IDENTIFYING THE CHALLENGES

For operators, bringing people together for a face-to-face meeting can often be costly and time consuming, particularly when participants have to travel long distances to attend. Conferencing is therefore becoming a key asset in companies' communication networks, both internally and externally.

With an increasingly dispersed workforce, operators are finding that it is much more cost effective to use a conferencing service.

EXPLORING THE SOLUTIONS

BT Conferencing enables three or more locations to link together on the same call, giving employees immediate access to colleagues, clients and suppliers. Because this can eliminate travel costs, hotel bills and much of the time spent in organising meetings, it's also a particularly cost and time-effective solution.

Of course, conferencing supplements rather than replaces the traditional and essential face-to-face meetings.

There are three key types of conferencing:

• Phone Conferencing – linking people in different locations into the same conversation over the telephone
• Video Conferencing – linking people in different locations via interactive, two-way video, point-to-point for two sites, or multi-point for three or more
• Web Conferencing – allowing people to share presentations, applications and files between each other’s PCs over the Internet or intranet

BT’s Conferencing portfolio offers a wealth of features, including: reservations management, scheduling, in-conference support, database administration, fault management, management reports and maintenance support. A standard consultancy package is also provided, which includes installation, integration, project management and end user training.

REAPING THE BENEFITS

• Reduced time and cost of travel 
• Greater workforce efficiency 
• Rapid set-up