The devil is in the details when it comes to managing business conference calls. Conventional wisdom says that belt-tightening is a good thing, and when an employee comes to a CFO with “cost savings,” they are often named “employee of the month.” So when an employee proposes to cut the budget by using a “free” or reduced-rate service, it sounds great on the surface. However, a closer look reveals such proposals to be Neanderthals. It’s two steps back instead of one step forward. You get what you pay for. If you are unwilling to pay anything, that unwillingness creates a domino effect of unintended consequences. Don’t be lured by “free” and “cheap” shorelines.
Where is the wisdom of saving $6.00 to lose $500.00?
Business productivity suffers dramatically when the same phone conferencing services are selected. The “savings” in the cost of the minutes is insignificant compared to the cost of the participant’s lost time. Think about it. How often have you had to wait for latecomers to join a conference call before you could start? Multiply that time by the number of attendees. An hour of lost productivity adds up quickly.
How much is a fully charged hour of executive time? The number is typically $200-500+ per hour. As an example, let’s say there were 10 executives who waited 6 minutes for a call to start. That generated 60 minutes of lost time. Those 60 minutes cost $200-500 in lost productivity. At 10 cents per minute per participant, the minutes cost the company $6.00. So your Neanderthal decision to cut costs with a free audio conferencing service means this: You saved $6.00 to lose $200-500.00 in lost productivity for every lost executive hour.
Now compare the scenario above using Web 2.0 audio conferencing where chronic latecomers are simply automatically flagged by the system. No wait. No loss of productivity.
you get what you pay for
Web 2.0 conference calls shouldn’t be free. It should be inexpensive and good value for money, but “free” or a bargain should not be your audio conferencing budget goal. With audio conferencing, the dictum is true: you get what you pay for. Recognize that free and cheap services are taking every last minute out of obsolete equipment and are unable to invest in forward-thinking research and development. Such Web 2.0 research and development is vital in helping customers improve their productivity.
Real stories of audio conferences
Not convinced? Here are several true stories.
Personnel administrators of a company who manage corporate communications. All conference calls must be approved by these people, who leave promptly at 5:00 pm Your sales organization often handles customer issues after hours when customers are available at home. To make matters worse, when a sales executive needs a conference call PIN, he must request one from an operator who always questions the executive about the purpose, time, duration, and number of participants. The logic of this procedure is to “keep the cost of audio conferencing low.”
The real cost is a corporate culture that avoid the operator-Nazis and holds more face-to-face meetings instead. These unnecessary meetings greatly increase the actual cost, but these direct costs are never reflected in the communications budget. Instead, they are “hidden” in wages, salaries, and benefits, as well as travel, meals, and lodging. Executives in this organization often drive two or three hours to a meeting in order to avoid the operators instead of picking up the phone and having an hour-long conference call.
Another law firm in a major city needs to hold a Saturday conference call with partners. To “save costs” they only use their internal phone system for conference calls. This system can only handle six participants without diminishing call quality, so it joins two 6-line conferences together to handle twelve participants. Setup consumes a lot of staff time.
However, since paralegals do not work weekends, there is no one in the office to schedule the call. So instead of just using a Web 2.0 audio conferencing provider to get everyone on a call quickly, these partners get in their cars and drive downtown to meet! One hour in the office, one hour at home. Twelve partners. That’s 24 member-hours consumed on a Saturday morning in addition to the time they meet. All that cost to save a penny per minute per participant spent on a Web 2.0 audio conferencing service.
Web 2.0 vs. Same Age Conference Call
Let’s say for the sake of argument that you are now convinced that you no longer want to be a Neanderthal. Then you need to assess the audio conferencing landscape, which falls into two groups: (1) the same old services that haven’t seen any innovation in over a decade, and (2) Web 2.0 audio conferencing services.
In the field of business as usual, you have “free” and “cheap” vendors who are just repackaging old solutions and not bringing you innovations. Take a closer look at the new generation of Web 2.0 audio conferencing services that offer a variety of value-added productivity services at reasonable prices: features like group dialing; on-the-fly dialing; web console account management; real-time billing and call history; and complete customer service.
Do not disappoint the productivity of your company
Don’t lower your productivity with faulty “cost saving” logic. Focus your conference call cost analysis on the productivity gains of your participants, not the costs per minute of your audio conference. Otherwise, your conference call decisions will be wise and foolish…unless you think you look good in a caveman outfit.
For more information, google “Web 2.0 Audio Conferencing”
Copyright 2011. Leader Phone and Michael McKibben. All rights reserved.