Global Conference Calling Solution for Easy Communication
International conference calling is an effective choice for multinational businesses of all sizes from the home-based virtual worker and small businesses to enterprise organizations. If you have colleagues, partners, suppliers, or customers located in countries outside your own and regularly need to participate in group dialogues, consider signing up with a conference call provider. Numerous international conference calling plans exist including toll free calling, pay-as-you-go plans, unlimited plans, prepaid plans, and more.
Making the Most of Your Time on a Global Conference Call No matter what size your operation may be or which calling plan you choose, making the most of your time during the global conference call ensures a successful teleconference. Plan your call in advance to ensure that: you've selected a time that most participants can reasonably attend; all participants know when and how to participate; your call follows an agenda.
International conference calling presents scheduling challenges because participants tend to be scattered across the world's time zones. For example, mid-morning for you could be midnight for some of your participants and today's date for you could be tomorrow's for someone on the other side of the International Date Line. Spend some time plotting out where your participants are located and try to schedule a time that can work for the majority of participants. Plan on recording the calls so that those participants, who could not attend call can later listen to the call.
Use email, a shared online calendar, interoffice memos, or some other reliable method to communicate the global conference call details to each participant. If your conference call provider supports local access numbers or country-specific toll free numbers, then callers from each country will have different numbers to dial in order to reach the conference. Make sure to include the time and date in the participant's local time and provide participants with the correct phone numbers for the countries involved. Include basic instructions related to the scheduled meeting such as how to mute and un-mute the callers' microphones.
Finally, create an agenda and let participants know in advance how long the global conference call will last, what will be discussed, and the expectations you have from participants. This allows participants to set aside enough time for the meeting as well as prepare for their roles during the call. Budgeting for International Conference Calling Depending on which conference call provider you use and the plan you have selected, your call will likely involve costs in one form or another. For example, many unlimited international conference calling plans allow you to conduct an unlimited number of telephone conferences for a flat monthly fee. However, if each caller dials an access number that has a toll or long distance charges associated with it, each participant will likely incur some per minute charges. Be aware of this as the prospect of potential toll charges could limit participation.
Your conference call provider may offer local access codes or even international toll free numbers. If you go the toll free route, you will incur per-minute fees per participant. These fees will vary based on each participant's country's rates and whether the participant called on a landline or a mobile phone. Your international conference calling plan provider will likely have an online calculator that you can use to calculate the cost of the call based on the number of participants, the length of the call, and the countries involved.
After calculating the cost of the call, you'll likely find that international conference calling is one of the best values for global business communications.
About the Author
AIT is a conference call provider that offers pay-as-you-go global conference call solutions. Whether you're interested in international conference calling for its cost advantages, as a green alternative to travel, or to facilitate collaboration among a geographically diverse team, AIT has cost-effective plans and exceptional phone call quality.
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