Web Conferencing & VoIP

Web conferencing is the newest software technology to hit the market. Businesses are practically all over themselves trying to adopt this innovative technology into their existing systems. In a time when airline tickets are skyrocketing and air flight safety is only relative, businesses find in web conferencing and VoIP communication a more cost-effective means of maintaining collaboration.

Basically, web conferencing is a software system wherein you, as a participant of the conference, sit at your own computer and get connected with the rest of the participants via the Internet. The concept is simple enough to understand. The most basic web conferencing feature is perhaps screen sharing, which allows participants to view and control the computer screen of other participants, including that of the presenter.

The idea behind web conferencing is to facilitate communication between individuals who are located in different places but who can connect with each other using such devices. In its early days, web conferencing could only allow posted text messages via a message board or an online forum. Later, voice was integrated into the system and devices such as VoIP or Voice over Internet Protocol and telephone conference calls came to be.

Web conferencing and VoIP came to present an alternative means for businesses to conduct important corporate meetings or any discussion pertaining to the business for that matter, including sales presentations, training sessions, e-learning, project assessment, quarterly meetings, etc. When compared to traveling which is not only costly but beset with hassles as well, it’s easy to see why companies prefer web conferencing and VoIP to their old collaboration techniques.

Basic Features

Web conferencing and VoIP offers several features, the most basic of which (as mentioned earlier) is screen sharing. Besides this, there is also file sharing, desktop sharing, and application sharing. Whiteboard capabilities are also available, allowing users to edit or comment on documents on the fly. Slide presentation is also another feature of web conferencing and VoIP and often, PowerPoint is used to create them. Some web conferencing and VoIP systems also allow co-browsing, text messaging, polls and surveys, and annotation options.

VoIP

VoIP is a new technology that allows you to route voice conversations over the Internet or any other IP network. So instead of using the traditional, dedicated, circuit-switched voice transmissions lines such as telephones, the voice data in VoIP flows over general-purpose packet-switched network.

VoIP allows web conferencing participants to communicate with each other without having to depend on dedicated transmission lines. Compared to telephones, VoIP is a much cheaper technology to use during web conferencing.