$10,000+ NFP Give away - halfway mark

Wow. We have had such a great response to our 10 for 10 NFP giveaway, it has blown us away. Just over 2 weeks in and more than 2000 votes recorded! What a great result!

All our nominated NFP’s have been using Facebook, Twitter as well as their websites to encourage their followers to vote. Great work everyone! 

Without giving too much away, Create Foundation got off to a fast start, but Spinal Cure Australia has had a very strong week and are narrowing the lead every day. Meals on Wheels has won several days of voting and got a bonus 20 votes for getting vote #2000 and PCYC is getting steady results, but will have to up the vote rate if they are to stay in contention.

We have had such as strong response it is making us think we might have to do this every year. Wouldn’t it be great to be able to contribute to these, or other, great not-for-profits every year!? The other thing we are thinking is that we may need to find a way to reward all our vote getters for their efforts. Stay tuned…

So. 16 days to go, let run through our great NFP’s again:

• Create Foundation: Do you know they have been with us for almost 10 years! Thanks so much Create, and we love the work you do with kids in need.
• Meals on Wheels: What a great organisation doing such valuable work for over 50 years now! More than just a meal, indeed.
• PCYC: Everyone knows these guys, they provide safe, supervised fun for the whole community. A great Australian institution that continues to make a valuable contribution to local communities around the country.
• Spinal Cure Australia: This is such a noble cause with the aim to stop spinal injuries from being a life sentence. Going since 1994 they have raised millions to fund this valuable research.

So as we say, vote and vote often to make sure your favourite Not For Profit gets our valuable prize pack.

Remember you can vote once per email address, per day and TWICE on the weekends!

Vote Now!

Vote for an NFP to win $10,000+

Greetings Everyone,

Chorus Call Australia’s #10for10 voting for NFPs celebration has been going for a entire week! We are very excited by people’s passion to support Not-For-Profit organisations’ charity work. NFPs have received more than 1000 votes so far! It is becoming a really close contest and Every Vote makes a difference.

These NFP organisations up for the $10,000+ Prize Pack are:

• Create Foundation
• Meals On Wheels – Qld
• PCYC (Queensland Police-Citizens Youth Club)
• Spinal Cure Australia

We need everyone’s help to spread the word and keep the votes coming in! Here are some simple tips to help these NFPs WIN:

• Use Social Media: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc…
• Add our vote page LINK to your company’s website (an images link or a webpage would be better)
• Forward our 10 for 10 email to your friends, colleagues, even your bosses
• Add our vote page LINK to your email signatures so every time you send out your email, you will have another chance for a vote
• Tell your sister organisations throughout Australia & the world! Every vote counts, regardless of location.
• Remember, every one can vote twice on Saturdays and twice on Sundays! Thats up to 4 votes per person on the weekends; which can really change the game!

The winning prize pack is $5,000 cash, $5,000 free teleconferencing, 1 LifeSize Unity 50 Video System ($4,000), and 2 ClearSea licenses for 12 months. ($2,000). Every of your vote makes difference! Spread the work and show you care!

Chorus Call Australia and Avaya Partner to bring Radvision Video Conferencing Down Under

Chorus Call Australia has announced an agreement with Avaya to sell the Radvision product range.

Morley Foster, Managing Director Chorus Call Australia, said “…the quality of the Radvision product range, including their mobility solution is one of, if not the best, solution in the market today. By adding this solution range to our product set we offer a more complete solution to the mid and enterprise video market”

With a large global customer base, Radvision is an undisputed industry leader in interactive voice and video over IP technologies, developer protocol stacks and toolkits. The technology behind these award-winning developer tools is the foundation of the company’s strong portfolio of carrier-grade unified communications products that deliver high-quality solutions and across-the-board connectivity – from desktops to mobile networks.

Radvisions’ powerful suite of products and developer tools enable the delivery of unified visual communications to residential homes, 3G mobile operators, and enterprises worldwide. Radvision also offers a wide range of professional turnkey project management services and customized deployments of unified communications on converged networks.

When asked why Chorus Call was partnering with Avaya Morley continued “.. as I mentioned they have a strong technical solution, but equally important is how they have engaged the Australia and New Zealand Market. They have shown over the last 6 months the willingness to engage with partners and put strong people on the ground to assist in gaining market share.”

Chorus Call Australia is an Australian based supplier of audio, video and web conferencing services. Established in 2003 it has become the leader in high touch audio to enterprise and delivery of video solutions to the Australian mid market

Further Questions contact Chorus Call Australia, 1800 98 88 98

www.choruscall.com.au

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.

Christmas Time is Here!

“It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Ev’rywhere you go;
Take a look in the five and ten glistening once again
With candy canes and silver lanes aglow.
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas”

With thanks to Johnny Mathis and others who croon this song into the hearts of all at this time of the year.

As the years go flashing by, 2011 and has been challenging for many and for all sorts of reasons starting with tornadoes, floods, earthquakes and tsunamis. With dictators deposed and further hope for democracy in third world countries, this globe and the people on it have suffered again while others prosper and it is the endearing human spirit of never giving up, constant attempts at improvement that drive us forward.

Currently it is all quiet with hopefully less dramatic weather conditions and some improved economic stability in Europe and the USA. While our politicians beat each other (internally and externally) into senseless negativity.

Our mining and China fuelled economy is performing better than most, unemployment is low and interest rates moving down, none of this enjoyed as fears for 2012 become hedged against production and performance with the populace very wary.

Chorus Call Australia has had an interesting year more than holding its own and continually striving to provide better, faster and smarter solutions to our existing and future clients.

Teleconferencing remains strong and the backbone while Videoconferencing moves faster up the rungs as improved and less costly hardware and software begin to open up the world even more than before.

We wish all of our customers and staff a very merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! What more can we say?


“It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas;
Soon the bells will start,
And the thing that will make them ring is the carol that you sing
Right within your heart.”

The Move To Video

The Question: When will Video conferencing finally dominate over telephone conferencing?

The Background:For years people inside and out off the conferencing industry have been proclaiming the arrival of video conferencing into the Anglo markets. I say Anglo markets because much of video adoption has been a cultural issue. Japan already has a 90% penetration rate of video and uses it far more than just audio and this is largely due to the cultural issues of wanting to see the people they are dealing with. Angle nations do not have the same sensitivity and are driven more by ease of use and cost. I digress. Historically, video in a corporate environment have been hampered by the expensive Tandberg and Polycom units that they are convinced to invest in and many times end up gathering dust in board rooms. They were temperamental, badly supported and you needed to have a 18-23 year old at call to help you make a connection. It is widely known within most video support help desks that the busiest week in video support was the week after the Melbourne cup because the tv’s had been commandeered for the big race. For many large corporate and government departments the use of the tv was the most valuable aspect of the 30-50k systems hoisted upon them by IT teams wanting a toy.

Recently Cisco bet big on video in a couple of ways. Firstly there is Telepresence, a high definition and, quite frankly, an amazing video experience. The HD video monitors are moulded to the table to make it feel like the other site is actually sitting right across from you. The audio is great and the video the clearest you will see when working properly. It is so good I have found myself forgetting that it is video. But this experience is not cheap (multiple 100k’s) and the interoperability to other systems, while growing, is still very limited. The other aspects of Cisco’s bet is the purchase of Tandberg. Tandberg has the premium end of the video hardware market and worked hard to make sure that high end video clients can only use their expensive and IMO substandard equipment. Some of the ratios of this purchase seem crazy to me. The purchase price was over 22 times earnings, and a 25% premium on the three month closing average?! All this before Cisco had to up its offer another 10% to appease some investment funds who knew they had a gun to Cisco’s head with the requirement for 90% acceptance for the deal to become compulsory. While I have seen 3 or more Hollywood movies lately with nice product placement for Cisco video, their bet on Tandberg was badly timed and they will eventually write down a large portion of that investment, if they haven’t already.

The answer: Will we adopt video at a corporate level any time soon? I believe the answer to this is yes. For the first time technology is being driven by consumer requirements. Much to their horror IT and Security managers are being told by their executives to adapt the Iphone and Ipad platforms. This is being driven from a consumer experience of the platform wanting to have it available in corporate world. The same is set to happen with video. With Skype and the video chat functions of the IPad 2 executives will start to demand the same functionality for their businesses. Trying to hold back this tide are the hardware sellers, fearful of the software solutions (at a fraction of the price), and the IT managers worried about their capability to deliver such a huge amount of data.

The video we know of booking a time in the board room, having a service provider bridge 3 or 4 sites with much testing and expense will not be the model. The model will be software solutions where you can choose to deliver audio or video through an application on your desktop, smartphone or tablet with the click of a button. This solution is out there and being adopted at the flexible SMB now much to the consternation of the hardware sellers. I have tested 4 or 5 software solutions and while there are a variety of experiences and models being adopted, the simplicity, cost and flexibility is a compelling argument. The standards will be sorted out because interoperability is in everyone’s interest and it will quickly be adopted into larger corporate as bandwidth cheapens and executive demand continues to grow.

Voice and video will be delivered through the same applications with cloud based bridging either from service providers or the applications providers themselves. People will choose to allow video to be transmitted from their device of choice, or not, depending on their state of dress and if they want to do their email while someone prattles on. Unification is on the way.

The prediction:
In 5 years time the software video application sales will outweigh hardware unit sales 5000 to 1. We may see high end video units in conference centres but when you mention the words “video unit” to your child in 10 years their look will remind you of your reaction to the term 8-track. Sorry Cisco.

…Should Have Had a Chorus Call.

Working from Home.

 

Congratulations to Minister for Broadband and Communications, Stephen Conroy for recently spruiking the idea of more Australians working from home.

 Monday to Friday millions of us file like so many ants from our suburban homes into the concrete jungle of the CBD, almost every car on the road containing one lonely individual accompanied only by the inane dribbling’s of the breakfast radio presenters.

As scooter riders, my wife and I like to think that we are making a small contribution to reducing our impact on the planet; imagine if 10,000 Brisbanites were no longer compelled to drive to the CBD for even 1 day of the working week, surely that would be a good thing.

As with every change there are winners and losers, the losers in this scenario would be the coffee shops and lunch bars, petrol companies and transport companies amongst others. The winners would be the environment and the people who get to work from home, and of course people in the communications industry.

Technology today makes working from home a breeze, internet, the cloud, video conferencing from desktops or mobile devices and telephone conferencing all available at the drop of a hat to make sure that there is no lack of communication. There is no reason to expect a drop in productivity when working from home but it will require a massive change in mindset from company managers who still have a “bums on seats” mentality.

There are of course things to be aware of, such as OH & S measures and insurance liabilities, the employer still has a duty to provide a safe working environment even when the place of work is at home, is the cost of this going to deter employers or is it just another cost of doing business. Employees also have a responsibility to make sure that the environment they are working in at home is appropriate.

On the whole a great idea with many benefits to workers, employers and the environment and don’t forget if you are working from home and need to have a telephone conference…………….call Chorus Call Australia.

Guess Who's Back?

‘Been away so long I hardly knew the place 
Gee, it’s good to be back home
Leave it till tomorrow to unpack my case
Honey disconnect the phone
I’m back in’ Brisbane! 

Courtesy of the Beatles’ Back in the USSR’ with some poetic license

Chorus Call Australia established an office in Sydney in May 2010 and the writer flew down to find a site, furnish it and find some key staff to operate it. Another staff member came with me but unfortunately could not go the distance and missed his home town of Brisbane far too much.

Sydney is the only world class city in Australia and like the rest of the world has been affected more by the current global issues than other parts of the country and despite this we are very lucky to have found two very talented, committed conferencing professionals in Craig Aspey & Darin Smyth. They are perfect for the role and there is no doubt that they will do their part to ensure the continued prosperity of the organisation and succeed and grow as individuals.

What they don’t know about the Sydney market and the needs of clients is not worth reporting here as they are consummate professionals. The Sydney office is perfectly positioned and well fitted out for client engagement.

All our clients or prospective clients are more than welcome to walk in to Level 7, 48 Hunter Street Sydney and meet Craig and Darin.

Meanwhile the writer is back in Brisbane it is 23C and brilliant sunshine which compares more than favorably with Sydney today – cold, windy and wet!

Winter in Brisbane may well be the best place to be anywhere in the world for that season!

‘Back in the US 
Back in the US
Back in the USSR’

iPad 2 Winning Story!

As mentioned in last week’s blog Ruth Patching was the lucky winner of the iPad 2 for the best story relating to business travel and here it is;

“I had to travel from Melbourne to facilitate a training program in Wollongong on one day and another in Sydney the following day. Thank goodness I decided to catch a flight from Melbourne early on the day before. What should have been a four hour trip, at most, turned into a seven hour saga of traffic jams, delayed flights, missed transport connections at the other end and the loss of my car booking because I hadn’t been able to contact the car hire company while I was in transit to advise of the delays.

The following evening I had to drive from Wollongong to Sydney. Most of the trip was fine, until I got to within four kms of my destination. That final stretch took almost two hours as the traffic was at a standstill, for no apparent reason! On line training and conference calls will always be my first preference from now on!”

This is a good news story and we will have more from Ruth very soon and as Kool and the Gang sang;

Celebrate good times, come on! (Let’s celebrate)
Celebrate good times, come on! (Let’s celebrate)
There’s a party goin’ on right here
A celebration to last throughout the years
So bring your good times, and your laughter too
We gonna celebrate your party with you

Congratulations from Chorus Call Australia.

Everyone’s a Winner

Well dear readers and other interested parties Chorus Call’s – ‘win an IPad for your best travel story’ has delivered overwhelming responses and It has taken our judges much deliberation until finally they agreed on the best story.

It is with pleasure that I announce the winner – Ruth Patching from the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons. Next week we will publish the story and provide pictures of the happy winner (and she is extremely happy) along with a recorded interview to share Ruth’s thoughts and feelings.

As that old 70’s band, Hot Chocolate sang – ‘everyone’s a winner babe, that’s the truth’ and Ruth certainly is as we believe our customers are too! The last line in the song is ‘you never fail to satisfy (satisfy)’ and that is what is dynamic about Chorus Call as an organisation and its people.

We always endeavour to deliver superior customer service with our product offerings and strive very hard to solve any problems that may surface and this comes at competitive pricing, innovation and promptness. We do not sell and run, we back up and believe in this as a successful recipe for success ensuring indeed that everyone is a winner.

NEWSFLASH
Chorus Call will be launching an new service unique to teleconferencing in Australia, stay tuned as the launch will be next week on our website. That’s all I am going to say at the moment but we are certain this service is a winner and will become integral in many of our clients business’

…stay tuned…

Ash and disaster readiness

What do you do with the airlines grounded and it looking like it will affect travel for days, if not weeks? Companies need to assess their readiness for no travel.

Do you have emergency audio conferencing accounts ready? 
Do you have access to video rooms for high profile events? 
What happens if a key employee is stranded?

During the Asian flu crisis there were conferencing companies charging huge premiums to companies that were unprepared and needed last minute assistance. Video rooms in Sydney were being charged out at 3 and 4 times the usual rate.

Chorus Call Australia will activate accounts in minutes. Ash or no ash business needs to continue and video, data and voice conferencing can be the answer!

www.choruscall.com.au

Sun Tzu

My last blog touched upon leadership in the modern world and as we know that new technology challenges many of us; people have remained similar, emotionally, for eons.

Regard your soldiers as your children, and they will follow you into the deepest valleys; look on them as your own beloved sons, and they will stand by you even unto death.
Sun Tzu

And therein lies the secret of true leadership and yet many supposed leaders rely on rhetoric, spin, fear and bullying.

The market place can be likened sometimes to a battleground and fiscally the global environment is struggling, perhaps parts of Europe on the brink of hemorrhaging much more than before.
Two paced economy in Australia masks the true position as the mining industry continues to boom and other industry struggles as the delivery costs for goods and services continue to rise.

Interesting the cost of teleconferencing has proved to be in the reverse as competition has driven the price down over the last few years, sometimes at the cost of reduced or no service.
Chorus Call still offers competitive pricing aligned to true account management where we provide solutions to our clients needs thereby offering a true-value service.

That surely must be the value proposition we all seek. The next quote from Sun Tzu can be re-interpreted as corporate leadership and translated into seeking new boundaries, higher performance by delivering on the above-mentioned value proposition.

The general who advances without coveting fame and retreats without fearing disgrace, whose only thought is to protect his country and do good service for his sovereign, is the jewel of the kingdom.
Sun Tzu

‘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.

Do you have a Business Travel Horror story?

As part of our new marketing campaign, Chorus Call Australia has been soliciting Business Travel Horror Stories.  In exchange for taking our quick 5 photo survey and submitting a story, takers are entered into our drawing for the New iPad 2 .

If you have a travel story you’d like to share, or would like to enter our random iPad 2 drawing, please visit: http://bit.ly/winiPad2 – Hurry, contest ends 12 April!

We have been receiving some excellent stories so far, below is one of our favourites.

Submitted Story:

"I had to travel from Melbourne to facilitate a training program in Wollongong on one day and another in Sydney the following day. Thank goodness I decided to catch a flight from Melbourne early on the day before. What should have been a four hour trip, at most, turned into a seven hour saga of traffic jams, delayed flights, missed transport connections at the other end and the loss of my car booking because I hadn’t been able to contact the car hire company while I was in transit to advise of the delays.

The following evening I had to drive from Wollongong to Sydney. Most of the trip was fine, until I got to within four kms of my destination. That final stretch took almost two hours as the traffic was at a standstill, for no apparent reason! On line training and conference calls will always be my first preference from now on!"

Qld Premier’s Disaster Relief Fund

Chorus Call donates to the Premier's Disaster Relief Fund

Chorus Call is proudly based in Queensland.

Today Chorus Call Australia Managing Director Morley Foster and National Sales Manager Tanith Gordon met with Labor State Member for Brisbane Central, Grace Grace to make a donation to the Premiers Disaster Relief Fund. Ms Grace (middle) complimented Chorus Call on its generosity and talked about the areas of her electorate that had been affected by the floods. Ms Grace is an active member with strong links to local schools, businesses and the community.

Managing Director Morley Foster said that 10 years of being headquartered in Queensland had led to deep roots within Queensland businesses and government. “This donation is seen as the least we could do to support our city and state.”

Chorus Call Australia and Lifesize HD Video Conferencing

We have just finished helping a customer implement videoconferencing in their business. They came to us looking to utilise videoconferencing for a project they were working on with their partners in another country.

As they were working on a bid, and not certain of getting the business, they were looking for a cost effective solution, that would allow them to meet face to face and present plans and documents across the conference connection on a regular and ad hoc basis. Most importantly, they wanted the solution in place within 2 weeks. We immediately met with them at their premises and surveyed their facilities. Discussions on the strengths and weaknesses of their particular setup and the best possible solutions were open and honest. It was decided that hiring a Full High Definition Lifesize Videoconference unit for a long term, was suitable to their business financial model.

We quickly agreed on the suitable system and price and were able to source and install the unit within 2 business days. Testing onsite with the customer, they were very happy with the High Definition Videoconference link using their existing business grade internet connection to multiple test sites, as well as to their partner organisation overseas. A surge in interest in Videoconferencing is leading to a large uptake of the technology. We look forward to helping other clients embrace videoconferencing as a time and cost effective way of doing business.

www.choruscall.com.au

iPad 2 Give Away

Chorus Call Australia is beginning a new marketing campaign and we are requesting your help. 

It will only take 30 sec. of your time.
 
As thanks, you'll have a chance to win the new iPad 2!

Please assist us by filling out our short survey 
---> http://bit.ly/winiPad2
 

or Scan with your Smart Phone

Does your IR provider have the right stuff?

Well we are smack in the middle of IR season in Australia and we thought it would be a good time to talk about the ins and outs of quality investor relations conferencing services. If you were looking for a provider for your announcement what do you need to know:

First and foremost there must be capacity. Look for the ability to handle double the expected volume of participants in case you have a hot topic or become a takeover target and people are more interested than usual. Don’t take their word for it, make them prove it and don’t accept being charge for all ports unused. You should only pay for a the operators needed to answer the forecasted incoming callers.

Next is experience. A good group of operators will increase the professionalism of your announcement. The flow and control of people asking questions is paramount to a smooth call and there is a vast difference between a good and bad operator. Don’t skimp here as the voices controlling your announcement are seem by participants as your people.

Remote access to participant lists. A good provider will allow you to view the participants on line and in the queue for questions, in real time. This can be done through a web interface and will allow you to screen out people or questions you do not want to take during such a public event.

Online and telephone replay. For continuous disclosure you should be providing an online or dial in playback of your announcement. Some companies archive playback on their website for months, others for weeks or even days. Whatever your requirement this capability should be delivered seamlessly by your conferencing provider.

Reporting: Within a VERY short time of the completion of your call you should receive a report outlining participant numbers, names, questioners as well as confirmation of the availability of the playback. Time is of the essence in the digital age.

While there are many other issues you should look at the above are the starting point to see if your potential provider has the right stuff.