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Posts Tagged ‘Communications’

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Tactical Communications Group and ViaSat Announce Technical and Marketing Collaboration Agreement
TEWKSBURY, MA–(Marketwire – March 29, 2010) – Tactical Communications Group (TCG), an independent provider of tactical data links (”TDL”) for military test, training and operational users worldwide and ViaSat Inc. ( NASDAQ : VSAT ) have signed a technology and marketing alliance agreement to collaborate to bring innovative products to market for the benefit of their joint operational customers …

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Photo Release — Solara’s Field Tracker 2100 Provides Safety Communications Lifeline for Adventurers Running Lake Baikal
WINNIPEG, Manitoba — Solara Remote Data Delivery Incorporated announced today the support of the impossible2Possible Siberian Express for Water. Two Canadian runners, i2p founder Ray Zahab and Kevin Vallely, i2p Ambassador, will run 65km to 70km per day for the entire 650km journey across frozen Lake Baikal.

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Tipton Communications Wins Two Delaware Press Association Awards for Internal Communications and Brochure Work
NEWARK, Del.—-Tipton Communications, a Newark, Del., and Philadelphia‐based employee communications and marketing agency, announced today that it has won two first place awards for excellence in communications from the Delaware Press Association .

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NASA Launches Simulation of Satellite Communications
NASA today unveiled an interactive computer simulation that allows virtual explorers of all ages to dock the space shuttle at the International Space Station, experience a virtual trip to Mars or a lunar impact, and explore images of star formations taken by the Hubble Space Telescope.In an effort to excite young people about space and NASA’s missions, the agency has launched the online Space …

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Employing Better Business Communications
Communication is at the center of all human actions and interactions. All relationships are based on communications- personal even business relationships are based on how effective the communication skills of the involved people are.

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The value of unified communications business benefits far outweighs the initial cost to modify existing infrastructure designs. Businesses should take advantage of the opportunity to transform their everyday operations regarding Internet and telephony into a system that reduces downtime, cost, and intermittent errors.

The two worlds of communication, data systems and telecommunication systems, continue to evolve and become more similar despite their disparate beginnings. In fact, what began as two separate systems divided by diverse technologies has developed into two similar structures with redundant and parallel infrastructures.

Unified communications business benefits are generated through the melding of computing and telephony into a finely tuned call, multimedia, cross media, and messaging management system that encompasses all aspects of communication in the business world. Unified communications can break down the differences, combine the similarities, and produce a unified data and telephony system that generates additional business benefits.

The latest discoveries in technology lead to unified communications that can transform everyday operations from reliable and steady to reliable, quick, and efficient. The business benefits quickly become obvious as costs are reduced, productivity is enhanced, and profits are increased.

Unified communications simplifies the work space by combining telephony systems with data systems. Voice applications are switched to IP capability, allowing employees to use what already sits in front of them. It enables employees to produce more with less equipment. In fact, e-mail, instant messaging service, phone service, and mobile operations can all be used together on an integrated network system that features a single unified framework.

Business benefits begin with increased employee productivity. It continues with lower overhead costs and refined communications. In fact, unified communication can lead to additional business benefits in that it also reduces the workload of administrative employees as well as reduces the need to assign specific employees to deal with customer service concerns.

Streamlining communications also reduces the cost of maintenance, facilitates compliance, and features enhanced flexibility to keep up with changes in technology or the need to transform future communication needs.

Furthermore, changes in the communication infrastructure can help to facilitate mandated regulatory compliance. Unified communications leads to simplified transformation and incorporation of necessary changes in order to meet regulatory compliance measures. As you can see, the business benefits continue to spread and the growth of the company continues to expand. The IT infrastructure is often the heart of an enterprise and as such, when it is beating soundly, the enterprise is growing forward in leaps and bounds.

Unified communications can offer choices to business organizations that want to reap the benefits of a streamlined, more effective communication system. It can unify existing tools and systems including Internet, Fax, desktop phone systems, voice mail, and IP systems. The communication tools encompass a wide array including e-mail, faxes, Interactive Voice Response (UVR), VoIP telephone service, video conferencing, audio conferencing, and instant messaging. Unified communications provides significant business benefits to those enterprises that are savvy enough to take advantage of them now in order to increase the potential for success later.

The world of Socialized Media is maturing and along with it, our knowledge, expertise, reach, and personal and represented brands are only flourishing. It will continue as long as we realize that these new social tools and networks require an entirely new commitment and embodiment of what we personify and how we can be a genuine resource to the people who define the communities that are important to us.

At the end of the day, everything that’s transpiring around us is actually improving the existing foundation for our business, from service to marketing to product development to sales to executive management, and everything in between.
 
Social marketing revitalizes and empowers every facet of our workflow and its supporting ecosystem. Seeing the bigger picture and tying our knowledge to the valuable feedback from our communities will help us guide businesses towards visibility, profitability, relevance and ultimately customer loyalty.

Yes, everything is changing. Many have drawn the conclusion that Social Media marketers or Social Media consultants are to the new Web, what Webmasters were to Web 1.0. There’s a rush of excitement and enthusiasm tied to entrepreneurialism and significant short-term profitability in leading, creating, and participating in all things Social. This new breed of expert marketers represent the future of marketing communications indeed, but it is a future that is uncharted, undocumented and forever evolving; meaning, social media is not the final frontier, but merely an important chapter in an ongoing saga that will be studied and advanced for years to come.
 

For every Social Media expert, we must remember, that there are many more human beings out there who are not using social tools to communicate, but are still equally important to our bottom line. Therefore, our job is to connect our story and our value propositions to people wherever they go to discover and share information – even if it’s in the real world. Social Media is a critical part of a larger, more complete sales, service, communications, and marketing strategy that reflects and adapts to markets and the people who define them.
 
Therefore we should be realistic in how we integrate Social strategies into the human-powered machine of listening, learning, engaging and evolving.
 
Social Media is a lesson.
 
Social Media delivers new communications tools.
 
Social Media is a distribution channel.
 
Social Media is a means, not an end.
 
Social Media is a revelation that we the people have a voice and through the democratization of content and ideas, we can once again unite people around common passions, inspire movement, and ignite change.

Obama recognised the vital importance of connecting with the younger voters who would get excited by and involved in his historic Presidential run, as well as the fact that these emerging social technologies now form an integral part of the way that a huge number of people now connect with each other. To ignore the benefits and usefulness of these tools would be to waste a golden opportunity.

For businesses today it is no less important to be aware of new technologies and how it drives potential and current employees – particularly those in the Generation Y (aged 16-19 years) and Generation Z, those about to join the workforce – to choose, to remain with and to function effectively at an employer.

Generation Y – also known as “Millennials” – and Z are the most technology-savvy groups ever seen, and they take their high expectations for networking and connectivity into the workplace with them. After all, why shouldn’t they? They’ve been brought up with accessible technology that has made instant, effective connectivity, wherever and whenever a given in their lives.

Even the older Generation X (aged 30-44 years) will benefit from taking a cutting-edge view to IT in the workplace, indicates CIPD’s GenUp report, which looked at generational differences in the workplace: “Gen X sees the workplace as a place to socialise as well as to work … Organisations that offer a sense of workplace community are therefore more likely to attract and engage this generation.”  Obviously, enterprise communication tools, such as instant messaging, conference calling and desktop video, are ways to ensure that this thirst for connection is served.

For businesses facing tough economic times, fast and efficient recruitment and retention of valued staff are both ways to cut costs, so some firms are, like Obama, setting out their stall as technology-friendly from the outset. They use facebook and text messaging to contact potential recruits, for example, says Tim Wise of High Flyers Research, with law firms, he says, leading the way.

These firms, says Wise, have “phenomenal communications networks and networks that recruits can tap into as trainee lawyers, and they showcase that benefit in the recruitment process.”  Later on, word-of-mouth comes into play, he says, perhaps luring an employee away from a less IT-led firm: “Once people get into a job and begin to talk to their peers – and one might be showing off a state-of-the-art laptop or BlackBerry – they very much start to see whether the grass is greener on the other side.”

Where companies are having to cut back on traditional remuneration and retention packages, investing in IT that meets employee expectations can take up the slack. As Deloitte Consulting notes in its report, Retention Strategies in Difficult Times (September 2008), many companies are trying to ease the strain on employees by improving their work environment and an element of this are programs that make balancing work and family easier. “While these programs won’t put dollars in employees’ pockets,” says Deloitte, “they can go a long way toward helping employees view their company more favorably, making them less likely to leave.”

A quick survey of recent research clearly shows that this need to recognise the needs and wants of employees will play an important role in enterprise IT decisions in the future. Analyst Gartner predicts that, between 2007 and 2012, the majority of new information technologies that enterprises adopt will have their roots in the consumer market.

Gartner also reports that the failure of IT departments to adapt quickly to new technologies will cause more than 50% of enterprise users to become dissatisfied by 2013.

Meanwhile, a survey by market researchers Redshift last summer showed three-quarters of UK workers want access to unified communications (UC), which combine email voice and video conferencing. Seventy-three percent said it makes workplace communications more efficient – and more than half said it helps them work outside the traditional office.

While unified communications doesn’t replicate the consumer experience, it does provide a suite of tools that create easier access to colleagues via the desktop or softphone, making it easier to foster a sense of collaboration and community. And it actually has the potential to provide an additional function that Twitter, facebook and other consumer applications can’t match – the vital element of Presence.

The average employee uses five types of communications device (for example, desktop phones, mobile phones) and four communications applications (IM, conferencing, etc) says market research and consultancy firm Chadwick Martin Bailey which, last July, looked into UC application use by US enterprises.

While using these tools should lead to easier coworker access, said its research, the net effect can be counterproductive if they are not properly integrated, particularly as the workforce becomes more mobile. What really happens is that, often, employees must guess which method (e.g., desk phone, cell phone, email, instant messaging) is the best way to reach a colleague at any given time and, where UC is not an option, 40% of people fail to reach a needed colleague on the first try once a day.

Here’s where Presence saves the day. Want to have a quick IM chat with a colleague? See if he’s available first, by checking where he is and what device he can be contacted on. If he’s only on his mobile, maybe a quick voice call is best, enabled by one click on your on-screen directory of contacts. This, says Chadwick Martin Bailey, translates into up to 20 minutes of time saved per employee per day – clearly a benefit in time, money and perhaps a few incidences of desk rage. It’s no wonder then, that, as Forrester has reported, 36% of UK firms rate Presence technology as “very important” to “important” to their business.

UC also makes escalation easy, seamlessly passing the user from one application to another. For example, when that IM chat begins to get too complex, it can be escalated to a videoconference. If you need additional expertise, simply look up another colleague’s availability and invite her to join in.

So, while an investment in cutting-edge communications may not pay off quite as spectacularly as President Obama’s, it is sure to have a positive impact on both employees and customers – and on your organisation’s bottom line.

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