The five critical elements to consider in selecting your conference call solution
Choosing a teleconferencing company is not easy. Just type the phrase "conference call" into Google and you'll see dozens of providers. Fortunately, most of them position their services on a small-group of factors. Understanding these elements, and thinking through their relative significance to the needs of your company, is the best way to make a good decision. Research in the field indicates that there are five elements which typically enable a user to make a good decision. To help you make that decision, this article reviews these 5 areas.
1. Cost
All-conference calling systems cost at least something to use. This is true even of the the systems that brand themselves as "free." Why is that? Notwithstanding the possible exception of a purely VOIP system covering all users, all-conference calling services require participants to dial a bridge number. In the case of services that provide toll-free bridge numbers, a per minute fee is assessed. The lowest rate you can typically get is several cents per minute typically you'll be paying 5 to 10 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 incurred. Some services still charge legacy rates and of 20 or 25 cents a minute and these plans are to be avoided! As mentioned earlier, some services are free in the sense that there is no charge levied by the provider. However, these offerings do not provide a toll-free number with their free services and therefore users will incur normal long-distance charges to participate.
2. Scheduling capability
Services typically fall into one of two categories. Paid and high end corporate services frequently provide a scheduling interface which helps the organizer to arrange the call. For those services that have an Outlook integration or similar type of functionality, a pin code and dial-in bridge can be automatically allocated to the user when the user wishes to do her own 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 follow-ups. At the present time, the sole <a href="http://www.rondee.com">free conference calling</a> service available in the market featuring both capabilities (scheduling and on-the-fly conferencing) as well as web based response management is Rondee.com.
3. Archiving and Recording
For a lot of organizations, the ability to retain information associated with the call or even the call itself can be very valuable. Some services allow recording of the conference call in WAV format, GSM or both formats. Some companies provide this capability for free but generally it is found as included feature of paid conferencing services. The audio file is typically retrieved after the conference call is over via a link from the service provider's web site or a link e-mailed to the participants. It is generally not possible to email the audio itself because of capacity constraints. Some services provide the agenda for the call to be archived. This capability is obviously not possible with services that only offer a pin code and dial-in number but can be offered by 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 audio. If your business necessitates visual sharing of information (e.g. PowerPoint presentations), desktop sharing will be a critical component of a successful conference call. Some users choose a best-of-breed strategy 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 underlying product. In the case of well-known companies such as GoToMeeting, this is part of a strategy to capture both segments of the market. 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 numbers and pin-codes. In the last year, confluence of telecom and internet technologies is solving this problem. Some new <a href="http://www.rondee.com">conference call</a> services allow for users to personalize their PIN codes to something more memorable. Some systems also offer pinless access when users call from a registered phone number. These systems, however, do require user registration in order to enable a matching of the user's phone number.
For most users, the final choice of teleconferencing service will require weighting these (and perhaps other) factors according to your organization's needs. The good news is that the increase of competition in this market is expanding the services that are available to you.
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Linda Rogers has written multiple commentaries covering the <a href="http://www.rondee.com">free conference calling</a> players. Her clients include companies such as Rondee which develop transformative telecom technologies.