Some find telephone conference calls a bit awkward – but in these straightened times few can argue that they are a communications tool ideally suited to recession.

Conf calls tend to be shorter than face to face meetings, and hence more efficient. They are more convenient as we just have to pick up a phone rather than travelling by plane, train, or automobile. For international and distributed business scenarios, they are the main tool for reaching decisions and consensus.

The market for bridged audio conferencing is estimated to be around 60 Billion minutes, and growing quickly. And the highly profitable audio bridge services offered by the likes of BT and Verizon account for an increasing slice of collaboration tools spend.

Microsoft’s Office Communications Server delivers a simple to use telephone conferencing service, reducing access charges, and extending the conference to video and data in a manner straightforward for the average user. For many companies trying to address cost reductions in T&E budgets, the deployment costs of OCS conferencing will pay for itself by travel-related opex reduction in under 12 months.

If you want to understand more please see the following resources:

  1. Business case: “The Compelling Case for Conferencing” white paper
  2. OCS R2 conferencing capabilities: 17 minute video explaining how this works for the end user http://edge.technet.com/Media/Whatrsquos-New-in-Conferencing-with-Office-Communications-Server-2007-R2/
  3. Learning resources for deployment: there is an OCS R2 conferencing webcast series throughout October and November, listed below.  the first, scheduled for 20th october, is linked for your convenience

Part 1 of 6: Microsoft Foundation Support

Part 2 of 6: Configuring the On premise Conferencing Solution

Part 3 of 6: Configuring User Related Settings

Part 4 of 6: Federated Solution Requirements, Implementation, and Maintenance

Part 5 of 6: An Exploration of the Baseline Scenario of the Conferencing Solution

Part 6 of 6: An Exploration of  Multiple Implementation Scenarios