Conference calls not just for business
Over the course of the last twenty years or so,
the teleconferencing landscape has changed significantly. It used to be true
that only larger businesses had access to multi party conference calling. Such
systems were usually rather costly and often had live operator participation on
each call.
Incumbent telecom companies priced conference calling services at costly rates
(e.g. over twenty cents per user minute) and most corporations were willing to
pay these rates to ensure reliable and quality services. Now in recent years
the conference call market has seen a high degree of competitive forces.
Several factors have been responsible including telecom deregulation, dramatic
improvements in web technology and demand for better offerings.
The competitive landscape now consists of seemingly countless companies in
addition to the usual suspects Organizations and individuals that want to use
conference calling now have a far wider selection of alternatives. Within that
spectrum of choices are <a href="http://www.rondee.com">free
conference calling</a> offerings such as Rondee that meld free conference
calling with web based scheduling and other related features. These services do
not charge users because they use a toll number as opposed to a traditional
toll-free number. Therefore, such free <a
href="http://www.rondee.com">conference call</a> services
are not free in the same sense that air is free. They do require minutes of
telephone usage.
However, such services are increasingly being perceived by users as essentially
free because many telecom plans now offer flat rate “all you can dial” and most
cellular plans no longer have added charges for long distance phone calls. Due
to these trends, conference calling has become available to a far broader
market of users as the following use-cases illustrate.
Non profits have become voracious users of conference calling services. The
high cost of travel combined with limited budgets of most non-profits, makes
conferencing a good strategy for reducing cost and increasing productivity.
Typically, non-profits rely on formal and informal approaches to networking. To
the extent these networks extend beyond geographical boundaries, conference
calling becomes the most practical method of real communication. A number of
non-profits including those that address literacy, hunger, and environmental
issues, have effectively utilized conference calling to increase participation
and coordinate plans.
Labor unions have effectively deployed traditional conference calling systems
and, increasingly, free conference calling services to allow disparately
located members to talk about strategies and plan meetings. Unions have
traditionally been cost conscious due to the fact that their budgets are
constrained to the extent of member contributions. So, as is typically the case
with non-profits, unions constantly search for methods of making every dollar
stretch further. In times of labor strikes or other situations of urgency,
conferencing becomes a critical method of allowing the national leadership to
communicate with chapter leaders.
Political campaigns now use teleconferencing conference calling on a regular
basis. In some cases it is used to allow candidates to connect with
contributors or volunteers. In other cases, it enables remote campaign workers
to work with locally situated campaign staff. For state-wide or national
campaigns, conference calling becomes even more essential as a method of
ensuring frequent communication because it is truly impossible to ensure a
physical presence. In the most recent primary season, Republican candidates in Iowa received extensive
media publicity on extremely well publicized conference calls undertaken to
reassure big donors and influential political commentators that their campaigns
could survive the brutal pace of the campaign season.
Start-up companies have long felt the same requirement for conference calling
as was true for established businesses. However, it was not until the
development of discount conferencing and free conferencing alternatives such as
Rondee, that early stage companies could avail themselves of the benefits. New
companies might use these services to coordinate work with remote developers in
Eastern Europe or Eastern Asia, discuss UI themes with graphic artist designers
(in the case of Web 2.0 start-ups), or simply discuss work-plans with disparate
members of the core team.
In sum, conference calling is no longer the exclusive domain of large business
users. Other possible users have long felt the need but it has only been with
the advent of new business models that the availability of these services has
become quite ubiquitous.
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Scott Bailey lectures on and comments frequently about tech related issues.
Scott consults to a range of organizations that use communication technologies
involving conference calling, as part of a strategy to increase alignment. His
clients include <a href= "http://www.rondee.com">free
conference calling</a> companies such as Rondee.