Impact on Communications


Greater Than The Telephone

The impact of the Internet on business communications is as large as, if not greater than, the introduction of the telephone. Can you imagine doing business without a telephone?

Using the Internet for eCommerce offers your business new and alternative methods of communicating effectively and efficiently. Many of your traditional forms of business communications, such as the face-to-face meeting, telephone conversation, letter, brochure, and other trade correspondence, can be adapted, enhanced, and integrated, with eCommerce methods.

Adopting eCommerce in your business will be a catalyst for change and growth that can enable you to serve your customers better, increase your trading opportunities, reduce operational costs and ultimately result in more profit. To realise these eCommerce benefits and others, will require you to change the way you work and communicate in some areas of your business. Identifying where eCommerce will generate the most benefits for your business requires thought, imagination, creativity, and a plan.


New Ways to Communicate

The telephone and the Internet both extend the power and range of business communication methods. We are so familiar with telephones that we don't think twice about using them. Similarly, using the Internet for eMail and browsing the Web, after a little practice, can be equally as easy and intuitive.


Internet Data Highway

Like the telephone network for voice, the Internet is the data network spanning the world and carrying data to and from connected computing devices. Text messages and documents, graphics, photographs, music, video, and much more, can be converted into data and sent by eMail, or presented on a Web site. Just as we can talk to anyone with a telephone, so we can communicate with data with anyone who has an Internet connection and an appropriate computer, no matter where they are located.


Communicate Cheaper and Faster

Information can be sent through the Internet for zero cost; but access to the Internet through your Internet Service Provider (ISP) is not free. For many small businesses a standard dial-up connection over a telephone line is suitable for gaining computer access to the Internet. Dial-up call charges are usually the same as for local call rates. However, if you are a heavy user of the Internet, then a monthly subscription charge (typically £13.99/month) for anytime usage will be cheaper, as it covers the cost of all Internet access calls. Businesses that require multiple users to have access to the Internet simultaneously, or other large bandwidth requirements, such as video conferencing, may choose to have ISDN, ADSL, or leased data lines. Either way, sending a message through the Internet usually costs a fraction of a penny - far cheaper, and faster, than fax or Royal Mail.


Communication Benefits of eMail

As you know, an eMail message can be addressed to one or many people, located anywhere in the world. It can also have attachments, such as documents, pictures, etc. When you send a message, you only pay for the Internet access. As soon as the message has arrived at your ISP, it will be sent for zero cost to all the people it has been addressed to. Moreover, your message is likely to arrive at its destination, even the other side of the world, in a matter of seconds or minutes, depending on the size of the eMail and its attachments. Think of the possibilities for saving time and money with eMails…

• Close sales faster. Respond to prospect and customer enquiries in minutes rather than days, presenting an image of professionalism and efficiency.

• Work faster as a team on product development, proposals or R&D projects. Large reports, CAD/CAM files, accounting data, etc., can be sent to multiple people and received immediately at nominal cost. No postage, printing, and packaging costs, to be paid - and, often, same minute delivery!

• Approve and proof work quickly. A quotation, purchase order, letter, design drawings, brochure, or advert colour proof, etc., can be eMailed to you as an attachment for your approval. Using eMail in this way can dramatically speed-up the turn-around of work between you and your business contacts.

• Buy and sell faster. Requirements, brochures, quotations, purchase orders, delivery schedules, etc., can be eMailed within seconds to your suppliers and customers all over the world. The whole process of buying and selling can be made much more efficient and responsive using eMails.

• Update employees instantly with new policies or procedures. eMail works well for communicating with colleagues who are off-site, out of the country, or tele-working.  Lasair Ltd, based in the Hebrides, uses over 30 skilled people, who all work from their homes. The company has daily contact with their people by using eMail and the Internet.

• Take advantage of time differences. As eCommerce communications are so fast and low cost, new business relationships have been established, where work is exchanged between time zones at the end of one day, which, on the other side of the world, is the beginning of either the same or next day.  Have look at how the gaphic design agency Blah d Blah in Bangor use the Internet to put this into practice.

• Send eNewsletters to customers and save time, postage and packaging. Update your customers and suppliers immediately with news and offers by eMail. Also, reinforce brand awareness and nurture customer loyalty. Remember to include links to your Web site and request readers to forward the newsletter to others who might be interested - don't forget to give them the option to un-subscribe.

Take a look at EEMA's 16 Steps to Effective eMail, and The Nine No's of eMail; there are some useful guidelines on how to communicate effectively with eMail.