Good communication is essential to every organization:
communication between organizations, and communication
between parts of a single organization (e.g. between offices in
different countries).
A wide variety of communication systems are used...
Before the Internet, most business communication was via telephone, fax, telex (a way of sending text messages
that printed out on a printer), or by using mail - the old-fashioned paper version!
E-Mail
E-mail is a system that allows messages to be sent and received by computers. E-
mail is the most common form of electronic communication.
E-mail messages are text-based, but other types of file can also be sent as
‘attachments’.
E-mails that are received wait in a user's inbox until the user is ready to read them.
(Unlike a telephone call, the user is free to ignore e-mails until they have time to deal
with them.)
To send and receive e-mail, you need to have an e-mail address.
An address is made up of two parts: a username and an e-mail provider, with an
'@' symbol in the middle:
username@provider
An e-mail message usually has the following parts:
To send and receive e-mail, you need to have an e-mail address.
An address is made up of two parts: a username and an e-mail provider, with an '@' symbol in the
middle:
username@provider
To The address(es) of the person who the message is for
A short sentence describing what the message is
Subject
about
The text of the message. This can be as long as you
Message
like
Video Conferencing
Video-conferencing is a system that allows people to have
conversations and meetings with other people in different
locations, but without leaving their office.
A video-conference involves people sitting in front of a camera
and a microphone, whilst watching other people of a screen
and listening to them through loudspeakers.
Note:The camera is usually TV quality - much better than a standard
webcam.
•The system uses the following hardware:
Video camera
•Monitor
•Microphone
•Loudspeakers
•High-speed network / Internet connection
•Video conferencing is very popular with businesses as it means:
No travel costs
•No time wasted travelling to other cities / countries
•Can organise meetings at short notice
•However there are some problems with video conferencing:
Less personal than face-to-face meetings
•Documents (e.g. contracts) cannot be signed
Mobile Telephones
•Mobile telephones allow people to be away from their workplace,
yet still be contactable. This means that people can still work, even
when out of the office.
Modern smart-phones can perform a wide variety of tasks:
Make and receive telephone calls just about anywhere
•Send a receive SMS (short message service) messages
•Send and receive e-mail
•Send and receive files such as images, text documents, etc.
•Edit documents
•Most people would be lost without their mobile phone!
•However there are some downsides to the use
of mobiles:
Workers never get a chance to 'switch off' since
they can always be contacted - can be stressful
•Mobiles are easy to lose, and often contain a lot
of personal and/or business information. A lost
mobile could be embarrassing / damaging if the
wrong people got hold of it
Internet Telephony / Voice Over IP (VOIP)
Internet telephony, or 'VOIP', is becoming very popular both for personal
use, and within the workplace.
Instead of using the normal telephone network (designed to carry voices
using analogue signals),VOIP systems send voices through the Internet as
digital data, just like any other Internet data (e.g. e-mails, files, webpages,
etc.)
In other words, VOIP systems use your Internet connection to send and receive phone calls.
•VOIP systems can work in several ways:
VOIP software can be installed on a computer. Calls are then made
using a headset (headphones / microphone) or by using a special USB
handset (looks just like a normal phone)
•Special VOIP telephones can be plugged directly into the network
(or can connect wirelessly using WiFi)
•VOIP systems have a number of advantages over a normal
telephone system:
No telephone line is required
•Call costs are very low, especially for long-distance calls
•Can include video
•They also have some disadvantages:
Require special hardware and an Internet connection
•Not as reliable as normal phones, so cannot be relied
upon for emergency calls (911, or 999)
•Call quality depends on the speed of the Internet
connection
The most well-known public VOIP service is Skype, but there
are others such as Google Talk,Vbuzzer, Fring, ooVoo, and
SightSpeed.
(Needless to say, the traditional phone companies don't like
VOIP as it takes away their business!)
Fax
•Fax is short for ‘facsimile’ which means ‘copy’.
A fax machine is a device that can send a copy of a
paper document over the telephone network.
The sending fax converts the light/dark areas of
the printed document into noises.
•These noises travel through the phone system and
are received by another fax machine.
•The receiving fax machine converts the noises into
printed marks on a piece of paper - making a copy
of the original document.
•Faxes are:
Low quality - images are especially
poor
•Slow to send (compared to e-mail)
Faxes have been used for many years as
a quick way of sharing documents.
However, now most people have access
to a computer, e-mail attachments are
more commonly used.
One reason that faxes are still used is
that most businesses would accept a
document such as a contract that had
been signed, and sent by fax.
(Electronically signing e-mail attachments
is not yet widespread.)
