Recently in Web Conferencing Category

We all cringe at the thought of sitting through yet another weekly meeting in which we hash out the events of the seven days and discuss what each team member feels is top priority moving forward. These meetings can seem mundane and tiresome as can the time spent creating an agenda leading up to them. In “The Advantage” Patrick Lencioni addresses how to eliminate the fuss and capitalize on time to ensure your dreaded weekly meeting not only serves purpose, but makes it enjoyable.

According to Lencioni “there is no more valuable activity in any organization than the regular staff meeting of a leadership team.” He has designated weekly or bi-weekly meetings for tactical purposes. These meetings are to quickly create a real-time agenda and assess top priorities. The challenge is evaluating the importance of each priority brought up by team members while eliminating topic distractions.

Continuing our discussion on effective meetings, Patrick Lencioni in his book “The Advantage — Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else in Business” said, “The highpoint of being a leader in an organization is wrestling with difficult decisions and situations. Truncating those high points just doesn't make sense.” Lencioni makes a strong case for the utilization of adhoc topical meetings where management digs into the critical issues that can have a long term impact on an organization or that require significant time and energy.

According to Lencioni, managers should separate their tactical conversations from their strategic ones. Combining the tactical and strategic conversations just doesn't work and leaves both set of issues inadequately addressed. He further states that if leadership goes more than a month without a strategic meeting, something is probably wrong.

In his book “The Advantage — Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else in Business” author Patrick Lencioni boldly states, “If someone were to offer me one single piece of evidence to evaluate the health of an organization, I would want to observe the leadership team during a meeting.” He then makes a compelling case for the use of daily check-in meetings where management teams briefly review schedules, events and issue alerts.

Lencioni advises the team get into the habit of gathering once a day, for no more than ten minutes, to clear the air about anything administrative that would be helpful to know. He further advises that there be no agendas and no resolution of issues, just an exchange of information. Two Rivers Conferencing's toll free reservationless conference services perfectly complements this healthy organization strategy!

International business is exploding across all industries as new technology makes the world a smaller place. Although more international business opportunities exist than ever before, communicating effectively with parties in different countries can be a challenge. Different physical locations, different time zones and long travel durations combine to create strong barriers to communication. Audio and video conferencing are powerful ways for geographically distributed groups of people to collaborate effectively. They allow multiple participants to communicate as a group and create real time teamwork where it otherwise could not exist. They can also allow sharing of documents, drawings, spreadsheets and even full motion videos, which aid the communication process.

As significant as the benefits of international conferencing may be, challenges to effective communication do exist. Accents from non-native English speakers can be difficult to discern. Some words and phrases have different meanings in different countries which can lead to confusion. With that in mind here are some do's and don'ts for international audio/video conferencing:

It is a challenge to connect professionals suspicious of sharing information with other professionals in the same industry — even though sharing expertise could benefit both parties. Conference calling technology provides an effective way to bridge this need for shared professional expertise. A real estate agent program provides a strong example of the benefits of sharing information at a distance using conference calling.

A sales representative from a large conference service provider (CSP) attended a real estate sales seminar hosted by an acknowledged industry expert on the best practices for achieving success in residential and commercial real estate. His seminars were attended by some of this country's most successful real estate agents. The sales representatives were told that surveys taken by the seminar's attendees indicated that the agents strongly valued the information obtained from the program's presentations and educational events. Surprisingly, the survey data showed attendees gave even greater value to the information shared among fellow sales agents during the many social and business networking events that occurred over the course of the three day conference seminar event.

Web conferencing is important for sharing information, effective collaboration and active communication. It is efficient and saves both time and money while bringing groups together from all over the world. An excellent collaboration tool for law firms, corporations and other organizations, web conferencing allows organizations to tap into expertise that is geographically dispersed. In the future think of web conferencing for increased interactivity, engagement and accessibility from any device (Smartphones and tablets), improving presentation tools, simplifying shared documents, and enhancing Q and A.

While the users of web conferencing systems (WCS) are most concerned about how the system works to meet their communication needs, the IT group has an important interest in how well the system operates and the amount of effort required to maintain it. To find out more about IT requirements for a good system, several members of a small company IT department were asked about the important considerations for selecting a good WCS.

Meeting the important user requirements was the primary goal for the change in systems. The previous system did not provide a quality user experience, with audio issues and occasional delays initiating meetings. Network speed at each location impacted the quality of video and VoIP, so any new system would need to operate efficiently. High quality and reliability are at the very top of the requirements list. The top of mind considerations for a new WCS were the ease of configuration and set-up of the new system. There is a desire to have a system with easy administrative procedures to minimize the work for entering new users and modifying the user base. Having the capability to link directly to the company directory for system access maintenance is very useful.

Web conferencing is a powerful way for geographically distributed groups of people to collaborate effectively. Not only does it allow participants to see each other onscreen if desired, it also allows sharing of documents, drawings, spreadsheets and even full motion videos. A picture is worth a thousand words and the ability to share the actual materials that are being discussed in the meeting is extremely effective. It is useful to show participants in onscreen windows because their expressions and gestures give context to their statements which could otherwise be misconstrued. Web conferencing is also commonly used to share desktops in order to demonstrate software for remote viewers, be they customers or colleagues.

In a sales environment where representatives need to keep meetings with people in Arizona at 11am and then with others in New York 30 minutes later, webinars and web conferencing are king. On a daily basis we meet with decision makers to go over contracts, clarify customizations and demonstrate industry leading software solutions — all from our offices in Chicago.

Recently we took on a new strategy with our webinar technology and began hosting mass webinars on a regular basis. With these events we are able to:

Using a web conferencing solution to aid in customer support can be very beneficial in providing high quality service to clients. Web conferencing allows customer support representatives to assist customers with tools that can make them as efficient and effective as they would be on site, thus saving travel time and costs.

With the ability to conduct interactive training and support, a customer service representative can take over the customer's desktop, share instructional documents, and even provide video clips. These web conference tools are specifically designed to allow technical support teams to diagnose and resolve customer problems online quickly and effectively.

More businesses and educational institutions are realizing the cost and time-saving benefits of using web conferencing for training and instruction. Utilizing a web solution for training or educational purposes eliminates the time and cost of travel, yet allows the entire team or class to be in one place at one time.

In the business world, web conferencing solutions have built-in collaboration tools that allow participants to share documents, chat, and take polling questions in order to gauge where everyone is at and what further processes need to be put in place. Team leaders and instructors can present Power Point presentations to employees, supply team members or trainees as well as leave them with fact sheets when the training concludes.

Two Rivers Conferencing, LLC's management team has over 25 years of conferencing expertise, specializing in our country's premiere law firms of all sizes and legal specialties. We know how important conference calls are to legal professionals and we provide superior quality audio, video and web conferencing that is easy to use while backed by personal real-time assistance. Our clients value us most for our ability to improve the profitability, increase the security and enhance the image of their law firm's conference events.

Profitability is improved by our advanced invoice and billing system that allows every conference event to be associated with the correct client matter number. Further improvements are realized by reducing the amount of staff time taken to process the information provided on each invoice into its most usable format for the firm's data tracking requirements.

Improved profitability starts at the beginning of each conference call. Our clients have the option of being prompted to input the client matter number assigned to the conference event. Our system then confirms the number prior to launching the conference call to eliminate the possibility of number entry errors. These assigned numbers are carried forward onto our monthly billing statements sent electronically as email attachments. The same information can be provided more quickly via conference reports sent to designated administrators within moments after the conclusion of each conference call!

It is often said that word of mouth is the most powerful form of advertising. Two Rivers Conferencing, LLC has realized consistent and substantial growth since its founding as a result of the positive word of mouth advertising shared by its clients and our well connected network of Dealers and Independent Sales Representatives. We enhance this important strategy through the use of an Affinity Program that rewards our loyal clients on the revenues generated by the new customers they refer to us. Each month TRC issues commission payments equaling ten percent (10%) of the revenues collected from its newer customers to the customer or sales channel partner that referred those clients to us! Participation in this program is easily accomplished and can yield substantial benefits to those who value the creation of long term recurring revenue streams for their business or organization.

Surprising your conference call participants with questions can result in embarrassing delays as they search for an appropriate response. Fortunately, these awkward moments can be prevented entirely and for all time by having conference event moderators adopt the practice of alerting participants in advance of their required contribution to the group's discussion. Like all good habits, adopting this practice requires discipline and practice. One respected approach identifies seven basic steps that we have applied to the circumstances of a conference event moderator:

The importance of receiving a detailed invoice when using conference calling services is an often over-looked and undervalued aspect of the Conference Service Provider's (CSP) capabilities. The complexity of conference call detail records can pose serious challenges to accounting specialists charged with the responsibility of assuring the legitimacy of the charges billed by the CSP and allocating those costs to specific individuals or departments within the client organization. At Two Rivers Conferencing LLC we place considerable importance on our process for providing our customers with timely, accurate invoices that provide all our customers with a well-organized invoice that allows for easy verification and assignment of conference service related costs.

Prior to launching its Conference Service Provider business, the founding executives at Two Rivers Conferencing conducted a substantial number of interviews among a wide variety of other service providers' customers. The information gained from these interviews guided us in almost every aspect of our operating technology and service provisioning processes. We took special note of the almost unanimous dissatisfaction expressed about recurring monthly fees and hidden costs that appeared in every new CSP invoice! These included:

We at TRC made it our mission to address these concerns by delivering all of our services on a price per minute basis without requiring the use of additional charges for features and services that were already an integral part of our operating service platform. As a result, our customers use our services with the confidence of knowing their monthly invoice will contain only those charges that are directly based upon the actual number of minutes of usage for our audio and web conference services with no frills and no hidden charges.

Meetings held on audio, web and video conference calls are one of the common ways that many of us get work done on the job. We may discuss issues, share new information and make important decisions in meetings. However, conference calls can also be one of the ways that time is wasted in the workplace. A timed agenda can be a great way of keeping meetings on track and making sure that meetings not only begin and end on time, but that each topic also gets its just allotted time. We believe that the use of a timed agenda can also serve as a helpful training and recognition opportunity that can remove the burden placed upon the conference call moderator or host for developing and managing the conference meeting's timed agenda. These opportunities are highlighted in bold print below.

We often describe Two Rivers Conferencing LLC as a Conference Service Provider that is, “large enough to serve you but small enough to care!” Recent survey responses show one hundred percent (100%) of our respondents report they are “highly satisfied” with our services in the past year with a substantial percentage (87%) indicating they are “very likely” to continue using our services in the future. The combination of these positive responses confirms TRC's service capacity and range of service features meet our customers' needs.

Why such high customer satisfaction? We believe it's because we provide our customers with direct access to a knowledgeable staff of conference service professionals having substantial backgrounds in telephony and/or conference calling since TRC's founding in 2005:

Few things are more annoying during a conference call than service disruption, dropped calls and poor call quality. Once participants experience disruption during a call, it can be very difficult to regain the momentum needed for an important meeting.

Businesses routinely utilize the services of a Conference Service Provider (CSP) to maintain and support “mission critical” functions in their day-to-day operations. They require the CSP to provide abundant capacity so that conference calls can take place regardless of harsh weather conditions or other disruptive local / regional events. Two Rivers Conferencing, LLC meets this challenge by provisioning all of our conference services on very large technology platforms that meet the following criteria:

Many business people believe that phone, web and video based conference solutions offered by Service Providers like Two Rivers Conferencing only benefit larger businesses and organizations. They are not aware how conferencing provides significant value to small business customers with ten or fewer employees. In reality, over one third of TRC's clients are small business owners and managers who routinely use our services to achieve significant savings and operating efficiencies in travel costs, utilization of time and improved business profit margins!

Let's begin with travel savings. Travel industry experts report that the cost for a businessperson traveling to attend meetings now averages $949 per trip in the case of domestic business travel and $2,600 per trip in the case of international business travel! These cost estimates include coach airfare, hotel, meals and local transportation expenses. In comparison, experts in the Conference Service Provider industry report the use of conference calling services average just $100 per month for small business users!! These significant cost savings take on even greater importance when considering the way conference calls can improve one of the most important business resources; that of the utilization of time. I also want to point out that conference calls do not consume fossil fuels or create harmful emissions making it the most environmentally friendly way to conduct business meetings!