Integrated communications have gained prominence in Australia as these enable users to conveniently collaborate with geographically dispersed personnel. This communications strategy is being adopted by companies striving for increased functionality as well as a reduction in their carbon footprint. With the government emphasising the need for commercial establishments to adopt greener operational tools, the use of such solutions has become widespread.

The end-to-end, fully managed unified communication platforms offered by reputable vendors can effectively streamline the corporate communication process, while lowering overall costs. Due to the collaborative features of these solutions, professionals can liaise with each other smoothly and get more work done, thereby boosting productivity.

Presently, several vendors provide free conference call services to their clients, wherein they can make local and long distance calls without incurring any charges. This service is provided on trial basis usually for a period of two weeks, along with the whole enterprise grade communication suite made available to them. The trial allows users to enjoy all the advanced features of the corporate solution and identify the ones that are important for smooth workflow. The flexible nature of these integrated communications platforms allows vendors to customise the same as per their business requirements.

After selecting the requisite features of the unified communication platform, deploying the same within an organisation is quite simple. The solution can be installed across different functional groups within the company as it is scalable. One integrated communications platform throughout the company ensures that the uniformity is maintained without exceptions and all employees enjoy collaborative tools. Moreover, with the advent of web browser-based solutions, which can be accessed via a login ID and password, professionals can communicate optimally without any specialised solutions.

Conference calls are a vehicle used by Australian firms to collaborate and converse with multiple associates simultaneously. These calls operate with the help of a conference bridge that is essential for maintaining the connection between two or more phones. This device acts like a server in telecommunication systems and is maintained by the company that provides the password and calling number to the host. Through the conference bridge, participants who call the given number and input the password are automatically connected to the Audio Tele-Conference (ATC).

Australian vendors provide several calling plans to their clients after the free conference call trial period is over, such as:

Monthly Packages: Clients can make indefinite number of calls from their unified communication solutions after paying a fixed monthly fee. The nominal fee grants them full access to the collaboration solutions. However, some vendors may allow clients to use only a few features, while they may be charged extra for the full suite.
Pay per Minute: Users can choose to pay the required charges for each minute that they host the call. This is ideal for companies whose calls usually last short durations.
Pay per User: This plan is best for companies that wish to include a large number of participants during calls.

In each case these calling plans provide clients with a cost effective option for collaborating with their business associates, without incurring huge costs. Furthermore, since the need to travel long distances is eliminated due to these solutions, their carbon emission is lessened, thus contributing towards a greener environment.

Author's Bio: 

Yank Dines is an experienced writer having more than 10 years of experience in writing articles on various topics such as Conference bridge, Integrated communications and Conference call etc.