In recent years, most companies have included mobility in their day-to-day life, having to adapt suddenly to it. However, they all coincide in having done so without any strategy. Success or failure in these cases largely depends on how strong the business communication is in these cases.
Business mobility is undoubtedly introducing a new work culture that forces companies to invest a large part of their resources in digital technologies such as conference calls. Tools like this help establish a strong connection with customers and suppliers, while improving employee efficiency and productivity.
If you did not know about this service, in this post we will tell you what it is and everything you need to know to get the most out of this tool.
What is a conference call?
If we look at how the word is formed, we will see that it is formed by “conference”, which, although it has several meanings, without a doubt the most used is the one that refers to communication between two or more people to discuss a certain topic.
The Spanish dictionary defines it as “simultaneous remote communication between more than two people through the telephone line”. Thus, these services allow meetings between several people who are not in the same place, but it has the particularity of being carried out by telephone, so in short, it is a telephone conference.
It is a number hosted in the cloud to which the participants call through their landlines or mobile phones, and even from their tablets and computers (in the case that WebRTC is used to make calls) and begin to communicate with each other. Depending on the type of conference call, as we will see later, a password will be required and the profile of “administrator or moderator” may exist.
This tool can be used for multiple tasks, depending on the needs of each person and each company, although in general, its most widespread use is holding daily meetings, both with customers, suppliers and employees. This will give us a series of advantages, since we will be able to monitor the projects that we are carrying out, in addition to coordinating the work teams in a more efficient way.
Is it the same as a video conference?
If we look at the words, we will realize that they are not the same. A videoconference is another means of communication between two or more people who are geographically separated. However, the source used to carry it out is a platform that allows video, audio and file sharing.
The telephone conference only allows audio sharing. However, this is not a problem, since when we move from one place to another it is usually easier to make a regular call instead of a video call or video conference.
Types of conference calls
Depending on whether access to the service is protected with a password or not and whether there is an “administrator or moderator” figure, we can distinguish three types:
- Public conference call: in this case, the people who call the number that supports the service do not require prior validation, so they can access and participate immediately. In these cases, there is no moderator figure. Therefore, there is only one profile, that of the user, and the system does not ask for any access code before entering the room.
- Private peer-to-peer conference call: unlike the previous one, here a password is requested when dialing the number that the service supports. This will be defined by the first person who accesses the service in each session and will share it with the rest of the group. Normally, the password is the same for all sessions, although it can be altered when deemed appropriate. In this case there will not be a moderator figure either.
- Private conference call with moderator: this is a service exactly like the previous one, although there will be one or more users with Administrator functions who will define the access code and moderate the meeting. Thus, in this case we can distinguish two profiles: the moderator and the user.
How does Fonvirtual’s conference call service work?
Once we know what it is and what types of conference calls exist, it is time to know in depth how this service that we offer you at Fonvirtual works.
First, two different passwords are defined: one for the moderator profile and one for the user profile. Later, when calling, the system will request the password, and depending on the one entered, we have different options from the telephone keypad:
- The moderator password (as long as it is a conference call with moderator) allows us to:
- We can access the control menu.
- Know the number of participants at a given moment through the control panel.
- Enable or disable the microphone of all participants except your own or that of other administrators.
- Besides being able to control the participants, other complementary actions can be carried out, such as: change the meeting language, start the recording of the telephone conference, open and close the room (sending incoming users to a room waiting in which they do not listen to the rest), hang up to dismiss one or all of the participants…
- The user password allows us to:
- Enable or disable the microphone itself if the moderator has not blocked it in the case of a moderated conference call.
- Request intervention in the event that the moderator has muted the microphone.
Advantages of Fonvirtual’s conference call service
Although this service is not included when acquiring a PBX with us, it is offered additionally. The reason is simple, and it is that when communication is carried out by telephone, it is necessary to have an independent telephone number where the meeting will take place and the different profiles will be created. However, it is possible to include this number in your Cloud PBX. In addition, having this type of tool can bring us numerous advantages. Specifically, some of them are:
- It does not require additional facilities or devices. As we said at the beginning, the conference call is accessible from mobile phones, landlines or even from computers and tablets (in the case of WebRTC), so it is not necessary to carry out any type of installation, which also means a reduction in costs.
- Flexibility. Users can access from anywhere, regardless of their location, and from any device, as it is compatible with landline, mobile, virtual or international phone numbers.
- Personalization. As we mentioned before, it is necessary to have a separate number from the one we normally use, which allows us to reserve an exclusive number for our daily tasks and to personalize both services with welcome announcements and other messages.
- Easy to use. All you need is a phone number to call from and to, and in some cases, depending on the type of conference call, an access code. This makes it an easy tool to use.
- Security. It is an encrypted service and it is possible to establish an access code that only administrators and participants know for greater security.
- It is a service available at any time.
If you still have questions about how this service works and how you can acquire it, do not hesitate to contact us. At Fonvirtual we will be happy to help you in the process.
