Audio Conferencing – Myths and Truths

Googling conference call makes ones head spin. Google dishes up a barrage of offers. How do you determine the service that best meets your needs? Under the adage knowledge is strength, this article examines some conference call myths and truths. Try searching Web 2.0 audio conferencing

Myth #1: Some conference call sets are free! Truth: Somebody is paying. Make sure the plug isnt pulled on your call.

How do you keep up a free supplier accountable? You cant. If you are not being charged for the service, then the supplier is receiving the revenue to run the service in some other way. Audio conferencing platforms have real, current overhead costs that someone is paying for. Before deciding to rely on the sets of a free supplier, determine their revenue form. Otherwise, you may find yourself having to cancel an important meeting because your free supplier decided to go on vacation. Audio conferencing suppliers can offer free sets for a number of reasons including:

Selling your name to third parties. Ask: What if the name-selling business revenue form fails; is reliability important? Selling advertising. Ask: What if advertising revenues decrease; will the lights go off at the service? Getting a sponsor to pay for it because the sponsor receives some other assistance from the vendor. Ask: What if the sponsorship drops, where does that leave me? Hoping youll upgrade to their value-additional sets. Ask: Do these sets enhance my productivity, or do they slow me down? Are cheap and free sets truly costing me more in the end anyway?

For business-basic communications, where dropped and poor quality calls average delayed or canceled meetings, the cost of wasted time is much more costly to your profitability than the cost of the calls.

Myth #2: Your conference call vendor bundles all its sets in one price. Truth: Read the fine print. The devil is in the details.

While this is true with a few vendors, by and large this is not true. Some noticeable vendors advertise a low per minute rate, and then require the customer to pay for an operator for calls over 15 people. This sort of bait-and-switch tactic method the average rate paid per minute is truly much higher than the carrot and stick low rate the customers thought they were paying. Some vendors choose not to play tricks on their customers. Unless you enjoy the bait-and-switch game, you should consider the honest suppliers who truly have one-price rating for their sets.

Myth #3: All conference call vendors are alike. Truth: This used to be true, but not anymore.

In the old days, audio conferencing used to be about connecting wires. Most of the audio conferencing technology nevertheless in extensive use today uses this old technology under the covers. This is the reason features are limited to just one flavor–plain vanilla. That is, you get a call-in PIN and a dial-in number and call at the appointed time. With the arrival of the web, new technologies are emerging that marry the best of traditional audio conferencing with new web-based productivity features. These sets can make your audio conference calls much more efficient and effective. These are the vendors you should look for. This method sorting by the maze to find them. Try searching Web 2.0 audio conferencing.

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