Sunday night, and you’re going on a business trip again. On Monday morning, the alarm goes off at 4 a.m., you drag your body and briefcase to the car, go to the airport, wait in a long line, get on the plane, get off the plane and go to your client’s office. When you finally return home on Monday night, you will spend more time traveling than meetings, and you will need to answer dozens of emails and several important calls.
According to the major web service providers, the typical sales cycle for webcasts can be reduced from two to three weeks. The webcast provides a virtual conference space and eliminates the need for travel by connecting geographically dispersed teams and remote employees. The return on investment in web conferences can be measured not only in dollars and cents, but also in staff efficiency, knowledge dissemination and sales opportunities.
The ability to virtually link teams and project teams together provides real-time collaboration – a task that once required long chains of letters or face-to-face meetings.
The webcast allows companies to:
Reduce operating costs
Minimise unnecessary travel
Close sales and sign contracts faster
Improve your efficiency and communication efficiency
Provide clear, concise and consistent training
Encourage real-time collaboration between remote and local employees
Communicate at a higher level with customers and business partners
Since its inception, the use of web conferences has spread to a number of business applications, such as daily sales and marketing, interactions with colleagues and customers, corporate presentations and training programs. Financial companies use web conferences for internal meetings, customer briefings, employee training, customer consultations, and investment seminars.
Sunday night, and you’re going on a business trip again. On Monday morning, the alarm goes off at 4 a.m., you drag your body and briefcase to the car, go to the airport, wait in a long line, get on the plane, get off the plane and go to your client’s office. When you finally return home on Monday night, you will spend more time traveling than meetings, and you will need to answer dozens of emails and several important calls.
According to the major web service providers, the typical sales cycle for webcasts can be reduced from two to three weeks. The webcast provides a virtual conference space and eliminates the need for travel by connecting geographically dispersed teams and remote employees. The return on investment in web conferences can be measured not only in dollars and cents, but also in staff efficiency, knowledge dissemination and sales opportunities.
The ability to virtually link teams and project teams together provides real-time collaboration – a task that once required long chains of letters or face-to-face meetings.
The webcast allows companies to:
Reduce operating costs
Minimise unnecessary travel
Close sales and sign contracts faster
Improve your efficiency and communication efficiency
Provide clear, concise and consistent training
Encourage real-time collaboration between remote and local employees
Communicate at a higher level with customers and business partners
Since its inception, the use of web conferences has spread to a number of business applications, such as daily sales and marketing, interactions with colleagues and customers, corporate presentations and training programs. Financial companies use web conferences for internal meetings, customer briefings, employee training, customer consultations, and investment seminars.
Get the features you need. Some webcast solutions only support online presentations, while others offer full packages including poll, chat, app sharing, interactive board, and group web browsing. Make sure the product meets your needs.
Check customer support levels. Is training and ongoing support available? What watch? Any extra charge? Do you have a phone number to contact a support representative, or is support available only by email? What are the hours of their support? Call each provider’s customer service number and see if you have a live person on the menu or voicemail. You don’t want to be in a situation where a participant has technical difficulties joining an important meeting and cannot immediately contact a living person.
Consider safety requirements. Depending on the audience and the information being transmitted, security can be a problem. Most decisions are safe enough to store meeting data except on the speaker’s computer. Participants only see a graphic view of the data through a standard web browser. Some services provide password authorization, basic encryption, and the ability to block and unlock a meeting.
So the next time you have a Sunday evening and you come across another week of travel, e-mail, learning schedule problems and a long deadline to close sales and contract, do yourself a favor and watch web conferences for your business.
Denise Bridgens has more than 20 years of experience in product marketing and product management for communications and is the founder of Argo Navis IT. Argo Navis IT is a reseller of Premiere Conferencing services and their exclusive partner – Minority Women Business Enterprise. Premiere Conferencing has always been an industry leader in developing the most advanced conference solutions that meet today’s critical needs and offer the highest level of security and reliability. Argo Navis IT is headquartered in Morristown, New Jersey, and will soon open an office in the HUB area.