Tips for Choosing a Conferencing Service Provider

This article was sponsored by RollCall Business Conferencing Solutions, a proud supporter of the OfficeArrow community. You can also visit RollCall's Community on OfficeArrow.

Teleconferencing and webconferencing services are the long distance phone services of the new millennium. While traveling to see your clients or employees can be costly, conferencing saves time and money. So what sets the different companies apart?

Whether you're a Fortune 500 company or a one-man show, connecting to people domestically and internationally is important for your business. While there are tons of conferencing services to choose from, it's helpful to know what makes sense for your business.

When considering a teleconferencing or web conferencing service, it's important to think about who you are connecting with and why. Are you conducting a meeting with clients? Are you looking to share documents during that meeting? Are you doing a presentation? All of these things can be managed through conferencing services with a phone and a computer.

How often you plan to use teleconferencing or web conferencing will also determine which company you should use.

Features are always key in selecting a conferencing service and there are a wide variety to choose from. However, there are some features that are fairly common among the different companies.

Web Conferencing

Web conferencing allows you to conduct webinars, share documents, give presentations, or even share your desktop. Adding visual elements to any meeting is a plus, and a great way to drive your point home to your participants.

An operator, chosen by you, is usually in control of the web conference in order to make it easy for the participants to follow. However, it's easily changeable to allow others to take the helm. With both web conferencing and teleconferencing, you dial in on your phone to join the conference. With web conferencing, you will be able to join via a website link to the conference. To join the conference by phone, you will either be given a toll free number or a toll number in which long distance charges do apply. You will be prompted to enter a passcode given to you by the service provider. And viola, you're connected!

Teleconferencing

Teleconferencing is the no frills way to conduct a meeting. It simply uses a phone number and a passcode to connect you. There are no visual elements to deal with. It's direct and to the point, but a great way to get everyone that is needed together for discussion. Teleconferencing has great features such as the ability to record the conference and the option to mute the participants' voices. Both are effective tools for recreating meeting minutes, taking notes and avoiding distracting, unnecessary chatter.

Plan Features

There are typically two types of pricing available: a pay-as-you-go type of pricing and a flat fee pricing. Naturally, a pay-as-you-go plan would be ideal for those who aren't planning on using the conferencing service that often, say once or twice a month. The other type is a flat fee, usually associated with an unlimited amount of usage. This is perfect for those with offices all over the country or world who need to connect on a regular basis.

The pay-as-you-go plan will typically charge you per minute and per participant. However, there are no contracts, no capacity limitations, and no extra fees.

Meetings aren't always planned, therefore flexibility is a plus. Along with the freedom of pay-as-you-go you can also come and go as you please. There are no reservations necessary to reserve conferencing space. This allows you to create a conference with clients or employees on the fly.

Flat fee pricing isn't quite as simple, however, it certainly is of value. For those seeking to connect on a regular basis with clients overseas, or employees in other states, it's typically cheaper to use a flat fee carrier. Extra fees are usually associated with flat fee pricing as they give you a phone number to dial-in, on which long distance charges do apply. This is simply because teleconferencing is somewhat secondary to these flat fee carriers. While they can offer a toll free number for your participants, there will typically be a fee associated with that as well. They heavily market their web conferencing services but offer the teleconferencing free of charge as part of the package...long distance charges not included.

There's no doubt that in the age of technology, teleconferencing and web conferencing have made it easier to connect with people important to your business without wasting time and money traveling. Not all companies are created equal, so do your homework on service providers. You'll find that some features are the same, but they all differ in price and service.