Types of Conference Call
Methods of joining a teleconference
Audio conferencing
On-demand conferences
Also known as reservationless, the service is available 24/7 without needing to book a conference. The user is given a telephone number and two security codes, one for the moderator and one to be distributed to the participants.
This is the most common type of conference call and most experts believe it will eventually replace the other types.
Benefits
One time set up and therefore cheaper for you to administer and cheaper for the service provider to deliver.
Your telephone number and security code are always the same (unless you choose to make changes). This is the cheapest service to use.
Many users will have two or more conference accounts, one for individual use and often one for team or project meetings. This also makes it easier to track usage and costs.
Every person who initiates conference calls should have their own account so that it is possible to track usage.
Reserved automated conferences
These meetings must be scheduled with the service provider. Usually used for a one off meeting or project. This was the most common type of conference before technology made on-demand conferencing possible. There is now little point in these meetings as they have been replaced by the more flexible and cheaper on-demand types of call.
Operator managed conferences
This type of meeting must be reserved. An operator welcomes participants into the meeting or dials out to them and announces who is on line.
Except for "event" type meetings with over 50 participants, this form of conference call is disappearing rapidly because it costs more to use and administer than on-demand services.
Benefits
An operator manages the conference call leaving you free to conduct the meeting.
Methods of joining a conference call
Dial in and dial out
Most meetings require a dial in telephone number (also known as "meet-me" number) because it is the easiest way to organise a meeting. The participants are informed of their dial in number and they call at the scheduled time. A dial out conference requires the organiser to know the telephone numbers for the participants at the time of the meeting. If the participants travel this becomes more difficult. Dial out tends only to be used for connecting people who forgot to dial in or cannot join the call themselves (some hotels do not allow outbound calls to be made).
1800 / toll free numbers
It is normally possible to join a conference call using a regular phone number (prefixed by 02 or 03 for Sydney and Melbourne, for example) but there are times when it is preferable not to have the participant paying for the phone call. This is when 1800/toll free numbers would be used. This means the call is free for the person dialling into the meeting and is paid for by the meeting organiser.
Video conferencing
Video is the next best thing to being there. It does not however, replace a face to face meeting. Like all conferencing technologies, video should be viewed as a supplement to the real thing.
It is fantastic for person to person meetings such as interviews.
Video conferencing was, for a long time, expected to be the “killer application” of the virtual meeting industry but many pitfalls prevented this.
Initially many things held video back; the hardware was extremely expensive for a long time and the telephony connections were unreliable. This changed with system prices falling to the same as a good laptop PC. Incompatibility of systems was another issue which thankfully we don't see these days as the industry is dominated by two major players, Polycom and Tandberg.
Once all of the obstacles were overcome video was expected to take off in a huge way but it didn't. Talking to users of video conferencing, the reasons for this include:
- Seeing a colleague's face doesn't add a great deal of value to the meeting
- Repeated bad experiences with reliability made people reluctant to try again
- Difficulty in scheduling video equipped rooms and often being "robbed" of a conference room by a senior manager just before the meeting!
- Reliance on others to start or troubleshoot a meeting
Video is a fantastic business tool but many industry analysts believe it will not become a day-to-day commodity until it is available on all of our PCs and we can use it with the same level of ease and reliability as we do the telephone.
Web conferencing
Web conferencing allows a document to be shared with people in multiple locations simultaneously. It has been around since the late nineties but has not really started to get any meaningful traction until recently.
The potential is huge because meeting content is important. Being able to show a presentation, budget or proposal transforms the effectiveness of the meeting. Web conferencing is growing exponentially. Unlike e-mail it is not a "must have" technology so the take up in Australia is currently slow. Web conferencing is not imperative and many suppliers give the service away at no charge in the hope that customers will become locked into their user interface and will eventually pay for the service.
The slow take up is related to several factors:
- Most busy people don't like learning new things unless they have no choice
- There are technical elements in a web conference which could cause it to fail. In turn, the person initiating the meeting could lose face in front of colleagues or customers
- Some companies have a level of network security which does not allow web conferencing to work. People are reluctant to request firewalls be opened up in case it causes problems elsewhere
