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Suffering from chronic stress means that one will be more sensitive than usual. This sensitivity includes reactions to changes in one's physical environment as well as any changes in a normal routine. Below is an outline of ...
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Articles » Communications » VOIP » The five most useful factors to consider in selecting your teleconference company
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- Article Views: 269
- Word Count: 775
- Date Contributed: Feb 26, 2008
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| The five most useful factors to consider in selecting your teleconference company |
Choosing a conference call company is not easy. Just type the phrase "conference call" into Yahoo and you'll see lots of services. Fortunately, most of them position their services on a handful of factors. Understanding these elements, and weighing their relative significance to the needs of your organization, is the best way to make an informed decision. Research in the field indicates that there are five elements which typically enable a user to make a prudent decision. To help you make that decision, this article reviews these 5 areas.
1. The cost
All-conference calling services cost at least something to use. This is true even of the services that position themselves as "free." Why is that? Notwithstanding the possible exception of a purely VOIP system covering all users, all-conference calling services require users to dial a bridge number. In the case of services that provide toll-free access numbers, a per minute charge is assessed. The lowest fee you can typically get is several cents on a per minute basis typically you'll be paying five to ten cents per minute. This charge is assessed cumulatively. In other words, if there are 5 people on a 60 minute call, a 300 minute charge will be levied. Some services still charge legacy rates and of 20 or 25 cents a minute and these plans are to be avoided! As discussed earlier, some services are free with respect to the fact that there is no charge levied by the provider. However, these services do not provide a toll-free number with their free services and therefore users will incur normal long-distance charges to participate.
2. Scheduling ability
Services typically fall into one of two general categories. Paid and high end corporate services frequently provide a scheduling interface which helps the organizer to set up the conference call. For those services that have an Outlook integration or similar sort of functionality, a pin code and dial-in bridge can be allocated to the user when the user wishes to do her own call scheduling. The free services typically provide only a pin code and dial-in bridge; the organizer of the conference call is responsible for sending individual e-mails and maintaining track of individual replies. At the present, the sole free conference calling solution in the industry which offers both capabilities (scheduling and on-the-fly conferencing) as well as web based response management is Rondee.
3. Recording and Archiving
For many users, the ability to store information connected to the call or even the call itself can be quite useful. Some services allow recording of the conference call in WAV format, GSM or both formats. Some companies provide this capability for free but typically it is found as a bundled feature of paid teleconferencing services. The audio file is typically retrieved after the conference call is over via a link from the conferencing web site or a link e-mailed to the users. It is generally not feasible to email the audio itself because of capacity issues. Some services provide the agenda for the call to be archived. This capability is obviously not feasible with services that only offer a pin code and dial-in number but can be available for services that offer scheduling capability insofar as the scheduling template records information specific to call.
4. Desktop Sharing
Sometimes a teleconference is not limited to the audio format. If your business requires sharing of information (e.g. financial spreadsheets), desktop sharing will be a critical component of a successful conference call. Some users choose a best-of-breed approach and use different providers for their desktop sharing and audio conferencing. Increasingly, however, audio conference calling providers are moving aggressively to bundle desktop sharing capabilities into their core product. In the case of well-known companies such as GoToMeeting, this is part of a strategy to capture both markets. In the case of conferencing calling companies, desktop sharing is being offered as a paid upsell to generate incremental revenue.
5. Personalization
A typical complaint from users of conferencing systems is the need to remember random dial--in bridge numbers and pin-codes. In the last year, confluence of telecom and internet technologies is solving this problem. A handful of conference call services allow for users to customize their PIN codes to something more easily remembered. There are some systems which also offer access without a pin when users call from a registered phone number. These systems, however, do necessitate user registration to enable a matching of the number.
For most users, the ultimate choice of conference calling service will require weighting these (and perhaps other) factors according to your organization's needs. The good news is that the explosion of competition in this market is expanding the choices available to you. http://www.rondee.com
Article Source: UnArchived Articles
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