Conference Calling, Teleconferencing and Web Meetings

Big Savings for Companies Seeking to Reduce Travel Costs

With the price of transportation going up due to petroleum product cost increases, conference calling, teleconferencing and Web meetings are becoming more attractive to every business as an alternative to in-person meetings.

What does this mean for business?  It has the following implications:

• Airlines will continue to support as people choose conference calling
• Job growth will shift from travel industry to teleconferencing industry
• Investment opportunities will develop with the conference calling industry
• There will be an increasing need for enhancements to teleconferencing

Currently, there is little differentiation within the teleconferencing industry.  If you compare one conference company’s basic service offering to another teleconferencing company, their web conferencing and related services are pretty similar.   Few teleconferencing companies have “enhanced services” and those conference calling companies that do offer value-added service (VAS) applications are limited in scope and reach.

There is an emerging need for VAS development in the conference calling industry including better support for mobile teleconferencing and support for affinity or community of interest conference calling.  Advancements in this area will cause several things to happen within the teleconferencing industry including acceleration of the migration from in-person to web conference meetings, additional investment in teleconferencing equipment and services, and ultimately industry consolidation as only the large conference calling companies will have the economies of scale and scope to offer services demanded by teleconferencing users.

Successful teleconferencing companies will be those that realize this trend is coming and invest in R&D required to develop VAS applications to support basic conference calling services.  Smart software development companies will provide solutions that teleconference companies need, potentially before they know they need them.  However, teleconferencing companies that take the time to listen to their customers will easily identify what they need in their teleconferencing VAS roadmap.

About Franz Krueger

Mr. Krueger is an internationally recognized expert in teleconferencing business systems and solutions.  While he focuses mostly on managed teleconferencing services, he is also an expert in advanced and emerging conferencing and collaborative work technologies.  Franz can be reached for comments and questions at Franz@MobileIN.com