ELECTRONIC MEETING SYSTEMS (EMS)
Attending meetings away from the office entails a lot of time and expense in traveling, staying in hotels, etc. These expenses can be considerably reduced by modern electronic meeting systems. They are becoming popular as viable options and broadly cover the following four options:
Audio conferencing
Computer conferencing
Video-audio conferencing
Use of web cameras
These are described below:
(1) Audio Conferencing
It uses voice equipment viz., telephone network that establishes audio links with persons who are either in the same building or geographically dispersed locations or a mix of both.
It has been in use by Indian Railways and Indian defense services for a long time as they have had their own private telephone networks. This type of conference does not require computers as such although these days the entire telephone system uses computer backup anyway.
Audio conferencing has advantages as under:
Equipment not costly and is within easy reach of the firms
People feel at ease when talking on the telephone
Meetings can be arranged at short notice
It is well suited for offices located wide apart or even within a building. However, communications for problem-solving among persons located on the same premises is faster through face-to-face interaction.
In order to make such meetings more effective, the following rules are suggested:
1. The organizer or senior person should moderate the discussions
2. No of participants to be kept less than 6
3. Copy of the agenda to be faxed beforehand
4. Participants to identify themselves before speaking
5. Proceedings of the conference should be tape-recorded
6. Copies of the decisions should be circulated to all participants; this can be done through email to all concerned instantaneously.
(2) Computer Conferencing
It is getting persons from different locations and disciplines together on computers that are networked to exchange information on a common problem for decision-making and work out a solution. There is a fine line between email and computer conferencing. In computer conferencing, usually, a large number of persons can be brought together to interact on issues requiring their suggestions.
A very well known example is that of IBM organized one of the largest computer conferences before they finalized the specifications and features of a standard Personal Computer (PC). It is on record that some 40,000 persons participated in it and about 4,000 topics were discussed, recording the participants considered opinions about various features and facilities to be incorporated in a PC.
Obviously, when the IBM PC was launched in 1983, it set up a whole new standard in product design in the industry. It had many pioneering feature and facilities that were not available before in any of the PCs in the market.
Computer conference can be set up with persons who might be sitting in the next cabin as well as with those across the globe.
(3) Video-Audio Conferencing
Here television equipment is used to link participants in locations that are geographically dispersed. It has three basic configurations:
One-way video and one-way audio
One-way video and two-way audio
Two-way video and two-way audio
This facility is used to get together managers from different locations and involve them in almost face-to-face communication for taking group decisions. It enhances the ownership, authorship, and involvement of all persons who take decisions jointly. Thus this technology facilitates personal involvement in problem solving and decision-making. In most large organizations, there a separate room specifically created for organizing these conferences.
Electronic Meeting Systems are seeing rapid growth as it promotes the quickest communication for group decision support systems. Because of their increasing popularity for effective communication, many hotels and telecommunication carriers are offering these facilities for:
Launching new products in large markets like USA, EU, India, etc
Organizing sales meetings of the large sales force
Education and training of employees of large corporations
(4) Use of Web Camera
In recent years, Internet Telephony has made rapid strides and reputed firms like Skype and Yahoo are offering facilities of use of web cameras (Webcams) for verbal communications as well as chatting through written messaging instantaneously.
Use of webcams is becoming a powerful tool for one-to-one communication that is almost face to face. Before long many useful business applications will be available that would enable group interaction and decision-making across regions, countries, and continents. Already webcams are fitted in most of the laptops in the market.
However, for complex problems, there is no substitute for face-to-face meetings.
