Web Conferencing: A Boon to Businesss
It is Sunday evening and you are preparing again to go on a business trip. Monday morning the alarm goes off at 4:00 am, you drag your body and your briefcase to your car, drive to the airport, wait in a long line, get on a plane, get off a plane, and find your way to your client's office. When you finally get home Monday night, you have spent more time traveling than meeting and you have dozens of emails and several important phone calls to return. According to leading web conferencing service providers, the typical sales cycle can be cut two to three weeks with web conferencing. Providing a virtual conference room environment, web conferencing eliminates the need to travel, linking geographically disperse workgroups and telecommuters.
The return on investment for web conferencing can be measured not only in dollars and cents, but also in personnel efficiency, knowledge distribution and increased sales opportunities.The ability to virtually link workgroups and project teams enables real-time collaboration, a task that once required lengthy email threads or face-to-face meetings.Web conferencing enables businesses to:
- Reduce operating costs
- Minimize unnecessary travel
- Close sales and negotiate contracts faster
- Enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of communication
- Deliver clear, concise and consistent training
- Encourage real-time collaboration between distant and local co-workers
- Engage in greater levels of communication with clients and business partners
Healthcare and pharmaceutical companies use Web conferencing for product promotion and marketing, sales presentations and demonstrations, and product training and development.
Educational institutions use web conferencing for project teams and student workshops.
And, government agencies rely on web conferencing for training and inter-agency communication.Most organizations use outsourced web conferencing.
Why? Because of the quickly changing technology, businesses opt not to invest in what could soon be obsolete. In addition, on a day-to-day basis, it is more cost effective to have web conferencing outsourced. Additional reasons include:
- Leading edge functionality provides greater levels of security, moderator control, and participant options.
- Your people can now focus on your core business, not support systems.
- The external company makes the investment in new features so that your fixed costs are reduced and your overall expenditures are lowered.
- With no capital expense, new technology can be implemented with minimal impact to the bottom line.
Here are a few basic questions that should be answered:
- How many participants do you anticipate attending your online meetings or events?
- Will the number of participants remain consistent from meeting to meeting or will the number change?
- How many meetings will be conducted each week, month, quarter? Will usage fluctuate depending on the time of the year?
- What type of content will be presented (Power Point slides, software applications, web-based applications, documents, or spreadsheets)?
- What degree of interactivity do you require (Q&A, polling/voting, application sharing, text chatting, live video, file sharing, etc.)?
- Do you want your own software or a hosted solution?
- How much technical support or event management support do you require?
- What is your monthly budget?
- Are there any special security requirements?
You avoid set up charges and you don't have to monitor the number of concurrent users in order to avoid overage charges. You can always start with a pay-per-use plan and switch to a pay-per-seat plan once there is a clear, long-term financial advantage.Get the features you need. Some web conferencing solutions only support online presentations while others offer full-featured packages that include polling, chatting, application-sharing, white boarding and group web surfing. Make sure that the product meets your needs.Check into customer support levels. Is training and ongoing support available? What hours? Is there an extra fee? Is there a telephone number available so that you can contact a support person or is only email support offered? What are their support hours? Call each vendor's customer service number and see if you get a live person vs.
a menu or voice mail. You don't want to be in a situation where an attendee has technical problems joining a critical meeting and not be able to contact a live person immediately.Consider security requirements. Depending on the audience and the information being sharing, security may be a concern. Most solutions are secure enough and do not store meeting data any place except on the presenter's PC. Participants only see a graphical representation of the data through a standard web browser.
Some services provide pass code authorization, basic encryption, and the ability to lock and unlock the meeting.So, the next time Sunday night comes around and you are faced with another week of travel, email trails, difficulty in scheduling training and long lead times in closing sales and negotiating contracts, do yourself a favor and look into web conferencing for your business..
Denise Bridgens has more than 20 years experience in product marketing and product management for communications and is the founder of Argo Navis IT. Argo Navis IT is a value added reseller of Premiere Conferencing services and is their exclusive Minority Women Business Enterprise partner. Premiere Conferencing has consistently led the industry in developing the most advanced conferencing solutions, fulfilling today?s business-critical communications needs and delivering the highest levels of security and reliability. Argo Navis IT is headquartered in Morristown, NJ and is opening an office in a HUB zone shortly. The company contributes 10% of profits annually to battered women?s shelters. To learn more about Argo Navis IT, visit their web site at www.argonavisit.comMLM Training News - Michael Oliver Voted #1 MLM Trainer For Second Year In A Row
Carson City, NV (ContentDesk) February 6, 2006 -- Michael Oliver, the founder and principal of Natural Selling Sales Training (www.NaturalSelling.com), has been voted the "Best Trainer" in MLM and Network Marketing in a recent poll.The result was announced recently by "MLM Insider" magazine (www.mlminsider.com) when they released the details of the 2005 poll covering the MLM and Network Marketing industry.This is the second year in a row that Michael Oliver has claimed top spot in the poll and been voted the "#1 MLM Trainer".
Oliver is the author of the best selling MLM and Network Marketing training book "How To Sell Network Marketing Without Fear, Anxiety or Losing Your Friends!"Commenting on the result, Michael Oliver said Of course, Im delighted with the result and I would like to thank all my clients for their encouragement and enthusiastic support over...
Puppy training > MLM Training News - Michael Oliver Voted #1 MLM Trainer For Second Year In A Row
Alcohol Recovery is Pleasure Over Pain
Mill Valley, CA (ContentDesk) June 23, 2006 -- Are we alcoholics for life? Does recovery have to be painful? Richard Friesen, an executive trainer with a masters degree in Clinical Psychology, claims his radical addiction recovery process can be positive and painless.Positive Recovery is starting monthly seminars and weekly support in Mill Valley California, just north of San Francisco. Clients experience a three-day, upbeat seminar in Mill Valley California with hypnosis, interactive exercises and relationship training along with weekly support.Even though we have a great time, each exercise is designed to deliver a specific and significant experience that is vital to ending alcohol addiction, claims Mr. Friesen.Friesen believes that Positive Recovery works naturally because people most easily change addictive behaviors by replacing them with positive experiences.
His seminar and weekly relationship training evenings brings these experiences to life with vivid clarity. Each...
Puppy training > Alcohol Recovery is Pleasure Over Pain
Kids Come with Training Manuals – Would You Like to Learn to Decode Them?
Englewood, CO (ContentDesk) March 1, 2006 -- Tax Moms, in conjunction with the Just Wait Foundation of Englewood, Colorado will be offering a free workshop on how to read the training manual at Depoe Bay, Oregon.
The
workshop starts Wednesday April 1, 2006
and will be a weekly meeting, over nine weeks.
What is learned in the workshop each week, can be taken home and checked out with your children the following week.
There is no cost for the weekly workshop, except for the materials distributed at each meeting.
The workshop is designed for parents, grandparents and/or people working with children to better understand what is inside the child and how to help the child find their place in our society.????Every parent that has two or more children, knows that each child is different from the time they are born.
The workshop starts with identifying a childs specific DNA strategy.
Within the same family some childrens...
Puppy training > Kids Come with Training Manuals – Would You Like to Learn to Decode Them?
Tired of Being Pulled Around by Your Dog? Win Great Prizes In Louisville, KY By Learning How to Take Control ? Through Free, Non-Abusive, Pain-Free Training
In celebration of the publication of his new book "Don't Pull on the Leash!", Mogens Eliasen from
K9joy? in BC, Canada has agreed to offer a free training session for local dog owners in the Louisville, KY area, in order to demonstrate the simple non-abusive training techniques in the book.
All registered participants will get a free copy of the book on CD.In addition to this, K9joy? will give away prizes worth up to $250 to the dog owners that can show the biggest improvement in their dogs' leash manners at the end of the free training session.Time: Thursday, April 21, 6-10:30 PM (EST)Location: Iroquois Park, Louisville, KY.Almost all dog owners teach their dogs to pull on the leash ? without knowing it!
It happens automatically when the owner tries to teach the dog to "just walk nice".
It almost never works. Many dog owners try to solve the problem by using all kinds of technical solutions that will do the job for them.
Choke chains, pinch...
Puppy training > Tired of Being Pulled Around by Your Dog? Win Great Prizes In Louisville, KY By Learning How to Take Control ? Through Free, Non-Abusive, Pain-Free Training
SharePoint Services 2003 User Training Workshops Offered
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SharePoint Services 2003 User Training Workshops Offered
Puppy training > SharePoint Services 2003 User Training Workshops Offered