In 2004 it was estimated that 4 million Americans do at least a part of their work from home. The companies and employees can be thousand miles apart and it is practically impossible to accommodate everyone in one room for meeting. This is the basic reason why the online conference calling is such a blooming industry. It is a real time exchange of information between people who are physically not in the same pace. Corporations can conduct workshops, customer briefs, training, meetings and demonstrations through this system of online conference calls. Nowadays, even bigger hospitals supplement their emergency room staff with the help of web conferencing. For example, to confer to their stroke patients, neurologists use video conferencing. In some areas, the deployed soldiers are allowed to communicate with their family and friends. They can even get married through the online conferencing calling! Banks and brokerages often use teleconferencing to give their status reports to a large number of listeners.



As it is possible for the employees of the company to have their share of communication with other counterparts through the online conference, it is financially and mechanically rewarding for many corporate set ups. They have to just dial the specific phone number given by the service provider through a server. It acts like a telephone and simultaneously answers many calls. Besides simply connecting multiple callers, software plays many different roles. In addition to audio, online conference calling allows people to share text and video. At a pre-arranged time, you dial using an ordinary telephone into the conference server. The other participants in your conference also dial the same number and meet you there. If the participants are from different countries, the online system keeps track of the different time zones each participant is in and the notifications are delivered to everybody in their own local time.

Companies can either purchase the conference calls software and host their meetings themselves or use a hosting service. The services provide with the software, ample server space and bandwidth on which to conduct meetings. The service providers protect the privacy of the called parties and moderator to a great extent. Each conference call has a unique Participant Access Code for entry. The longer your access code, more secure your call will be. In addition, the conference organizer can lock a certain user from participating. Attendants can either view the presentation without giving feedbacks or based on the setting and software capabilities, can collaborate. In this conference calling, initially a C.E.O. or Relations officer submits all the quarterly or monthly reports during online conference calls. This involves a question session from the stock analyst whom the called party is supposed to answer. All the necessary documents are shared via Internet.

At times, ATC (Audio Tele Conference) is the choice of conferencing especially when the called party needs to listen to the audio only. Nowadays many service providers have designed the technique in such a way that the participants themselves can take part in the conference calls by signing in. They just require a computer, Internet connection and a telephone line if the content is not provided online. Depending on the software, they can write on the whiteboard using their mouse, can view slide shows with PowerPoint presentations, transmit the video to other participants via a webcam and can even share the screens with their moderator. During meeting, the host and the attendees communicate through phone, instant messaging system or voice chats.

At the end of the meeting, the moderator closes their program or browser window and sign off. But there is always a disclaimer attached to any type of conference calls that ‘Anything said during the conference call may be a forward looking statement and that results may vary significantly’.

For the companies having overseas branches and partners, conference calling is ideal, cheaper and efficient. The communication technology boom has created “conference call centers" for further convenience.

Just the need is to be cautious while searching for an ideal conference calls’ service provider. Enquire in depth about the hidden fees and monthly requirements and assure a perfect execution of your meeting with online conference calls.