Electronic Communications in BusinessElectronic communications have come a long way. It all began in 1867 with the invention of the typewriter, which eliminated the need for handwritten letters and business documents. Then the invention of the telephone in 1876 reduced the need for face-to-face meetings. Today, we have many types of new technologies that allow us to do business faster and more efficiently than ever before. These technologies include fax, email, teleconferencing/videoconferencing, and voice messages. Each of these forms of electronic communications has advantages and disadvantages and requires following good workplace etiquette. telephones and emails. Fax capabilities have many benefits. The most important advantage is the wide availability. A fax is inexpensive to send and usually costs no more than the cost of a phone call. Faxing information saves time and money. A fax can be used to send just about anything. With a fax machine, it's easy to send drawings, charts, graphs, words and images that would take much longer to explain over the phone. Disadvantages of sending faxes include the inability to automatically send double-sided or double-sided documents. Another problem is that a poor quality or dark original may not transmit well. Confidentiality is also an issue when the fax machine is located in a shared office (Ford and deMontravel, 2001). It is important to exercise caution when deciding which documents are appropriate to send via a business fax machine. If a personal document...... middle of paper ......e information down (Ford & deMontravel 2001). When you receive voicemails, always return calls as soon as possible. It is best to avoid leaving disturbing messages in a voicemail or answering machine unless necessary (Ford and deMontravel 2001). Do not leave long distance telephone numbers on a machine and instead inform the recipient that another attempt will be made to contact them (Ford and deMontravel 2001). Faxes, emails, teleconferencing, video conferencing, and voice mail are all forms of electronic communications. communications that are essential. It would be impossible to operate a competitive business without such means of communication in today's rapidly changing, globalized and technologically advanced business environment. It takes training to properly use these impersonal means of communication to build lasting relationships which are the key to success in any business field..