The National Association of Medical Device Training, or NAMDET, is an organisation which carries out the invaluable work of ensuring that healthcare professionals are fully trained to use all kinds of specialist equipment in their work to look after people’s health. In this capacity, the organisation is crucial to ensuring the safety and care of patients across the country and spanning different medical fields. Because of the sheer spread of their reach, the large and varied membership (from medical engineers to risk and governance managers and nursing staff to operating department practitioners), as well as the instructive nature of their work, there’s no doubt that to the people at NAMDET, good communication is key.

It’s not surprising that they’ve harnessed the power of the conference call, one of the simplest yet most useful telecommunication tools out there. After all, if they’re good enough for the world’s governments, they’re surely good enough for plenty of businesses – in fact, they’re very good for most businesses. Paul Lee, Chairman of NAMDET, has found for himself many of the benefits which teleconferencing bring, especially with WHYPAY? as the conference call bridge.

Finding a conference call service

The search for the right teleconference provider can be a long and arduous one. Thankfully, there are helpful guides on choosing a conference bridge and comparisons of different providers out there, but it’s important before even starting to make sure you know your specific needs and priorities.

Paul’s search for a new provider started the same way that many of the best discoveries have come to pass: necessity.

My organisations include staff from NHS and industry and we have been struggling to get everyone on line (due to NHS landline restrictions and NHS Skype controls).

Facing these difficulties, he heard about the availability of 03 numbers, which would provide the ability to communicate for free that Skype offers, but allow all the staff to join audio meetings from even the most basic telephone.

As cost was, logically, a crucial criterion in Paul’s search for communication solutions, he searched online for ‘free conference calls’ and browsed through the first few options brought up. Amongst them was WHYPAY?.

For Paul, the deciding factor in choosing WHYPAY? to provide teleconferences for his groups and committees were the testimonials which were available from people who had already used the service. Seeing that other customers had had such positive experiences with WHYPAY? gave Paul the confidence to put his trust in its reliable and secure service – and he hasn’t regretted it.

But that’s not to say he didn’t have some misgivings to overcome before generating his first conference call. Most of us are of the opinion that there really isn’t such thing as a free lunch, and that if it sounds too good to be true, it almost definitely is. So naturally, the promise of totally free conference calls was received with a little scepticism. Someone, somewhere, had to end up paying for these ‘free’ teleconferences, right? As Paul himself said, ‘where is the catch?’

The proof is in the pudding

You don’t need to take our word for it. Let Paul’s experience speak to whether there are any hidden charges or compromises on quality:

It was very easy to set up a test ‘meeting room’ and we tried a small teleconference with just a few colleagues. needless to say, it went seamlessly. When we checked with our vendors, it was plain to see that were were not incurring any costs.

Needless to say, Paul and his team were a little surprised. Up until then, they had always been paying for their conference calls, and were now beginning to wonder why. That’s not to say that there’s never any reason to pay for teleconferencing; some organisations may have specific needs which free services cannot always meet, and which require spending a little to get extra features.

But if simple and easy teleconferencing is what you need, WHYPAY? has got you totally covered. And there’s none of that cynical practice of making the service inconvenient or difficult to use, to try to coerce customers into springing for paid plans. Paul found that WHYPAY? really is designed so that anyone can use it immediately, without any need for special equipment or fiddly sign ups.

Having a single registration number and speed-dial facility also helps, as remembering long numbers and log-in details is like trying to remember all your different passwords at home, and usually ends up with many attempts before being successful. Or worse still, just logging out – and miss out, too.

We simply cut and paste the meeting room number and call details to all paperwork and people add this to their mobile contacts list.

Why WHYPAY?

So aside from being free and easy to use, were there any aspects of WHYPAY? which made it particularly suited to NAMDET’s needs, and those of the sector more generally?

There’s the ubiquitously beneficial ability to record the conference calls, which Paul himself has not yet used on a WHYPAY? call but has found really handy in previous web meetings. That’s not surprising, as it allows anyone who couldn’t be on the call to catch up, it makes writing up notes of the meeting much easier, and provides added security and certainty should any issues arise further down the line.

Similarly, Paul has no doubt that the ability to schedule conferences and set their recurrence will be immensely useful, as having a weekly or monthly conference call to catch up would help everybody and, as he said, ‘humans are creatures of habit’.

Humans are also often forgetful, and like the easiest route possible. That’s why Paul’s team found the invitation tool so great, although they haven’t totally mastered the feature which allows you to attach meeting notes to the invitations – something Paul said he is sure they’ll be doing as they use the service and grow more familiar with all it offers.

Human beings are intrinsically social creatures, too, which is one of the reasons for which the NAMDET group values the participant announcement feature. With it, every time somebody joins the teleconference, there is a recorded message to let you know.

That’s important. For some people, this is a new service and it’s all about human interaction. To be automatically introduced to the rest of the team on line is valuable both professionally and personally.

Is it just a one-time thing?

It’s great that NAMDET have found WHYPAY? and its features to be useful, but is it a service to be integrated into their professional routine in the long-term, or just a handy tool that they needed as a one-off?

Being as it is entirely free to use, without any caps or limits, there’s no reason for their conference calling to be restricted at all. That’s why, despite being fairly new to WHYPAY?, Paul already has catch up meetings scheduled every two weeks, and another every month. Not just that, but he has also said he feels that other sections of the NHS, and other charitable organisations will reap some real benefits from WHYPAY?’s services once word reaches them of all that’s on offer.

Is it worth making the switch?

Here we go back to Paul’s earlier point: humans are creatures of habit. Even having read how positive Paul’s experience was, the thought of changing your teleconference provider might fill you with lethargic dread. Could the savings be so significant that it warrants taking the plunge (which could actually be achieved in a matter of seconds, with just the click of one button)?

We’ll let Paul answer this one…

I have personally saved tens of pounds in just three calls already.

Despite being able to claim these costs back from one of the charities I work for, the fact they no longer need to cover this cost is of great benefit, as we have the extra money to use in continuing the work the charity is doing, and developing the organisation itself.

And the cumulative savings are, of course, even bigger. Still in its early stages, Paul’s monthly meeting is comprised of around 10-15 people using WHYPAY? for just an hour. But for this meeting alone, we’d estimate NAMDET is saving close to £200 per conference call. And the number of attendants is expected to rise to twenty very soon, meaning the savings will be even greater.

Whether your organisation is doing charitable work, simply trying to turn a profit, beginning to offer greater opportunities for remote work or improving the support it offers customers and staff, there can be no doubt that the potential to have savings of three figures in a handful of calls is difficult to resist.

Less is more

Whatever you do, be it teaching, playing sports, or even attending uni, spending less money allows you to do and achieve more.

It’s WHYPAY?’s simplicity in its conception and its execution which makes it so invaluable, just as it’s teleconferencing’s delivery of straightforward communication which has made it immensely popular across countless fields. NAMDET’s employment of its potential reflects a wider trend of conference calling becoming increasingly useful in the world of medicine, for example.

So we’ll let Paul sum up his thoughts on WHYPAY? in just three words.

What a difference!