LECTURE 3: BUSINESS

COMMUNICATION OVERVIEW
INTRODUCTION
 Business Communication is any communication used to build
relationships, create value for a business or promote an idea, a
product, service or organization.

 It involves the exchange of ideas, opinions and information

through all modes of interaction or presentation — interpersonal,
physical, written, spoken and multimodal.
BUSINESS COMMUNICATION SKILLS
Business Communication involves skills such as:

Preparation of types of written communication (e.g. letters,

articles, newspaper, blogs, magazines, reports, emails, webpages)

Preparation of types of spoken and multimodal communication

(e.g. seminar, conference, webinar, presentation, podcast)

Research skills (e.g. determining audience and information

needs, locating and retrieving information)
 BUSINESS TECHNOLOGIES
 Business technologies involves the selection, use, management and
manipulation of technology applications to process, convey and
present information effectively in business contexts.

 The efficiency and competitiveness of businesses leads to ongoing

modification or invention of business technologies.
 BUSINESS TECHNOLOGIES
Business Technologies involves skills such as:

Selection, use, management and manipulation of a range of

technologies and applications to produce a variety of documents
(e.g. word processing, multimedia, presentation, spread sheeting,
database, mobile devices)

Understanding and application of task management and

organizational policies and procedures e.g. storage and location of
data.
 HOW TECHNOLOGY HAS IMPROVED
BUSINESS COMMUNICATIONS

 Technology has changed our lives to the point where we hardly

seem to notice it any more. It is all around us and in everything we
do, from the electricity powering our homes to the broadband and
wireless we use on our computers.

 Recent technological developments have led to our devices

becoming smaller, faster and more mobile.

 We can now call someone on the other side of the world and talk to
them via a video link on the screen of a smart phone.
 HOW TECHNOLOGY HAS IMPROVED BUSINESS
COMMUNICATIONS

 Where once we would have stored business information in filing

cabinets, now the same information is referred to as ‘data’ and
99% of it is stored in digital form.
- i.e. if someone in another city needs a file, instead of having to
courier it to them. Simply attach it to an email and send it to them
instantly.

 The medium that has made this possible is the Internet.

 This revolutionary medium has allowed business communications

to become faster, more efficient and completely free from
geographical limitations.
 BUSINESS COMMUNICATION TOOLS
 The Internet has made possible a wide range of business
communication tools including:
 Email – This has become the main form of communication for many
businesses, as it is relatively fast, very cheap and can be used to
forward and receive additional files attached to each message.
 Instant messaging (IM) – This is faster and more convenient than
email or telephone, and is an excellent way for employees to
communicate with one another in real time. e.g. Whatsapp message
 VoIP telephony – This has superseded analogue telephony and
reduced the cost of business phone calls by more than half.
 Social media – Social media has allowed businesses to communicate
on a much more personal level with their customers.
 BUSINESS COMMUNICATION TOOLS
 Targeted advertising – Using tools such as Ad words, businesses
can now target potential customers much more accurately.
 Cloud computing – This allows employees to maintain
communications with the company and retrieve and send
information from remote locations.
 Video conferencing – Video conferencing allows participants to
attend virtual meetings with colleagues and clients via a video link
on their tablets or smart phones.
 BUSINESS COMMUNICATION APPS

 As well as improving business communications through tools that use the

power of the Internet, technology has also seen the development of many
applications that enhance communication power even further through
integration.
 These include:
 Google Chat – This app brings all of Google’s tools such as Google
Search, Google Apps, Gmail and Google+ together on one platform,
allowing users to make voice and video calls right from Gmail. It also
keeps logs of every communication.
 Yammer – Much like Twitter only significantly more private, this
application allows employees to log in using their company email
addresses and chat, collaborate on projects and send messages to each
other in their own private communication space.
 BUSINESS COMMUNICATION APPS
 Teambox – This business collaboration app is a fully integrated
project and task manager, providing a range of features including
chat, text, planning tools, notes, file storage and even time
tracking.
 GoToWebinar – This presentation application allows users to
create webinars (web seminars) and address up to 1,000 people
live online. The app includes practice sessions, Q&A sessions and
the ability to share additional documents.
 Some others like… Team Viewer, Skype, also facilitate fast and
efficient business communication
 THE IMPLICATIONS FOR BUSINESS
 As well as making business communications faster and more
efficient, the development of these new communication tools and
applications has also changed the way we do business in a number
of areas.
 Mobility – Mobile communications that allow employees to
access the office from anywhere has led to many businesses
becoming more mobile. The head office with massive overheads
has become less necessary, and downsizing and workspace
sharing are becoming a more cost-efficient option.
 Outsourcing – Because employees can communicate from
anywhere, housing them under one roof is no longer a necessity.
This means that businesses can outsource many core processes
such as accounts and IT and can also recruit further field for
employees.
 THE IMPLICATIONS FOR BUSINESS
 Globalization – The ability to communicate with anyone,
anywhere, anytime has also meant that businesses are no longer
restricted to local markets, so are now free to trade with
international businesses and develop new customer bases all over
the world.
 Remote workforce – New communication tools also allow more
employees to work from home, which saves a business money
through not having to house employees in an office and also
improves employees’ work/life balance. This in turn improves
productivity.
 Reduced travel – Ironically, as the world is opened up through
better communications the need to physically travel overseas is
reduced. Video conferencing can save a business a great deal of
money that would otherwise be spent on travel and accommodation
expenses every year
 Reliability of data storage- through cloud computing applications
like Dropbox, Google doc
 THE IMPLICATIONS FOR BUSINESS
 Technology has changed the face of business communication by
making it faster, more efficient and more integrated than ever
before.

 The price we pay for all this new openness and interconnectivity is
the security risks it poses.

 But providing security measures can at minimum keep pace with

new developments, then the opportunities technology offers for
business communications outweigh those risks in the long run.
TOOLS FOR CONSTRUCTING
MESSAGES
 Computer tools for constructing written messages can be
associated with the different stages of the writing
process:
 planning,
 gathering and collecting information,
 analyzing and organizing information,
 writing and rewriting
 COMPUTER TOOLS FOR PLANNING
 Whether you are writing a short message or a long report, you can
use a computer to help you plan both the document and the writing
project.

 In planning the content of the document, outlining or

brainstorming tools are useful.

 You can brainstorm, listing your ideas as they occur to you.

 COMPUTER TOOLS FOR PLANNING
 Later you tag related ideas, asking the computer to group them.

 Outlining tools are included in most word processors.

COMPUTER TOOLS FOR PLANNING
 When you are working on a long writing project, several
projects, or one carried over a long time, project
management programs are excellent for planning the
project.
 They allow you to identify all the tasks needed to
complete the project, to determine how much time each
task might take, and to generate a time-and-task chart
(commonly called a Gantt chart).
 Also, they help you keep track of your progress and
determine how to reallocate your resources to complete
the project on time or within budget.
 COMPUTER TOOLS FOR GATHERING
AND COLLECTING INFORMATION

 Before you can write, you may have something to say.

 Sometimes you may be writing about your own ideas, but often
you will supplement them with facts.

 Gathering facts or data is one of the most important jobs of the

writer.

 Today you will want to combine your manual search for facts with
electronic searches.
 COMPUTER TOOLS FOR GATHERING
AND COLLECTING INFORMATION
 The computer can help you find a variety of information quickly
and accurately because today much of our published information
is available electronically online.

 Most libraries now allow both internal and external access to their
online catalogs and databases.

 This means you can use the online catalog from within the library
or from anywhere outside the library.
 COMPUTER TOOLS FOR GATHERING
AND COLLECTING INFORMATION
 Most college networks also allow you to connect to the library
resources from campus computer labs, dormitories, and remote
offices.

 Many colleges are installing wireless networks, allowing users

within range and with wireless capabilities on laptops and PDAs to
access their library resources.

 You also can gather facts on the Internet. This expands your
resources immensely beyond your local library.
 COMPUTER TOOLS FOR GATHERING
AND COLLECTING INFORMATION
 Technology such as Google can be used to search the information
you want to your desktop.

 Once you have gathered the facts, you will want to store them in
some organized fashion so you can retrieve them readily when
needed. Database tools will help you immensely here.

 If your company is interested in developing a new product for a

newly defined market, you may want to collect information about
the targeted market, potential suppliers of components of your
new product, sites for producing the product, projected labor
costs, and so on.
 COMPUTER TOOLS FOR ANALYZING
AND ORGANIZING
 Three tools that writers find useful in analyzing data are statistics,
graphics, and spreadsheet tools.

 Sometimes you cannot say very much about raw numbers,

combining them or viewing them in different ways gives you a
clearer picture of their meaning.

 Today, some very sophisticated statistical programs have been

made user-friendly, allowing those with little computer expertise
to use them easily.