Audio Web Conferencing
Some say that the events of September 11 served as a catalyst for the significant reduction of air travel as more and more people realize the un-safety of traveling by plane. Businesses for their part are also trying to find other ways of conducting important corporate meetings without having to leave the comforts, safety, and security of the office. They found their solution in audio web conferencing.
Before the terrorist attacks, companies were spending as much as $470 billion dollars annually for business travel alone. But the slowed economy and the insecurity that people felt about air travel immediately after the bombings left businesses with no choice but to cut back on costs and turn to audio web conferencing instead. Now, as more businesses reduce travel, many companies are considering audio web conferencing as a viable alternative to face-to-face meetings.
Today, more than 70 per cent of the $3-billion conferencing market is comprised of audio web conferencing. What’s more, this figure is expected to grow rapidly over the next five years, outpacing even traditional audio conferencing in growth, as demand for audio web conferencing that relies on multimedia increases.
The Benefits of Audio Web Conferencing
Aside from its obvious money saving aspects, audio web conferencing actually has several other benefits to offer. Audio web conferencing allows conference attendees to share presentations, collaborate over whiteboards, and even hold sub-meetings while the main meeting is in progress. Never has technology been more flexible and never has the Internet been more powerful before the emergence of audio web conferencing. And what’s more, audio web conferencing has yet to reach its full potential as developers continue to improve on its many aspects, creating better, more powerful applications that are ultimately going to phase out offsite meetings all together.
Businesses are encouraged to replace travel with audio web conferencing as improvements in technology, reservationless systems, and easy-to-use interfaces continue sprout in the conferencing market. However, vendor products are not equal, resulting in a wide disparity among audio web conferencing solutions available to the general market. In order to get the best in audio web conferencing options, companies need to carefully evaluate products. There are countless thing to consider but the most important are the following:
* Capability to deliver fully integrated voice and data conferences
* Provide multiple security levels
* Offer intuitive user interfaces
* Attractive pricing
With these four in hand, your choices for audio web conferencing should be narrowed down a bit to make it easier for you to select the product that best suits your company’s need.
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