Not only can be searching around for conferencing services be time-consuming, they can take you away premier purpose you had in mind which is to find a conferencing provider that will work for your company. In order to find a service provider that fits you best, you must first begin by determining what type of conferencing works best for you.
What you think about audio conferencing verse video, this simple answer that may come to mind is, "Video is the same as audio, the only difference is I can see the people." Well, yes and no. Let's say that your business meetings usually involve a lot of roundtable discussion, or group involvement. If your meetings flow in such a way that your idea think tanks merge together to produce the outcome that you desire without the use of many visual aids or files that you may be passing around, you just might see that audio may work better for you.
Basic audio conference calling can involve nothing more than a simple telephone. Although there is audio equipment that ranges anywhere from $400-$2000 plus, it is up to your conferencing service provider to be able to network all of the equipment together. It is generally the easiest option because regardless of where any person is, in most cases they can join in on the conference with nothing more than a telephone. This is a both time and travel costs. If your meetings are well planned out, and you do need to share files, then you just send them via the Internet. So if you're having your monthly sales meeting, and everybody needs to see the facts and figures for the previous three years, plan a meeting out ahead of time and make sure everybody has the file. As far as costs are concerned, audio conferencing offers most businesses all of their conferencing needs.
However, with videoconferencing, you are able to do a little bit more. As the old adage goes, you get what you pay for. Being able to see other members of the meeting, as well as the presenters certainly brighten things up as if you were in the same room. File sharing is also much easier through videoconferencing, but of course that is independent of the setup that you choose to go with. So is videoconferencing the same is audio except that you can see the participants? No. Because with a video conferencing there is also file sharing, and other services that your service provider will be able to tell you about. Of course, there's also the factor of cost. Videoconferencing is going to cost you more. There is also the question of ease, are some of the people who are joining the conference very mobile and need to be up to join in by telephone? Make note that you can still have videoconferencing merged with audio conferencing. In other words people who are available to use the video equipment can do so, while the other members can call in from a phone. Your operator should be able to assist you in the service that you choose.
