Posts Tagged ‘Video Conferencing’
Toll Free Conference Call Providers
Toll free conference call providers offer conferencing services that allow the participants of the conference to call in on a cost free phone number, instead of a regular cell phone number or landline telephone number, which costs the user minutes, money, or both. While this may cost the company, or private person, putting on the conference a bit more money, it can save the people calling in a ton on their long distance or cell phone bill. Having a cost free call-in number also increases the number of participants willing to come to your call, so having a toll free conference call number is especially important if you’re going to be holding your conference for sales and marketing, or meeting with potential clients.
Over the last few years, many companies have moved from face to face meetings, to regular phone-in conferencing, then to call in webinars with slide show capabilities, to fully video capable conference calling. And with full video, those meetings can once again be face to face, but at a fraction of the cost and hassles of traveling around the country or overseas. Many conference call providers, who offer toll free call-in numbers, also offer the technology to hold webinars and secure video conferencing over a company’s own VPN’s. And, with some of the cool tools available now, like the ability to record your presentations, the webinars, conference calls and video conferences can now be posted on a company’s website, or YouTube, and used for marketing or training purposes, with no additional costs.
Some conferencing provider companies are now offering international toll free numbers for companies that have branches overseas, or who need to meet with suppliers or buyers, or who need to collaborate with international work teams. International toll free numbers usually cost more per minute than an American toll free number, but are usually cheaper than the individual cost of the conferencees all making extended international long distance calls.
A few of the many providers now offering conference calling with free dial-in numbers are The Conference Group, who also offer international toll free call-in numbers, AccuConference and MegaMeeting, whose rates start at 6.9 cents per minute. All of these companies offer Lecture Mode, Mute Mode, Moderator Dial Out, Digital Recording & Playback and more. And, all of these companies let you set up a reservationless conference calling account for free, with no monthly minimum minutes, or fees, to worry about.
Video Conference Trends
Videoconference trends have been changing as fast as technologies related to it do. The economic landscape and general changes in the way business is conducted is forcing businesses to embrace a more “mobile” lifestyle, of which videoconferencing is a big part.
Video Conference Usage
The number of business using videoconferencing technologies increased starting 2001, as reported by leading teleconferencing service providers Deutsche Telekom, Worldcom, and BT. Their studies show that conglomerates and multinationals are replacing in-person meetings either audio, web or video conferencing. The trend is good news to providers, big and small. They have since seen phenomenal growth year after year.
The Move to Videoconferencing
Even businesses that only used videoconferencing as temporary solutions before are now moving to more regular subscriptions. More and more employees and executives express their preference for conferencing technology to cut down on travel costs and time. If an executive had to travel every month from Denver to New York for a meeting, for example, about 134 man-hours are wasted. Let that same executive do videoconferencing instead and the company saves about not only time, but also about $9,600 – the cost of travel and accommodations.
Businesses are quickly realizing that because of the cost- effectiveness of videoconferencing, travel is not anymore the first nor the only choice. The technology is now associated to the “work smart” standard.
Positive Results
The outcomes of videoconferencing are optimistic and profound. Studies conducted on organizations that embrace videoconferencing prove that the benefits of the technology are threefold. Individuals remain productive, are able to establish and maintain relationships, and are generally happier and have more time to relax because of the conveniences afforded by the technology. Efficiency is at an all-time high because professionals are not anymore limited by time nor geographical location.
Videoconferencing is changing the way business is conducted, and providers are more than happy to adapt to the trend. Many of them are now introducing next-generation videoconferencing on an individual or bundled basis at very reasonable prices.