SolveYourProblem
eLearning Series
Web Conferencing
Choosing
The Right Web Conferencing Tools
Web conferencing products have many capabilities
that will be valuable to your organization. They can facilitate
the way you conduct business, leading to more savings and better
management, all which will contribute positively to your bottom
line. But in order to maximize the benefits of web
conferencing, one must choose the right tools. Because various products have
different strengths, you should keep a few things in mind as
you select these tools.
Different
web conferencing programs are created for different tasks. Thus, knowing what your organization needs is the first
step in the selection process and an integral part in successfully
implementing and integrating the software as part of your business.
Web conferencing products can be basically categorized
into four main groups. Firstly, there are those products that are
used for General Business Communications. These products are
all-inclusive meaning their capabilities are multi-faceted
yet integrated. For example, they can host meetings, do broadcasts,
hold training sessions and perform customer service and support
tasks. Another group of products can help you in designing
Collaboration Strategies. These products are geared more towards
meetings and work which requires a high level of collaboration
between various teams. They focus more on the specific functions
required by small to medium enterprises. Project Management
Focus software meantime allows people to map out how one task
leads to another and who is doing what on a particular project.
This is ideal for projects that require the collaboration of
different databases and run in different locations. Finally
Training tools are interactive programs where web conferencing
can be used as a training medium.
Firstly it is important to determine exactly what
it is you intend to achieve with a certain tool. You should know the
end result that has to be accomplished. You should also ask
yourself the sort of activities one intends to carry out to
meet these goals. For example, will you require a brainstorming
session or a presentation lecture? It is also important to
know the number of people you will need to connect with. Will
you be delivering your presentation to a small or large group
of people? Once you have determined this, it will also be helpful
to know what sort of computers the people you intend to conference
with have. Having this information can help you decide if you
will pursue software that can support different types of computers
or operating systems. Similarly, having an idea of the type
of Internet connection the attendees of your conference have
can help you eliminate some conferencing solutions. For example
if most of your participants have dial-up connections, you
may choose to no longer consider those conferencing tools that
will work only with high-speed connections.
You will also have to decide if you want a web conferencing
program that you can purchase and install on your computers
or if you will opt to pay for the service each month. A web
conferencing provider may be ideal as this can liberate you
from the technical matters and you can concentrate on your
presentations and deliveries.
Choosing the latter option however opens up a new set of questions
to consider: choosing a web conferencing provider. Here are
a few helpful guidelines to aid you in this phase of the selection
process. Providers offer services at price per minute formulas
or at a flat rate. Most experts agree that a flat rate can
offer the same level of functionality. You should look for
openings that will let you call conferences as many times as
you want without suffering extra costs. It may also maximize
the potential of the concept of web conferencing if you select
a provider that offers Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP).
VoIP allows you to make long distance calls over the Internet,
making your sessions more fruitful than if they were conducted
only through text chat. It is also important to choose a provider
that gives you easy access to customer service in case you
run into technological glitches. The degree of interaction
your vendor or provider takes in setting you up and guiding
you through your web conferencing journeys will keep you from
getting lost in this rapidly expanding sector of the computer
industry.
Whatever you decide, you should always make sure to try the
technology before actually committing and purchasing it. A
mere demo on how the technology works may not be sufficient
to give you an idea of how well the tool works or more specifically
how the tool will work for you. # # # # #
SolveYourProblem.com : 2007
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