The Evolution of Business Communications
According to PeopleDynamics.co, 97 percent of employees feel that communication has an effect on daily tasks. Knowing that technology continues to connect businesses in increasingly ingenious ways, this percentage may soon reach 100. While communications have always been essential to the success of a business, it was limited. Now, instead of linear communication that excludes other employees, partners, and subsidiaries, business communication is taking a more holistic form. This comprises connecting employees to the same information base via diverse platforms, the internet of things, and centralization.
Multiple Devices/Platforms
Businesses used to rely on a handful of communication tools. In the pre-internet age, these were telephones, fax machines, and face-to-face conversation. Some companies used videotelephony, but the quality and usefulness were limited. Today, videotelephony is as much a part of business communications as telephony and face-to-face meetings. For some businesses, it’s more integral than even those staples of communication. Videotelephony can be accomplished with thousands of programs and services that are compatible with all kinds of devices. Along with videotelephony, the internet has given businesses the ability to use email, social media, and online workspaces to communicate both internally and externally. All such tools can be used from PCs, smartphones, tablets, and other devices connected to the internet – or internet of things.
Internet of Things
The internet of things, a collection of communication devices under one network, is another tool that allows for the free flow of information within a business. Since these devices are under one network, they transfer the same information in one big, beautiful spiderweb of information. It’s a world wide web of physical objects rather than a world wide web of digital data. One notable communication device that can be connected to the IoT is a telephone system. What would business be like without an elaborate phone system that can connect employees to customers all over the world? Telephones in the IoT can exchange information with other devices and log a complete cache of relevant data that will benefit employers. However, technology is going in the direction of hardware obsolescence, meaning that hardware is finding a smaller and smaller role in communications. For this reason, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is the future of telephony. Rather than sending voice calls via cellular or wired networks, VoIP devices use the internet. So, by switching to VoIP, businesses can integrate information that lived primarily on outdated networks.
Centralized Information
Such devices and networks allow smooth communication between businesses and a near-seamless exchange of information. Before the internet, business information didn’t so much flow as it did fall. Information would drop from one rung in the business hierarchy to another, losing key points in the process. Now, with the same information accessible to all employees under one network, communication within a business is easier than ever.
Business communications have evolved alongside the technological revolution. Instead of phone calls and faxes, businesses have a vast array of communication tools at their disposal. Best of all, these tools are connected to a single network so that the obstacles that plagued traditional communication are now obsolete.
