Web Conferencing Can Save Your Small Business Big Dollars

Web Conferencing Can Save Your Small Business Big Dollars by Steve Diamond

How much do you spend on travel expense (transportation, meals, lodging, etc.) for conferences, meetings, sales presentations, and training? How much of that expense would you like to save?

With recent advances in PC and Internet technology, even small businesses can save large portions of their travel expenses. And those savings can start today.

If doing business involves frequent meetings with small groups of co-workers, customers, prospects, or vendors, and if travel expenses are often part of the picture, then it's time for you to learn how you can cancel those expensive hotel reservations, tear up the plane tickets, and keep the car in the garage.

Here's how: online conferencing. Yes, it's here, it's practical, it's secure, and it's very inexpensive.

When you think of technology for meeting at a distance, you may be picturing special rooms equipped with tens of thousands of dollars worth of specialized teleconferencing equipment. That was the 20th-century solution. Some large corporations still use it. But the smaller, more nimble businesses of the 21st century choose online conferencing. It's easy and it requires no special equipment other than the PC, Internet connection, and web browser you already have.

The new generation of online meeting tools let you meet whenever you want with anyone you wish. You can host a meeting or join one that someone else has organized. You can start an instant meeting or schedule one for a future date and time. You can even create the schedule and send the invitations directly from Microsoft Outlook.

How will you benefit? Here are just a few ways.

* Shorten the sales cycle and close more deals by scheduling instant demonstrations and presentations for qualified prospects.

* Respond quickly to changing conditions by scheduling immediate strategic planning meetings with co-workers.

* Train your customers when they're ready instead of making them wait until you can travel to their location.

So how does it work? Simply put, you can share any window on your computer's desktop so that all others in the meeting can see what you see. (According to a Yankee Group study, this usage accounts for 89% of all online conferences.) You can also chat via keyboard and speak over a telephone conference bridge.

What can you do with this online conferencing technology?

* You can give a PowerPoint presentation to co-workers or prospects.

* You can demonstrate a software product.

* You can train customers to use a program.

* You can collaborate with co-workers on editing a document.

The uses are only limited by your imagination.

Prices from the key players in this space cover quite a broad range:

* Microsoft Live Meeting ($375/month)

* Webex Meeting Center ($375/month)

* Macromedia Breeze ($375/month)

* Raindance Meeting Edition ($275/month)

* Citrix GoToMeeting ($49/month)

Recently CNET published an independent evaluation of these services, and the results may surprise you. The lowest priced product, Citrix GoToMeeting, scored higher than Macromedia Breeze, equal to Microsoft Live Meeting, and only a little below Raindance.

In other words, with GoToMeeting for $49 a month you can get unlimited usage of a highly rated online conferencing product that's easy to use, highly secure, and can save you thousands of dollars. What are you waiting for?

Steve Diamond has been a small business owner for 15 years and has benefited from online conferencing in his work. For further information about this topic, and for a GoToMeeting Promo Code worth $10 plus a 30-day free trial with no obligation to continue, visit this GoToMeeting Promotion.

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