ARTICLE

Telephone Conferencing

Telephone conferencing is one of the best collaboration tools available for businesses today. There are times when it may not be enough to just send an email, you just have to talk to the people concerned. This is when telephone conferencing comes into play.

Imagine a scenario where you need vital feedback on a presentation that you have put together not only in terms of just the content but also on the delivery. If your colleagues are scattered all over the world, which is how most businesses are nowadays, through telephone conferencing you can receive valuable input from them no matter where they are situated.

Telephone conferencingallows you to host conference calls, collaborate on presentations online or run training sessions, no matter where in the world the participants are. Conferencing solution providers use a conference bridge to connect participants who dial into it. While phone conferencing is about call conferencing only with voice, there are also video conferencing services available with vendors.

A teleconference is quite easy to organise and to host. The first thing you need to do is to schedule the meeting and to invite the participants. Ensure that when the participants dial into the conference call, they have all pertinent bits of information at their fingertips. It is not a good idea for any member to rummage through his or her files or computer while the teleconference is in progress, making all others wait.

There are different technologies and methods that enable telephone conferencing. Most telephone companies offer three way calling facility. The person who is the host calls two other people, each person in the group can also call two other people thereby enlarging the group. But most conference service providers use a conference bridge for telephone conferencing. Here the members are given a number to dial and an access code so that they can directly join the conference.

Telephone conferencingcould be either between two people or more. More often than not numerous parties are involved in a conference. Phone conferencing allows many people to connect to a single call using a telephone line. People who are busy can save on the travel time by conducting the meeting through phone via telephone conferencing. Even those who may have difficulties getting to the office during the meeting can dial in from the nearest telephone and join the conference. Not to mention the money that can be saved by not having to book a meeting facility or to host a lunch meeting.