At what point might your organization require business level conference call capabilities? A major benefit of conference calls is the ability to convey information to a large number of people who are geographically dispersed. Businesses today, large and small, depend upon frequent, rapid, and copious communications. The ability to bring together the appropriate staff members on short notice to either address a specific issue or to inform them of an important development is a significant competitive advantage. An established conference call structure for your business makes it possible to bring the right people together anytime an issue or opportunity needs to be addressed.
Your organization might need dedicated conference call features, if one of these scenarios sounds familiar:
Important Developments
Your staff is spread across the country. After months of negotiations your firm has agreed to acquire a competitor. Everyone, in both organizations, must be told of the deal and how it will affect them. A call-in number is provided to each site, along with a password to ensure only employees are permitted on the call. Employees can chose to gather in a local conference room and participate over a speakerphone or call in individually. A team of senior managers at headquarters will describe the merger and its implications. A question and answer session follows the presentation.
Operations
A key component supplier has just called you, the production manager, from their facility in the Northeast. A snowstorm has delayed the delivery of materials they need to produce the components you need. Your customers need the products your company has promised. You send e-mail and voice mail notifications to your purchasing, manufacturing, accounting and sales people asking for a conference call to decide upon a course of action. In thirty minutes a backup production plan is agreed and sales is prepared to work with the customer.
Opportunities
The European sales manager calls the VP of sales with a possible big deal. To win the business your company must respond to requests for new features, compressed delivery dates and pricing issues. Since this would represent a significant commitment for your company, in addition to the engineering and production people, senior management must be involved. Your conferencing system allows communications over a range of devices, so the CEO on vacation can use his smart phone to participate while staff from two continents discuss the issues.
Marketing Tool
As with many technology products, your company's offerings work with those of other businesses. As head of marketing, you coordinate with some of these companies to put on a presentation where customers and potential customers from across the country can call in to hear how a complete solution is delivered. Through a conference call feature, participants can “raise their hand” to ask a question or make a comment. The presentation is recorded to be incorporated in future marketing efforts.
Electronic meetings are wonderfully efficient and offer important capabilities which can strengthen almost every organization. They are not the best vehicles for building and sustaining personal relationships, but they are particularly effective helping your business to respond to the vicissitudes of a fast moving market.
