COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES

Information Communications Technology is an umbrella term that includes all technologies for the communication of information. It encompasses: any medium to record information (whether paper, pen, magnetic disk/ tape, optical disks - CD/DVD, flash memory etc. etc.); and also technology for broadcasting information - radio, television,; any technology for communicating through voice and sound or images- microphone, camera, loudspeaker, telephone to cellular phones. At present, it is apparently culminating to information communication with the help of personal computers (PCs) networked through the Internet through information technology that can transfer information using satellite systems or intercontinental cables. Indeed, information technology (IT) has become a kind of a hub for communicating information, most often using computers. The advent in technology has contributed towards globalization. It has made the world’s market a borderless market. With the help of these technologies, the organization can tap the untapped market; can reduce the cost of operations and distributions. Today’s business world just can’t survive without the communication technology. The cell phone revolution has a greater impact on the business conducted all over the world. Forget about big businesses, today even a road side vegetable vendor cant carry out his business without a cell phone and such is the impact of the modern communication tools on our lives.
From the time Alexander Graham Bell invented telephone, there have been a constant development it the communication technology. Human beings can never be satisfied with what they have and this has led to the invention of various forms of communication. Today most of the MNCs run their business all over the world through telephonic conferences, video conferencing, satellite meetings etc. these communication technologies help companies to achieve high degree of success in communication. One of the important uses of various communication technologies within companies is to build efficient internal communication system.
Technology is changing rapidly so is communication technologies. It is just a matter of time when new technology comes and replace existing one. In fact scientists are now working on to communicate with extraterrestrial intelligence (CETI). So it’s just a matter of time when we will find ourselves chatting, or video conferencing or even calling our friends in other planets!


PERSONAL EXPERIENCE: one day, I was feeling terrible, confused and something kept bothering me when I was driving to college. I felt like I had forgotten to take something very important with me. And that’s when I realized that I forgot to carry my cell phone with me. I felt so incomplete without my phone the whole day. I felt like I had lost the connection with the rest of the world. I am sure all u guys would have felt the same way as I did… this proves that not just big businesses but even a common man cannot survive without the communication tools.





RELATED LINKS:
http://www.hudtech.net/Importance-of-Technology.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_technology

http://www.natcom.org/nca/Template2.asp?bid=394

CORPORATE COMMUNICATION WITH RELEVANCE

Relevance is not limited to strictly traditional sales/client communications. In a corporate environment, there are literally hundreds of applications for the distribution of information through documents, both internally – to various departments, employees, and management, as well as externally – to clients, prospects, suppliers, investors, and government.

Sales:
Relevant communications can help companies track their interactions with clients. Smart documents coupled with a ‘360 degree view’ of the client, collect data about what clients want to know when contacts are made, whether the contacts are initiated by the company (i.e.: rep visits or mailings) or by the client (i.e.: calls to the company's call center or Web searches and inquiries).

Costumer service:
Relevant communications can help organizations take a strategic view of their customer-service operations by deploying customer self-service applications and tools to offer real-time data for offices and clients. Relevant communications can also help centralize the data that is scattered throughout the organization in multiple formats from different sources.

Marketing:
Relevant communications can help marketing professionals realize the power of targeted communications in building and sustaining customer relationships. The traditional marketing approaches of ‘blast’ email, fax, and voice-based telemarketing can be replaced with newer concepts of permission-based targeted marketing, real-time marketing, event-driven marketing and one-on-one personalized marketing.

Employees:
Rich timely relevant content allows a portal to become a primary employee communication tool. By providing the right type of relevant information, higher employee productivity will be the result. Here, they cannot only manage their workload but also learn about corporate activities, competition, and engage in collaborative projects.

EXAMPLE: Relevant communications can be used, for example, by energy companies to inform callers that an outage in their area has already been reported and thus reduce traffic to the call center. Callers may also request to be called automatically once an outage situation has been rectified.



PERSONAL EXPERIENCE: in my MBA class we had a lot of group assignments to do. We used to assign different topics to different group members. And few of my group members used to never give us the information relevant to the topic for discussion. Because of which we used to loose out a lot of points. Information relevant to the topic will lead to the better understanding of the topic. This is applicable even to the corporate organizations.

RELATED LINKS:

http://www.feld.com/blog/archives/2005/02/signs_of_increa.html
http://scholar.google.co.in/scholar?q=importance+of+corporate+communication+relevance&hl=en&client=firefox-a&channel=s&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&um=1&ie=UTF-8&oi=scholart

INTERNAL COMMUNICATION

INTERNAL COMMUNICATION

It is stupidity to think, by any company, that only external communication is important for its success. It has to realize that internal communication is equally important for it to achieve its objectives. Internal communications includes all communication within an organization. Internal communications may be oral or written, face to face or virtual, one-on-one or in a small group. Effective internal communication - which can be said to be "downward, upward, and horizontal" - is a vital means of addressing organizational concerns. Good internal communication helps to establish formal roles and responsibilities for employees. As employees are the vital part of the organization, it is important to communicate to them the objectives and goals of the organization. It is also important to involve the employees in the decision making process. Not only the goals and the objectives should be communicated but also the annual profits and change in the share prices should be told to them.
Where should the internal communications report? The information should be properly shared between corporate communication department and the human resource department.
EFFECTIVE INTERNAL COMMUNICATION PROGRAM:
· COMMUNICATE UP AND DOWN: there must be a proper flow of information from top management to the employees and also the information should flow from the employees to the top management about their opinion, requests, requirements etc.
· FACE TO FACE COMMUNICATION: managers and members of the top management should make time to talk to the employees working under them. In person meeting will provide an access to their senior management. If the geography and size cause constrains then video conferencing, telephonic conferencing can be used.
· COMMUNICATE ONLINE: with the employees through e-mails and intranet. The advent of intranet provides a new channel through which the companies can reach its employees quickly and also personally.
· CREATE EMPLOYEE ORIENTED PUBLICATIONS: using internal newsletters. Companies can also use the memos and letters to communicate with its employees.
· COMMUNICATE VISUALLY: today’s employees are very sophisticated and want hi-tech communication network such as webcasts and multimedia presentations.
· INTERNAL BRANDING: it is not only important to sell the products to its consumers but before that a company should “sell” its products to its employees or the idea which they trying to convey to their consumers through an advertisement campaign.
An organization can obtain an effective internal system only by analyzing its employee’s attitude towards the organization. This can be done through communication audit. But it is not a good idea to employ an outside consultant to conduct internal communication audit for example the strategy adopted by the Starbucks coffee co was a bad strategy.
A positive example of internal communications is Yahoo’s competitor Google. The Internet Company has an open door policy. Employees can present their ideas to executives and top level managers engage in group discussions with lower level employees discussing new product ideas.
PERSONAL EXPERIENCE: My friend who is working in an consultancy firm always complaints that she is unable to reach her manager to clarify her doubts and she hardly gets to see him as he is out of town most of the time. The fact that her manager is unreachable frustrates her most of the time as it affects her job understanding and has an adverse affect on her job performance.

RELATED LINKS: http://www.managementhelp.org/mrktng/org_cmm.htm
http://performance-appraisals.org/Bacalsappraisalarticles/articles/comstrat.htm
http://www.expresscomputeronline.com/20050207/technologylife01.shtml

CHANGING ENVIRONMENT

CHANGE is something which is inevitable. Everybody has to welcome change. The way business is conducted today is not the same way how it was a decade back. There are various driving factors changing the environment of the business- external factors and internal factors. External factors are factors on which the company has no control on. Some of the external factors are political factors, social and economical factors, natural calamities, customer tastes and preferences etc. Internal factors are those on which the company has control on. Examples of internal factors are: methods of production, employee turnover rate etc.
Some of the main reasons for the change in the organizational environment in the recent years are globalization, advent in technologies, development in communication system, change in the distribution network etc. The workplace in most of the companies is no more traditional. Most of the companies today are modern with sophisticated technology. The advancement in technology is such that, today I can even work for a company sitting at home but a decade back nobody would even have contemplated . Thanks to the internets and cell phones.
Companies have to deal with a changing environment in terms of changing attitudes of people towards their way of doing business. Corporations like Gillette, Nike and McDonald’s have experienced the challenges of increasing customer awareness for social responsibility. The three important steps involved in managing the changing environment are:
RECOGNISE THE CHANGING ENVIRONMENT.
ADAPT TO THECHANGING ENVIRONMENT WITHOUT COMPROMISING ON THE POLICIES.
KEEP CORPORATE COMMUNICATION CONNECTED TO THE STRATEGY.
The environment of businesses is continuously changing. Corporations must find ways to react to those changes and communicate the strategy throughout the organization. The companies have to adapt to the changes for their long term survival in the business.

PERSONAL EXPERIENCE: during my schooling there used to be constant changes taking place within the school campus and this was because of modernization. My school was under renovation. This is an example for adapting the changing environment in order to compete with other schools in the same locality for the best infrastructure.

RELATED LINKS: http://www.smeinfo.com.my/publication/sme06/2.pdf

http://business.rutgers.edu/download.aspx?id=1186