Seven Reasons You Need Web Conferencing

If my recent experiences are anything to go by, there is a danger that the environmental benefits of online meeting tools could be being undermined by some firms' failure to utilize the technology fully...

Over the past few months I have enjoyed this method of communication and used it in several product briefings with IT companies, where instead of either a simple phone conversation I have been invited to sign into a popular online meeting site... It's cheap, it's easy and it saves money. Web conferencing may have had a bad name in the past, but it no longer does.

When beginning the search for a Web conferencing solution, it is important to screen a number of vendors. Visit their website, review live demos, seek client testimonials and, most important, ask questions.

Before taking these steps, be sure to set your objectives, note the features that you require and estimate your monthly budget. Once this is established, be prepared to spend time gathering information from each vendor being considered and attending live demos.

Let us look at this classic example for web conferencing

Dora Vell, president of a boutique executive search firm based in Waltham, Mass., recently searched for an executive manager for a European-based telecommunications equipment/software company. Typically, such a search would have involved $20,000 in expenses for travel and video conferencing expenses...

By instead using Skype video, she was able to cut the bill to zero and get a better sense of who the best candidates were. it saves money, particularly in terms of travel expense...

While saving on travel expenses was the most often benefit and driver for installing Web conferencing now, it wasn't the only one. Aside from saving on travel expenses, these are the top reasons

• Saves time on travel
• It encourages closer contact with constituents inside and outside the organization
• Ability to multi-task
• Easy recording for reference, archival purposes