Conference Calls: Top 10 Reasons to Web Conference

İntro

Around the world businesspeople are constantly trying to do as much work possible in the least amount of time. Deadlines are constantly looming, and the closer they come the more you notice ways to maximize your time – and therefore your employer's money. Companies nowadays have to increase their efficiency any way possible, which is why so many organizations are deciding to hold meetings online instead of using precious company resources on travel expenses. We have compiled some of the reasons we feel conference call services can benefit a number of companies and perhaps how it can help you.

Familiar Equipment
Participating in web conference calls allows users to access the conference from their own personal computers. This will become a great asset in that it keeps all of their resources at their fingertips. As the presenter, it is also calming to know that you will have the opportunity to get acquainted with the tools on your own computer before the conference. When you travel somewhere new to make a presentation, it is never a guarantee that they will have equipment you are familiar with or the tools you need to present everything you have prepared.


Spontaneity 
After deciding that an emergency meeting is in order to discuss a huge change at the company, how do you quickly gather together people from every office? Without worrying about travel time you can send out an email requesting them to join you in a conference call and within minutes you will have the floor. Web conference calling allows for spontaneity and meetings in minutes whereas without this option, the meetings and the big announcements would have to wait.
















It's Green
Web conference calls are more resourceful and have proven to be an earth-friendly option for conferencing. Holding a conference call online requires no paper for handouts or agendas. Everything necessary for the meeting is transferred electronically. This eliminates the need to purchase paper and ink to print countless copies of documents that will no longer be needed after the conference. Conference calling also requires no gas; everyone can join from their current location. Just think how many pollutants you're sparing the environment by meeting online instead of at a physical location.













Productive
Through the virtual meeting space employees have the opportunity to become more involved in the conference. Office chatter and unnecessary communication is cut out of conference calls as people sign in yet are unable to communicate with one another until the host begins the conference. With all conference data on a personal screen in front of them, employees are more easily drawn into the conference and engaged in the discussion or listening to what the presenter is saying. This heightened participation means the ideas will begin to flow as employees feed off of one another and the conference material.


Excellent Seating
With employees joining a web conference from a number of locations, many will take advantage of the opportunity to sit at their own desk. All of your employees can have the best seat in the house as their personal office and computer screen allows them to join the conference, view the presentations and shared documents, and take part in discussions and polls. Nobody will have an excuse for why they couldn’t see or hear. Web conference calling also accommodates persons with disabilities as they too are able to sit in a preferred location with their computer of choice.


Record and Replay
Web conference systems offer a feature that allows the host or presenter to record their conference call. This feature seldom goes untouched. During a conference the recording can be paused and replayed immediately. After the conference the recording can also be saved and shared later with employees that were unable to make it to the meeting. If the conference was a training seminar or another presentation that you would like to share with all new employees, it is easy to share or replay the recording at any later point in time. While this feature is either too expensive or not available for conferences held in person, it is available through nearly all web conference services.












Extended Reach
Conference calling services will allow your company to reach more people in less time. Whether you are making a presentation to potential clients, training employees in a variety of offices or communicating with hard-to-reach stakeholders, web conferencing gives you the opportunity to fit more meetings into your day and extend the reach of your company. Through this efficient method of web conferencing you will participate in more conferences and meetings in less time than ever before.


Unification
With companies growing and opening new offices in a number of locations, the challenge presents itself: how does everyone work together? Through web conferencing employees have the opportunity to see faces, hear voices and become more familiar with their coworkers. Becoming more comfortable with one another will open up the floor to brainstorming together, building off of one another’s ideas and creating a stronger business. No matter how remote your offices may be, through web conference calling every employee has the opportunity to work with others, get ideas, and strengthen the business in their area.


Virtual Equipment
Instead of purchasing equipment that will need to be handed out, gathered up and stored for each conference, why not use the virtual equipment supplied by one of the many web conference providers. It is easy to take a poll, get results and share them in real time with your attendees; this option is provided with no extra charge and no hassle of setting up, passing out and storing the equipment. There are a number of tools, like building a survey that can be distributed and received quickly and efficiently. The data will already be in your computer so there is no need to enter it again, and many programs will create graphs and charts for you with the information they gathered. With all of the tools available through web conferencing, why choose anything else?

Reduce Travel Costs
Few people in the world would turn down a nice Christmas bonus or raise to go on a quick three-day business trip. After all business trip expenses are accounted for – airfare, gas, hotel and food – a three-day business trip has taken a nice piece of company funds. There are plenty of other ways to spend the company funds you save by using conference call services and give employees another reason to work hard for the business.

At TopTenREVIEWS We Do the Research So You Don’t Have To. ™

Conference Call Services Review

Why Conference Call Services?

As businesses develop and grow into national and world-wide companies, travel has become a mundane part of life for many business people. Spending countless hours on a plane, adjusting to time changes and holding meetings around the clock to fit everything in is all part of the normal routine schedule nowadays. Thankfully technology has journeyed forward and provided us with the conference call services to hold a conference with workers around the globe while never leaving the desk or office. Conference calls are a great way for participants to gather and discuss business issues and ideas. Keep in mind that a conference call service is different than a web conference call service, as it only provides a place to gather. Your participants will not need a computer to join a conference call.
While researching each area of interest, we created a side-by-side comparison to show what each company has to offer and ranked them according to the categories listed below. To learn more about our top choices read aboutWebEx, Infinite Conferencing and AccuConference. You can also learn more about the pros and cons of each company by reading articles on conference calling services.

Conference Call Services: What to Look For

No matter where you are located and who you need to contact, the best conference call service company will provide you with support around the clock, a high-quality audio and video connection and the tools that will allow you to interact with conference participants anywhere.

Conferencing Features
The features of conference call services focus on the tools and capabilities each company provides for calls. The best conference call service companies will provide their users with full access to their system at any time, blocked entry so only certain participants can enter the call, automated invites and automated RSVPs. Some of the features that we feel should not be overlooked are recording and replay, multiple presenter controls, the maximum number of participants allowed into each call and the maximum duration allowed.

File Sharing
More often than not meetings focus on a specific subject or topic for discussion. An important part of conferences is what each participant brings to the table as well as the presenter themselves. File sharing is an integral part of web conference calling since it allows the users to share documents, applications or entire desktops with their participants. However, keep in mind that this is a conference call and not necessarily a web conference, so not all individuals will have computer access.

Interactive Abilities
The options provided in this area are what bring each conference to life. For real-time polls, surveys and hand raising, the best companies have what you are looking for. When a participant has a comment they can “raise their hand” and alert the host or presenter. There is also a white board ability that allows users to draw, take notes and brainstorm with other participants. You can feel like you are in the same room with someone even though you are hundreds or thousands of miles apart. Conference call services will allow you to use these actions by pressing certain numbers or a sequence of numbers on your telephone.

Ease of Use
Every person wants a plethora of tools and services to choose from but also the ease and the simplicity that allows them to utilize the benefits. As we searched for the features, file sharing capabilities and interactive abilities that each company offered, we took into account the ease that each service provides. From signing up to beginning and hosting a web conference, we ranked the companies in usability and design.

Help & Support
As with any web service the help and technical support is a large area to take into consideration. If you are in the middle of a meeting and something happens, you don’t want to wait countless hours to reach a representative to help you. Some of the best conference calling companies we found offer around-the-clock technical support with live representatives. We put them to the test and contacted them numerous times to find out how easy they were to contact, how knowledgeable they were about their product and the overall help they could provide us in our time of need. We were very impressed with some conference callservices and significantly less impressed with others.

At TopTenREVIEWS We Do the Research So You Don’t Have To.™