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Teleconferencing solutions will soon be used even with local companies. Let's see why...
Economies are truly global in the twenty-first century. A small, US based business might find itself unable to release a new product because a port in China is closed due to quarantine over an illness, and thus they lack the needed parts.
This highlights the critical need to communicate in real-time around the world.
There are many combinations of teleconference solutions available. The simplest option is a service that assists in placing and conducting conference calls with no other content.
This can include calling plans that do not charge long distance for the call, dedicated operator support and even conference calls with scores of sites listening in.
Other options can include video or computer files delivered by various means from files shared before the conference to real time editing of content by multiple moderators who can hand off control from one to another.
The first step towards choosing a teleconferencing solution is to examine your needs, current and future.
If you are a small business with limited budget, audio only teleconferences can provide a good depth of content with judicious use of emailed files to allow common content to be examined during the meeting at all locations.
Larger companies, especially those with internal and external content calls over a large, perhaps even international area, will find that the convenience and flexibility of seeing the other speakers and applying changes in real time to working documents is quite valuable, made possible by a combined teleconferencing/webconferencing solution.
If you expect to do international business, selecting teleconferencing solutions able to deal with international telephone calls and preferably with branch offices in the nation’s where your conferees will be working is essential. International phone bills can be lethal to a business plan if unexpected.
Some companies offer a per minute pricing plan, while others offer a subscription service with minutes charged less, or only charged if a threshold is exceeded.
Some services require a reservation, while others will allow teleconferences on demand, typically for a higher fee. Some services will restrict users to a specific number or percentage of sites able to speak, the rest being only able to listen to the teleconference.
Questions to ask include how many sites will need to speak or listen at once? Can we put at least our people into a conference room, or will it be necessary to have everyone at their own desks for the teleconference?
Can we gamble that all teleconferences can be scheduled, and save money by forgoing call on demand options? Ironically, the more international the business becomes, the easier this is to achieve, since it will take pre-planning through timezones to get the attendees free at the same time anyway.
Will the content to be discussed be something that can be easily handled verbally, or will there be a need for significant other content? If so, adding a webconferencing capability to the teleconference would be logical.
Related article: How To Choose The Best Teleconferencing Company For Your Business
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