Posts Tagged ‘Thousands Of Dollars’

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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Conference Call Bridge

Tuesday, March 30th, 2010

A conference call bridge is the name for the piece of telecommunications equipment that enables multiple participants from various telephone connections to be placed into the same call to create a conference call.  If you do a significant amount of conference calling you may think that buying your own conference call bridge would end up being a good investment because you could reduce your costs for conference calls.  Here are a few things that you will need to consider if you think about buying a conference call bridge yourself.

  • Equipment Cost – First thing is the cost of the equipment.  The cost of conference call bridges has come down over the years but the cost of a conference call bridge like the ones used by conference call service companies is still hundreds of thousands of dollars.
  • Telecommunications Connections – You will need to dedicate telecommunications connections to the conference call bridge.  There is a cost to just maintain the connections to the conference call bridge.
  • Equipment Maintenance- You will need to pay the manufacturer of the conference call bridge equipment a maintenance fee to keep the hardware and software up to date.
  • Support Cost – You will need to pay for support on the conference call bridge equipment in case there is an issue.  Typically this may be included for the first year in your maintenance cost.
  • Internal Support – You will need someone in your organization to maintain the conference call bridge.  No matter how self serving the equipment is you will need someone to play administrator for the conference call bridge.
  • Long Distance Cost – There is a variable telecommunications cost for having toll free access and you will need to pay the long distance connection per minute charges for your participants to get to the conference call bridge.

So when you add up all of the cost to run your own conference call bridge you may find that the cost per minute to operate your own equipment may be higher than if you use a conference call service.  Especially now that the conference call rates are as low as they are it really is hard to justify having your own conference call bridge.

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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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Conference Calls for Small Businesses

Thursday, October 29th, 2009

According to a lot of the pundits out there, including President Obama, there is a surge in the number of new businesses that are getting started.  This is because people have been laid off from their existing jobs and are starting out on their own instead of trying to find a job which is difficult at best right now.  And with the start of all these businesses a lot of entrepreneurs are trying to figure out how to promote their businesses and stretch their precious capital.  This is just another reason why conference calls continue to grow, because they are a great way to reduce expenses but still get the job done.

New small businesses need to get their ideas to new customers, investors and prospects without breaking the bank.  One of the ways to do this is with a conference call instead of the expense of traveling.  It has been well documented in this blog how companies are saving thousands of dollars by choosing to conduct a conference call or a web conference instead of travelling to an in-person meeting.  Nowhere is it more important to save money than in a new small business.  Most small businesses just don’t have the money to be travelling around the country.  But with a conference call and a web conference a small business owner can present their product or service to potential customers around the country without leaving their office.  And the cost of doing a conference call or web conference these days is very affordable to even the small business owner.  In fact, with the advent of the Internet which has allowed small businesses to sell their products and services globally, the need to present to customers in remote locations has increased even more.  The ability to present to people from great distances using conference calls has expanded the marketplace for small businesses.  No longer are their goods and services limited to a local area.  The technology now available has literally helped some small businesses survive where they otherwise would not.  A conference call and web conferencing can also make a small business look bigger in the eyes of the customer by allowing them to present to anyone, anywhere.  And their office is simply a PC and a telephone.

If you have a small business and you are not taking advantage of conference calls and web conferencing in your business I urge you to examine your processes and try using the technology available to help expand your business and reduce your costs.  It may just make the difference in the life or death of your business.

www.zipconferencing.com

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Web Conferencing Saves a Company Thousands of Dollars

Wednesday, October 28th, 2009

I know I have blogged about conference calls and web conferencing and how it can save you money.  But I thought it would be useful to use a real life example to illustrate just how dramatic the savings can be when you choose to conduct a meeting using a web conference instead of an in person meeting. 

A customer had an instance where they really needed to go to Hong Kong from New Jersey to have a meeting with a new customer to discuss the implementation of their services.  And under normal conditions this type of meeting in person is very typical for this customer and they would not use a web conference for the implementation phase of their service.  But in this case the customer had an issue where they wanted to have a pre-m eeting with this vendor and discuss how the implementation would work with one of their contacts before they had the actual meeting.  So, the customer requested that the vendor come out and have a meeting and then return to have the actual implementation meeting.  This meant that two employees would need to fly from New Jersey to Hong Kong which is a 16 hour flight for a four hour meeting and then return to New Jersey only to go back to Hong Kong the following week.   And for those of you who have not had to do this flight it is not only long, it is expensive.  It costs $1,800 for a coach seat and almost $9,000 for a business class seat each.  The bottom line for the vendor was that the four hour meeting was going to cost about $5,000 and several days of productivity from two employees.

In steps Web Conferencing to save the day.  The vendor convinced the customer that they could do a web conference for the pre-meeting at least and spend as much time as is necessary to go through the implementation planning.  The customer agreed and the web conference went off without a hitch and made the customer feel comfortable about the upcoming meeting.  The customer and the vendor were able to interact on the web conference just like they were in the same conference room and accomplish everything that needed to be done.  The meeting ended up lasting about 3 hours and cost the vendor $29 using Zip Conferencing’s web conference service.  Using web conferencing saved the vendor $5,000 and allowed them to conduct the meeting without any sacrifice in results and also saved a lot of time for the employees increasing the company’s productivity.

These kind of events happen all the time and is the reason that web conferencing is growing so fast.  Customers immediately experience the real life benefits of conducting a web conference instead of an in-person meeting.

www.zipconferencing.com

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Conference Call Service or Do-It-Yourself?

Thursday, August 27th, 2009

There have been do-it-yourself conference call service appliances available on the market for many years.  And like the conference call service pricing, the appliances have gotten less and less expensive.  So does it make financial sense to buy an in house solution or continue to use a conference call service?

There are several issues to consider if you think that you do enough conference calls to think about buying an in house solution.  The biggest reason to even think about firing your conference call service provider is cost.  And most of the things to consider revolve around some aspect of cost.  What are some of the costs when you want to do conference calls yourself?

  • Cost of the Conference Call Appliance
  • Telecommunications Cost
  • Maintenance Cost
  • Personnel Cost

Cost of the Conference Call Appliance – The cost of a conference call appliance can be anywhere from one thousand to hundreds of thousands of dollars.  The equipment used by conference call service providers, like Zip Conferencing, is hundreds of thousands of dollars.  But if you want to try to do-it-yourself with a lower cost piece of conference call equipment your are going to pay at least a thousand dollars for it.

Telecommunications Cost – The biggest cost to providing a conference call service is the telecommunications cost.  You have to get circuits terminated to the equipment and there is a monthly cost to that and then you have to pay the variable cost of the calls themselves. 

Maintenance Cost – Buying a piece of conference call equipment is just the beginning.  Next you will need to pay a maintenance fee to the manufacturer of the equipment to remain up to date with the software that runs the machine.  Like any  other computer on your network, you will need keep the machine up to date if you expect to have the latest security, patches anf eatures to keep the conference call equipment up to date.

Personnel Cost – And lastly, you will need to have someone in your company assigned to maintaining the conference call equipment.  No matter how self service the conference call equipment is, you will still need to maintain it and administer it.  If someone in your company is performing this function there is a cost to you.

So, let’s say you can pay $.01 per minute for toll free traffic to the conference call equipment.  On the surface sounds like you could buy a piece of conference call equipment and save money.  The circuits for the telecommunications connections are at least $1,000 per month for a T-1 which only provides 24 circuits.  So if you want more than 24 total conference call connections at a time in your company you will need more than 1 circuit.  Maintenance on the equipment is going to be at hundreds or thousands of dollars a year depending on the equipment and then someone is going to need to administer the conference call equipment.

You can see how your per minute cost for conference calls can quickly get over $.05 per minute and that is if you do thousands of minutes per month.  It is hard to beat using a conference call service when you get the latest features, no maintenance and 24/7 support for less than $.05 per minute.  A conference call service provider like Zip Conferencing is a better choice for anyone needing a conference call service.   www.zipconferencing.com

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