Welcome to 2012

First of all I wanted to thank everyone for a great 2011. It was a great year with much accomplished and many new developments in the market. Similarly, it has been a great start to 2012 with lots going on in the Australian conferencing market.

The first thing I wanted to talk about was the Federal Government Telehealth incentive. This is a fantastic idea put forward by the Federal government to give incentive to regional and rural based medical and aged care practitioners to adopt video conferencing. The first year incentive form the government is over $6000, dropping to around $4000 in July 2012. Chorus Call has developed a product specifically designed for this market. By marrying a LifeSize HD, PTZ Passport unit to a battery powered Ergotron Styleview cart Chorus call is offering a complete package at not much over $7000. These mobile carts are specifically designed for the hospital or aged care environment. They boast 2 hour fully rechargeable battery pack, an anti microbial coating and ergonomic height adjustment. We already have talked about how good the LifeSize units are. Designed specifically for IP HD conferencing these units are quickly catching on at the expense of Polycom and Cisco.

The response has been tremendous. Practitioners are really happy that a finished bundle can be delivered and supported with payment terms that allow for very little out of pocket expense. We have seen some of the packages out there and are a shocked as our customers. We currently have a couple of demonstration carts we are lending to people to have a look at.

Give us a call if you are interested. If you want more information email us or give us a call on 1800 98 88 98.

www.choruscall.com.au

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.

Teleconferencing Over Travel: iPad 2 Winner tells her story

Recently we announced the winner of our iPad 2 promotion.  

We decided to follow up with a recording of Ruth telling her story in her own words.  

Click to listen.

Once again, congratulations Ruth! From Chorus Call Australia.

More promotions soon at: www.choruscall.com.au

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.

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.

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.