E-mail era yet to dawn

 

                 E-mail Era yet to dawn

The incident occurred in a first class air-conditioned train compartment almost a month ago. My fellow passenger happened to be a top executive in one of the most reputed corporate houses of the country.

However, after some initial acquaintances and after knowing about his professional commitments, I got to know that he has to spend a substantial amount of time on business transactions through Telephone, Telex and Fax. In fact, the monthly figure he quoted, were unbelievably large - Rs.60 to 70 lakhs.

I couldn't resist the temptation of suggesting the idea to the "so called" top brash of using of e-mail (electronic mail). But he was not convinced. The debate continued. However, when logic failed, he finally said that the emotion which could be expressed over a Telecon was not possible through any other means. It is unfortunate that corporate executives of our country are yet to realise the full potential of modern communication facilities.

The latest facility for exchanging information by means of a service (e-mail), is available with the Educational and Research Network (ERNET) project launched by the department of electronics (DoE), government of India, in 1988 under the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

The project initially linked eight academic institutes of the country including the IITs at New Delhi, Bombay, Madras, and Kharagpur, IISC, Bangalore, National Council of Science and Tecnology, Bombay, and DoE at New Delhi. Today there are about 300 members in the ERNET club throughout the country. However, the eastern region has only 20.

E-mail is a global mailing system, facilitating exchange of information among it's subscribers anywhere in the Network, using worldwide Telephone links and computer as the terminal equipment at the subscriber's end instead of Telephone.

Thanks to the tremendous development of microelectronics that has led to the production of large storage media, high-speed and low-cost desktop computers at one end and high-tech, line- of-sight communication media like microwave and Satellite at the other, besides physical media like copper conductors and fibre optics. The marriage of these two technologies has produced a number services and e-mail is one of them.

What is so great about e-mail? The telephone lines, instead of carrying voice signals, carry computer processed data in the form of digital signals. So, in order to have a mailing facility, one should have a PC/AT running UNIX or XENIX, a compatible MODEM and of course, a pair of Telephone line.

The initial investments would never exceed Rs.30,000. However, addition of a printer 🖨 would cost another Rs.10,000.

It is TRUE that the telephone provides instantaneous access, but studies have shown that about 60 -70 per cent of all business calls fail to reach the intended party in time. As a result, the party, returning to his desk, calls back to have a similar reply. So this unending process goes on.

E-mail is delivered faster than a telephone call. Moreover, it is not necessary that both the concerned parties needed to remain available at the same instant. Here it is the duty of the computer to receive and store the required message for you. You can get your message by keying in appropriate commands when you are back. You can also have a printed copy of the same with the help of appropriate options. You can also send a message in broadcast mode, to a number of persons simultaneously. Presently the Fax has only advantage that it can send hand-written information. But it may also be available on E-mail soon, says experts.

                 Key takeaways from E-mail

A study, based on experience, reveals that the cost of transmission is roughly proportional to the time the communication line is occupied and is independent of of the mode of transmission. It has been estimated that transporting typed information contained in an A4-size paper would require about five minutes over telephone and about two minutes over Fax.

As for E-mail, the time depends mainly on two factors - the electrical condition of the ☎️ telephone link and the kind of medium being used. In addition, noisy telephone lines limit the speed and simple modems do not have all the features for high speed transmission. However, despite such problems, the transmission time for the same length of information through E-mail is not likely to exceed 10 seconds on an average, an order of magnitude faster than the prevailing modes.

The time reduces  by a factor of 15-20 if the transmission is made via a dedicated leased line between the subscriber and the nodal point (that is, the receiver). Communication via Satellite reduces this time by a still larger factor.

For exchanging confidential and classified information for office management, however, the need for telephone cannot be ruled out. But for the routine and  bulk information exchange, there is none to match this modern mailing facility.

The important question however, remains to be answered is, how one can ensure the security of corporate information over E-mail ? As such the information is open to the node manager,  and in such cases non-uniform coding mechanism could be devised to code confidential information. 

DoE has set up a nodal centre for Eastern Region at the Variable Energy Cyclotron Centre (VECC) under Dept. of Atomic Energy, at Salt Lake City, Calcutta. About 20 numbers of academic institutes, including some of those from neighbouring states of Assam, Orissa and Bihar, have access right to the node for exchanging information among themselves as well as rest of the 300 members of the ERNET club.

National Centre for the Software Technology (Bombay) - the Indian "Gateway" for electronic mail has the additional responsibility of exchanging information between the ERNET members and members of any other Network around the globe. It is to be noted here that ERNET, once meant for use only by the academic institutes and government departments, has of late been made available to private customers as well. 

Security of classified information is more important than "emotion". After all, emotions have a very limited place in the business world. Therefore, let us not confine ourselves to our present imagination. We must recognize our ignorance and leave room for doubt.