Communications and Media

In order for a company to succeed, it needs all the vital information required both from the field and it customers so as to improve its standards of offering both services and products to the customers. Collaborative technologies are changing the way business is conducted, while maintaining the trusted relationships that exist between participants in the business process. Executives in highly competitive markets need to understand the concepts behind collaborative solutions and how they can be implemented to improve productivity and relationships with customers, suppliers, and partners in order to remain competitive hence maintaining its image to the public.

Dell is a company that deals with the manufacturing of technology that are widely use all over the world as they have computers, laptops PCs ipods and all related technology used for communication. It is one of the growing industries well known for their high quality technology that comes fully installed with all the software that will ease communication process. Dell in partnership with skype allowed users of this technology to access internet easily and also provided them with easy access to skype voice and video internet calling software. Also the Dell users will be able to pre-load skype on the XPS 2010, a unique mobile internet system with a high definition display with integrated webcam and this partnership has helped Dell to remain competitive in the market.

Some of the collaborative services available to organizations include
Collaborative Consolidation (Technology Assessment) There are loads of collaborative technologies on the market today that support a host of critical business functions including online meetings, training, projecttask management, document sharing, application sharing, etc. Dell has been well known to be the first technology that uses skype and Yugma to render education services to distant learners who are taking an online program in universities and they live in a different state as Dell is designed in a way that accepts both skype and Yugma to function at the same time with each set to perform different functions. Most of the lecturers can prepare and upload related handout material, and email reminders logged on skype at the appointed hour and as soon participants log in and they can involve in a discussion as well without any problem. At the other hand Yugmas enhanced version includes the ability to record and playback the presentations at a later date. There is also a provision for making all of the hosts illustrations view only. The Dell Video Chat powered by Sight Speed is an application that comes installed on the Linux build of Dells inspiration mini 9 devices which is also installed on windows XP version which enables the users who have Dell to design spontaneous video calling and worldwide telephone calling, hence paving way for easy, high quality and face to face communication from any broadband connection

 Selecting the right technology for your specific needs can be challenging. In addition, often larger enterprises have had groups pick a variety of different collaboration technologies, and when these become overwhelming (in terms of support and management costs) often IT wants the enterprise to consolidate collaboration technologies. This can be a difficult and challenging process
Skype is a synchronous communication tool used for communication over the Internet.  Skype users chat using text, audio, or even video. As a computer-to-computer communication device, communicating with Skype is free and is the primary focus of this evaluation. However, the software can be used to telephone landlines or mobiles at a low rate hence making an organization to save a substantial amount of money which is used in buying airtime. An organization can apply for a local number that people can call using their telephones for a monthly fee which is cost effective to an organization. Using the text-based group chat available on Skype, up to 50 officials within an organization can interact within a given chat with the executives. This chat can be bookmarked and members can return to the room for either a prearranged board meetings or for group meetings on a collaborative project.  The moderator has the ability to set the access permissions so that the organization can be somewhat secure from outside parties.  As well, posting guidelines can be set for workers reminding them of major outcomes, etiquette guidelines or schedules.

Within Skype Chat, the participants also have the ability to Conference Call with each other thus taking advantage of Skypes main function the Audio Call, where up to 5 users can conference together (10 with a powerful computer). Thus, Skype can be used to collaborate with others using audio while the basic Skype package lacks the features of other commercial web collaborating programs such as Elluminate Live, it is important to mention that using the Extras under the Do More menu, the features of Skype can be expanded at a cheaper price to include a whiteboard, application sharing, document collaboration, text-to-audio translating and even conferencing with up to 500 people with hand raising and recording of the session.

Overall, Skype is a powerful synchronous communication tool with many applications in distance organizations like Dell. Dell basically uses skype to bring workers, executives together over a distance and collaborate in real-time for projects, seminars or even shared browsing.  Furthermore, its features can be enhanced to compete with that of expensive commercial applications, such as Elluminate Live, at very little expense.

Yugma Skype is unique software used by Dell for desktop sharing capability and providing a free basic desktop sharing service that can have as many as ten participants in a desktop sharing session. Session recording and file sharing options makes it a more feature rich platform. Going forward they are looking to introduce features which provide single application sharing, tighter linkage to voice conferencing services and a Face book interface as well as to migrate user interfaces currently available in the general Yugma desktop sharing application to Yugma Skype.

These software are very effective as on the other hand they support  and allows individuals and organizations like the Dell to easily meet, present information, demonstrate products online, and collaborate on documents, thereby improving communication with employees, partners, customers, prospects, students and online communities. Yugma is available as a free basic service, as well as a premium service, available on a paid subscription basis. The free version may be sponsored by advertising, which is visible to users of the free version. In order for an organization to be able to use this service it must register and provide some information about the company and you will also be required to update the information about the organization so as to keep Yugma current and if they discover the information given is inaccurate they may terminate your rights to access and receive the product immediately upon notice.

Yugma allows the registered user to easily meet present information, demonstrate products online and collaborate on documents, thereby improving communication with employees, partners, customers, prospects, students and online communities. Yugma offers free and paid-subscriptions services if you subscribe to a paid-subscription service, your subscription will continue and renew automatically at the existing service level unless terminated by Yugma or until you notify Yugma of your decision to cancel your subscription. For an organization it will be cheaper to use the credit card as it will be economical to the company.

When confronted with a new technology, individuals try to understand it in terms of their existing technological frames, often augmenting these frames to accommodate special aspects of the technology. If the technology is sufficiently different, however, these existing frames may be inappropriate, and individuals will need to significantly modify their technological frames in order to understand or interact effectively with the new technology. How users change their technological frames in response (Neilson 1997, p.42).

The main aim and objectives of using collaborative technologies in an organization is to cut on the costs used on communication which most are post paid and gives the employees in that organization an opportunity to misuse office phones. For example Dell is cost effective as it comes fully installed and supports all the communication software as other technology software that perform the same function can not be supported if installed all at once.

For a collaboration strategy to add value to the business, the plans for improvement must be measurable, held accountable by the business, the Chief Information Officers (CIOs) must be able to show the concrete results of initiatives. Both quantitative and qualitative measures can play an important role, but they must be meaningful and they must probe deeper than a simple analysis of financial costs and returns. It can be difficult to measure the effects of collaboration, but that doesnt mean the value cant be found.

Why choose these tools
As Gartner Research asserts
Illustrative cost savings can be conceiving, even if they are not very precise. For example, describe a particular process currently performed in the organization and state how it could be changed by applying the proposed investments. Will the process take less time, have fewer steps and fewer errors, and will better decisions be made as a result of these investments It is fairly simple to translate these expected improvements into illustrative money savings. These benefits can manifest themselves as increased productivity, less travel, fewer labor requirements and fewer errors. Or sometimes a particularly powerful idea can lead indirectly to enterprise wide changes in culture, increases in revenue or greater market share.

How ICT support different forms of collaboration between and within organizations.
Information and Communication Technology (ICTs) support different forms of collaboration between and within organizations thus reducing expenditure on communication within the organization, training and many others. This is to the advantage of advances in Information Technology (IT) that have changed ways of communication in organization and delivery of services within the organization and the society at large, and the best example being Dell which has their technology installed with all the necessary software that support collaborative ness. Some new delivery technologies using for example electronic learning (e-learning) in virtual programs, internet courses delivery strategies, audio and video communications have changed and challenged ways of knowledge delivery in the education sector and also in organizations where they organize for in house training of their employees. The current trend in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has brought a phenomenon which can be termed a fourth revolution in IT. The first revolution comprised of films, radio, television and satellite broadcasting, while the second comprised telecommunications and microcomputers (Paisley, 1985).The integration of telecommunications and microelectronic technology in computing was termed a third revolution and came to be what is called Information Technology (IT).

The advantages of Dell have been recognized worldwide and national policy makers have realized the potential of these to restructure organizations, promote collaboration, increase democratic participation of citizens, improve the transparency and responsiveness of governmental agencies, make health care more widely available, foster cultural creativity and enhance the social integration of individuals with different abilities and groups of different cultural background (Kozma, 2005). The policies crafted should aim at programs that promote economic and social growth in societies.

Conclusion

If all the organization adopt collaborative technology like skype and Yugma, built and made better by the Dell company, it will end up saving lots of money used for traveling to different places for training, communication or meetings as this collaborative technology can allow organization to share files, messages converted to audio and video which will enable most of the organization to hold meetings for all branches at the same time. This technology if taken with serious consideration, an organization will achieve the best hence making it to remain competitive throughout.