Premium Investor Relations Services

Many people are not aware that August is one of the two times a year most Australian listed companies report earnings.  Typically this is done using conferencing service suppliers like Chorus Call Australia. 

Chorus Call both directly, and through partnerships with event managers and investor relations professionals, will hold over 100 investor and media briefings by ASX listed companies this August.  Getting these calls right is no simple task. Companies rely on us to ensure that the analysts or media covering their company can get access to their key management and ask their questions or receive the desired message.  The technology has to be right , the systems have to be tried and tested and most importantly the operators managing the call have to have extensive experience controlling the call to ensure an appropriate flow.

Chorus Call Australia and all of the global offices have focused on this business for years.  Last year the Chorus Call group handled over 2300 media and investor calls globally.  On any given day our Australian based operators can be helping on calls in Germany, Canada, Switzerland or the US, amongst just a few or our global network.  This network allows us to call on these trained staff, of the Chorus Call group of companies, when we have our peak periods in August and February every year.  Some of the other expertise we bring to the investor relations field are the proprietary systems and technology we have developed over the years to give our clients the best possible result.  Some of these include a system to view, control and adjust participant states directly from the CEO’s boardroom.  Others include a web interface that allows participants to preregister participation and questions and custom messaging to all participants.  When IR professionals are looking to put this key task into the hands of a conferencing company they should be looking directly at what experience they have in delivering these calls, because if it goes wrong it can be damaging to the company brand.

Related articles

• Australia's ASX H2 profit falls 9.3 pct; 2013 off to slow start (uk.reuters.com)
• Maximising Your Video Conferencing Experience (choruscallaustralia.wordpress.com)
• Australian stock market rigged: top insider speaks out!! (hangthebankers.com)

Investor Relations Have a Chorus Call

With 11 global locations Chorus Call has build its reputation on being the best provider of Investor Relations Calls. Our offices in Switzerland, South Africa, India, Brazil, the US, Canada and beyond have worked for years with the top listed companies in their markets to deliver high quality operator managed event calls.

To the untrained eye delivering this type of service may seem simple, and when it goes perfectly that is exactly how it should seem. In reality there are lots of activities undertaken to make it a seamless event. Chorus Call Australia has launched a new web site (Click Here) to outline our experience and capabilities in this very important aspect of any listed companies market communication.

Chorus Call Australia: the “complete suite” of conferencing services

While 90% of your conferencing requirements may be one area I encourage users to look to the ability of a provider to quote across all services in the conferencing platform. While you may not need them now an astute provider will recognise and suggest conferencing solutions for your organisation.

Can your provider quote on IP and ISDN video? Do they have extensive links to video room providers around the globe? Have they experience in investor relations calls or product launch calls? Do they have an in house application sharing product? Do they have a disaster recovery solution? Regardless of your needs these things should be explored with your provider.

On the service side of the equation customers need to think about on-line billing services. Can we export detail directly into our cost management systems? Can we receive summaries by cost code or receive instant usage summaries on conference break down? What is not used now may become a necessity as your organisation moves forward.

I noticed the other day that a competitor (who shall remain nameless) has been up to the same old tricks. The modus operandi is to have multiple brands with varying price points, with no service differentiation. Clearly this is misleading at best and unethical in the worst case scenario. I count 4 brands that they are working on at the moment, I suspect there are more to come. Don’t be fooled this cheap advertising. Mainstream providers are much more capable and cost effective.

…Should Have Had a Chorus Call.

‘the times they are a changin’

“Come gather ’round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You’ll be drenched to the bone
If your time to you is worth savin’
Then you better start swimmin’ or you’ll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin’”

Courtesy of Bob Dylan’s timeless classic

iPad, iPhone, iPod -  iwots next! 

Soon the phone and the pad will replace the laptop or notebook computer – surely not? Has its lifecycle shot thru like lightning in the sky? It seems like yesterday when they were introduced and have become cumbersome and somewhat clunky in a flash! (The good news is that one of our customers won an iPad at the recent conference in Adelaide and more on this next week.)

 The National Broadband Network is being implemented promising ever faster internet speeds for all and this will no doubt help deliver more innovation and these innovations will need to be understood and delivered to business and community with speed, precision and effect.

Australians seem to embrace change relatively well and are very early adopters of new technology and we at Chorus Call are continuously looking at ways to improve our business and provide better more efficient service to our clientele. Soon we will have more telephonic capacity than all our competitors thereby delivering an Australian solution to Australians in Australia!

Many organisations are also doing the same as we continue to shine a light over the world in terms of economy, safety and efficiency. Leadership is important and perhaps its best summed up by another verse from the same song….

“Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don’t stand in the doorway
Don’t block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There’s a battle outside and it is ragin’
It’ll soon shake your windows and rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin’’

Continuing Education Technology

This past weekend I spent 2 or 3 hours with a client of ours, ESSA, at one of their annual conventions. ESSA is Exercise and Sports Science Australia. The vision promoted by ESSA is that they will “enhance the health and performance of all Australians through the support of exercise and sports science professionals”. A very noble vision. The group I spent time with was the continuing education group that had representatives from each state and territory in Australia. Even in the brief time I spent with this group the focus I saw on providing better outcomes to their constituents was really great. Most impressive was the great demographics they had. Almost 90% of their growing membership was under 40 years old. To my mind this bodes well for the growth of their profession and organisation. More importantly, I think it bodes well for the adoption of technology to deliver continuing education programs to their members.

ESSA is focused on many of the problems that many similar organisations face. How often do we run events? How can we provide better value to all out members? How do we reach out to our regional and remote members more effectively? I spent about an hour running through some options for using Chorus Call’s services to better reach their constituents. Chorus Call supports many organisations in the delivery of continuing education. The improved penetration of broadband, coupled with the decreasing cost of technology has allowed many of our customers to deliver high quality video tutorials, with slides, live and archived on demand. The ability to control content delivery and access across geographic divides and allowing the end user to participate at a time convenient to them, is a game changer in the CE industry. As video becomes more and more cost effective we will begin to see organisations of all sizes using this high impact medium to provide value to their clients. Other mediums that have been used for years are the voice conferencing and more recently data sharing or web conferencing.

My belief has always been that you need to mix the delivery between the use of technology and face to face. Video does not replace the need for live tutorials, it supplements it. Having a 45 minute voice conference at lunch once a week does not mean that you don’t need the full day workshop once a quarter. These communication tools allows your clients to learn at their pace and take advantage of the medium(s) that are best for their personal situation and learning style.

Teleconferencing’s Unique Diversity

At the RACS Conference in Adelaide

Recently I returned from a week long stint in Adelaide where I attended the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (RACS) annual conference.

How does a teleconference specialist find herself at a medical convention in Adelaide you ask?

Well, they happen to be a wonderful customer of ours and we wanted to take time out to visit with them and show our support for what they do.

I mention this trip because I still find it amazing the variety of clients we work with here at Chorus Call Australia. One minute I might be connecting Fortune 500 companies from Sydney, and the next farmers from Fremantle. In my time connecting teleconferences and managed events from our headquarters in Brisbane; I have had the opportunity to speak to people from over 50 countries with professional backgrounds too numerous to estimate.

At Chorus Call Australia we believe that conferencing is not only Green, but an extraordinarily beneficial tool. Our services are available 24/7, 365 days a year and are very easy to use.  All you need is a phone for audio conferencing and/or a computer with internet access to use our state of the art DataShare ®. Whether a global corporation, national government entity or a small business, immediate increased productivity can be achieved by saving travel time and maximizing resources.

I’d like to thank the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons for an engaging 80^th conference and look forward to seeing you again next year.