Impact of Technological Advancement on Business Communication

The world order is changing dramatically because of the advancement in the

information technology (IT). The rate of globalization in the past few years has
been nothing short of phenomenal. The world has entered the information age
surpassing the industrial age which has been made possible by the ever increasing
developments in the field of IT. The way we access and assimilate information and
the emergence of new methods of packaging information have given birth to more
complex and powerful revolution in business.

Architecture & Functioning of Internet

Many decades ago a project was started in the US Department of Defense.
The goal was to create a method for widely separated computers to transfer data
efficiently from one location to another even in the event of a nuclear attack. This
project was named as ARPANET (Advanced Research Project Administration
Network). With the end of cold war the US government made that project available
to their industry in late 1980’s and then it was termed as Internet. Today Internet
has become the world’s largest computer network, the network of network,
scattered all over the world. It is an example of Wide Area Networking (WAN).
From a handful of computer and users in 1960, today Internet has grown to
thousands of regional networks that can connect millions of users. The Internet
offers access to data, graphics, sound, software, text and people through a variety
of services and tools for communication and data exchange. The internet is a
global network of computer, working as servers or clients to exchange information.
The Internet is distributed over homes, businesses, schools and government offices
all over the world. Millions of computers of different types- PCs, mainframes,
minis and others are connected in through networks. The Internet therefore is a
network of networks spread over the world.

Internet is a network of clients and servers. The servers may be, dedicated or
general, performing dedicated functions or serving general requirements. The
information, which one need is stored on server computer and the program, which
accesses the information, sits on client. The main three reasons for using Internet
are:

Getting Information on the Internet : The amount of information available

through the Internet is staggering. With the help of a “world wide web (www)” one
can get information about people, products, organizations, research data, electronic
versions of newspaper, TV channels etc.

Providing Information on the Internet: For an organization or institution,

putting up there information on internet is a good way to let the world know what
there products and services are. In addition to this, the other critical functions that
can be done are PUBLISHING which includes full text articles, reports etc.,
TEACHING: the possibility here includes both distance learning and assistance for
students.

Compiling Information from the Internet: This is a special case of “getting”

information e.g., if one wants to poll the readership for a magazine or conduct a
survey to detect the position, the internet provides an ideal platform and
opportunity.

Internet access: Following methods for internet access are there:

Dial–Up Connection: With a dial-up connection, one can use modem to convert
computer digital signals into analog signals that the phone line can transmit. To
establish dial-up connections following steps are required:
 An account with an Internet Service Provider (ISP)
 A telephone connection, a computer with a modem
 A communication software like Internet explorer, netscape navigator
etc.
Direct Connection: One can also get a direct connection to the ISP thru the fixed
cable or dedicated lines to the ISP. IF one is having dedicated lines, one need not
use a modem to connect the computer to Internet but a router is required.

Through Telephone, Cable and Satellite: Companies like Reliance, Tata

Indicom, BSNL, Airtel and all other private and government telecom operators
have started provided their broadband Internet services with the help of their
landline or mobile telephone connection to the users.

Some companies also offer Internet access over the same cable that brings the
TV programs. Recently companies like SIFI have launched their dedicated cable
network for the purpose of offering their broadband Internet services.

Digital Satellite Systems (DSS) or direct broadcast satellite let the user get
Internet connection via satellite. Hughes Direct PC is the company, which provides
the Internet through satellite. For this the user requires 24 inches antenna, a coaxial
cable, PC adaptor card and web browser. Through DSS data can be received at a
very high speed and this data can be send by a dial-up connection and an ISP.
Utilities of Internet/ Activities performed on Internet
 Following are the various utilities or activities that a user can perform with
the help of Internet:

 Surf through various websites of companies, governments, museums,

schools, colleges, and universities for information.
 Hold voice and videoconferences enabling to see each other.
 Send and receive e-mails
 Read and post articles in newsgroups
 Download files to the PC
 Chat with other user online
 Play games with other users on line, Play quiz
 Subscribe to e-newsletters
 Do on line shopping (e-commerce)
 Post resumes on internet
 Create one’s own home page
 Send greeting to others
Apart from it there may be lot of many other things which a user can do with the
help of Internet.

Electronic Mail
E-Mail is an electronic message sent from one computer to another. One can
send or receive personal and business related messages with attachments like
pictures or other documents from one place to another.

Why Use E-Mail

 E-Mail is delivered much faster than the conventional mail(also called snail
mail) and with the world wide spread of internet now it is very easy to send
messages across the world in few seconds.
How private is E-Mail:
E-Mail is less private than the conventional mail, some of its contents could be
read by anyone who has the access to the recipient computer.

How E-Mail Works:

Sender ISP ISP Recipient

computer Server Internet Server Computer

First thing one has to do is to type in one’s message, Key in recipient’s e-mail
address & press the send button of the e-mail program.

The e-mail message arrives at one’s service provider’s server. If it recognizes the
e-mail address as valid, the mail will be sent. The mail is send via internet. The
recipient’s service provider server will receive it and from here it will be sent to the
recipient computer.

E-Mail, Names &Address:

An e-mail address identifies a person &the computer for the purpose of
exchanging e-mail messages. The basic structure of an e-mail address is

username@domain
domain consist of two parts:
 Name of the service provider.
 Protocol or restriction by internet.
For example cp@vsnl.net.in
Here vsnl -> is the company .net -> network, .in-> shows the country India
Another may be c.p.gupta@sify.com

Here .com ->reflect the commercial connection, here service provider name is not
written as it is the website develop by the company with the e-mail facility.
Address Book
An address book is a place where one can store information about people with
whom one corresponds. The advantage of having a person’s detail in the address
book is that one need not key in receives details each & every time one sends the
message.

File Attachments
One major drawback of e-mail is that one cannot send formatted text i.e.-
pictures etc. the solution is to send the file as an attachment to the mail.

Replying & Forwarding E-Mail messages

Just like one send & receive letters, one can send &receive e-mail too. But e-
mail program give many more option. For example by simply clicking on the reply
button the mail can be directed back & by clicking on ”reply to all” the mail goes
to all the persons whose address are there in the original mail.

SMILEYS, (EMOTIONS), Nettiquete

Emoticons or smileys are the symbols and the short form of various words and
used in writing mail

 Happy,  sad, :-0 surprised, :-@ screaming, :-D laughing

Few of the commonly used abbreviation are

OIC : Oh I see, FYI : For your information., BTW : By the way.,

THX : Thanks. HTH : Hope this helps.

Various Internet Terminologies

The World Wide Web (www): The World Wide Web is the brainchild of Tim
Berner Lee, who had an idea of creating an electronic web of research information.
During 1980’s he developed a programming language called HTML on which web
was based. One of the major differences between a web page and the conventional
media is that the web is an interactive service.

The www is the graphical Internet service that provides a network of interactive
documents and softwares to access them. It is based on the document called pages
that combine text, pictures, frames, sound, animation and hypertext links. The web
presents information as a series of “documents” often referred to as web pages that
are prepared using the “Hypertext Markup Language”.

Since the web is not hierarchical and can handle graphics, it offers a great deal
of flexibility in organizing, presenting and describing the information resources.

Web Site: A web site is a collection of web pages belonging to a particular topic,
company or a person. The first page of any of the web site is known as the Front
Page or the Home Page of that site. The URL of the home page also serves as the
URL of that particular web site. For example http://www.indiatimes.com is a web
site

Web Pages: A web page is a single unit of information often called a document. A
web page can be longer than a computer screen and may require more than one
piece of paper when it is printed. A web page is created using HTML and a web
site consist of a number of web pages.

Uniform Resource Locator (URL): The URL provides an addressing scheme,

which allows the web browser to request about any document, or the web page
user is searching on the Internet. This web page or the document may be located
anywhere on the Internet. A URL is of the following form:
<Protocol>://web-server-name>/<directory-name>/file-name>
I II III
The first part of URL tells about the protocol to be used. Second part of URL is
known as the domain name which identifies the server on which the requested
information, document is stored and the third part of the URL is the full path name
for a particular Web page.

Web Server: A web server is simply a computer with an Internet connection that
runs software designed to send the requested information, document, and file by
the user to them. These information, document, files are in the form of HTML
pages. The server computer should be of very high processing capabilities so that it
can handle a number of simultaneous requests at a time.

HTML: HTML defines several aspects of a web page including levels, bold,
italics, images, paragraph breaks; hypertext links to other resources etc., HTML
can be compared to word processing. It is a way of defining the formats of text in a
web page. It also defined placement of graphics and hypertext links.

Web Browsers: A web browser is a piece of software that acts as an interface

between the user and the inner working of the Internet. The browser acts on behalf
of the user. The browser connects a web server and sends a request for information
receives the information and displays it on the user’s computer. A browser can be
graphical or text based and can make the Internet easier to use. Examples of some
common browsers are Netscape Navigator, Microsoft Internet Explorer, Mosaic,
Opera, Lynx ( text based).
Web Browsing or Net Surfing: Internet browsing or “net surfing” is the process
of visiting different web sites on the Internet hosted by various companies,
organizations, educational institutes, magazines, individuals etc.

Searching the Web : There are two main types of search tools
 Web Index: A web index collects and organizes resources available via the
World Wide Web. It is referred to as a catalog or directories. Most web
indexes not only allow users to identify a particular resource of interest, but
also actually links them directly to the resources from the index.

 Search Engines: A web search engine is an interactive tool to help people

locate information available via World Wide Web. Web search engines are
actually databases that contain references to thousands of resources. A web
search engine provides an interface between the user and the database. The
interface presents the user with a place to type in a search string, which may
be a word, a phrase, a date or some other value. The web search engine runs
the search string and the database, returns a list of resources that matches the
 criteria and displays the result for the user. Most commonly used web search
engines are GOOGLE.COM, MSN.COM etc.

Intranet: Doing business on Internet requires a network platform, which is

faultless and allows smooth flow of data and information in any form from any
location to any other destinations, The Intranet is an internal computer network of
any company that uses internet standards, namely HTMA (Hyper test mark-up
language), HTTP (Hypertext transfer protocol and TCP/IP (Transmission Control
standards and supported by Web server and web browser and becomes internet for
the organization. Intranet is meant for users from the organizations. The normal
computer network (LAN/WAN) in any business organization handles database
applications, the same network when converted as intranet can handle text and
multimedia applications. The Intranet is not accessible to the people outside the
organization.

The Intranets can be used within the organization for following purposes:
 Access Manuals, contracts, Post personal web pages, Access product
or customer Data, Post job offers, Memos, Revision, Validation,
approval of documents, Access schedules, Plan Calendars, Access
databases.

An intranet adds value in the information of business due to its capability of

handling text and multimedia data types. Intranet deals with internal information
needs of the people in an organization. It does not give access to external world.
Hence, people outside the organization cannot access this information. Intranet is
not Internet
 To run intranet, the user need one or more server, client workstations and a
network connecting servers and clients. TCP/IP software should be present on
servers and clients. Web server software should be on server while web browser
software should be on clients. To run intranet, four software components are
needed. They are –TCP, IP, Web server and web browser.

Extranet: Intranet is private to the organization. Extranet is an intranet for outside

authorized users using same Internet technology. The out side users are trusted
partners of the organization who have access to information of their interest and
concern. For example, in auto-industry spare parts manufacturers have access to
inventory database and production schedules used to plan and ship the required
spares to factory location.

Dealer/Distributors have access to product files such as catalogues, product

specifications, pictures, images, etc. to answer queries of the customer. When
intranet crosses the logical boundary of the organization and provides secured
access to selected data and information of the organization the intranet becomes
extranet.The security in Extranet depends on organization’s policy on information
management. If you treat your trusted partner like any other normal user of the
organization, then security can be ensured through access rights, authentication and
certification procedure.

If one wants to trade trusted partners like outsiders to the organization, you can
build firewalls between outside users and Intranet, which will ensure no unlawful
and unauthorized access to information.
Difference in Internet, Intranet and Extranet: To explain in simple terms, Intranet is

private, within the organization, Extranet can be called as Intranet of two different
business organizations sharing data and information with each other, while Internet
is public, available for global access requirement. The technologies used in
Intranet, Extranet and Internet are same. Pictorially Internet, Intranet and Extranet
can be understood as follows:

Mobile or Cellular Phone: It is a cordless mobile communication device which

facilitates two way communications in a wide geographic area. The caller need not
know the location of the person being called. He can reach any where, any one at
any time by cellular/ mobile phone.

The cellular concept was developed by AT&T Bell Laboratories, USA. The
instrument is battery operated. It is very small and can be placed in a pocket or a
purse. It is also capable of displaying short messages on the screen. It is possible to
communicate with anyone who has a cellular phone or ordinary phone connection.

SMS:

Short message Service (SMS) is the facility to send and receive text message
to and from mobile phones. The features of SMS include the following:
 i. SMS supports several input mechanisms that allow interconnection
with different sources and destinations of message.

ii. With SMS, an active mobile handset is able to receive or submit a

short message at any time, independent of whether a voice or data call
is in progress.

iii. SMS guarantees delivery of the message by the network. The

temporary failures due to unavailable receiving stations are identified,
and the short message is stored in SMS centre until the destination
device becomes available.

iv. It is out of bound packet delivery and low band width message
transfer; result in a highly efficient means for transmitting data.

v. Additional services like e-mail, fax, paging, interactive banking, etc

can be made available.

vi. Additional facilities like instant messaging, gaming, chatting can be

made available.

Voice Mail:

Voice mail is used to leave voice message for the other person when he is
not around his telephone. It is a computerized system for receiving and delivering
the incoming calls to the intended subscribers. Thus, incoming calls are never
missed even when the subscriber in absent. Under this system, a voice responds to
the caller and receives and stores the message for delivering it to the receiver. The
receiver can receive the voice mail when he is available.

Voice mail consists of software that links the telephones with the computer.
The information from a telephone is sent to the computer which digitalizes the
voice data and stores it on a disk. The receiver can call the voice mail centre to
obtain the recording of the voice message. Voice mail messages are useful in
replacing telephone calls for which no immediate response is needed.

Teleconferencing:

Tele-conferencing is electronic communication between two or more people

at two or more locations. In its simplest form, it is the telephone conference call
but with speakerphones in each office, the number of participants can be greatly
increased. When using two-way calls, all participants can speak with all other
participants. A major limitation of tele-conferencing is that it can not replace the
face-to-face interaction between people. Where people prefer face-to-face
interaction, tele-conferencing will not serve the real purpose.

Videoconferencing:

Video conferencing enables two or more people to hear and see each other,
share a whiteboard (for writing), and share other applications like chatting, file
transfer, collaboration. It is an easy way to meet with people when you need to
speak face-to-face. It is becoming a popular business application also such as to
connect a main office with telecommuters; to meet with customers without
incurring travel costs and time; and to keep branch offices around the world in
visual contact with one another. Thus video-conferencing is more thank talking
and seeing. This technology makes it possible to have virtual meetings called”
video conference”, among far-flung people.

 Mode of Video Conferencing: One need to connect to the Internet Service

Provider, start the conferencing software and log on to one of the conference
servers listed in the software. The servers are used as the central meeting
area. Each server has a “directory” which is similar to a phone directory that
 lists everyone who is logged on to the server. The person that you want to
talk to also has to be logged on. One will select the directory, and when the
other person accepts the call, the conference begins. Depending upon the
software application, one can hold video conference with one person or with
many persons.

 Applications of Video Conferencing: It could be used for remote school,

getting medical opinion from distant specialists, and talking to someone
immediately without leaving the computer, without traveling to where those
are located.

 Advantages of Video Conferencing: The benefits of video conferencing

are as under:

o It serves as a substitute for face-to-face communication.

o Communication is real time.

o It overcomes transcending barriers of distance.

o It leads to saving in traveling costs of executives.

o It leads to saving in time of holding meetings.

o It facilitates rapid expansion of knowledge of people sitting at

different places.

 Limitations of Video Conferencing: It has got some limitations also. The

person that one wants to talk to should have a computer as well as the
hardware and software required for conferencing. Secondly, computer is not
portable like a mobile phone. Hence it affects the portability of the
conferencing. Thirdly, since both the parties have to be using their
computers at the same time, it will be difficult to schedule for the
conversation, however, e-mail can be used to exchange messages and set up
a meeting time to schedule a video conference. Fourthly, the privacy of a
video conference is not always guaranteed.