Frost & Sullivan's (News - Alert) recent report "North American Audio Conferencing Service Markets" shows that adoption audio, video and Web conferencing services among businesses continues to grow.

Businesses are being drawn to conferencing services for several reasons: First, most companies are slashing their travel budgets in order to hold down costs. Yet they still have a fundamental need for holding live, multiparty conferences with customers, partners and prospects.

In addition many companies have either become, or are in the process of becoming, multinational organizations – and with offices spread around the globe many of these companies are finding that conferencing is the most effective means to facilitate live meetings and on-demand collaboration between internal groups or teams.

Then there’s the threat of swine flu and other potentially deadly viruses that come from foreign shores. This, too, has become a major concern among businesses today, as one case of swine flu in the office could potentially spread and result in multiple, simultaneous cases – and a serious impact on operations.

For all these reasons, companies are turning to Web-based, on-demand conferencing services – and many of them are finding, after the fact, that their operations would have improved considerably through adoption of these services, had they adopted them sooner, irregardless of the economic downturn or the emergence of the swine flu pandemic.

 

In the past, companies tended to take a “fragmented” approach to conferencing, in that they would deploy a separate solution for audio conferencing, a separate solution for Web conferencing and, if they were so inclined and had the money, a separate solution for video conferencing as well. Very often that meant companies had to invest in separate servers, architecture and services in order to deploy and use each type of solution. The increased the cost – not to mention complexity – of having multiple conferencing services got to the point where it became almost cost prohibitive for companies to deploy all three types.

But today there is a preponderance of hosted, or Web-based, conferencing solutions providers (CSPs) that deliver all three types of conferencing -- audio, Web and video -- by way of a shared, multi-tenant platform. In addition to the fact that these services can be offered more affordably (with the hosted, or Web-based model, there is no need to invest in additional equipment or network architecture), many CSPs are now bundling their services to provide even greater value to their customers.

If you think about it, it only makes sense that a company would want to use one service provider for all of its conferencing needs – whether it’s audio, Web or videoconferencing. Having them bundled through a single provider means the cost of all three services can be neatly represented as a single (or at the very least triple) line item in a monthly budget report. What’s more, with the hosted, or Web-based, model of delivery the service provider is responsible for all maintenance and troubleshooting of the system – which in turn takes a load off a company’s (already stressed) IT department.

If your company is using separate systems or services for audio, Web and videoconferencing, then you might want to consider going with a single provider for all three. Not only will you greatly reduce your network complexity and hold down maintenance costs by going with a single hosted provider, you’ll also end up with a more advanced, feature-rich and user-friendly system, which in turn will help boost employee adoption and uptake -- and this, in turn, will increase employee productivity.

The Conference Group (News - Alert) is one of the better-known CSPs offering on-demand, “reservationless” audio, Web and videoconferencing services all on the same platform. Of course, each of these services is available as a standalone service as well – but, as mentioned, there is a lot to be gained from using a CSP (News - Alert) that offers all three types.


The conferencing market is growing and advancing on a near-weekly basis. Don’t let your competitors out-smart you by going with a better, more comprehensive, more full-featured, more affordable conferencing provider – beat them to the punch by switching to a “CSP that handles all three.” In the long run, you’ll be glad you did.