In today's business world, the competitive advantage that stems from the free flow of communication and working in sync is often the essential difference between success and failure. But it is not always possible - or even desirable - to convene a meeting in which principles from many different locations are physically present in one place. In fact, it is more productive to look to cost-efficient alternatives. That's where teleconferencing comes in.

For the most demanding applications requiring multimedia content and resources, advanced video conferencing and web conferencing solutions are available. But for most users, a basic communication tool such as audio conferencing (commonly called conference calls) is will do the job. A conference call is an efficient, inexpensive way to gather individuals and groups from many different locations together to converse in an orderly manner using standard telephone technology.

Conference calls have many common business applications, serving as a medium for staff meetings, training sessions, consultation, crisis management and much more.