TimeBridge, the free, innovative meeting scheduling system, is announcing the availability of web meeting and conference call support at a low price. The premium upgrade to the standard free TimeBridge service costs $8.95 a month. If your company spends a bunch on conference call costs, this may end up being a key decision-maker between this service and one of its competitors. We first reported on TimeBridge in December.
The integration of conference calling into the TimeBridge system is pretty seamless. When creating a new meeting or appointment time, and you wish to add a conference call or web meeting, it’s just a click away. Once added, a phone number with a local prefix is connected to your meeting time. After that, it’s mostly a matter of completing the meeting details, sending the proposed times out, and waiting for go time.
Using TimeBridge for the first time, we found it fast and easy to use. After creating a test meeting with conference call and web meeting support, we had a little fun chatting for a few minutes on the phone. Overall, we found the service to be quick, easy and on par with other conference services like GoToMeeting and WebEx. Of course, this becomes a lot less surprising when you realize that TimeBridge does not offer an 800 number – it is a long-distance call for (almost) everyone who wants to dial.
The Web Conference module impressed us quite a bit. It supports whiteboard, desktop, document and web page sharing, as well as automatic detection of a webcam. There is a chat pane as well as an attendee management page for the presenter. Transferring control to a different presenter is supported, and if necessary taking control back. New attendees can be added without their having to have a TimeBridge login. Overall we thought the web conference experience was great.
Unfortunately, the options for the phone conference were somewhat limited. People are announced as they join a call – which is fine – but anyone is allowed to speak during the call, and there doesn’t seem to be a way to ‘end’ the call once it is done. This may be OK for an impromptu business meeting or for involving remote employees, but it would be inadequate if you wanted to hold a shareholders meeting or other larger event that requires selective muting of callers.
Overall, we think that for $8.95 a month, you could do worse than what TimeBridge is offering. If you are already hooked on their multiple-suggested-times approach to meeting scheduling, you may find this addition very worthwhile.
