ZipDX brings new zip to teleconferencing

A new teleconferencing service called ZipDX is trying to capitalize on ease-of-use, pricing and voice quality to break into a mature market and is looking for service provider partners as well.

ZipDX uses database technology to eliminate the need for host and participant codes and has a dashboard that makes it easier for hosts of large conference calls to manage those calls and eliminate noise on the line that can disrupt calls, said David Frankel, ZipDX CEO. The first time any participant uses the service, they can set their own passcode and record their name, both of which becomes part of the ZipDX database. Subscribers to the service then set up a profile that includes their preferred calling numbers – business, mobile or home office – and ZipDX can not only identify them based on calling number but also track scheduled conferences and initiate the conference by calling the leader two minutes before the appointed time.

"When you schedule a meeting and send out invitations, you just include ZipDX as an attendee. And when ZipDX gets the meeting notice, it sees that you are hosting a meeting and you've invited these six people. ZipDX will create an identity for them and send them a note welcoming them to register," Frankel said. "Now at the meeting time, when you dial in, the first thing ZipDX does is look in its database and try to figure out who you are, looks to see if you are supposed to be in a meeting and puts you in. Or you can set it up so ZipDX will call you at the number you choose two minutes before the conference is scheduled to start."

The ZipDX system is aimed at business people that often have multiple conference calls in one day, helping them automatically go into the correct conference without having to dial numbers and remember codes, Frankel said. "You get only the right people in the conference, and the conferences start on time."

By eliminating the security codes that are routinely used for reservationless conferencing today, ZipDX actually offers greater security, Frankel said. "You give those codes out to different people every day, so there is very little security."

ZipDX is promising to be less expensive than other conferencing services, largely because it's a flat-rate offer (10 cents a minute, with volume discounts that go down to 7 cents a minute) that doesn't layer on costs for recording a call, allowing Web conferencing or storing recorded calls, Frankel said. All of those options are one-button items on the ZipDX dashboard.