How Have Changes in Communication Technology Affected Business & Industry?
Changes in communication technologies have had a major impact on all industries. This includes everything from small, locally-owned restaurants taking online delivery orders to innovations in automotive technology that alert remote operators of a collision so they may assist the driver. For most sectors the changes have saved time and allowed businesses to use or provide advanced innovations at lower prices.
Other People Are Reading
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Accessible Inclusion
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Advancement in communication technologies have removed barriers for those with disabilities. In a presentation at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers 2000 Careers Conference, Michael Cohn discussed accommodating technologies that have allowed individuals with visual impairments and physical disabilities to engage in business communications. Cohn notes that even large-screen monitors and email serve as beneficial aids. Assistive computer technologies synthesizing speech allow users with vision and speech impairments or learning issues to receive or convey information. Alhough it's still too expensive for most individuals, lines of text can now be converted into lines of braille on the screens of specially-designed computers.
Electronic Delivery
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Electronic delivery through email attachments or uploading to a central server saves money and eliminates time waiting on postal or delivery services. Complete sets of documents, blueprints, images and other media files can be compiled in one digital folder, saving office filing space and natural resources. Production decisions or changes are made quickly and can be forwarded to the involved staff within minutes, eliminating the need for additional meetings and other delays.
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Going Global
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Without a doubt, changes in communication technology have enabled the new global economy. Electronic delivery, video conferencing and language translation software allow individuals in different nations to collaborate on projects from their remote locations. Business trips are reduced in favor of less expensive and more productive video conferencing. Sales numbers available through point-of-sale technology relayed to the marketing team immediately reveal the effectiveness of campaigns and prepare manufacturing for changes in production outputs.
Friend or Foe?
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Advances in communication technologies have greatly increased the delivery of media to large segments of the population via the Internet. Media industries glean benefits from from online marketing, sales and distribution of digital products. However, the same beneficial technologies can cause loss of profits on music, books, games, software and films. The Mays School of Business at Texas A&M University reports the worldwide retail value of software pirated in 2008 was $53 billion. Even after extensive press coverage and numerous court cases, it seems as if the public still fails to understand that swapping digital files is a crime, according to Katherine Thompson of Newser.
Prior to 1845, American newspapers engaged in their own form of file-sharing by copying news from one newspaper to print in another, according to a 2009 article in The Economist. Soon a new form of communication technology emerged---the telegraph. Initially this speedy communication was seen as a threat that would bring an end to the newspaper industry, but time proved that news arriving by telegraph benefited local newspapers. Today, the newspaper industry is once again threatened by rapidly improving communication technologies that allow the audience to become publishers, according to Chris Lapham of CMC Magazine.
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References
- IEEE: How Does Technology Affect the Workplace Today?
- Mays Business Online: Digital Piracy-- A Boon to Business?
- Newser: To Combat Digital Piracy, Try Stealing
- The Economist: How A New Communications Technology Disrupted America's Newspaper--in 1845
- CMC Magazine: The Evolution of the Newspaper of the Future
Resources
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