Posts Tagged ‘Teleconferencing’

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.

Posted in Conference Calling | Comments Off

What is the difference in Conference Calling Providers?

Friday, June 24th, 2011

If you are shopping for a conference calling provider it can be pretty maddening on trying to tell the difference in the services.  Some of that is created by the conference calling providers themselves.  When I look at some of the ads that are used to attract new customers and then look into the actual offers it is easy to understand how people can get confused.  Here are some of the things you should look for when shopping for a conference calling provider.

  • Quality and Reliability – It is funny, but when I talk to customers I rarely get asked about the quality of the conference call service.  Maybe conference calling has really become a commodity in customer’s eyes and they simply assume that the service will work no matter which conference calling service provider they choose.  Having been in the teleconferencing industry for over 16 years I have intimate knowledge of what goes into making sure that there is quality and reliability in a conference call service.  And I can tell you that not every service is the same in respect to quality and reliability.  It takes a real commitment on the part of ownership to make sure you do everything to insure the service is available and ready when people need it to be.  At Zip Conferencing we have done everything possible to make sure we are delivering the highest quality and reliability available.  After all, isn’t this the most important aspect of the conference calling service?
  • Toll Free Service- When you look at many of the advertisements of the conference calling service providers out there you will see some pretty low rates and even “free” conference calling services.  The last thing you want is to have your participants paying hidden charges to attend your conference call.  Imagine inviting prospects to your presentation only to have them paying to get there.  It certainly takes something away from your presentation.  Nothing beats the convenience and peace of mind that toll free conference call services can provide.  And at the low rates they are available today why would you want to do anything else?
  • Features- You may not use every conference calling feature that is out there because there are many.  But there is also no reason to try to save money by signing up with a service that has only limited features available.  Zip Conferencing is a conference calling provider that offers low rates with a full featured service.  Many of the features simply make your life easier before and during your conference call and some are essential conference call tools.  Why not have them and a great rate too?
  • Support – Hopefully a conference calling provider service will not require a whole lot of support because it works and is easily understandable.  But if you should need support, especially when you are in the middle of an important conference call, wouldn’t you want it to be there?  Zip Conferencing is a conference calling provider that has support available 24/7 and can even join your conference call for assistance if necessary.  You may never need it but isn’t it nice to know it is there if you do?

Conference calling services are an important communications piece of your business.  Make sure you look closely under the hood before you buy and get a service you will be happy with for years to come.

Posted in Conference Calling | Comments Off

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.

Posted in Teleconferencing | Comments Off

Why a Regular Telephone Conference Call still makes Sense

Friday, October 22nd, 2010

When I tell people what I do for a living I am still amazed that people don’t know that companies like Zip Conferencing exist. Most people do a telephone conference call on a regular basis or have certainly been on one recently but don’t know where they come from. I guess many of these people are in a company where the buying decision for conference call services is made by someone else and they just know how easy it is to get on a telephone conference call. And that is why a regular telephone conference call still makes the most sense.

Let’s face it, technology has come a long way in the past 15 years since I started my career in teleconferencing so why is the regular telephone conference call still growing in use? Well, in the past 15 years I have heard the prediction of the demise of the telephone conference call with the invention of every new group communication technology that has come along. But there are several reasons why the regular telephone conference call is still the easiest, most convenient and least expensive way for a group of people to get together.

  • Universal Connectivity- A telephone conference call uses a device that everyone is familiar with, the telephone.  You don’t have to teach people how to use a telephone and these days most people know how to connect to a conference call as well.  And with a telephone conference call all you need is a telephone.  And any telephone will do.  When I started in 1995 we still had to help people who had rotary phones onto conference calls that require you to enter a pass code but that is no longer the case.  And cell phones were not as reliable as they are today and would cause issues on conference calls as well.  But today any telephone can connect to a conference call with ease.
  • Easy to Use- With the invention of reservationless pass code entry telephone conference calls the usage in conference calls skyrocketed.  That’s because the industry made the service easy to use.  And over the years it has exposed just about everyone to a universal method of joining a telephone conference call.  Everyone pretty much knows that you have to dial an access number and then put in a pass code to connect to a conference call.  There is no need to get participants to learn a new technology or download something onto their computers.
  • Convenient- Today you can access a telephone conference call from anywhere in the world from any telephone.  You don’t have to worry if you can get an Internet connection or anything.  All you need to do is make a telephone call and you can connect to a telephone conference call.  So, you can be travelling, at home or in the office and connect to the conference call.  So it is convenient to the host and participants alike.

So, despite all of the predictions about its early death, telephone conference calls still make the most sense if you want to hold a group meeting with people in disparate locations.  And until they replace the telephone it will continue to be the group meeting method of choice.

Posted in Conference Call | Comments Off

Audio Conferencing Services

Monday, March 15th, 2010

A term used in the teleconferencing industry to describe telephone conference calls is audio conferencing.  We adopted this term to distinguish the normal conference call from a web conference.  And truth be told the term “audio” is used to describe something you listen to so it makes sense.  It is just not a word that people use everyday so many times people are confused when I talk about audio conferencing. 

Audio conferencing is just another way of saying conference call and specifically is describing a conference call on a telephone whose main communication method is using sound/speech over the telephone.  An audio conference today has become a fairly standard offering as far as the way it works and many of its features.  Generally, an audio conference is held by dialing an access number and then putting in a pass code when you are connected to the conference call service equipment.  The conference call service equipment then places you in the appropriate conference call based on the pass code you input.  Basically all of the participants that enter that code will be placed into the same conference call.  Most conference call services will provide a separate pass code for the Host of the call so they can access certain features within the conference call.

The most common features available to the Host on a conference call are the ability to mute all participants, raise and lower the volume and disconnect some or all of the participants.  Some conference call service companies will offer additional features like the ability to conduct a roll call and even record the conference call.  Zip Conferencing offers these features and more.

So, if you hear of someone referring to an Audio Conference you know it is just a plain old conference call.

Posted in Conference Call | Comments Off

What is Teleconferencing?

Thursday, March 4th, 2010

Like anyone else who has been in a technology business for a while you tend to develop your own language.  I am no different.  I have been in the telecommunications industry since 1981 and if any industry has its own language telecommunications certainly does.  The glossary for all the telecommunications acronyms being used would probably be 4 inches thick.  It really is its own language.  Teleconferencing as an off shoot of telecommunications is certainly guilty of this too but certainly not so bad.  But for those novices to teleconferencing, otherwise known as conference calls, I thought it might be helpful to explain a few of the main terms used in the industry to help you better understand what you are dealing with.

  • Access Code (Also known as the Pass Code) -  
    The personal access code that allows you to join a conference call. There are both Host and Guest codes used to access a conference call.
  • Access Phone Number – The telephone number used to reach the teleconferencing equipment where you input your Access Code to enter your conference call.
  • Bridge - The piece of equipment that performs the act of connecting multiple callers on a singe conference call.
  • CSP- This is the acronym for Conference Service Provider.  It refer to the companies that provide conference call services.
  • Digital Record and Playback –  A service offered by conference call service companies that allows you to record your conference call and play it back at a later time.
  • Host – The leader or Moderator of the conference call.
  • Mute- The Mute function on a conference call allows the participants to turn off the ability to be heard during the conference call.  The Host also has the abilitiy to Mute all participants.
  • Reservationless - Reservationless means that no scheduling, reservation or advanced notification is required for this type of conference call.  Once you have the Access number and Pass Code you can hold a conference call whenever you want.
  • Teleconferencing - Otherwise known as conference calling or audio conferencing, it refers to a telephone call where 3 or more people are connected and able to talk to each other at the same time.

This is by no means a complete list of terms used in the conference call service, or teleconferencing industry but this sampling should get you well on your way to being fluent in teleconferencing speak.

Posted in Conference Call Service | Comments Off