Ever wondered what advantages and disadvantages of free conference calling services might be? Every so often a customer asks me, especially after getting a large long distance bill from their carrier. Over on the new Calliflower blog I’ve written a guide to evaluating conferencing pricing models for yourself and your business.
The quick summary?
- Free services make economic sense for those with light conferencing needs, or those with flat rate long distance plans. The biggest disadvantage of a free conference call service is that as your usage goes up, so do your costs.
- Toll-free services are convenient, but not economical. Unless you have an ironclad requirement for national toll-free service, toll-free just doesn’t make sense. Your costs rise as you use the service, and as your calls become larger.
- Flat rate with local calling numbers, which is the Calliflower Premium model, is usually the most economical choice of all.
So check out my posting over on the Calliflower blog, and let me know your thoughts.
Alec Saunders is the Vice President of Developer Relations for BlackBerry make Research in Motion. This is his personal blog, with his personal viewpoints. Prior to this Alec was the CEO and co-founder of Calliflower — the easiest way to hold a meeting, online, on a conference call, or on the go. A double-decade veteran of product management and marketing, he spent nine years at Microsoft where he helped launch Windows 95, the first two versions of Internet Explorer, the Universal Plug and Play initiative, the push into home markets, opt-in email marketing and what might well go down in history as the very first direct email list ever.
