David Erickson, founder and CEO of Free Conferencing Corporation of America, won a Stevie Award for Best Executive in the 2007 American Business Awards.  We look at the vision and strategic initiatives behind his successful company.

David Erickson gives new meaning to the phrase “chronic entrepreneurialism.” With more than a decade of telecommunications experience and an unparalleled market vision, he designed and implemented FreeConferenceCall.com from the ground up, including the current network infrastructure that offers conferencing facilities in twelve cities across the United States and in ten European countries.

At the same time, Erickson has instilled a strong sense of commitment throughout the organization by creating long-standing, value-based client and employee relationships. “It has been a true honor to be recognized for such a prestigious award as The Stevies,” said Erickson “but I share this accolade with the entire company as a total team effort in helping our global customers reap all the benefits of our conferencing solutions.”

A Telecom Industry Thought Leader
Unlike other competitive offerings from paid and non-paid audio conferencing services, FreeConferenceCall.com’s pioneering all-digital network is built on voice routers versus analog-based conference bridges that can be prone to static and other noise. Says Erickson: "Our mission is to redefine the one-to-many communications industry by providing high quality features, excellent customer service, and the best pricing models available."

As a telecom industry thought leader, Erickson forged relationships with local carriers to deliver a powerful PSTN (public switched telephone network). The PSTN is the concentration of the world's public circuit-switched telephone networks, and FreeConferenceCall.com uses it to deliver unparalleled, high-quality audio conferencing services. Originally a network of fixed-line analog telephone systems, the PSTN is now almost entirely digital—and includes mobile as well as fixed telephones. 

New Hassle-free Services
In 2006 the company unveiled several new services that provide customers with a multitude of options for their conferencing needs, including SimpleVoiceBox 2.0, the industry’s first free unlimited-length voice mailbox system; and the industry’s first free conference-recording service, which can be utilized for free unlimited dial-in playback, file download, web streaming, RSS, and Podcast conversion. In addition, the company announced the launch of SimpleVoiceCenter 2.0 (free voice-messaging system), SimpleEvent (supporting up to 1,000 participants on a single conference call), and an International Teleconferencing Service available in ten countries in Europe. David Erickson’s no-nonsense approach to conferencing has removed the hassles created by other providers.

An Essential Tool for Non Profit Organizations
FreeConferenceCall.com’s no-reservation system has opened the doors to new users, easily enabling them to optimize its services.  Among these, several non-profit organizations have benefited.

The Kidney Cancer Association (KCA) selected FreeConferenceCall.com as its primary conferencing service of record two years ago. Headquartered in Chicago, IL, KCA consists of 30,000 people throughout North America, the European Union, and 100 nations globally. It is a charitable organization made up of patients, family members, physicians, researchers, and other health professionals. It funds, promotes, and collaborates on research projects with the National Cancer Institute, the American Society for Clinical Oncology, the American Urologic Association, and other institutions. Additionally, KCA educates families and physicians and serves as an advocate on behalf of patients at state and federal levels.

Conference calling plays a pivotal role as an invaluable forum to share information related to this debilitating disease. “We hold conference calls with groups of patients throughout the world in need of medical information in a highly collaborative environment,” said William P. Bro, KCA’s chief executive officer. “In addition, we hold similar calls with medical advisory board members and our own board of directors.”

Before selecting FreeConferenceCall.com, KCA consumed up to 8,000 minutes per month on an array of paid conferencing services that caused a monetary drain. The charity required a cost-effective conferencing service, and this led KCA to select FreeConferenceCall.com as its conferencing provider in 2005. Since then, KCA has saved thousands of dollars annually—money that can now be applied to its core mission of education outreach, direct mail, and funding of research related to kidney cancer.

Bro has recently started using other FreeConferenceCall.com services such as free conference recording. Said Bro: “We are now taking conference recordings, converting them to Podcasts, and making them available on our website for members unable to attend a call.”

The Salvation Army has also selected FreeConferenceCall.com as its primary conferencing service. Over 31 million Americans receive assistance from The Salvation Army each year through an array of social services that range from providing food for the hungry, relief for disaster victims, assistance for the disabled, outreach to the elderly and ill, clothing and shelter to the homeless, and opportunities for underprivileged children.

“Audio conferencing plays an important part in the coordination of our business efforts, so we needed a solution that was scalable and easy to use,” stated Clarence White, chief information officer for The Salvation Army’s US Western Territory. “A ‘must-have’ of the selected solution was its capability to support conference calls with as few as three people on a call, as well as ones involving hundreds of individuals.”
 
“The Salvation Army is a large organization that requires an enterprise-level implementation of our free conference call service,” added David Erickson. “Through the FreeConferenceCall Enterprise Edition, we are able to provide them with their own custom phone number that is unique to the organization, as well as individual conference dial-in numbers and access codes for each employee.”

Additional features such as the free conference recording and playback functionality help Salvation Army employees significantly.   Says White: “If an employee is traveling, he or she can simply download the recording to a PC and retrieve it with the click of a mouse.”
 
Since deploying FreeConferenceCall.com in May 2006, The Salvation Army has recognized numerous benefits, the most important being cost savings. According to White, the company is saving significant amounts on conference calls—sometimes up to $10,000 in a given month.

Helping the Legal Industry
Free Conferencing Corporation helps many law firms save time, money and resources. With collaborative communications playing a pivotal role for attorneys, Free Conferencing Corp. has consistently provided these legal eagles with a trusted and reliable audio-conferencing platform to conduct business.

“We rely upon audio conferencing as a vital communications tool for our firm—specifically our field sales force,” explained Steven Bratcher, regional vice president of marketing for Pre-Paid Legal Services, Inc. “With FreeConferenceCall.com, we have increased our use of audio conferencing ten-fold. Comparing this to our previous provider … our annual conferencing costs would top $50,000 per year. With FreeConferenceCall.com, this number is now zero.”

“Law firms are perfect consumers of our service since much of their business focuses on tele-collaboration—at any given moment of the day,” stated Erickson.  Additional services provide users with the ability to play back important meetings and conference calls. Many law firms utilize free conference recording for sales meetings, training and leadership development, and mentoring programs. It provides an interactive platform to communicate a message and give employees the opportunity to listen to it at a more convenient time.

So What Makes It Viable?
By sending users to specific switches, FreeConferenceCall.com drives traffic to underutilized telephone company networks and receives a small marketing fee for creating that traffic.  The real “free” here is the use of FreeConferenceCall.com’s all-digital conferencing equipment.  Essentially, FreeConferenceCall.com provides its customers with the free lunch—they just need to get to the restaurant.  Additionally, the company now serves over five million users monthly, and many of those users utilize other FreeConferenceCall.com pay-for-use services.

FreeConferenceCall.com has built a series of value-added telecom services around this model, and with the pervasiveness of "virtually free" calling plans associated with traditional-, Internet (VoIP)-, and cell-phone-based calling plans, the cost of making long-distance calls to these switches is minimal. It is a misconception that, in order to conduct a teleconference, you need to have an expensive phone system to host and manage it, or sign up to costly "per drink" services.  FreeConferenceCall.com offers the best of both worlds: quality connections and an easy-to-use Web interface and reporting, free of charge.

About David Erickson
David Erickson is founder and CEO of Free Conferencing Corporation of America, the leading provider of free collaborative communications solutions.
Prior to founding FreeConferenceCall.com in 2001, Mr. Erickson owned and operated over a dozen emerging companies within the construction, financial services, and technology sectors.   He served as president of ThePacketCenter.com from 1998 to 2006, where he and two engineers from Bell Labs developed and marketed a firewall-friendly version of Microsoft’s NetMeeting. In 1995, Mr. Erickson began a three-year stint as president and founder of vDesk Corporation, where he created a call transfer and switching system for Voice Video and Data over the ISDN network.  At vDesk, he was responsible for operations in the USA, the United Kingdom, and Holland.

Erickson is married with two children and resides in Long Beach, CA, He enjoys surfing the California coast, duck hunting, and traveling abroad.  Erickson is also a community activist with his support of “Children with Homeless Mothers” in his hometown.

About Free Conferencing Corporation of America©
Free Conferencing Corporation of America, with headquarters in Long Beach, California, is the industry pioneer and leading provider of free collaborative-communications solutions. With more than five million users per month and more joining daily, the company’s FreeConferenceCall.com flagship solution offers a high-quality, reservation-less conferencing service that is extremely easy to use. More than 100 Fortune 500 companies are presently optimizing FreeConferenceCall.com, including public sector agencies. Unlike other competitive offerings from paid and non-paid audio-conferencing services, FreeConferenceCall.com’s pioneering all-digital network is built on voice routers versus analog-based conference bridges that can be prone to static and other noise. FreeConferenceCall.com uses the PSTN (public switched telephone network) to deliver unparalleled, high-quality audio conferencing.  For more information, visit www.freeconferencecall.com or call 877.482.5838.

SafeHarbor Technology Corporation, winner of a Stevie Award for Best Overall Company with fewer than 100 employees in the 2007 American Business Awards, helps large corporations to save money while increasing customer retention, satisfaction, and loyalty. We delve into the history of this David among Goliaths, with clients including American Airlines, IBM, Sun Trust Banks, T-Mobile, the state of Washington, and Washington Mutual.

Employees of Seattle-based SafeHarbor describe their company as a survivor.  Once a struggling dot.com era company, SafeHarbor now includes many household names among its clients. 

The company’s success results from its expertise in moving customer service to the Web, helping clients develop a culture of customer self-service through technology and business practices.

Creating the Culture of Self Service
Increasing Web self-service interactions significantly will drive down support costs. According to the Service and Support Professionals Association (SSPA), resolving just 40 percent of support cases online can reduce support costs by as much as 24 percent. 

SafeHarbor claims to help companies achieve this while combining fast implementation with the flexibility of minimal investment.

As a service company itself, SafeHarbor is ever mindful of the partnership and value they must deliver.  The company understands that technology alone does not transform an organization, so SafeHarbor’s business model is a technology service layer that helps clients work with existing investment to drive web self-service.  The results are lower service costs and higher user satisfaction. 

SmartSupport™
This vision has brought success for both SafeHarbor and for its customers, culminating in the 2006 release of SmartSupport™ 4.0., a solution that received nationwide press coverage and industry awards. SmartSupport™ is a managed service approach that tackles the challenge of changing business processes that support the technology implementation.

Customer Satisfaction
With a strong commitment to successful client outcomes, the SafeHarbor team defines their approach as understanding client needs and using this information to develop and engineer processes. It promises its clients systems and services that will work.
Clients consistently report positive outcomes far beyond what they had expected. Philips, a SafeHarbor client, increased its self-service adoption rate by 1300%. Another client, T-Mobile, now handles over 1.2 million self-service sessions per month with an average annual savings of $24M. An online learning company is currently saving over $1.2 million annually as a result of utilizing the SafeHarbor SmartSupport™ Solution.

SafeHarbor’s managed service with industry-leading reporting helps clients combine lower service costs with higher user satisfaction. Its successful formula has attracted many Fortune 100 companies to join the ranks of satisfied SafeHarbor customers during the past year.

Industry Recognition
SafeHarbor regularly wins awards for excellence. In 2006 alone, SafeHarbor received seven prestigious awards based on the quality of their service.
Such recognition demonstrates the significant impact SafeHarbor’s managed services are having on the contact center and customer relationship industry. One of these awards, the CRM Excellence Award from Customer Inter@ction Solutions Magazine, recognized SafeHarbor in conjunction with one of its clients: the state of Washington. The award, recognizing companies that provide the best CRM products and services, is based on quantifiable data, and was solid proof that the client’s user experience was infinitely improved by using SafeHarbor products and services.

About SafeHarbor Technology Corporation
SafeHarbor Technology Corporation is expert at moving customer service to the web. SafeHarbor partners with clients to create a culture of self-service through technology and business practices.

SafeHarbor's fast, flexible, and focused solution improves self-service information so customers can find answers to questions via the web instead of placing a customer-service call. This results in lower support costs and higher user-satisfaction levels--and solves the challenges faced by companies with complex product lines and diverse user groups.

Since 1998, SafeHarbor has significantly reduced customer service costs for businesses of all sizes including American Airlines, IBM, T-Mobile, Washington Mutual, the State of Washington, and SunTrust Banks. For more information, visit www.safeharbor.com.

Monday, October 1 is the last day that entries will be accepted for the 2007 (4th annual) Stevie Awards for Women in Business. Contact the Stevie Awards office to request a short deadline extension if you'll need one.

The Stevie Awards for Women in Business honor women entrepreneurs, executives, and the companies they run - worldwide - in more than 40 categories including Best Entrepreneur, Best Executive, Women Helping Women, Lifetime Achievement, Best New Product or Service, Best Blog, Best PR Campaign, and more. The judges are leading women business leaders, journalists, and academics.

Finalists will be announced in mid-October, and winners will be presented their Stevie Award trophies at a reception and awards ceremonies on Monday, November 12 at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas.

		Learn More About the Stevie Awards for Women in Business

Blogs, or web logs, are all the rage these days. Each month in this space we'll point you to several blogs that we think might be of interest to you.

Trend Sightings : Insights on marketing to women from marketing guru Martha Barletta.
Release Me : "A good place to post press releases" as the organizers, Marketing Sherpa, say.
Small Biz Resource : SmallBizResource.com has been redesigned as a blog site, connecting to technology news, information and features for small businesses.
bmighty.com: Blog page for CMP's bMighty.com eZine, covering IT topics for small and mid-size businesses.