Conference calling

Feb 13
12:41

2009

Keith McGregor

Keith McGregor

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In its simplest format conference calling is where there are more than two participants on a single call. Most mobile phones are able to offer some sort of conference facility although the features and capacity will be very limited

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What is conference calling?

 

Why is conferencing useful?

Conferencing has many advantages. Below are just a few.

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Using your phone system to conference a call can reduce mileage and save time by enabling meetings which would normally require travel to take place at the participant’s desks or from their home.

Improves efficiency

Because conference participants are able to join a conference by simply dialling a preset number on the office phone system and entering their access code,Conference calling Articles meetings that would normally take days to arrange can be held instantly. This speeds up the decision making process and improves efficiency.

Save money

Reduced travel costs, quicker decision making, less travel time are just a few ways that conferencing can save your company thousands of pounds each year.

We hold votes and display PowerPoint presentations. How can we do that without being in the same room?

Some conferencing suits, including Avaya’s Conference Centre come with a graphical interface that can be displayed on any web browser and accessed anywhere in the world. Users can show PowerPoint presentations, Word documents and other programs at the touch of a button. The host of the conference has control of who is able to speak and listen, who can vote and if voting is open or anonymous. Users can send private messages to the host or public messages to the whole conference.

It is expensive?

There are two options when choosing a conferencing solution either buy a conferencing solution that connects to you office phone system or use one on a monthly or ad hoc basis.

If you plan to use conferencing on a regular basis, bar far the cheaper option is to buy you own solution and connect it to your telephone system. You may need to speak to your telephone system provider or maintainer to source the best option.

If you will only use conferencing rarely then using a dial into service can work out cheaper.