The name is Budget Conferencing. So you expect to get a great deal here. And your expectations will be more than met.
Budget Conferencing has all that you expect from a great conference call service provider. And this feature-rich conference provider has the best prices. But, I must say, there is nothing 'budget' about the features. The conference calls offered at Budget Conferencing have all the features that you need for an effective business conference call.
Since we have the word 'budget' in the name of the service provider, I have been asked if one should only expect great prices. Well here is my response:
At Budget Conferencing,
- You do not have to get into any contracts. Isn't that a sign of a friendly conferencing call service provider?
- But that is just the beginning: there are no monthly fees, no signup fees, no minimums, and no minimum per-conference call fee. The fee that is actually charged is on a pay-as-you-go basis.
- It is not just about great prices; it is also about great service and customer satisfaction. When you visit the Budget Conferencing website you will find that their service guarantee section is unequivocal. It says that their customer service department is fully authorized to issue a refund in case of a problem.
- Continuing with the list of great facilities, you do not have to make any reservations to start the conference call. Frankly, conferencing services that require reservations are a little suspect, I think. To begin with conferencing is a tool that induces efficiency. And reservations are a mechanism of inefficiency. So that would just not gel. I am glad to note that Budget Conferencing stays far away from such a business contradiction.
- The world of business never stops, nor does your need for conferencing. Especially, when you have clients / people spread across time zones. Imagine being told that the "shutters were being downed as it was too late in the evening." Luckily, most of the cyber world does not work that way. Nor does Budget Conferencing.
- You have the option of choosing a direct dial-in, toll free conference, or an operator-assisted conference.
Do not let the above list make you fear that there are no more features to the Budget Conferencing offer. If you want to read all about it, you should visit their website. But since you are here, let me tell you a little bit more about what you can expect. This list will astonish you, as you must have associated these features with the super-premium kind of conference call providers.
- Ability to record and playback conference calls.
- Easy controls to manage volume, muting of participants, name record and name play, roll call, and a tons of others, right on the click of a mouse.
- Online access of your accounts. Wait! You think that everyone offers that, well Budget Conferencing also offers you the option to get daily emails with details of the previous day's conference calls.
- Operator attended polling, or question and answer sessions.
When I think about conference calls, I think of them as a means to get the organization leaner. Conference calls can remove layers of reporting by getting the right managers direct access to the right staff/customers. Indeed, conferencing technologies, when used properly, not just get rid of unnecessary layers, but several other kinds of unnecessary expenditure. When you see the conference call offerings of Budget Conferencing, you find a philosophical fit between the rationale for conferencing and the prices/features of the conference provider. I guess that is what gets me so excited about Budget Conferencing.
Web Conferencing at Budget Conferencing
As you can imagine, if the conference call offering was so good, then we must raise our expectations when it comes to web conferencing too. So here is the low down on web conferencing on Budget Conferencing.
You must have heard of several web conferencing platforms such as: Webex, Raindance Web Conferencing, Microsoft LiveMeeting. What it is the one common feature that all these web conferencing providers have that FastWeb Pro webconference at Budget Conferencing does not provide. The answer, unequivocally, is that they are all very expensive, while FastWeb Pro is inexpensive. Other than that FastWeb Pro seems to be able to beat them pretty easily:
- First there is the matter of price. As customers have come to expect, Budget Conferencing offers the best deals on conferencing.
- Then there is the matter of ease of use. This is where you will be really surprised. Take the case of sharing PowerPoint slides: Even Microsoft, the creator of PowerPoint, requires you to download an application to share slides. But when it comes to FastWeb Pro, you can publish PowerPoint slides to be viewed by others in the web conference, without the need for any dowload.
- Another cute feature with Budget Conferencing is the Smart Scrolling ability. This ensures that different participants are viewing the same part of the document that the presenter intends. This can get over a lot of the irritation that web conferencing can provide. Interestingly, FastWeb Pro by Budget Conferencing is one of the few providers of Smart Scrolling. I would have thought that would be a necessary feature!
- When you are on the Internet, is it not just common sense that you might want to transfer files? I certainly would think so. But apparently, I am not like several of the other web conferencing providers. Luckily for you, FastWeb Pro by Budget Conferencing does enable you to share files. Just like every decent web conferencing provider should.
- One must not overlook the aspect of user-experience in web conferencing. Though many of us are techno-geeks, and would figure out a conferencing platform in no time, others would need a lot of handholding. Customers have reported that the FastWeb Pro user interface is quite intuitive and requires very little time to master.
Businesses that are interested in budget services are also the ones that like to look for special, never-before kind of, deals. Let me tell you about one such deal from Budget Conferencing that you would not have expected. If others signup with Budget Conferencing on your referral, you will earn 10 cents worth of credit for every 20 minutes of conferencing that they use. You can apply this credit to your current invoice. If you work hard at it, you could bring down the cost of your conferencing to zero. Now that is what I call a really smart move.
The Proof of the Pudding
Despite all that I have mentioned above, I think that there is one ingredient missing, before you officially declare Budget Conferencing as your preferred conference provider. And that is the actually tasting of the pudding. Luckily, you can sign up for a free conference call on the Budget Conferencing website.
Budget Conferencing is a audio and web conferencing provider that I highly recommend.
