there will always be someone to answer your call. On average the High St
Kensington branch spends £130,000 per year. They are considering starting up an
e-mail service for their customers after the launch of their web site,
www.whsmith.co.uk.???????? The
graph shows how much a branch from WHSmith, Virgin, Arnold & Porter, and J
Sainsbury would spend on average per year. All the research has contributed to my opinion of communication they
should choose. I recommend that they should use intercom within the two sites
for instant communication. They could have similar communication compared to WHSmith
with the supervisors with mobile phones connected to the intercom and also a
telephone in each department of the site. The intercom is only used internally.
In the computer network, they could have a programmed instant messenger to send
messages throughout the network. This will be active in only one site. Because
all directors are indoors, it is obvious that they can have verbal
conversations. When a member of staff is unavailable, they can leave written
memos or short messages. The two sites can contact each other by telephone where they can have
conversations directly to each other. They can also use e-mail as it can be
sent and received instantly. The two sites can have meetings by using video
conferencing. In order to contact other businesses they could use telephone to have a
verbal conversation or fax machine to send and receive everything on paper.
This can also be done using e-mail. By using e-mail, it is possible to send and
receive reports and orders. Application forms can be sent and received via fax
or e-mail. Depending on how often they communicate with others I would estimate
that the average cost per year would be in the range of £110,000 to £155,000. I
think it would be necessary for the employee to be trained how to use e-mail
and Internet connections. It would also be necessary to teach the employee how
to use instant messengers on the computer network. The facts show that telephone is the most popular, easiest and
user-friendly compared to any other method. By using telephone, they can also
create an intercom within the premises. One disadvantage to using intercom is
that it can only be used internally. To solve this problem, senior workers
should have mobile phones provided by the company. Other members of staff
should be provided with pagers or even mobile phones. By using mobile
equipment, intercom wouldn?t just have to be internally but also externally.
One downside of this strategy is the cost of supplying every worker with mobile
equipment. For those who are stable throughout their working day, if the
network were provided with an instant messenger, not all workers would need
mobile phones or pagers. I chose to use e-mail rather than fax because it is more reliable,
efficient and trendy. Both use telephone lines and both cost money. They both
have different strengths and limitations from each other. E-mail can be sent
and received over the Internet and WAP enabled phones. There are no stamps or
envelopes needed and it?s all free. One great advantage of using e-mail is that
it can be sent and received wherever, whenever. Once sent, it will be received
straight away. One bad effect of using e-mail is that depending on the size of
the e-mail. The download time of the mail will depend on how large the mail is
or the speed of the connection. Through e-mails you can send documents,
graphics, programs, music, etc. E-mails are popular towards businesses because
they are used for newsletters in a way of being loyal to customers as well as
advertising. To use e-mail all you need is the Internet, WAP enabled phone or
even an e-mail phone. One bad disadvantage of using e-mail is that if the
server breaks down, no e-mail will be able to be sent or received. To use fax, you must have a fax machine. These are quite expensive but
they all differ in price and quality. Fax machines also require ink. These
machines also send documents all over the world as long as there is a fax
machine. It does take time to scan the document as well as sending it. Sending
fax may sometimes be unreliable because of manual error. Digits maybe
miss-typed. This may happen in e-mail where the e-mail address maybe
miss-typed. Fax is normally used for business use rather than personal or
commercial use. When meetings are held between the two sites, I insist that they use
video conferencing. It takes place over telephone lines. Each must be supplied
with a television and also a camera for video conferencing to be possible. I
don?t think there is any other suitable alternative to video conferencing at
this moment. My decision is that the company should use telephone, e-mail and video
conferencing. I believe that my suggestions should satisfy the firm excellently. I
don?t see a problem growing from any of the two sites. I think that my
suggestions have solved the problem over the two sites. They can communicate
effectively between each other by using telephones to interact verbally, to use
e-mails to keep up-to-date with each other or to send and receive forms or
reports and to use video conferencing when holding meetings to prevent travel
costs. Within the sites they have telephones connected on the intercom so they
can all keep in touch. They will also have the instant messengers installed on
the computers. When communicating with other businesses or customers they would
still be using telephone, fax and e-mail. They would call and receive calls
through telephone from customers to have a brief word. They would use fax
machine to dispatch application forms and other documents and also receive
them, these can also be done using e-mail. E-mail is more efficient because
there is no limit of how much you can send and also that once sent; it will be
received straight away. After two weeks of observation at WHSmith, I have learned that there
are various methods of communication depending whom the correspondent is. This
has played a part on my recommendations. I have found out that most orders are
placed through fax rather than telephone because of costs. There are several
departments at WHSmith and they use intercom, so this has influenced me to use
an intercom to link all the departments via telephone. I would also recommend
that the senior members who are frequently outside the premises should carry
around a mobile phone to keep in touch. The Internet has played a major part in
businesses lately with many of them having their own web site and their own
e-mail address. This has persuaded me to include e-mail as one of my
suggestions in communicating internally as well as externally. These Internet
connections can even hold meetings on-line by using web-cams. This is a way of
video conferencing. I decided not to select postage as part of communication as
it can take up and waste a lot of time. Costs are quite expensive compared to
free e-mail because all you pay is the phone bill, the postage costs also
depends on what you are sending and where you are sending it to. I had to
reconsider selecting e-mail as part of my recommendations because sending and
receiving documents over the Internet are risky. Personal information or secret
information could be stored on the e-mail, and with hackers and viruses
floating on-line which could evade the Data Protection Act. This is one of the
disadvantages I had to face. I decided that the senior members should bring a
mobile phone with them rather than a pager because by using a mobile phone you
can interact verbally whereas using a pager, all you would receive is text. I
had to choose the suitable methods of communication that would be most
convenient to the customer.