Slide 1 : Copyright @ 2011 IILM Institute of Higher Learning. All rights Reserved. ELECTRONICS COMMUNICATION
INTRODUCTION : INTRODUCTION As a rule, factories process materials, offices process words and data are processed in both factories and offices. When IBM introduced its first electronic typewriter – ‘Selectric’, in 1964, little did they realize that it would become the precursor of revolutionary changes in communication capability of the organizations, groups and individuals. Personal Computers (PCs) were introduced in 1970s and were initially thought to be good toys that companies were giving away to managers to play around but, with the advent of technology of building networks of PCs and integrating them with communication technology around mid-1980s, it is changing the way of doing business in the twenty-first century. The vast strides in business electronics has had a profound impact on the way people communicate and send / receive information across companies, countries and continents.
Slide 3 : The advancement in computer-centric technologies has made communication travel faster, safer and almost free from distortions during transmission. Possibilities of misrepresentation are negligible although there are still some unresolved issues of security, hacking etc. Electronic communication has brought in revolutionary changes in written communication. More important tools and techniques of electronic communication that have impacted on written communication, described in this Unit, are:
Word Processing
Electronic Mail and SMS from Mobile Phones
Electronic Meeting System (EMS)
Fascimile Transmission or Fax Machines
Teletext and Videotext
Imaging
Optical Scanning
Desktop Publishing (DTP)
Electronic Data Interchange (EDI)
Blogs
WORD PROCESSING : WORD PROCESSING It is using computers to automate transformation of ideas in to a readable form of communication. It involves manipulation of text data viz., characters, words, sentences and paragraphs to produce information (useful data) in to documents like:
Letters
Memos
Forms
Reports
It is the oldest application. Operators use keyboards of a PC or a terminal to type matter that is displayed on the screen. With appropriate command, words, phrases, sentences and paragraphs can be added, deleted and moved around. Format and font of the documents can be adjusted and a variety of other manipulations can be carried out. The output can be stored in the hard disk memory or in secondary storage and printed whenever required.
Most software packages of word processing have:
Spelling check
Check of grammar or construction of a sentence
Thesaurus check
Style check
Slide 5 : The final document can be previewed to check layout and presentation before printing. As a result of these facilities in the software packages, it is now dramatically easier to:
Create and print documents of various designs, sizes and shapes
Edit, correct and revise documents
It also has software to assist in letter writing as it stores some paragraphs or sentences that are useful viz.
Opening sentences like;
‘Thank you for your letter concerning employment with our company’
‘Thank you for sending us a resume of your past business experience’
Closing sentences like: Again, thank you for your interest in our company
We look forward to hearing from you soon
Yours truly
Yours faithfully
Yours sincerely etc
Word processing facilitates:
Preparation of more effective written communication
Quicker to and fro communication
Migration of receivers of word-processed messages to word processing
Better and quicker decision making
ELECTRONIC MAIL AND SMS FROM MOBILE PHONES : ELECTRONIC MAIL AND SMS FROM MOBILE PHONES Electronic Mail:It is a one-way communication. Even so it has been able to solve issues that plagued telephone calls. A research by AT & T has confirmed that in 80 % of the cases, callers did not get the full information sought before calling off. Besides, the caller got in to the game known as ‘telephone tag’ – one party leaves the message to call back and when the second party called, first party was not present. The game went on for several rounds!
Despite the fact that Email is a one-way flow of information, it has become more popular in business. The process is quite simple. The user types the message and places it in the receivers’ electronic mail box. The receiver, at his convenience, opens the mailbox using his own PC / Laptop or terminal and own password and responds. Thus oral conversation on the telephone is replaced with two separate sets of one-way flows of information. Email software controls the entire process.
The software has following additional features:
(i) Electronic bulletin board - It is like a notice board for every one to read the message
(ii) Registered mail – In these cases, sender receives a confirmation that the message has been delivered
(iii) Private mail – This ensures that the message is not routed to others in the network
(iv) Mail distribution – It ensures that the same message is delivered to other addresses in the network
Internet access, available for a fee, comes with this facility and one can send / receive email messages almost anywhere in the globe instantaneously.
Slide 7 : (2) SMS From Mobile Phones:Another innovation in electronic technology that is making waves during the last 15 years, is the rapidly growing use of mobile telephony. According to the latest statistics, already there are about 670 millions mobile phones in India. They are increasingly incorporating a number of features in mobile phones that were earlier available only in personal computers and laptops. Short Messaging Service (SMS) is one powerful tool that is akin to Email and is making waves. Already, SMS is playing increasing role in business. Banking, Financial institutions and other industries are integrating it with their routine customer contacts.
The experts are of the opinion that laptops and mobile phones are moving in congruence. According to a publication by Microsoft, laptops and PCs of yesteryears will become more like wallets. With additional features being built in to mobile phones, they are becoming a wee bit bigger. From the current trends, it appears their congruence is not far away.
ELECTRONIC MEETING SYSTEMS (EMS) : ELECTRONIC MEETING SYSTEMS (EMS) Attending meetings away from the office entails a lot of time and expense in traveling, staying in hotels etc. These expenses can be considerably reduced by modern electronic meeting systems. They are becoming popular as viable options and broadly cover the following four options:
Audio conferencing
Computer conferencing
Video-audio conferencing
Use of web cameras
These are described below:
(1) Audio Conferencing:It uses voice equipment viz., telephone network that establishes audio links with persons who are either in the same building or geographically dispersed locations or a mix of both.
It has been in use by Indian Railways and Indian defence services for a long time as they have had their own private telephone networks. This type of conference does not require computers as such although these days the entire telephone system uses computer backup any way.
Audio conferencing has advantages as under:
Equipment not costly and is within easy reach of the firms
People feel at ease when talking on telephone
Meetings can be arranged at short notice
Slide 9 : It is well suited for offices located wide apart or even within a building. However, communications for problem solving among persons located in the same premises is faster through face-to-face interaction.In order to make such meetings more effective, following rules are suggested:
Organizer or senior person should moderate the discussions
No of participants to be kept less than 6
Copy of the agenda to be faxed before hand
Participants to identify themselves before speaking
Proceedings of the conference should be tape-recorded
Copies of the decisions should be circulated to all participants; this can be done through email to all concerned instantaneously.
(2) Computer Conferencing:It is getting persons from different locations and disciplines together on computers that are networked to exchange information on a common problem for decision-making and work out a solution. There is a fine line between email and computer conferencing. In computer conferencing, usually a large number of persons can be brought together to interact on issues requiring their suggestions. A very well known example is that of IBM organized one of the largest computer conference before they finalized the specifications and features of a standard Personal Computer (PC). It is on record that some 40,000 persons participated in it and about 4,000 topics were discussed, recording the participants considered opinions about various features and facilities to be incorporated in a PC.Obviously, when the IBM PC was launched in 1983, it set up a whole new standard in product design in the industry. It had many pioneering feature and facilities that were not available before in any of the PCs in the market.Computer conference can be set up with persons who might be sitting in the next cabin as well as with those across the globe.
Slide 10 : (3) Video-Audio Conferencing Here television equipment is used to link participants in locations that are geographically dispersed. It has three basic configurations:
One-way video and one-way audio
One-way video and two-way audio
Two-way video and two-way audio
This facility is used to get together managers from different locations and involve them in to almost face-to-face communication for taking group decisions. It enhances the ownership, authorship and involvement of all persons who take decisions jointly. Thus this technology facilitates personal involvement in problem solving and decision-making. In most large organizations, there a separate room specifically created for organizing these conferences.
Electronic Meeting Systems are seeing rapid growth as it promotes quickest communication for group decision support systems. Because of their increasing popularity for effective communication, many hotels and telecommunication carriers are offering these facilities for:
Launching new products in large markets like USA, EU, India etc
Organizing sales meetings of the large sales force
Education and training of employees of large corporations
Slide 11 : (4) Use of Web Camera:In recent years, Internet Telephony has made rapid strides and reputed firms like Skype and Yahoo are offering facilities of use of web cameras (Webcams) for verbal communications as well as chatting through written messaging instantaneously.
Use of webcams is becoming a powerful tool for one-to-one communication that is almost face to face. Before long many useful business applications will be available that would enable group interaction and decision-making across regions, countries and continents. Already webcams are fitted in most of the laptops in the market.
However, for complex problems, there is no substitute to face-to-face meetings.
FASCIMILE TRANSMISSION OR FAX MACHINES : FASCIMILE TRANSMISSION OR FAX MACHINES Fax machine can read a document image at one end of the communication channel, using an ordinary land line of a voice telephone system and making a copy at the other end instantaneously. Alternatively, a fax board can be fitted on the PC and then, it can perform the functions of a fax machine. The messages can be keyed, stored, displayed and transmitted at will either immediately or at a time set by the sender. Previously, when telephone tariffs were high, messages were transmitted at night to take advantage of lower tariffs.
This has emerged as a powerful means of communication particularly in the technical and legal areas. Drawings can be faxed to another location at construction sites or consultants offices and discussed jointly to speed up decision-making. Similarly, legal documents in draft or final forms can be transmitted across to include suggestions of the concerned persons to finalize the contracts quickly.
Fax machines are also used to exchange documents between countries to conclude agreement among nations on political, economic, trade or other sensitive issues where wordings and what appears in fine prints is of great importance.
It is also a very important mode of communication in exports and international trade. Parties send enquires on fax, receive the answer by fax. Sometimes, the same message is sent back with quick hand written notes and the other party replies. If acceptable, the same fax message is sent back and becomes the agreement.
The small gadget called Fax machine has speeded the pace of communications for clinching many large contract in quick time.
TELETEX AND VIDEOTEX : TELETEX AND VIDEOTEX This is an automatic system of retrieval wherein a firm can receive requests for information and the same can be provided 24 x 7 round the clock without anyone touching the computer keyboard! Any organization can create a variety of information documents with suitable code numbers. On furnishing the code number of the document of interest, a customer can access the same. If the customer is satisfied with the product details available and the price, he can place order for the product on line in the order format provided. If the customer gives his credit card details, firm can receive the payment also automatically. However, this requires a great deal of sophistication and high degree of ethics in business.
Information products of various kinds have attracted a lot of interest for gathering information leading to quick e-commerce transactions on the one hand and facilitating information from other external sources that can serve as a vital input for long-term strategic decisions. Because of these powerful advances in communication technology, a new breed of businessmen have come up and are known as ‘infopreneures’ who are in the business of processing data in to convenient documents that are of value to customers who can download or collect by paying the right price for it. The technology is called the Teletex or Videotex and the corresponding products are known as teletext or videotext. These are one-way, repetitive broadcasting of pages of tables, text and graphics that can be displayed on individuals’ television screen. Broadly, these documents may be classified in to three categories:
Teletext
Hypertext
Videotext
These services can be provided through:
Cable system
Telephone lines
Standard television transmission
All three of them can be available as interactive information service provided by the firm and are described below:
Slide 14 : (1) Teletext:The information software provides for ways to access different sections of the information on the press of the command. For example, by a simple click of the mouse, we can access:
Electronic yellow page
Personal bank accounts
Air booking both domestic and international
‘Demat’ accounts with various depository partners for stocks etc
Major government departments, agencies and corporations have developed large text bases containing documents of all kinds for use by the public. There is a whole group of ‘Text Database Management System’ software available and these can be used to create, store, search, retrieve, modify and assemble various types of information products.Teletex system will also be used extensively for doing daily shopping. Customers can connect with the grocery stores and all the items available and the prices ruling on the day will be available on display. They can order requirements of items and seek door delivery. The customer can also do comparison buying by ringing up other stores and finding their prices. They can even divide order among two or more stores.
(2) HypertextAt higher levels of management, strategic decision-making is better if external, notably environmental data in used. Such data, known as Hypertext, are available from professional information providers who offer these services for a price usually against an annual membership fee or on piece-meal basis.Such data form an integral input for Executive Information System (EIS) for decisions at the executive (senior management) level. Thes text and data are retrieved from commercial databases for a fee and from public databases, free.
Hypertext are available not only in an interactive mode but also with facilities like pop-up displays which are brought on to the screen for a short time and then one can revert back to what was at hand.
These are several software of Hypertext available as they are delivering value to the users.
Slide 15 : (3) Videotext:This type of database is also available in interactive mode and uses a combination of technologies. These applications are developed as Digital Video Interactive (DVI) applications and require significant processing power and memory, hard disk and optical disk storage besides audio, video and text technologies.
Here also three options are available:
Create own videotext files
Access videotext files of other companies
Subscribe to videotext service bureau
These modes of communication, although in the initial stages in 1980s, did not arouse enough attention; they have become popular for E-commerce as they bring the exchange of information among the stores and buyers to a meaningful conclusion. It is expected to become very popular with retailers and grocery stores.
They will play a bigger role in the transmission of newspapers, journals etc on-line to enable readers all over the world to remain in touch with news in the format they are familiar with!
IMAGING : IMAGING Image processing is growing rapidly as it enables end users to electronically capture, store, process and retrieve images of documents and drawings that cover:
Numeric data
Text
Handwritten material
Graphics
Photographs
Drawings
Sensitive legal documents etc
Besides, imaging faculty has helped upgrade the Electronic Document Management (EDM). Besides, digitized voice note can be attached with the text improving the comprehension of documents that may otherwise appear prosaic. EDM can easily interface with other electronic methodologies like:
Word processing
Desktop publishing
Email
Voice mail
This further enhances the communication process between two or more parties for speeding up decision-making.
OPTICAL SCANNING : OPTICAL SCANNING Scanners employ photo-electronic devices to scan the characters being read. The reflected light patterns of the data are converted in to electronic impulses that are, in turn, accepted as inputs to the computer system. It can convert a paper document directly in to input.
Following three types of scanners are common:
(1) Optical character recognition (OCR) equipment :It can read alphabetic, numeric and other special characters that are printed, typed or hand-written on ordinary paper. The most popular one is the scanner for score sheets of objective types of tests with multiple choices. These are used for compiling the entire examination results on computers. These are used extensively on:
Credit card billing operations,Processing of utility bills,Accounting of insurance premiums,Processing of airline tickets, Accounting of cash register entries, Sorting of mail automatically, Computing test scores automatically
Processing of a variety of forms in Government and business
(2) Graphic scanners:These scanners can read graphics, text etc and are popular in Desktop publishing’
(3) Hand-held optical scanners:These are used to read data on merchandise tags and other articles. They can scan a lot of data printed in bar codes and have revolutionized store receipt and issue operations, billing at check-out counters in malls etc. Once bar coding becomes compulsory in India, these are going to become very commonplace devices in most retail stores.
However, readers must learn to distinguish scanners from magnetic ink character readers (MICR) used extensively in banks for reading cheques and deposit slips.
DESKTOP PUBLISHING (DTP) : DESKTOP PUBLISHING (DTP) Large corporations are using DTP systems to create their own printed materials. The printed material of the corporation can have several types of:
Character styles and sizes
Graphics
Colours in different pages
Layouts that are impressive
All that the firm needs are:
Personal computer
Laser printer that is capable of quality printing
Software for word processing, graphics and page make-up
The firm has to invest in high quality printing and install a more powerful computer with advanced graphic capabilities.
Recent advances in software have made the job of printing complex reports involving illustrations, graphics etc much easier than before. These outputs presented to your customers and stakeholders make an impressive presentation that enhances firms’ image and reputation. These make the communication more effective and speed up decision making in own favour. If in-house facility of DTP is used, it can help improve the layout of written presentation that can incorporate suitable visual aids to make the matter easy on the eye, easier to read and easiest to comprehend.
Slide 19 : Acknowledgments We wish to acknowledge the people who actively contributed to the writing and delivery of the learning material
Author
Prof. Manohar L. Gulati
Presenter
M.Sadiqur Rahman, Fullbright Scholar, Lecturer, Employability Skills & Business Communication
A special thanks to the technical support team who were instrumental in the design and implementation of this presentation.
Slide 20 : Contact Details For further information, please contact:
IILM Institute for Higher Education
3, Lodhi Institutional Area,
Lodhi Road, New Delhi- 110003
Email: learning@iilm.edu
Web : www.iilm.edu
THANK YOU : THANK YOU