Anyone used Ready Talk?

We are considering purchasing Ready Talk and would like to hear some feedback from anyone familiar with the web conferencing software. Your feedback is greatly appreciated! Thanks!

TechSoup hosts and forum moderators use ReadyTalk for regular meet-ups - I think you will be happy with it :-)

Don (Software Forum Host)

If you haven't already - sign up for their free trial.  Also check out their live demo.  Its a decent suite of products.  You're only looking for the "Webinar" package?

How is the pricing compared to other carriers?

Not sure how this one compares to others.

The two I primarily use are <a href="http://www.arkadin.com/">Arkadin</a> and <a href="http://www.freeconferencecall.com">Free Conference Call</a>.

By the way, if you are a nonprofit you can purchase ReadyTalk from TechSoup Stock at $45 per year, for up to 15 participants.

You might also find it helpful to read the article below by Idealware (which also discusses ReadyTalk):

A Few Good Online Conferencing Tools

I've participated in several ReadyTalk webinars here at TechSoup and I think it's an effective tool that works well.

Yann

ReadyTalk can't hold a candle to Premiere Global Services for support, features, pricing, flexibility, & capacity. Premiere has US Toll-Free for $.045 per minute, and Int’l toll-free #s in 60 countries. Their NetSpoke web solution is completely integrated with audio and allows up to 125 participants all day long. It even has webcam capabilities. It's only an additional $.04 per minute when you use their audio. ReadyTalk is a $10M company, Premiere is $600M strong. Who is going to be standing after this downturn? You can't afford a company not to be reliable & redundant. The company with the most cash on hand, not the company that is still securing financing from VCs.

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A very brief search for reviews on "Premiere Global Services" found complaints regarding steep penalties for contract cancellation, etc.  Regardless of whether the complaint in question is valid, it bears repeating that it is very important to understand whatever contract you are agreeing to with service providers such as this.

End users should perform due dilligence in determining what, exactly, your contract is holding you to.  If the nature of your business is such that this might pose a problem, be very careful about what contract length you agree to. If at all possible, take advantage of whatever trial period is offered, so you can discover issues before your contract takes effect.

I don't think Premiere can match the TechSoup offered price of $45 / year for up to 15 callers.  Perhaps the level of serice ReadyTalk provides is enough for that use.  Just because a company handles more money each year doesn't make it a better value for the consumer.

I echo tclaremont - if there is a free trial, use it!  See what works best for you.  But also beware of free trial agreements - they may require you to opt-out manually to avoid getting signed up with a full contract.

I can't speak for premiere, however I'm a fairly regular participant on ReadyTalk international multi-point calls and find it very good.

Actually shipley.c, Premiere can offer their NetSpoke product for $.05 per minute and you get up to 125 participants. The features are more reminiscent of MSFT LiveMeeting and blow GoToMeeting & ReadyTalk away.

And having more cash on hand equates to supreme customer & technical support, better R&D, a personal sales support relationship, and the fact your service will be live 24/7 365 days a year. ReadyTalk is prime for a buyout. They're still securing financing. In a down economy? They'll be bought by the end of the year or wither away.

How would the customers feel if their ability to conduct conference calls vanished or became increasingly difficult because the company they're using can't support the infrastructure?

It is a bit of an insult to the intelligence to imply that having more cash on hand equates to supreme customer & technical support, etc. Having cash is one thing. Knowing where and when to spend it is quite another.

Even if the provider were to go under, is the chore of choosing another service provider at that point really that big of a hill to climb?

Your post is sounding more and more like spam rather than an independent assessment of the players involved. And, since you are posting from a PremConf.com IP address, I assume that your opinions are a bit biased, to say the least.

raydiz:

And having more cash on hand equates to supreme customer & technical support, better R&D, a personal sales support relationship, and the fact your service will be live 24/7 365 days a year. ReadyTalk is prime for a buyout. They're still securing financing. In a down economy? They'll be bought by the end of the year or wither away.

I've also used ReadyTalk and I've been happy with it. I don't know anything about Premiere's NetSpoke solution -- it may in fact be an excellent solution for many people.  But I can tell you that having more $$$ doesn't make a company give you better service or support, nor does it guarantee that you'll get 99.9% uptime reliability, 24/7/365.

When it comes to delivering top-notch technology products or services, I can think of many BIG and RICH companies that actually offer an inferior product or service vs. its smaller competitors.  Ultimately, it's your team of talented people -- not the amount of money you have -- that produces quality and innovation.  And I can also think of a handful of small companies that bend over backwards to provide a level of customer service and tech support that's sure to make the Microsoft's and IBM's of the world at least slightly jealous... even though they'd never admit to it, because they're so "big and rich".

ReadyTalk has been recognized (repeatedly) as a successful and growing company.  I have no idea where they'll be by the end of the year (does anyone??), but somehow I highly doubt they'll just "wither away".

Yann

raydiz:

And having more cash on hand equates to supreme customer & technical support

Ummm... as a general rule; no it doesn't - in my experience the opposite is more often the case. 

Well raydiz, I checked up on the NetSpoke plans.  I can get a monthly plan for 100 minutes a month at $59.95 / month, or the lowest plan if I sign up for 2 years at a time is $46.95 / month.  As I said, I don't think Premiere (at any product) can match the $45 / year that ReadyTalk offers through TechSoup.  Yes, there are limitations to the number of participants at 15 people, but if Premiere were to match the price, they would have to offer plans at $0.05 / minute and about 17-18 minutes per month.  Doesn't sound like much of a deal if a client's needs are only to conference with 15 people or less.  And that would have to be $0.05 / minute regardless of the number of participants, which I don't think Premiere offers - its a per-minute, per-participant charge.  So when we're talking about the scale available here at TechSoup, it looks like ReadyTalk is the better deal.  Perhaps Premiere would like to establish a special non-profit pricing plan with TechSoup as well?  I'm positive they are open to solicitation on the matter.

When looking at plans out of the scope presented as an option at TechSoup, it is difficult to see where either provider (ReadyTalk or Premiere NetSpoke) has an edge or advantage.  I agree with the others about your statement with cash in hand equaling supreme support.  I would like to point out that Premiere Global might be 600M, but they have a much larger portfolio of unrelated services to ReadyTalk.  You better believe that if NetSpoke does not produce well enough, they will drop it in a heartbeat - even if they paid 32M to acquire it.  So NetSpoke is really a much smaller portion of their annual 600M than you originally imply.

That all being said, the NetSpoke product could be very useful to some people, depending on the scope of their projects.  But you aren't obeying the TechSoup Community Rules - you're blatantly disregarding rule number 1 by flaming ReadyTalk and dangerously close to breaking rule number 3.  Please read them and take them into account in the future.