Tips on Buying Your Own Conference Bridge

Conference calling has become ubiquitous in business today. Businesses are using more and more conference calling every day and the conference calls are lasting longer. The usage on conference calls has doubled over the last few years and forecasts call for another doubling in the next three years. The use of conference service providers has also grown rapidly and therefore conferencing expenses have become a major expense item in the typical business budget. As businesses use more teleconferencing, they should consider the alternative of owning their own conference bridge, which would cut their conferencing expenses tremendously.

A conference bridge is a telephone system that allows conferencing to take place. It is connected to telephone lines and also has an administrative software package that allows the operator to program accounts or conferences into the system. Conference service providers use them to provide service to you and when you buy your own conference bridge, you would in essence become your own service provider.

When should you buy your own conference bridge? A good estimate is that if you are spending $2500. or more per month on conferencing services, then you should consider buying a bridge. You should be able to save about 50% on your conference expenses when you own your own bridge. Note, there are some telephone line charges that you will have to pay for, but your per minute costs will drop dramatically.

What type of bridge should you purchase? There are many different variety of bridges in the marketplace and the technology has been evolving very quickly. Some of the more common bridges are Avaya, Polycom, Compunetix, Forum, Wyde Voice and ThinkEngine Networks. There are also some older used systems in the marketplace that you can research, including Spectel, Octave, Latitude and Voyant.

If your Cap X budget is limited because of the current financial downturn, you should consider leasing a conference bridge. Leasing allows you to procure your own bridge with very little down and then pay the lease payments out of the expense side of your ledger. Maintenance can also be included in your lease payments so that this will not be an extra expense.

Who will maintain your conference bridge? Typically, your telephone repair person can maintain your bridge. Once the bridge is installed, it should work flawlessly and remain up over 99% of the time. If you do have a problem, it usually can be remedied with a reboot. With the new technologies, your bridge can be monitored remotely over the Internet by a bridge maintenance company. New upgrades in software can also be downloaded to the bridge over the Internet.

In conclusion, if you are spending over $2500. per month in conference services, you should consider buying or leasing your own conference bridge. You will cut down your conferencing expenses by 50% and you will have a proprietary system that is secure and save.

Author: Michael R. Burns
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Programmable Pressure Cooker

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