Being in business today means waking up to the realities of a constantly changing landscape. After all the economic tremors have subsided it is clear that it cannot be a case of business as usual. The term cost savings means more now - and will continue in the future – than it ever has. And what tool is at the vanguard of this shift towards keeping spending in check? The answer is web conferencing, which effectively eliminates the need for extensive travel.

Current Web Conferencing Trends

The field of web conferencing has grown in leaps and bounds in a relatively short time. Audio conferencing and VoIP still remain popular in various markets but these options do have limitations. Overwhelmingly more businesses are choosing software solutions that come with added features like remote support and whiteboards. There are noticeable trends directing the use of web conferencing products. Some of these are:

• Increased visibility of web conferencing vendors and products online. While bigger enterprises have caught on for some time now, affordability and increased efficiency have made them more popular with small businesses now.

• More large businesses are using web conferencing solutions to train staff and team mobilization. Webinars are also being widely used to educate staff and clients, although some blogs suggest that webinars are more popular with small businesses.

• Heads of corporations have seen the wisdom of using this tool to cut back on company travel. Whereas sending staff to a conference was once par for the course, webinars now seem to be the first choice of many.

What do Professionals Prefer?

It is fair to ask whether an online meeting is as effective a forum as one that is held face-to-face. In some cultures, the idea of holding a meeting on a computer may seem offensive to say the least. Based on reports however, even in countries like Japan where rigid protocol is often observed, especially in business, web conferencing is catching on.

Whether any business person would prefer to meet face-to-face as opposed to online, may simply come down to the nature of the meeting. Ultimately, personal preference may not form a big part of the equations. With any business, large or small, it is always a question of money, and a penny saved is a penny earned.

Platitudes aside, web conferencing products have proven themselves to be essential to better communication and enhanced workflow. Just about any type of professional in any sphere of business can utilize these tools to their benefit. Chances are you may already be doing conferencing to some extent without realizing it. Many instant messenger applications have conferencing features which allow users to share files and other data.

Some people in business may consider web conferencing software an unnecessary expense. For others it may be a matter of preferring face-to-to-face contact. If improving your efficiency and boosting your bottom-line without sacrificing customer service are important to you then explore web conferencing solutions. If industry awards are the benchmark, ChannelWeb recognized RHUB communications as Emerging Vendor for 2009. Information of this and other web conferencing vendors and their products is readily available online.