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In this world of industrial globalization and razor thin margins, effective communication is often the only edge in tremendously competitive markets. That was often the mantra in several corporate improvement techniques for the past decade. Now that instantaneous data transmission and communication is at our fingertips, there's no excuse not to communicate within the team. Oftentimes however, this communication takes place in different time zones and in different countries. Companies are taking advantage of quantum leaps in technology and rightly so.

What's Your Phone Bill Like?

All these great ways to communicate do not come cheap. It is not called global capitalism for nothing. Global telecommunications companies are fighting tooth and nail for a piece of the large and delectable pie. So you tell your people to communicate, but now they have to communicate cost effectively? No rest for the weary is there?

Every time the offshore branch calls up headquarters for a strategy discussion, your phone bill goes up. Every cellular phone call from your busy and mobile marketing executives is another cost on the balance sheet. The larger the organization, the more people have to talk. And you have to pay for all this?

More For Less

The good news is that audio conferencing systems are a cost effective way of helping your business processes and communications. They also cut down on time costs by aggregating several potential interactions into a single simultaneous call. It involves three or more parties talking to each other utilizing existing technologies. Instead of having your CFO relay a message to the Finance department, you can tell the entire team yourself!

Today, audio conferencing mainly utilizes two main types of technology. The first is the existing telephone infrastructure. The parties to the call are basically dialed in and everyone can speak and listen as if they were in the same room. The other method is using something called VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol). In this technique, spoken audio is converted into digital data for transmission over the Internet. In both methods, the audio is routed into a central conference bridge which ties in all the other parties to the call.

Don*t be misled. Audio conferencing isn*t only for large corporations. Any kind of group can benefit greatly from its use. Government units, charitable organizations, and even churches engage in audio conferencing. Even space programs use it when they communicate with people in orbit.

So What IS The Bottom Line?

It should be very apparent that audio conferencing is a very beneficial thing. Call costs are reduced by simple virtue of the fact that less of them need to be made. Such a simple concept. Fancy that. And since everyone is already sitting around anyway, less time is spent on the call which is another cost reduction. Another benefit is the reduction of transportation costs. Your country managers can interact with each other in real time without the need for their physical presence. Bottom line? Anything that improves communications to better accomplish goals is a great thing.