Friday, 14 September 2012

Benefits of Using Web Conferencing Services for Business Communication

Web conferencing offers many substantial benefits ranging from simplified file sharing to huge savings.

Web conferencing services have evolved and simplified many aspects of the way we do business today. Conferencing services facilitate much easier communication while noticeably reducing infrastructure and operating costs.

Web conferencing services are effective, regardless of location, in providing benefits as savings, reduced travel, environmentally efficient, increased productivity, effortless application and desktop sharing, simplified employee training, and improved customer relations.

  • Savings – Savings are immediate and come in the form of financial savings and time savings, which are both very advantageous for your business.
  • Reduced Travel – Reductions in travel only increase the savings. Less travel means reduced airfare, rental cars, fuel, hotel accommodations, and costly time spent on the road.
  • Environmental Efficiency – Environmentally friendly additions are only becoming more important in today’s business world. Along with the financial savings associated with reduced travel, with web conferencing services it’s never been easier to reduce your carbon footprint.
  • Increased Productivity – Reductions in travel save you costly time on the road. Decreasing travel time immediately decreases downtime and efficiently increases productivity. Along with reduced travel time, which directly decreases downtime, web conferencing allows demos and tutorials to be done online saving time that you would have previously had to spend coordinating with employees, customers, and clients.
  • Effortless Application and Desktop Sharing – The simplicity of sharing Excel® spreadsheets and PowerPoint® presentations is a key advantage of web conferencing maintaining that everyone stays on the same page regardless of location and distance between employees.
  • Simplified Employee Training – Continuing to tally up the savings, there’s no longer a need to gather employees in a single location for training. Through the use of web conferencing services, consistency is guaranteed as employees are given the same information at the same time. Web conferencing provides a simplified method of reaching any number of people in various locations across the nation or across the world.
  • Improved Customer Relations – With increased accessibility, maintaining customer support and relations has never been easier. The ability to share desktops makes communication that much easier since everyone’s literally on the same page. Also, companies are able to take control of a client’s computer and fix problems in a much more time-friendly and efficient fashion.

Web conferencing services from various conferencing providers offer simplified communication regardless of location and could be the solution you’ve been searching for. For more information on the perfect web conferencing service for your business contact a Conference Shopper representative today!

Web conferencing services

Image Source: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Source: http://www.conferenceshopper.com/benefits-of-using-web-conferencing-services

Tuesday, 11 September 2012

Find the Best Audio, Web and Video Conferencing Service Providers for your Business

In these tough economic times, conferencing services are able to maintain a strong position in the marketplace, mainly due to the fact that they allow businesses to do more with less. Today’s audio, video, and web conferencing services offer a way for businesses to connect with participants located anywhere in the world at any time – all from the comfort and convenience of their desk, tablet and/or smartphone and for a fraction of the price.

According to the Cisco® Visual Networking Index: Forecast and Methodology, 2011-2016, web-based videoconferencing was more than 56% of total business video conferencing traffic in 2011, and is expected to grow faster than overall business videoconferencing, at a CAGR of 45%. Consequently, a sea of web conferencing providers has flooded the market in an effort to capitalize on the growing customer base. While this helps to drive costs down, it also makes choosing the right provider for your needs a daunting task. Just typing in the phrase, “web conference provider” in Google pulls up over 74.5 million results!

With such a large number of web conferencing providers inundating the market, finding the right provider for your unique needs is tricky, but not impossible. Here are a few questions you should be asking ask your prospective providers:

  • Who is their target customer
  • Do they provide more than just the technology
  • How reliable is their solution
  • What kind of support do they offer

Like many telecommunications services, some providers choose to cater their solutions to specific sizes or types of businesses. This can mean great pricing, but only if your company fits the bill. On the other hand, providers like InterCall® and PGi – two of the world’s largest conferencing providers – offer comprehensive collections of solutions that can be customized to suit your unique needs and budget, whatever they may be.

It’s also important to look for a provider that offers more than just the technology, as it can only take you so far. In order to get the best return on your web conferencing investment you need to know the ins and outs of your solution. This includes setting agendas, mastering available features, as well as numerous other ways to make your virtual meetings as productive and effective as possible.

Reliability is essential, as the service you choose to employ is a direct reflection on you and your company. That being said, bulky interfaces, poor sound quality and/or a lack of compatibility (i.e. necessary plug-ins, browser limitations, etc.) can kill a meeting. See if the provider you’re considering can provide customer reviews or if they offer free service trials to test for yourself.

Lastly, make sure they offer 24/7 support. Every conference presenter has encountered a meeting issue, even the most experienced ones. Finding a resolution as soon as possible is key to keeping your meeting under control and on track. Thankfully, providers such as the above mentioned InterCall and PGi offer 24 hour support 7 days a week – and in multiple forms. For example, PGi offers assistance via phone, email, and live chat.

Source: http://www.conferenceshopper.com/web-conferencing-service-providers

Image Source: FreeDigitalPhotos.net