The technological progress changed the world’s shape over the past 50 years more that anything else in human history before. Of course, business was affected by those changes as well. One of the largest impacts of technology on businesses is definitely in the field of communication. Companies have a seemingly endless choice of channels for communication; for internal communications as well as for external. Some of the channels are, for example, E-mails, blogs, and electronic newsletters; just to name a few. The choice of the communication channel finally goes along with the efforts to analyze the appropriateness of communication tools in certain circumstances, because the selection of the wrong channel can make the delivery of the message ineffective. Internet might be considered as the most important channel to communicate, because it has reached such a broad audience today and through the interactivity it offers people can retrieve any kind of information, at any time, from almost any place. Sometimes there can be an overload of information, but if the company builds a sophisticated web site with a good overview, users are very likely to prefer such sites and use them more frequently. Also, live interaction between users is possible through the internet and not only; many people use the internet to retrieve information about certain products and more and more people purchase those products online. The broadband internet of today with many translatlantic cables and worldwide interconnectedness made cost for communication almost insignificant low.
Finally communication nowadays is ubiquitous available (cell phones i.e.); it has become fast, cheap, and easy and part of everybody’s everyday life; all this thanks to progression in communications technology.
Examples:
A good example is how the fax-device revolutionized business. Suddenly documents could be sent in almost real-time from any place in the world, to any other place in the world. Contracts and other document could be sent now much faster than through the conventional postal way. Meetings that were not really necessary helped companies to save a lot of money and transaction costs, because documents could be faxed now and details discussed on the phone. And this technology emerged already in the 1970’s.
Another good example that totally changed business’s shape in the last two decades, are cell phones. In the meantime, having a cell phone is taken for granted by anybody, and especially in the business world it is expected to have one, in order to be reachable all the time and everywhere; there is no question about that. Managers or other responsible persons can immediately get informed if something important happens to business and respond right away immediately; decision no more need to be necessarily taken at work place. Furthermore, newest devices like PDA’s or smart-phones enable the user to receive and read document (Word, PDF etc.), having thus the mobile office in your pocket.
Experiences:
If I think back at my time in school (in the 1990’s) many things were different. I did not have the chance to use Google, to get information about the topic for my homework. Internet was very slow and only in limited places available. Furthermore, I remember that we had a so called telephone-chain; that means that a list was distributed in class, so that when anything happened (like a cancelled class i.e.) the teacher called the person who was alphabetically first on the list and told her about the situation, whereupon this person had to call the next on the list and so on… All this effort unimaginable nowadays. Today an e-mail would have been sent around and that is it.
Another good example are governmental institutions that make many forms available online. The user can fill out the forms on the computer and submit them online. I experienced that during my application process for the visa. This saves those organizations a lot of bureaucratic costs.
And another major trend I realized is that many companies nowadays looking for employees accept exclusively online applications, making it easier and less costly for the applicant and also for HR employee who has to evaluate them. Sometimes a first selection of the applicants takes place electronically by predetermined standards that were programmed in those machines.
Links:
http://www.communicateusingtechnology.com/computer_and_network_articles.htm
http://education-portal.com/communication_technology_articles.html
http://www.idealware.org/articles/peace_through_ICTs.php
http://ezinearticles.com/?Cell-Phone-Or-Mobile-Phone-VoIP-Communication-Technology-is-Changing-the-World-of-Business&id=1235859
Finally communication nowadays is ubiquitous available (cell phones i.e.); it has become fast, cheap, and easy and part of everybody’s everyday life; all this thanks to progression in communications technology.
Examples:
A good example is how the fax-device revolutionized business. Suddenly documents could be sent in almost real-time from any place in the world, to any other place in the world. Contracts and other document could be sent now much faster than through the conventional postal way. Meetings that were not really necessary helped companies to save a lot of money and transaction costs, because documents could be faxed now and details discussed on the phone. And this technology emerged already in the 1970’s.
Another good example that totally changed business’s shape in the last two decades, are cell phones. In the meantime, having a cell phone is taken for granted by anybody, and especially in the business world it is expected to have one, in order to be reachable all the time and everywhere; there is no question about that. Managers or other responsible persons can immediately get informed if something important happens to business and respond right away immediately; decision no more need to be necessarily taken at work place. Furthermore, newest devices like PDA’s or smart-phones enable the user to receive and read document (Word, PDF etc.), having thus the mobile office in your pocket.
Experiences:
If I think back at my time in school (in the 1990’s) many things were different. I did not have the chance to use Google, to get information about the topic for my homework. Internet was very slow and only in limited places available. Furthermore, I remember that we had a so called telephone-chain; that means that a list was distributed in class, so that when anything happened (like a cancelled class i.e.) the teacher called the person who was alphabetically first on the list and told her about the situation, whereupon this person had to call the next on the list and so on… All this effort unimaginable nowadays. Today an e-mail would have been sent around and that is it.
Another good example are governmental institutions that make many forms available online. The user can fill out the forms on the computer and submit them online. I experienced that during my application process for the visa. This saves those organizations a lot of bureaucratic costs.
And another major trend I realized is that many companies nowadays looking for employees accept exclusively online applications, making it easier and less costly for the applicant and also for HR employee who has to evaluate them. Sometimes a first selection of the applicants takes place electronically by predetermined standards that were programmed in those machines.
Links:
http://www.communicateusingtechnology.com/computer_and_network_articles.htm
http://education-portal.com/communication_technology_articles.html
http://www.idealware.org/articles/peace_through_ICTs.php
http://ezinearticles.com/?Cell-Phone-Or-Mobile-Phone-VoIP-Communication-Technology-is-Changing-the-World-of-Business&id=1235859
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