Thame, Oxon, UK:  21 October, 2010 – The deployment of an audio conferencing solution from MeetingZone has improved internal and external communications for UCL, one of the world’s leading multidisciplinary universities. Audio conferencing is used across all faculties and departments within UCL and by all academic and administration staff.

“We took the decision to consolidate our audio conferencing services and chose MeetingZone as our preferred supplier due to its cost effective, reliable, easy to use solution and importantly for me, its transparent billing process,” explained Sue Moody, Telecommunications Assistant, UCL Telecommunications, the department responsible for the delivery of all telecoms services throughout UCL.

“Another key factor was that MeetingZone’s service is reservationless which eliminates the need for us to book conference calls. UCL users can quickly and easy talk to who they want, exactly when they want,” added Moody.

The ease at which remotely located participants can be brought together in one audio conference has helped to improve internal communication within UCL and externally with educational organisations of all kinds.

Ease of use was a key concern as conference calls are often set up by busy PAs for Professors and Heads of Department who need to focus entirely on the content of the virtual meeting rather than the enabling technology.

“Audio conferencing facilitates collaboration between remotely located groups of medical specialists, enabling the discussion of all aspects of biomedicine without any of the specialists having to leave their desk,” commented Vanessa Perrin, PA to Prof John Martin, Leader of the Yale UCL Collaborative and Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine, at UCL. Perrin regularly sets up conference calls between UCL and Yale University, Connecticut, USA.

Rosie Baverstock-West is PA to Prof Gabriel Aeppli, the Head of the London Centre for Nanotechnology (LCN) within UCL, and is also the Centre’s office manager.

“I am responsible for setting up conference calls for Prof Aeppli and anyone within the Centre. LCN has various research groups, the members of which can be located across the world, but they need to collaborate with each other, and with researchers from other universities,” added Baverstock-West. “MeetingZone’s solution has proved to be a tremendous service in allowing me to quickly and easily set up conference calls to facilitate collaboration between these various groups.”

Previously, UCL Telecommunications had been using several conferencing service providers and there was a need to streamline its service provision and to reduce the complex billing processes.

“MeetingZone’s transparent billing process allows me to see at a glance which department or faculty booked the call and so I know immediately how to allocate the associated costs. I no longer have to spend valuable time trying to trace who booked what calls,” continued Moody. “MeetingZone’s conferencing portal enables me to check any queries our users may raise by quickly accessing their individual accounts and allows me to monitor usage if required.”

UCL Telecommunications is continuing to raise awareness of MeetingZone’s services throughout UCL. “MeetingZone’s customer service is exceptional, so I have no concerns about increasing our usage of its services,” said Moody.

“We are delighted to have UCL as one of our valued University clients as the role of collaboration within the higher education environment is gaining importance. High profile research grants now generally favour joint programmes between educational institutions, both in the UK and overseas,” concluded MeetingZone’s CEO, Tim Duffy.