Information communication technology in business communication Internet Intranet

Information communication technology in business communication Internet Intranet Email Business Websites Browsing search engines

Definition: Internet • A worldwide network of networks. It is also the network of networks that connects millions computers (called hosts). • Internet is the virtual space in which users send and receive email, login to remote computers (telnet), browse databases of information (gopher, World Wide Web, WAIS), and send and receive programs contained on these computers.

WHAT IS INTERNET? • Today the internet offers the opportunity to access to any information, to correspond with someone who has an e-mail account, or call directly (Skype) to discuss a topic in a forum, to share experiences or information on a personal website, on a blog or a page from a sharing site. • It is a tool with multiple uses: professional, leisure, research, communication, etc.

HOW DOES IT WORK? • Internet is composed of a multitude of networks around the world. • Each network is connected to a separate entity (university, provider of internet access, military). • To contact them, the networks share business data establishing a direct connection. • Each network is connected to several other networks.

WHAT IS A DOMAIN? • A domain name is an identification label that defines a realm of administrative autonomy, authority, or control in the Internet, based on the Domain Name System (DNS). • The Domain is an identification system that locates the organization owner of that domain, such as "wikipedia. org". On an email address, it is often written at the end.

WHAT IS AN URL? • URL (Uniform resource locator) is informally called a web address. URL are used to identify pages and websites. URL enable Web browsers to find all the sites and web pages. • when you look for a site or a specific page of a site, you can type the URL in the address bar search and access to the information that you want.

WHAT IS A WEB BROWSER? • The web browser is a software application whose main function is to allow the user to consult all available information on the web. • A user uses the web browser in 3 different ways: – When typing an address in the address bar, the browser makes the research. – When he has a site inscribed in the list of favorite sites, the browser makes the research. – When following an hyperlink, the browser makes the research.

WHAT ARE WEB PAGES? • A webpage or web page is a document or resource of information that is suitable for the World Wide Web (www) and can be accessed through a web browser and displayed on a computer screen. • A web page contains: text, images, audio and attached documents.

WHAT ARE WEBSITES? • A website is a collection of related webpages, images, videos or other digital assets that are adressed relative to a common Uniform Resource Locator (URL). • A website can handle any subject, it may hace commercial, informative or entertainment value.

REGISTRATION ON WEBSITE? • Many websites ask the user registration, this to access much additional and detailed information.

REGISTRATION ON WEBSITE? • The registration in a website is not difficult, you have to type your name, surname, e-mail account a nickname and a personal password to receive a personal account.

REGISTRATION ON WEBSITE? • When you give them your dates be careful of the costs. Some website are free, but some asks you a fee. • Once registered on a website you will receive the confirmation of your registration on your e-mail address.

HOW TO FIND SOMETHING IN THE WEB? • Click on the Search button or type in your favorite Search Engine, eg. www. google. com. • When you get to the search engine, enter your search terms (what you want to find) in the text box and click on Search. To describe what you are looking for be as specific as possible. • You will (hopefully) get a list of results. Review them and click on one that sounds like what you want.

Definition: intranet • is the generic term for a collection of private computer networks within an organization. • An intranet uses network technologies as a tool to facilitate communication between people or workgroups to improve the data sharing capability and overall knowledge base of an organization's employees. • is a private network that is contained within an enterprise. It may consist of many interlinked local area networks and also use leased lines in the wide area network. • Typically, an intranet includes connections through one or more gateway computers to the outside Internet. • The main purpose of an intranet is to share company information and computing resources among employees. • An intranet can also be used to facilitate working in groups and for teleconferences

Advantages of Intranet 1. Intranets offering workforce productivity which can help user to find and observe information very fast. User may also use applications according to their roles and tasks. Through web browser a user can get access to entire contents of any website from anywhere or any time. Intranet also increase the ability of employee’s by performing their job confidently very fast, and accurately.

2. Intranet permits business companies to share out information to employees according to their need or requirements. Employees may also link to appropriate data at their expediency. 3. Intranets are helpful to converse planned initiative that has an international reach all through the organization. The well known examples of transportation are chat, email, and blogs. A actual world example of Intranet is Nestle had a number of food processing plants.

4. Web publishing which permits burdensome corporate knowledge to be continued and effortlessly access all through the company using Web technologies and hypermedia. The familiar examples of web publishing consist of training, news feed, company polices, documents, and employee manual. Intranet can be accessed general internet standards such as CGI applications, Flash files, and Acrobat files. Each unit can bring up to date the online copy of a document and intranet always provides the most recent version to employees.

5. offering business operations and administration solutions because it also being used as a platform of mounting and organizing applications across the internet world. 6. Time saving because there is no need to maintain physical documents such as procedure manual, requisition forms, and internet phone list. 7. Intranet is a Web-based tool that permits users to produce a customized site according their requirements. You can pull all Internet actions and most wanted contented into a single page which make easier to access.

8. Through Intranet common corporate culture every user can view the similar information. 9. Intranet offer improve teamwork through which teamwork is enabled and all certified users can get access to information. 10. Intranet facilitates their user o view and gets information and data via web browser. Intranet also save the money of any organization on printing, publishing and overall maintenance

11. Intranet providing cross platform capability for UNIX, Mac, Windows. 12. Intranet offering their user to write applications on their browser without crossbrowser compatibility issues. 13. Flexibility – Intranets let you decide what information is important for your business and how you want that information displayed. Should each department have a portal, or do you want a single centralized portal that houses everyone’s information?

Email

Definition • The Email (also known as e-mail, e-post) refers to the transmission of messages over communication networks. As an electronic method of messaging, it is fast and convenient, and includes all the steps of the delivery of a message to a recipient - writing, sending, receiving and saving

Advantages of Email 1. The benefits of e-mail are huge in number. Easy to use: E-mail frees us from the tedious task of managing data of daily use. It helps us to manage our contacts, send mails quickly, maintain our mail history, store the required information, etc. 2. Speed: The e-mail is delivered instantly, anywhere across the globe. No other service matches the e-mail in terms of speed.

3. Easy to prioritize: Since the mails have subject lines, it is easy to prioritize them and ignore unwanted mails. 4. Reliable and secure: Constant efforts are being taken to improve the security in electronic mails. Thus making it one of the secured ways of communication.

5. Informal and conversational: The language used in e -mails is generally simple and thus makes the communication informal. Sending and receiving emails takes less time, so it can be used as a tool for interaction. 6. Easier for reference: When one needs to reply to a mail, there is a provision in the mailing system to attach the previous mails as references. This refreshes the recipient's knowledge, on what he is reading. 7. Automated e-mails: It is possible to send automated e-mails using special programs like the auto responders. The auto responders reply back to the sender with generalized pre-written text messages.

8. Environment friendly: Postal mails use paper as a medium to send letters. Electronic mail thus, saves a lot of trees from being axed. It also saves fuel needed in transportation. 9. Use of graphics: Colorful greeting cards and interesting pictures can be sent through emails. This adds value to the e-mail service. 10. Advertising tool: Many individuals and companies are using e-mails to advertise their products, services, etc.

Disadvantages 1. Viruses: These are computer programs having the potential to harm a computer system. These programs copy themselves and further infect the computer. The recipient needs to scan the mails, as viruses are transmitted through them and have the potential to harm computer systems. 2. Spam: E-mails when used to send unsolicited messages and unwanted advertisements create nuisance and is termed as Spam. Checking and deleting these unwanted mails can unnecessarily consume a lot of time, and it has become necessary to block or filter the unwanted e-mails by means of spam filters

3. Hacking: The act of breaking into computer security is termed as hacking. After the e-mail is sent and before it is received by the desired recipient, it "bounces" between servers located in different parts of the world. Hence, the e-mail can be hacked by a professional hacker. 4. Misinterpretation: One has to be careful while posting any kind of content through an e-mail. If typed in a hurry, the matter could be misinterpreted. 5. Lengthy mails: If the mail is too long and not properly presented the reader may lose interest in reading it.

6. Not suitable for business: Since the content posted via e-mails is considered informal, there is a chance of business documents going unnoticed. Thus, urgent transactions and especially those requiring signatures are not managed through emails. 7. Crowded inbox: Over a period of time, the e-mail inbox may get crowded with mails. It becomes difficult for the user to manage such a huge chunk of mails. 8. Need to check the inbox regularly: In order to be updated, one has to check his e-mail account regularly.

How to Write a Business Email • Know whom you'll be writing the email to. • Get the names and spellings right. • Once you know the person, you'll know what kind of tone you need to use with the person. • If the person is a client, a formal tone of letter writing is recommended. • If it's one of your colleagues (same level) you may use a casual tone, but make sure it's not over friendly.

• If you're writing a business to business email, the tone that you use reflects the attitude and the type of communication that is used in your organization, so be cautious. • As in all types of formal writing, avoid flowery language. • Stick to the point, because no one has the time to read a long email that is heading nowhere

Example To: abc@wyz. com CC: Accounts Payable Subject: Request for copy of invoice Dear ABC, I'm LMN form the Accounts Payable department at GHI. Ltd. I understand that we have an invoice outstanding with your company since 07/01/2010. This email is to request you for a copy of the invoice, so that we can clear it for payment at the earliest. First of all, apologies for the delay in payment. The accounts team has been reshuffled and this case came to my notice just an hour ago and I am writing to you immediately. The invoice in question is invoice number 246849, for Mr. JKI who stayed at your hotel for a period of 4 days. That is, from 06/28/2010 to 07/01/2010. We cannot seem to locate the invoice, so I request you to email me a copy of the invoice, so that I can issue the payment right away. Please send it to the email address mentioned below and mark it for my attention. Once again, sincere apologies for the delay. Thank you, LMN, Senior Executive Accounts Payable, GHI. Ltd email: accountspayable@ghi. com

Business Websites

Definition • Virtual location on WWW, containing several subject or company/business entities related webpages and data files accessible through a browser. • Each website has its own unique web address (see uniform resource locator) which can be reached through an internet connection. • The opening page of a website is usually called homepage which contains hyperlinks to other pages on the same or other site(s).

http: //www. airasia. com/my/en/home. html

http: //www. malaysiaairlines. com/my/en. html

Ten Benefits Why You Should Build a Website 1. More For Less – More advertising for less money, a lot less money. Having your own website is like having full page ads running 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and 365 days a year. – You can make changes at any time and adjust to the market conditions. – This tends to build future customers’ trust in your company.

2. Market Expansion – The internet has allowed business’ to be accessible from anywhere in the World. 3. 24 – 7 – 365 – 24 hours. 7 days a week. 365 days a year. It’s always open. 4. Educate Your Customers – Nowadays more and more people are researching products online before they make a purchase. With a website the potential customer can research the product on their time in the comfort of their own home.

5. Engage with your customers – Customers can easily ask, comment and voice their concerns on a website forum. People tend the do business with people they “know” and trust. 6. Start a company newsletter - With a company newsletter you can inform your customers of any future sales, deals and/or promotions going on. Email is MUCH cheaper than postal mail. 7. Answer Questions – Having a FAQ page is so important as this reduces time spent answering the same question over and over.

8. Instant Information – Offer return policy, certain phone numbers, email address’ and business hours 9. A Website is Inexpensive – Compared to other means of advertising such as radio, TV and/or print, a website is much cheaper. 10. Improve Credibility – Have articles with tips, tricks, advice and general information on your site to inform the reader.

Effective Business website 1. Appearance A site must be visually appealing, polished and professional. Remember, it's reflecting your company, your products and your services. Your website may be the first, and only, impression a potential customer receives of your company.

• An attractive site is far more likely to generate a positive impression and keep visitors on your site once they arrive. • As businesses large and small continue to populate the web, your challenge is to attract and keep users' attention. – Good use of color: an appropriate color scheme will contain 2 or 3 primary colors that blend well and create a proper mood or tone for your business. Don't overdo the color, as it can distract from the written content.

– Text that is easily read: The most easily read combination is black text on a white background, but many other color combinations are acceptable if the contrast is within an appropriate range. Use fonts that are easy to read and are found on most of today's computer systems. depending on your audience. Keep font size for paragraph text between 10 and 12 pts. – Meaningful graphics: Graphics are important, as they lend visual variety and appeal to an otherwise boring page of text. However, don't over-use them, and make sure that add meaning or context to your written content. Don’t overload any one page with more than 3 or 4 images.

– Quality photography: A simple way to increase visual appeal is to use high quality photography. High quality product images are especially important for online retailers. – Simplicity: Keep it simple and allow for adequate white space. Uncluttered layouts allow viewers to focus on your message. Don't overload your site with overly complex design, animation, or other effects just to impress your viewers.

2. Content • Along with style, your site must have substance. Remember that your audience is looking for information that will help them make a decision, so it should be informative and relevant. Use this opportunity to increase visitor confidence in your company's knowledge and competence. • Short and organized copy: Clearly label topics and break your text up into small paragraphs. Don't bore your visitors with visually overwhelming text. You've got less than 10 seconds to hook your visitors, so grab their attention by being clear, concise and compelling.

• Update your content regularly: No one likes to read the same thing over and over again. • Dead or static content will not bring visitors back to your site! • Speak to your visitors: Use the word you as much as possible. Minimize the use of I, we and us. • Consider a pro: Unless you’re an especially good writer, consider using a professional to write or edit your text content. A good writing resource is How to Write for the Web.

3. Functionality • Every component of your site should work quickly and correctly. Broken or poorly constructed components will only leave your visitors frustrated and disillusioned with your company. Across the spectrum, everything should work as expected, including hyperlinks, contact forms, site search, event registration, and so on. • Error-free copy: Remember the exposure your website will get. Double-check your facts and figures, as you don't know who may be quoting you tomorrow. Nor do you want to be recognized or remembered for typos, incorrect grammar and punctuation, or misspellings. Spelling mistakes and bad grammar are as unforgivable on a website as they are in other company materials.

• Usability A critical, but often overlooked component of a successful website is its degree of usability. Your site must be easy to read, navigate, and understand. Some key usability elements include: a) Simplicity: The best way to keep visitors glued to your site is through valuable content, good organization and attractive design. Keep your site simple and well organized. b) Fast-loading pages: A page should load in 20 seconds or less via dial-up; at more than that, you'll lose more than half of your potential visitors.

c) Minimal scroll: This is particularly important on the first page. Create links from the main page to read more about a particular topic. Even the Search Engines will reward you for this behavior. d) Consistent layout: Site layout is extremely important for usability. Use a consistent layout and repeat certain elements throughout the site.

e) Prominent, logical navigation: Place your menu items at the top of your site, or above the fold on either side. Limit your menu items to 10 or fewer. Remember, your visitors are in a hurry -- don't make them hunt for information. f) Descriptive link text: Usability testing shows that long link text makes it much easier for visitors to find their way around a site. Long, descriptive link text is favored by Search Engines, too. Back links are important to give users a sense of direction and to keep them from feeling lost. Use a site map, and breadcrumbs, if necessary.

g) Cross-platform/browser compatibility: Different browsers often have different rules for displaying content. At a minimum, you should test your site in the latest versions of Internet Explorer (currently, versions 6 and 7), as well as Firefox and Safari. • Screen Resolution: Screen resolution for the typical computer monitor continues to increase. Today, the average web surfer uses a resolution of 1024 x 768 pixels. However, you need to make sure that what looks good at this setting will also work nicely for other resolutions.

Browsing search engines

Search Engine Optimized (SEO) • There are hundreds of rules and guidelines for effective search engine optimization, and this isn't the place to cover them all. For starters, follow these simple rules: • Include plenty of written content in HTML format. Don't use Flash, Java. Script or image-only objects for your navigational items. • Use your important keywords frequently and appropriately in your copy. • Minimize the use of tables and use Cascading Style Sheets for layout and positioning; keep your HTML code clutterfree. • Leverage your links -- make them descriptive and use your keywords in the link text

web search engine • is designed to search for information on the World Wide Web. The search results are generally presented in a list of results and are often called hits. The information may consist of web pages, images, information and other types of files. Some search engines also mine data available in databases or open directories. Unlike web directories, which are maintained by human editors, search engines operate algorithmically or are a mixture of algorithmic and human input.

Most popular search engine (2010)

The Advantages of Using Search Engines 1. Variety • An Internet search can generate a variety of sources for information. • Results from online encyclopedias, news stories, university studies, discussion boards, and even personal blogs can come up in a basic Internet search. • This variety allows anyone searching for information to choose the types of sources they would like to use, or to use a variety of sources to gain a greater understanding of a subject.

2. Precision • Search engines do have the ability to provide refined or more precise results. • Putting quotations marks around a set of words will bring up results with the exact same words, excluding others. • Some search engines, such as Google or Yahoo, enable you to specify the type of web sources to be searched. • Being able to search more precisely allows you to cut down on the amount of information generated by your search. • Search engines within a website allow you to search information only on that website, filtering out information from other web sources and giving more precision in a user's search for information

3. Organization • Internet search engines help to organize the Internet and individual websites. • Search engines aid in organizing the vast amount of information that can sometimes be scattered in various places on the same web page into an organized list that can be used more easily.

Internet-based Communications (IBC)

Internet-based Communications (IBC) • If you use the Internet, then you probably use Internet-based communications to contact family, friends or co-workers. From sending an instant message to a friend, to e-mailing co -workers, to placing phone calls, to conducting video conferences, the Internet offers a number of ways to communicate.

Type of IBC 1. Instant Messaging • One of the fastest-growing forms of Internet communications is instant messaging, or IM • text-based computer conference between two or more people • An IM communications service enables you to create a kind of private chat room with another individual in order to communicate in real-time over the Internet. • Typically, the IM system alerts you whenever somebody on your buddy or contact list is online. You can then initiate a chat session with that particular individual.

• Employees of a company can have instant access to managers and co-workers in different offices and can eliminate the need to place phone calls when information is required immediately. • save time for employees and help decrease the amount of money a business spends on communications • Public IM clients and services available include ICQ, AOL Instant Messenger (AIM), Microsoft MSN Messenger, and Yahoo! Messenger

• businesses and enterprises looking for a more secure method of IM, there are enterprise IM packages available such as Microsoft Live Communication Server 2005 and IBM Lotus Instant Messaging

2. Internet Telephony & Vo. IP • Internet telephony consists of a combination of hardware and software that enables you to use the Internet as the transmission medium for telephone calls. • For users who have free, or fixed-price Internet access, Internet telephony software essentially provides free telephone calls anywhere in the world.

• In its simplest form, PC-to-PC Internet telephony can be as easy as hooking up a microphone to your computer and sending your voice through a cable modem to a person who has Internet telephony software that is compatible with yours. • Connecting this way is slower than using a traditional telephone, and the quality of the voice transmissions is also not near the quality you would get when placing a regular phone call.

• Many Internet telephony applications are available. Some, such as Cool. Talk and Net. Meeting, come bundled with popular Web browsers. Others are stand-alone products. Internet telephony products are sometimes called IP telephony, Voice over the Internet (VOI) or Voice over IP (Vo. IP) products.

3. Email • Short for electronic mail, e-mail is the transmission of messages over communications networks. The messages can be notes entered from the keyboard or electronic files stored on disk. • Most mainframes, minicomputers and computer networks have an e-mail system. • Some e-mail systems are confined to a single computer system or network, but others have gateways to other computer systems, enabling you to send electronic mail anywhere in the world.

4. IRC • Short for Internet Relay Chat, IRC is a multi-user chat system that allows to people gather on "channels" or "rooms" to talk in groups or privately. • IRC is based on a client/server model. That is, to join an IRC discussion, you need an IRC client (such a m. IRC) and Internet access. • The IRC client is a program that runs on your computer and sends and receives messages to and from an IRC server. • The IRC server, in turn, is responsible for making sure that all messages are broadcast to everyone participating in a discussion.

• There can be many discussions going on at once and each one is assigned a unique channel. Once you have joined an IRC chat room (chatroom discussions are designated by topics), you can type your messages in the public chatroom where all participants will see it, or you can send a private message to a single participant. • With many IRC clients you can easily create your own chatroom and invite others to join your channel. You can also password protect your chatroom to allow for a more private discussion with just people whom you invite.

5. Videoconferencing • Videoconferencing is a conference between two or more participants at different sites by using computer networks to transmit audio and video data. • Each participant has a video camera, microphone and speakers connected on his or her computer. • As the two participants speak to one another, their voices are carried over the network and delivered to the other's speakers, and whatever images appear in front of the video camera appear in a window on the other participant's monitor.

• In recent years, videoconferencing has become a popular form of distance communication in business, classrooms, allowing for a cost efficient way to provide distance learning, guest speakers, and multischool collaboration projects. • Many feel that videoconferencing provides a visual connection and interaction that cannot be achieved with standard IM or e-mail communications.

6. SMS & Wireless Communications • Short message service (SMS) is a global wireless service that enables the transmission of alphanumeric messages between mobile subscribers and external systems such as e-mail, paging and voice-mail systems. • Messages can be no longer than 160 alphanumeric characters and must contain no images or graphics. Once a message is sent, it is received by a Short Message Service Center (SMSC), which must then get it to the appropriate mobile device or system.

• Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) was introduced and provided a way to send messages comprising a combination of text, sounds, images and video to MMS capable handsets. • Today you can use your wireless device to not only make phone calls, but to send and receive e -mail and IM. • While you can use e-mail, IRC or IM for free if you have an Internet account, you will end up paying fees to you mobile carrier to use these services on a wireless device.