Conference Call Services
We have come a long way since the days of 3-way-calling and text-chats. Those technologies are still around, but electronic-collaboration has come of age. Today, conference call services offer feature-rich facilities at prices that could not have been imagined a decade ago.
At the heart of the present state of conference calling is the proliferation of the Internet. Client-side conference technologies, as well as hosted conference calls, have changed the landscape of business. That is the inspiration of setting up this website, AudioAndWeb.com, dedicated to finding an appropriate conference call service provider.
Follow the links that are provided on this page and you will reach some of the world's best conferencing services, regardless of whether you are looking for web conferencing, audio conferencing, or video conferencing.
Of course the question remains, why does one make a conference call? There are many answers, but all of them revolve around the fact that conferencing is an enabler of virtual travel: you can meet people from far-flung places without the investment of time and travel-costs. As a result of these benefits, some applications emerge naturally:
Business Applications
If you have an organization that has more than one person working in it, you are a candidate for some kind of a conference: a web conference perhaps, or an audio conference. There are just too many applications of conferences in business.
Sales Conference
Take the case of managing and tracking your sales force. They are out on the field and need marketing support. Would it not be great if they could tap into the right human resources back in office? This will help them access more information, login records, and close the deal. What more could you ask for? Not convinced yet, well think about the alternative. You would lose track of your sales people until they reported back to office. Would it not be great if there were some kind of collaborative tool at use, at least teleconferencing?
Entertainment (Think Party line)
Well, would it not be fun to get together with a bunch of likeminded individuals? It could be something you set up for friends, or it could a commercial party line set up.
Customer Retention
Would you like to be able to talk to customers whenever both of you decide it is time to meet? Or would you like to set up hotel reservations, make airline bookings, and travel to the customer? The answer is so obvious that it is a waste of time asking this question. At the risk of repeating myself incessantly, I would say, traveling is a World 1.0 phenomenon. It is something that we had to do in the pre-Internet era. Today, you are connected. You can be wherever you want to be at the click of a mouse.
Save Money
Air-tickets, hotels, taxies, conference rooms, and the all the old-world methods of making meetings happen, cost money. And more than that, they take up a lot of time. If you are in LA and want to meet a customer in NY for 2 hours, we are talking about 2 days down the drain. Or we are talking about flying at ungodly hours. Certainly a conference call is the solution.
Manage Your Image
I would want to do business with a company that believes in conducting itself smartly. If they could telecommute, but instead choose to commute, I would seriously doubt their ability to help my business operate smartly. What is the impression that you want to give your customer? Do you want to appear to be a savvy company, that manages to harness the latest technology, or do you want to be a company that does not change its ways. I think, once again, that the answer is crystal clear -- as clear as the sound quality that you can get in some of the best conference call providers. Want to locate some of the best conference call providers? Well, I have linked to several of them on this site. You can find them easily.
Retain That Competitive Edge
When we are talking about something that is clearly a smart move, we run the risk of sounding redundant. Having acknowledged that let me look at some of what I already said in new light. Don't all the benefits of conferencing sound like a smart plan to generate great competitive edge? We all go through economic cycles. The only companies to survive are the ones that create and retain a competitive edge. Lowering costs, decreasing cycle time, and managing technological leadership are all sound basis for a competitive edge. That is why I recommend that you get into the world of conference calls.
What's More? It's Secure?
With the advent of new technologies, we find that conferencing can now be conducted in a secured manner. Some people have a mindset issue about mistrusting technology. Think about it: You often trust important organizational information at the hand of a new recruit! One could argue that is not secured either. Certainly a conference call is much more secured than that!
It All Comes Down to Productivity
What makes one business better than another? What makes one business more profitable than another? What makes one business outlast another? What makes one business attract more business? It all gets down to yield and productivity. I would say that a business that is more productive is the one that gets to see another day. It becomes the darling of the masses and attracts investors. Surely you know where I am headed! I am talking about using the facilities offered by a conference call provider to enhance business productivity.
Training
One of the highest costs to a company is the training of new employees. Given the low retention rates, and high need of proficiency, training starts seeming like a necessary evil to many companies. Certainly that is not the right attitude for a winning company. What we are talking about, in conferencing, is a whole new method to conduct your training program. Roll out a new employee orientation. Conduct process training for a new software system you have adopted. Create a new best practices module, and incorporate all of those on a wide area conferencing platform.
What's More?
Well, setting up a web based conferencing facility is no longer about purchasing expensive equipment. Instead, it is about signing up at a service provider who takes away the headache of the communication equipment. You can conference over your usual telephone lines or on your Internet-connected computer.
And all this does not require too much time. Today, you can get the entire thing going within minutes. So, it you want to conference at 10 a.m., and if you have signed up with a conference call service provider, you can actually set up at 9:55 a.m. and get going. Compare that with overnight travel and hotel bookings.
There are many kinds of payments options. Some providers offer you a monthly subscription. Others charge you by the minute. You decide what works best for you and one of the providers I am linking to will make that available to you.
I think I have made my point. It is just plain common sense for a business to use conferencing.
