Nowadays with several technological advancements in several fields, the world has grown smaller. Now it is not much difficult to access anyone in any part of the world. Similarly, a technological advancement which has not only revolutionized the business industry but also has helped in enlarging the boundaries of several companies. Making them accessible to various other countries and also being able to be accessed by various companies.

This so-called advanced technology is known as call conferencing. Conference calling has helped a lot in increasing business productivity of various companies. By this technological advancement the boundaries of distance and accessibility has just become a false concept.

Meaning :

A conference call is a normal telephone call where the calling party wants to have more than one called party listen in to the audio portion of the call. The conference call may be designed to allow the called party to talk during the call, or the call may be set up so that the called party merely listens into the call but cannot speak. It is often referred to as an ATC or Audio Tele-Conference.

Some conference calls are set up where the calling party calls the other participants and adds them to the call, and in some cases the other participants call into the conference call, either by dialing into a "conference bridge", a specialized type of telephone that answers multiple calls, or by using a special telephone number set up for that purpose.

Three-way calling is available as an option, usually at an extra charge for most customers to allow them to add a second, outgoing call to a call already connected at their number.

1. Calling party The calling party also known as a caller is a person who initiates a telephone call over the public switched telephone network. Generally, the person who pays the fee for the call is the calling party. However there are certain instances where this is not the case. Such instances can be regarding reverse charge calls also known as collect calls.

2. Called party The person who answers the telephone call is known as the called party. There are some situations where the called party may be more than one; in such cases, we call it as a conference call. There are some systems where the called party first converses with the calling party and then contacts with the second called party. As said above there are some instances where the called party has to pay for the call and it is usually when the calling party makes the call.

Conferencing a business call - Importance :

As we can see that conferencing, a call is not much difficult. We just need to call to the party with whom we want to talk and then if we have the particular type of instrument, then we can also invite others to the discussion. In other words, we are conducting a call conferencing.

Now when it comes to business call conferencing then the procedure is same like a normal call conferencing. However, the only difference is that in this call conferencing only business discussions take place by the companies. In addition, through these call conferencing many important business decisions are taken regarding the future plans of the company. Earlier there used to be companies who operated in a particular defined area. However, nowadays the scenario has changed. Every company wants to extend their business and everyone, is in fact, extending their businesses across countries. Therefore, it does not become always possible for the members of the company or precisely the CEO of the company to make an all world trip and discuss different issues with the members of the respective branches. So, here the role of business call conferencing comes into play. With this technology, there is no need to move anywhere. You can get access to your staff members in India, Japan and in any other country sitting right in your office chair. If there are any important decisions to be taken or any meeting to be held then you can simply connect each and every person by call conferencing. Thus without wasting any time or money in traveling you will be able to gain control over all the matters sitting right in your headquarters.

Earlier there used to be only audio conferencing but nowadays facility of conducting video conferencing has also developed. Now with the advent of this technology it has become possible to conduct a face-to-face conversation in the meetings. Also, if there are any presentations to be shown then it can also be done with the help of video conferencing. Video conferencing can be done through internet. Therefore, the high prices that had to be incurred by the company in paying the bills of the telephone were reduced to a much greater extent. Also, there can be hundreds of participants in video conferencing. Thus with this technology one can really benefit and can easily access to anyone whom he wants to.

Usage :

Now conference calls are used by nearly all United States public corporations to report their quarterly results, usually also allowing questions from stock analysts. These are also known as earning calls. The format of the call begins with a disclaimer stating that anything said on the call may be a forward-looking statement, and results may vary significantly. The CEO or CFO, or the Investor Relations officer then will read a report on how the company did that quarter. Finally, the call will be usually opened up for questions from analysts. Also, conference calls can be used for several other purposes of the company where you have to solve issues, which require communication to many different persons in different parts of the world. Also with video conferencing, you can get all the features that will make your conferencing all the more effective. The major advantage of business call conferencing is that it is not time and place bound. Therefore you can access anytime and anyone just if all the participants in the conference have the required equipments. This will definitely increase the efficiency of your business and will lead your company to prosperity and success.