Article by Robert Harnischmacher
Web conferencing is almost a technical necessity in our busy world. Using a reliable web conferencing system can actually help to increase productivity and reduce excess travel associated expenses – a must in today’s economy. Indeed web conferencing is a technological tool that can’t be ignored. This guide will show you how to choose and use this effective tool.
What is web-conferencing?
Web conferencing may sound complicated but in reality it is easy to set-up and use and doesn’t require a high degree of technical skill. Web conferencing is typically provided as a subscription service through many vendors. There are many advantages to using web conferencing in your business.
Web conferencing is a perfect way to hold virtual meetings and manage communications. Participants from different locations can easily be part of the meeting. Multiple participants can work on documents together allowing your employees the freedom from travel that would have otherwise been necessary. Web conferencing allows people to take an active real-time role instead of using emails and attachments back and forth. Your team can accomplish in one session what could take days (or longer) to accomplish using traditional methods.
How web conferencing can benefit your business
Once you are ready to use web-conferencing what is the best way to proceed? Start by determining your specific business needs. You may have some applications for use that you haven’t even determined yet. One of the best ways to ensure that you have a complete understanding of your needs is to involve individual departments in the process.
Some of the many uses for web-conferencing include:
Training seminarsDepartmental meetingsSales presentationsCompany-wide meetingsWebinars
Web conferencing allows you to use highly talented people on projects no matter where they are located. In today’s economy it can make sense to use contract or outsourcing to assist in key work functions. Web conferencing gives you the ability to use these resources while keeping within budget and actually saving money.
Web meetings can also be used with great success to communicate internally.In fact one of the biggest complaints among workers is incomplete or insufficient communication within the company. Using web-conferencing can quickly and easily facilitate communication with employees increasing work satisfaction and boosting performance.
Evaluate web conferencing options
Start the evaluation process by determining the types of specific application requirements that your business may have for using web conferencing. There are many choices of functionality to pick from which can be confusing at first. Think about the way you envision using web conferencing. For example will you need to use web conferencing between countries? How many simultaneous meetings will you need and how many participants will you want to allow?
With these answers in mind you can begin to review the various web conferencing providers. Typically there are two options to choose from – hosted and in-house. Hosted web conferencing uses a host-provided web-server and you pay a subscription usage fee. In-house web conferencing is done by installing software on your own server paying a license fee.
Consider some of the features that are available with web conferencing. Things to think about include:
Ease of use – user friendly, trainingSecurity – system level security as well as meeting specific securityPricing – based on usage and featuresSystem requirements – hosted solutions, telephone or VoIP service
Test Drive your Options
Most web-conferencing providers offer a free trial period. Narrow your list down to just several providers and then opt for a free trial. The trial will allow you to easily test-drive the features and ease of use and give you options to see how web-conferencing will fit into your company.
Don’t feel as though you need to go it alone. Look for a company that supplies you with web-conferencing provider options and evaluates features, performance and price for you. The best of these can be found at http://www.webconferencing-test.com. Here you’ll find reputable information ready for your evaluation. The web site was used as a resource in a recent Gartner research document published on web conferencing. The website provides information and comparison on more than 25 web conferencing solutions including detailed ratings on the top five applications.
Robert Harnischmacher is Managing Director of Publicare – an online marketing agency that has been using online meeting tools on a day-to-day basis since 2003. Visit http://www.webconferencing-test.com to obtain thorough insights on more than 21 web conferencing solutions.
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