Computer Software

Affordable web conferencing isn’t a myth. Rarely anything in this world can be considered cheap these days, which is why examining how your company spends money should be an ongoing effort. A cardinal rule that unfortunately goes unnoticed by many managers is the fact that time is money, even when you are working. Think about it. Say you have several people working on a project for an important client. An initial analysis may reveal that productivity levels are at their maximum. But you notice that despite this fact the project just isn’t making the headway that it should. If this is the case it may be necessary to analyze just how much time is spent doing each task involved.

What you may find is shocking.

The numbers don’t lie; your team is probably spending a little too much time on the phone making and taking calls. No matter how organized your team is there are times when calling is actually hindering the projects. That is because communicating primary by phone calls is no longer as practical as it once was. The majority of time is spent playing phone tag. Leaving and returning messages, calling over and over again to get simple questions answered. Many businesses have taken to using teleconferences in order to be able to collaborate better. While teleconferences are a powerful tool, they may not be the best tools for some projects. This leads us to affordable web conferencing and related conference services.

Many people avoid web conferencing thinking it to be expensive, but in many cases affordable web conferencing is just as cheap teleconferencing. A review of the many web conferencing services available will show that for the most part web conferencing rates allow for the same volume discounts and flat rates that normal call conferencing offers.

Not only that but web conferencing offers solutions that work for those looking for more interaction at an affordable premium. Setting up an affordable web conference is not much more difficult then setting up a phone conference.

Thirty years ago, business owners wondered how they ever got by without the telephone. Twenty years ago, it was the fax machine. Just ten years ago, corporate players marveled at life before email and today, successful business people can’t imagine life without audio and web conferencing.

This latest technological breakthrough has had a huge impact on the corporate scene. Unlike typical conference calls, audio and web conferencing offers a full-featured solution for conducting on-demand meetings anywhere in the world, at any time. It is now feasible and affordable for companies to exchange ideas and get valuable real-time input, without the inordinate expenses or hassles of travel.

The Basics
Before delving into the finer aspects of audio and web conferencing, it is important to understand a few terms. “Conferencing” refers to a discussion that occurs between a group of individuals, where ideas are exchanged and data are shared via a communication technology. The phrase “web conferencing” means that the whole conferencing system is hosted or conducted in a web environment, specifically a web server or application.

Audio inputs are a basic feature of web conferencing. Peripheral devices are added to the computer in order to facilitate voice communication between conference participants. Devices like headphones and microphones soon gave birth to a type of communication called audio and web conferencing.

An audio and web conferencing system behaves basically like a telephone setup. It is a more economical version of phone or conference calling, but rather than establishing complicated telephone systems to confer with your staff in different office locations, you can now make use of the audio and web conferencing system. This is an economical way to keep your business moving while minimizing lost time and expensive travel and meeting room costs.

There are a number of key features in using an audio and web conferencing system.

The first and most obvious benefit is the easy-to-use audio controls. Most audio and web conferencing vendors will offer intuitive controls for audio, allowing you to easily control your audio meeting using your telephone keypad or a form of web-based audio control panel. You are given a wide range of options including the ability to mute lines, take roll call and lock or terminate the conference.

Not all audio and web conferencing programs utilize the existing telephone system, but some do. With integrated, low-cost phone systems, these audio and web conferencing applications allow you to use your phone to discuss, share, negotiate and collaborate with your clients and fellow employees.

Many audio and web conferencing tools offer easy setup, and most are intuitive with user-oriented interfaces. Some are integrated into popular desktop items, such as Microsoft Outlook email programs.

Meetings on demand have never been easier. For some, they’ve never been possible. Now, thanks to audio and web conferencing, with a click of the mouse you can launch a meeting right when you need it.

Evolution in telecommunications during the past two decades was enhanced with the increasing popularity of the Internet during the 1990s. Web Conferencing is just one of the different modalities enabling people to get in touch through the world wide web, whether for business, educational, or recreational affairs.

There are many advantages of web conferencing over other communication means, such as chat rooms, message boards or instant messaging. For example, Video Web Conferencing allows people to watch each other while working collaboratively. Even when most of the communication processes via Internet requires an individual to setup an account and log in, techniques and results are different.

Online communication is a real-time interaction where two or more individuals have a conversation across the Internet, either typing in or using advanced techniques such as VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol). Although some applications have integrated sounds, only those intended for web conferencing are based on voice over internet protocol.

This feature enables audio and web contact for a more realistic experience, reducing the costs that otherwise a regular phone company could charge for a similar service, and having a larger coverage area. The internet not only cuts off calling and broadcasting fares, but also has no frontiers.

For making communication easier, there are a number of kinds of videoconferencing and similar software expressly designed for operating under web conferencing systems. These types of software are commonly referred to as collaborative software and include a large number of programs such as calendar, notes management, scheduler, and an area for live interaction.

Many software programs are available online, providing individuals with further features and functionality. However, it is not always necessary that users look for the software, since the host of a conferencing system usually provides an interface to a shared environment where people are engaged in common tasks.

Several services provide their users with web interfaces to participate in live telecommunication, or the links to download desktop clients. Others are just platforms providing technology and support to individuals and companies who want to setup their own service or enable conferencing on an intranet.

As of 2006, there is no standard for this advanced technology, the fact that has created a significant market fragmentation. However, most of the actual technologies are compatible with the users software and computer equipment. However, more CPU memory is required than standard web based methods.

Choosing a Web Conferencing Company offers the opportunity today to test the service of different web conferencing providers, such as Genesys, Raindance, or Microsoft, just to name a few. Competing for excellence, most of these providers offer additional benefits to enrich your overall experience.

Actually, online conferencing is largely used for attending learning courses and seminars, often called Webminars, because they are conducted over the world wide web. Some people consider web seminars as the response to webcasts, the broadcasting of information in one direction, while web conferencing is
bi-directional, the feature that enables interactivity among the participants.

While finding cheap web conferencing is the ultimate goal of businesses, there are certain factors that you have to consider. The cheap rates for the web conferencing are not the most important feature of such a service. Although they may seem attractive on the surface, you do have to look deeper into the services to make sure you can get exactly what you need. If cost is a major factor in getting the cheapest conference calling rates, the best thing you can do is a search of all the providers to find which one can offer you the best plan for the cheapest rate.

Big companies, such as WebEx, do offer cheap rates for web conferencing. It is best to use a well-known company to make sure all that you have secure service and that you can access it 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. This is especially important if you want to interact with business partners and clients from all over the world so that you don’t have to worry about time zone problems. Although smaller and lesser known companies may offer you cheap conferencing calls, they are also known to have more problems, such as a lack of features and lesser quality video.

When you search for cheap conference call providers, you do have to look at whether or not they provide such features as file and application sharing. With the better known companies, such as WebEx, these are standard features and the company has been in business long enough to have worked out all of the bugs. Conference recording and polls are other features you should look for because they enrich the conferencing situation and make it an enjoyable one for all participants.

Using conference calls will drastically reduce the expense of training within your company. You no longer have to arrange and pay for meeting rooms or pay travel expenses for your employees. Although you can save money in the initial cost when you choose a company with cheap rates for web conferencing, you may encounter more problems than you realize. You need good connections at all times in order for this method of meeting to succeed and smaller companies often do have this problem.

The number of people that you need to conference with at one time is also an important factor to consider when you are looking to reduce the costs of web conferencing. The best cheap conferencing via the web should allow you to include a large number of participants. If you need to include people from distant locations, you need to ensure that your cheap rates allow you to include them. The rates are also a determining factor. Some companies charge on a rate per person, while others charge a monthly or annual flat rate. You also have to be careful about any hidden fees that may not be explicit in your contract, but show up on your invoice for web conferencing fees.

If you have a large company and you need to be in touch with several members of your team at one time, you may need web conferencing. This is a cheaper alternative than having to make travel arrangements to bring everyone together in one place and it is certainly less time consuming than having to make individual phone calls to each person. If you are not familiar with this process, your first question will likely be “What is web conferencing?” Simply put, web conferencing is a method of holding group meetings or presentations through the power of the Internet.

In a web conference, neither of the participants needs to leave his/her home of office. Everything takes place with each person sitting in front of his/her own computer. The most basic feature of this type of conference call is that each one can see the same screen and hear what you or someone else has to say through voice communication or video communication. This can be either through a conference call on the phone, through VOIP or you can read the words through text messaging, or a visual presentation through the use of web video.

When you choose to give a presentation by means of web conferencing, you can still use slides or a power point presentation. If you wish, all the participants can share in a spreadsheet on the computer screen and/or share files from each person’s desktop. This eliminates the need for each one bringing massive amounts of paper to a meeting and handing out folders regarding each part of the presentation.

In order to use such a feature for your meetings, you will need to have web conferencing software. Although this can be costly, it’s a one time cost that will pay for itself over and over. And when you add up the cost compared to the cost of other communication methods, it’s very attractively priced. You will also have a monthly or annual flat fee with your service provider, but you do have to ensure that your provider allows you to use this service at any time.

Connecting with business partners and customers from all corners of the world has never been easier. Now you can spend more time in the office attending to building your business rather than spending the majority of your time travelling or arranging places to hold meetings.

Just a message to all the participants regarding the date and time of the conference call will allow them to clear their schedules to attend the meeting. A click of the mouse allows each one to join the meeting to view the presentation, give comments or ask questions, just as they would in a regular meeting. By using video and audio, each one and see and hear what is taking place. The voice, data and video are all encrypted, so there is no danger of the details becoming part of the public domain.

Take some time to consider the advantages of web conferencing and help grow your business faster.

Simply put, web conferencing is conducting meetings using the internet.

With web conferencing, attendees can share presentations and other contents of their desktop. This type of collaboration can be extremely effective when used for salesforce training or demonstrations to large, scattered groups. Web conferencing usually includes interactive chat, Powerpoint presentations, streaming audio and video, and other implements.

Let’s say we both want to meet to talk about a very important topic. I live in Australia while you in the US. Instead of spending thousands of dollars on travel cost alone, we can have a cheap and highly productive meeting right here, right now. How?

Go to your computer. Connect to the internet. Join a meeting. And that’s it! We’re already conferencing. It’s that easy. Anytime two persons or more hold a meeting over the internet, that’s what we call web conferencing.

It all starts with a software that the conference host downloads and installs on his computer. For a serious piece of communication software, web conferencing programs nowadays are amazingly small and unnoticeable. They will continue to get tinier as the years or even months go by.

Then the host begins inviting participants to attend the meeting. Most if not all web conferencing services I’ve seen have a built-in system of announcing to attendees in advance thru email.

To join a meeting, each participant should first download and install a little program of their own, at times even smaller than what the host is using. Or better yet, some setups don’t even require attendees including the host to download and install any kind of software (web browser-based).

Generally, once all the partakers have done their part in setting up their computers for web conferencing, what’s left is for each partaker to type in a few keystrokes, click the mouse button and begin conferencing. Typically, the entire process of setting up a web conference from ground zero will take around 15 minutes for the host and about 10 minutes for each member. After the one-time setup, subsequent meetings will commence in less than 5 minutes for everyone.

Basic web conferencing allows you to “text chat” with any or all of the attendees. If that’s not enough, you can use toll-free lines to add voice communication for that all-important clarity of thought. Yes, you read it right. There are companies offering toll-free lines just for conferencing.

But even voice connection can be web-based too. It’s possible thru VoIP or Voice Over Internet Protocol. This technology uses the internet, not regular phone lines, as it delivers your voice to one or all participants.

Although web conferencing will never replace face-to-face or mission-critical meetings, you should at least explore its practical uses for you and your organization. Give it a test run and witness the breakthrough efficiency of having that all important collaboration called web conferencing.

There are two technologies that are making a revolution in intra-organizational communications: They are telephone conferencing and web conferencing. Using either web or telephone conferencing, companies and non-profit organizations are now able to hold many more meetings than ever before. The newest web conferencing systems incorporate both online and telephone conferencing and this will surely speed up the growth of virtual conferencing.

Most online conferencing systems allow participants to see one another using web cams and monitors, and to speak and hear one another via Voice over Internet Protocol (VOiP) using a headset or a microphone and speakers.

But what happens if one of the would-be participants does not have the right kind of headset or microphone? And what happens if one of the would-be participants does not have a high speed Internet connection or is away from his/her computer? In previous conferencing set-ups, the person who didn’t have the right equipment might miss the audio or even the whole conference entirely.

This particular problem has now been overcome by integrating telephone conferencing along with web conferencing. For example, if participants do not have the right kind of headset or microphone, in addition to everyone being able to watch the conference online, a teleconference can be used that will allow all participants to hear and talk to each other via standard telephone connections. With some systems, the call-in number and security code for the conference call are even posted within the video/web conference meeting room.

Similarly, when a company holds a combined telephone and web conference, an employee or staff member can take part in the audio portion using the telephone conference connection even if they are away from their computer or away from a broadband Internet connection.

The combined service will make it easier for companies that are already accustomed to telephone conference calling but have not yet made the jump to online web conferencing.

Online web conferencing adds many more features to a normal telephone conference call such as Powerpoint presentations, instant polling and surveys, application sharing and real time notepads for online brainstorming, but some organizations may be holding back from going to web conferencing due to the possibility of leaving behind some of their participants. The new combined teleconferencing and web conferencing systems solve this particular problem and will probably help to accelerate the already rapid growth of web conferencing around the world.

Comparing to the savings on travel, time and energy the cost of Web Conference Calls is dirt cheap.

There are many conferencing solution providers and it’s difficult to distinguish between them. These service providers take care of all the technical stuff. The users left to deal with simple codes like: * and then 2 to get connected etc’.

Basically, there are two pricing models, a subscription per month, usually ranges From $ 25 per month for up to 5 people Plus initial one time $ 30 set up fees and up to $150 per month for up to 20 people plus the set up fees.

The other model is charging per minute per participant not including international calls charges. The rates can vary for local line anywhere between $0.12 – $ 0.40 per minute per participant.

Skype company is using telephony technology of voice over IP to connect users internationally for almost nothing ( 0.03 Euro per minute per caller), it can help to connect up to 500 users in a high speed conference call.

One CEO of large corporation estimated that Web Conference Calls technology is saving his organization more than 40 million dollars per year on travel and accommodations alone.

Web Conference Calls is taking advantage of the Internet’s two most notable qualities of sharing information and connecting people from around the globe.

In spite of all the above I must mention though, that there are some aspects of human interaction that web conferencing cannot imitate and replace, these are things like firm hand shake, a hug, an eye contact, a real nice smile, the perfume odor, the impression of a persons’ body language, the eating lunch together, drinking beer together and some other small human gestures that build real genuine trust between people.

In addition, some of the trainings seminars that included traveling abroad were a compensation rewards for employees by their employers and served as a change of environment and refreshment for the employees.

Conferencing in its very basic form might be two people talking over the phone while browsing through a web site and making comments about the content.

Web conferencing started initially as an audio conferencing calls and it is still largely Used today mainly for presentation calls where the host is guiding a group of listeners, illustrating to them some concepts and from time to time answers questions or asking for comments.

This call can be recorded and later on either distributed to a larger group of potential customers or be put on a web site where other customers can download the audio file to their computer and listen to the whole thing at their convenient time.

With the introduction of the broadband, conferencing emerged into live Video conferencing where participants can actually see each other in addition to be able to hearing each other.

Then it developed into multi layering of information where conferencing participants can talk, see and even share and exchange presentations as well as drawing and sketch a concept on a tablet board (it’s called Whiteboard) while making comments on it.

In Addition web conferencing can conduct poles and votes among the participants same as they would during a board meetings.

This technology is a real alternative to face-to-face meetings. This level of conferencing is not without problems, it must be meticulously planed ahead of time, positioning the web cams at appropriate well lighted spots, same for the microphones, the participants must exhibit high self discipline and concentration.

It can be implemented locally as well as internationally by medium to large companies. A well planed and coordinated web conference call can save a bundle of time, money and hassle.

One field where this conferencing application really revolutionized the whole process is the engineering and architectural planning. This has became part of e-construction methodology.

The planner is transferring his drawings CAD files to the next level or levels like the electrical engineer or the air-conditioner planner, they can all design and add their drawings over the original raster background (that is because it works in layers).

Then they can coordinate a web conference call and discuss potential conflicts and problems in their separate planning to the general construction plan, this can boost and speed up the whole planning and design processes and help meet deadlines on time.

Another application can be Coach hiring managers on corporate process, screen candidates and avoid the significant costs associated with flying unsuitable candidates out for interviews.

Training sessions with selected employees around the globe is another time and money big saver. This e-Teacher technology is going to have a tremendous impact in the future on the education system as a whole from high school to the universities.

A researcher studying future trends once said that our society is transforming from Atoms into Electrons. What he meant to say by that is we are moving from the physical substance like a real brick & mortar business (The Atoms) to the virtual stores and business on the Internet (The Electrons).

From paper books to ebooks, from paper manuals to CDs, from a human teachers to virtual presentations and video clips. From film cameras to digital cameras, from drawing by hand to designing on computer screens and it goes on and on.

So what is it exactly “Web Conference Call”, web conferencing is when two or more users who are all connected to the Internet share information.

Web Conference Call is in-line with this trend of digital, virtual, electronic world we are all living in the western world.

My father came to visit us and saw my five years old son playing with my laptop, he smiled and said, well, first they minimized the computers now I see they started to minimize the users as well…

This amazing technology of web conference calls is taking a huge leap towards the creation of the world as a one small village that is very efficient and saving much time, money and energy.

These technological advances have tremendous impact on our economy, environment and our lives. The Web Conference Calls technology is strengthening the tendency to allow employees to work from home, and in the future to cut on commuting, save time and money, reduce the amount of cars on the roads, to lower the death rates on the roads, to cut on pollution, gasoline consumption, amount of flights etc’.

One CEO of large corporation estimated that Web Conference Calls technology is saving his organization more than 40 million dollars per year on travel and accommodations alone.

Web Conference Calls is taking advantage of the Internet’s two most notable qualities of sharing information and connecting people from around the globe.

Imagine, ten people need to meet at an office in NY at 9:30 am sharp. Each one of them is driving his own car or fighting to find a cab, they drive during rush hour surrounded by many nervous drivers around them, they arrive to the building area and there is no free parking around.

They park at the first free parking lot they can find and they pay anywhere from $25 – $75 an hour. They walk ten minutes by foot during the humid summer or rainy winter.

Then there is a delay because not every body made it on time. They drink coffee and chat and the meeting that was supposes to be 90 minutes is becoming two and a half hours. When it finally ends, each participant need to drive back to his office and waste some more time…

Now compare all that to a Web Conferencing virtual meeting!

Whether it’s joining an online training session, initiating an online brainstorming session, or reviewing a meeting that was missed, conferencing and “meeting” online has never been easier.