A role which E-mail plays
In business

Introduction

E-mail predates the inception of Internet, and was fact a crucial tool in creating the Internet. MIT first demonstrated the Compatible Time-Sharing System (CTSS) in 1951. It allowed multiple users to log into the IBM 7094 from remote dial-up terminals, and to store files online on disk. This new ability encouraged users to share information in new ways. E-mail started in 1965 as a way for multiple users of a time-sharing mainframe computer to communicate. Although the exact history is murky, among the first systems to have such a facility were SDC’s Q32 and MIT’s CTSS. E-mail was quickly extended to become network mail, allowing users to pass message between different computers by 1966 or earlier (it is possible that the SAGE system had something similar some time before). The ARPANET computer network made a large contribution to the development of E-mail. There is one report that indicates experimental inter-system E-mail transfers began shortly after its creation in 1969. Ray Tomlinson initiated the use of the @ sign to separate the name of the user and their machine in 1971. The ARPANET significantly increased the popularity of E-mail, and it became the killer app of ARPANET.

E-mail was widely accepted by the business community as the first broad electronic communication medium and was the first “e-revolution” in business communication. E-mail is very simple to understand and like postal mail, E-mail solves two basic problems of communication: logistics and synchronization. LAN based E-mail is also emerging form of usage for business. It not only allows the business user to download mail when offline, it also provides the small business user to have multiple users E-mail ID’s with just one E-mail connection. Over the past number of decades, technology and technological advancements have impacted business and their methods of operation. Every progression as well as E-mail in this area has had both advantages and disadvantages.

Advantage of E-mail in business

The Problem of Logistics:
Much of the business world relies upon communications between people who are not physically in the same building, area or even country; setting up and attending an in-person meeting, telephone call, or conference call can be inconvenient, time-consuming, and costly. E-mail provides a way to exchange information between two or more people with no set-up costs and that is generally far less expensive than physical meetings or phone calls.

The Problem of Synchronization:
With real time communication by meeting or phone calls, sellers and customers have to be working on the same schedule and each participant must spend the same amount of time in the meeting or on the call as everyone else. E-mail allows asynchrony – each participant to decide when and how much time they will spend dealing with any associated information.

The Problem of Marketing: In the past number of decades, companies mostly advertise their products or services at some pages in a newspaper or magazines. However, compared with E-mail, it costs much more when saving tons of trees is taken into consideration. As E-mail has a push technique, sellers can easily send their advertisement to customers without knowing at their door in a probably wrong time. This way, E-mail gives customers a chance to pick a valuable time to learn the products or services. Therefore, using E-mail to advertise products or services properly may expend the marker more effectively.

Disadvantage of E-mail in business

Most business workers today spend from one to two hours of their working day on E-mail: reading, ordering, sorting, “re-contextualizing” fragmented information, and writing E-mail. The use of E-mail is increasing due to increasing levels of globalization – labor division and outsourcing amongst other things. E-mail can lead to some well-known problems:

Loss of Context: which means that the context