Page 579 - Encyclopedia of Business and Finance

eobf_O 7/5/06 3:17 PM Page 556

Office Technology

communication is transmitted electronically by phone method of conducting meetings via telephone lines
lines for immediate delivery or can be stored in a com- and/or satellites connecting participants’ terminals at two
puter mailbox. The recipient is able to retrieve the mes- or more locations, with one or more participants per loca-
sage by dialing a code number to access the mailbox. The tion. There are three types of teleconferences:
computer reconverts the message to the caller’s voice and
the recipient is able to hear the voice message. 1. Computer conferencing—Terminals that are con-
nected to a mainframe computer are used by all the
participants. Comments or questions can be keyed
Electronic Calendars. Office tasks are being accomplished in on their screens, which are arranged on an inter-
and redefined by computers. Computers can keep a calen- connected network. Messages are displayed on the
dar of appointments. The computer stores the files of participants’ screens.
employees’ schedules, forthcoming meetings, calendars of
events, and conferences, thereby enabling employees to 2. Audio conferencing —Participants make comments
check their central file. Everyone in a particular office has over the phone. They cannot see each other, and
access to electronic calendars and is able to choose a time they are not able to read body language. Audio con-
and place that is available and open on everyone’s sched- ferences are connected by telephone and/or speaker-
ule. Each office employee can be tied into the system by phone.
having access to a central electronic file. 3. Videoconferencing —A CEO in Los Angeles could
have a sales conference or interview with a person in
Office Suites. Office suites are a group of programs. In the Washington, D.C. Both individuals are shown
mid-1990s the term office suite was considered to be a simultaneously or alternately on the screen. The
group of programs that allowed for word processing, advantage of videoconferencing over audio confer-
spreadsheets, and sometimes data entry. Now office suite encing is that individuals can see as well as hear each
includes Web design software, presentation software, page other.
layout design, and, in some instances, graphics editors.
They are key pieces of productivity software, used in most Voice Recognition and Videoconferencing. With the
businesses. advent of voice recognition, a day may come when human
translators are no longer needed. The future of videocon-
Portable PCs. Portable PCs include personal digital assis- ferencing is not only multilingual, but 100 percent real-
tants (PDAs), laptop computers, and notebook comput- time—with no delays. Voice recognition software allows
ers. PDAs are proliferating. Among the most popular humans to talk to a computer. Computers understand the
PDAs are the Palm and BlackBerry. Laptop computers are voice. It is an electronic process in which information is
used by business travelers to make multimedia presenta- printed from voice input, thereby bypassing the keyboard-
tions, create and send reports and spreadsheets, and do ing operations.
research on the Internet. Notebook computers are similar At one time, videoconferencing used large, expensive
to laptops, but usually smaller. pieces of equipment that provided “room”-based video-
conferencing. Participants gathered at a central site in a
Groupware and Decision Support Systems. Groupware is specially equipped conference room, looking at monitors
a work group software, such as Lotus Notes. It enables displaying similar rooms at remote sites.
members of a team to share information on a project that Computer-based videoconferencing is a new para-
they are working on together. Some of the functions of digm for videoconferencing. Participants sit at their desk
groupware are document formatting, information man- or in a videoconferencing room calling up other partici-
agement, and communication. The group is kept pants—similar to making a telephone call. It is a form of
informed via an electronic calendar. It runs an e-mail net- communication that uses bandwidth. Bandwidth is inter-
work that links the work group with remote operations. It preted as the speed at which information flows, and com-
also includes an information system that handles all data munication is the transfer of information from one place
relevant to the business and provides instant accessibility to another. The connection between these two remote
throughout the organization. Decision support systems sites is called communication channels.
facilitate group decisions by providing a formalized
process for brainstorming, distilling key concepts, priori- Multimedia System. A multimedia system presents infor-
tizing or ranking topics, and achieving group consensus. mation by using a combination of sound, graphics, ani-
mation, and video. Multimedia applications are used for
Teleconferencing. In the business world, many companies business and education. Marketing presentations are
hold meetings via teleconferences. Teleconferencing is a developed to advertise and sell products using multime-

556 ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BUSINESS AND FINANCE, SECOND EDITION