The digital world often translates into digital teams made up of individuals from around the world.
These teams use a variety of tools for group collaboration including email, telephone calls, instant messaging, and video and Web-conferencing.
One of the most effective and affordable group collaboration tools available in Croatia and the rest of the world is the humble conference call.
Why Use Global Conference Calls in Croatia Rather than Other Group Collaboration Methods?
While email, one-on-one chats, Web-conferencing and other methods have their time and place, they also have their downsides. For example, it’s difficult to interpret meaning and tone from email messages, and email threads can become hard to follow in a group environment.
Regular phone calls are handy when you have a quick question for just one of your colleagues, but international calling costs are always a concern. Instant messaging has similar issues as email, and both Web- and videoconferencing requires special equipment and/or software.
International conference calls are ideal for real-time collaboration, particularly when you expect there to be a great deal of back and forth between participants. Everyone can hear each other’s tone and verbal cues, helping to avoid misunderstandings. Plus, there’s no special equipment required. Each team member, whether in Croatia or elsewhere, can join the call using their own office phones, home phones, mobile phones, VoIP phones, or landlines.
Group collaboration has become a business norm, and collaborators are often scattered around the world. You could have participants in diverse locations ranging from USA and Canada to Singapore and Croatia. Global audio calls provide you with a virtual conference room where you can share ideas, ask questions, brainstorm, and get your work accomplished.
If you have a team that’s working in multiple countries such as USA and Croatia, global audio calls can help keep those important work relationships strong and ensure an open line of communication. Here’s what you need to get started hosting your own global audio calls:
- Toll Free International Conference Calling — The first order of business is to sign up for one of our toll free international conference calling plans. Our competitive international rates and our pay-as-you-go structure work together to ensure an affordable global conferencing solution. You can set up an international audio conference room and then use it as needed, paying only for the minutes you and your teammates use.
- Global Access Numbers — Global access numbers set international conference calls apart from domestic ones. For example, if you’re in the United States but your team is located in Croatia, global conferencing access numbers will be provided that are regional, local, or toll free for each participant. You would access the global audio call using a USA access number while those in Croatia would dial a toll free access number in Croatia. This keeps costs down for participants while also making dialing into your group audio call second nature. There’s no need to worry about country codes, exit codes, or operator assistance. Just dial in and start collaborating.
- Audio Quality — Audio quality is one of the most important things to look for in an international audio conference service. Though your callers may be located half a world away, they should sound as if they’re in the same building. Some global conferencing providers use VoIP (we don’t) to keep their rates down. However, there’s a price for that: substandard audio quality. We use modern PSTN fiber optic telecommunications networks and the same conferencing bridge technologies as AT&T to deliver crystal clear audio quality and reliable service no matter where in the world each call originates.
Ease of Use — Global audio calls work best and are used more often if they’re easy to use. With our international conferencing service, callers in Croatia and around the world can dial in using any type of phone. We also have a live conference viewer and free Connect app that you can use to manage your call in real time. These apps feature one-click line muting, MP3 recording, security features like lock out, moderator dial out, and more.
What You Need to Hold International Conference Calls in Croatia
However, for international teams, you’ll need an international conferencing service rather than your basic domestic phone service. For example, if you’re located in Croatia and you have team members located in Latvia, Italy, Canada, Mexico, and China, your fellow team members may have trouble dialing into a standard Croatia conference call.
Each would need to look up and dial their respective country’s exit code followed by the country code for Croatia. From there, they’d dial your domestic access number — that is, if they bother to do so due to concerns about incurring hefty long distance tolls.
What about giving them your toll free number in order to access your international group collaboration call? That would work for participants who are also located in Croatia, but your toll free number would not work for participants located outside of the country.
Thus, you’ll need to use an international conferencing service that provides either toll free or local access numbers for the countries your colleagues are located in (in this case, Latvia, Italy, Canada, Mexico, and China).
Our international conferencing plans (which are available with no contracts on a month-to-month, pay-as-you-go basis) are the perfect solution for international group collaboration.
Depending on where your team members are located, you could issue toll free access numbers or use the optional dial-out feature so that individuals on your team do not incur costs associated with your Croatia conference calls.
Hosting group conference calls in Croatia is easy, affordable, and effective for distributed teams. How have you used group collaboration calls with your virtual team?
