call.  Yet the conference call services industry continues to improve and make holding a conference call easier and easier.  The latest innovation, the integration of the invitation process with Microsoft Outlook is no exception.  Zip Conferencing now offers the ability to integrate its conference call service into your Outlook with an Outlook Toolbar that can get your conference call going in just a click of the mouse.

The Microsft Outlook Meeting Toolbar from Zip Conferencing has a number of features that make assembling a conference call even easier.

  • Outlook Toolbar retains your conference call service information – Once you load the toolbar you never have to try to remember your conference call information again.
  • One click to start a meeting - The start a Meeting button means just that, one click and your audio or web and audio meeting begins.
  • Connect Me Service – Dial into the meeting as you always have or you can have the Zip Conferencing system dial out to your phone to connect you to the meeting.
  • PC Controls – Controls on your PC allow you to control the meeting including volume, muting and recording of the conference call.
  • Web Conferencing – From within an audio meeting you can easily switch to a web meeting or start a web meeting as easily as an audio meeting.
  • Invite Participants – Since the Toolbar is integrated with your Outlook you can easily invite participants using Outlooks’ scheduling tool.  That way you can easily send invitations to participants who are in your Outlook contact list.  You can do this for a meeting you want to start right now or one you want to schedule for later.
  • Online Account Access – The Toolbar also provides easy access to your online account where you can add Moderators, conference calls and control other options of your conference call service.

Zip Conferencing continues to make improvements to its conference call service that truly make it easier to do conference calls than ever before.

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Conference Call Basics

Thursday, April 14th, 2011

Since I have been in the conference call business for over 15 years I regularly forget that most people don't understand the conference call service business.  Conference calls have become such an integral part of businesses these days it is difficult to find someone who has not been on a conference call.  But the fact is that there are a lot of people who have not been on a conference call and an even larger number who have never hosted one.  So, for these people I would like to offer some basics about how  a conference call works.

  • Automated Dial In - The type of conference call that most people are familiar with these days is the automated dial in call.  With this type of call you connect to the call by dialing an access number and then entering a passcode on your telephone to enter the conference.  Basically anyone who dials the access number and passcode at the same time will be put into the same conference call.
  • Reservationless - Another popular feature of conference calls today is called a reservationless conference call because once the conference call company provides you with the information for the call you can use it at any time without having to make a reservation.  This feature made conference calls much easier to use and is in big part the reason for the growth of conference calls over the past 15 years.
  • Hosting a Conference Call - So, maybe you have been on a reservationless automated dial in conference call but you have never hosted a call.  To host a conference call is not much more difficult than joining one as a participant.  As Host of the call you simply need to inform your participants when the conference call is going to take place and distribute the information.  Usually the Host will simply email their participants with the date, time and dial in information.  As Host you also simply need to dial in at the same time and enter a passcode to join the conference call.  That's it.
  • Host Controls - With Zip Conferencing, the Host is supplied with a different passcode than the participants.  The Host passcode enables the Host to access special features that the participants cannot access.  Host controls include the ability to mute/unmute all participants, control volume and record the conference call.  The Host is also able to control a number of aspects of the conference call through their online account management system.  Those options will be discussed in other posts here.

If you have never hosted a conference call have no fear as it is just as easy as joining one hosted by someone else.

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Conference Calls Explode

Friday, June 19th, 2009

I have been in the conference call business since 1995.  At that time many people had not even been on a conference call and web conferencing was little more than an idea.  Over 50 % of the conference calls we ran back then were operator assisted because the concept of running a reservationless conference call was foreign to most people.  Now the technology has made it simple to run a conference call from any phone at any time without the need to schedule the call and web conferencing and sharing your desktop with someone thousands of miles away is just a few clicks away.  It has been an amazing ride and newer technology promises to make conference calls even easier and more compelling for the customers than ever.  No wonder the amount of conference call minutes has exploded to over 40 billion minutes a year and is expected to continue to grow to over 70 billion minutes by 2012.  Zip Conferencing is poised to bring you the best technology the industry has to offer at rates that make the service affordable to everyone.  Never before has this technology been so easy to use and so affordable.  In this blog I hope to bring you some of the conference call applications used by customers across many industries in hopes it will help you find a way to improve communication in your company.  I welcome any input and feedback on Zip Conferencing, questions about our services, the web site and I hope you will share the ways that you are using conference calls and the benefits they bring to you.  Just like the technology itself promotes, there are power in numbers and sharing makes us all better.  Enjoy!

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