Organizing a meeting can be a major headache, especially when you’re setting up one across several time zones. Incessant calls, voicemails and follow-up messages are part of your regular lot, and all the hard work you put into the preparation doesn’t seem to pay off well.

When it comes to meeting software, Meeting Maker stands out as what many deem to be the “leading real-time, cross-platform enterprise and calendaring solution” around. The software allows the world’s busiest people from both small businesses and industry giants to set up time-saving, work-efficient and hassle-free meetings.

A lot of organizations are already reaping the rewards of the software. Whether the platform is Java, Macintosh, Windows or UNIX, Meeting Maker is already installed in over 700,000 desktops at major corporations and academic institutions worldwide including amazon.com, Apple Computer, Cisco Systems, NASA, Qualcomm, Time, Inc. and the University of Michigan. To integrate Meeting Maker with existing infrastructures and to enable the software to adapt to all 319 time zones across the world were some things the IT department did with ease. The features that Mac users liked the most include the following:

A Calendar that’s More than the Usual. With Meeting Maker, there’s more to calendars than the usual rows and columns of dates. Simply click on Meeting Maker’s URL from your favorite web browser to get a quick view of the calendar. If you’re itching to know what your colleagues’ schedule looks like for the week or month, you can view their calendar too; proxy access makes this possible. Use the Calendar Integration feature to directly publish web events of your choosing into your personal calendar. Utilize the HTML Publisher feature to publish your calendar as a web page – links, events, updates and all. You can even print your calendar if you want to.

Scheduling. There are a number of tasks that you can easily perform in the scheduling program. A Master Schedule option lists the availability of members of a designated work group, and the Auto-Pick feature in the Meeting Proposal window automatically finds the nearest time when all guests are available. The Share Availability feature permits all users to share their schedule with others instantaneously, and helps eliminate double bookings. The Notify Link for Meeting Maker is a wonderful tool as well; it gives you instant access to a calendar, emails, contacts and meeting requests for acceptance or declining. Meeting Maker connects via a module that lets you and your guests to collaborate by enabling the scheduling of meetings in either Outlook or Meeting Maker platform, whichever is preferred. The software also enables you to send invitations and reminders to people outside your organization.

A Navigation Experience that Puts You at Ease. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to use the software. Meeting Maker provides you with user-friendly navigation tools for the usual functions. If you’re not the biggest fan of reading volumes of text, you can still stay current by viewing events, banners and to-do lists at a glance.

A Bundle of Technical Freebies from a Dedicated IT Team. When you’ve stayed long in business, you’ll realize that the smallest matters are those that mean a great deal to your success. Meeting Maker’s IT team understands you, so they made sure you can truly maximize your use of the software. Freebies include a limited IT overhead which ensures that your network does not get slowed down by traffic congestion, read-and-write proxy functions which allow group sharing of calendars, and quick synchronization with Palms, Microsoft Outlook and Blackberry.

Simply put, Meeting Maker is a gold mine for businesses. Why Mac users and various organizations across the world love the software comes as no surprise at all.