SMS ALERT SMS (Short Message Service) was designed originally for person-to-person messaging service.

A sender can use his mobile phone to send a brief text message to a recipient. When the recipients mobile phone receives the SMS message, he is notified by his mobile phone with a sound or vibrating. The recipient can read the text message immediately or later. Even if the mobile phone is turned off when the sender is sending the message, the recipient can still be notified as soon as he turns on his mobile phone. This will guarantee the delivery of the message within a period of time. Since its invention, with the aid of computer technology, SMS has been used extensively in the wireless world, many information such as news, financial information alert notification, etc. have been sent with SMS. The mobile phone is very popular today among people and is carried by its owner most of the time. This makes SMS very useful. In the recent years some governments such as, US and Dutch, have even adopted it to design an SMS disaster alert system to send GSM short messages to all of the mobile phones in the area where a disaster occurs to warn the people of the danger. Because the SMS technology uses the push of information approach which informs the recipients mobile phone the existence of the new information, thus, it is very useful in delivering alerts and notifications of important events. At present, many manufacturers have also developed their own SMS alert system to send immediately an SMS message to the responsible people when their devices are in trouble or some abnormal condition is detected. For a system which consists of devices from many different manufactures, the integration of these manufactures SMS alert systems is difficult. Almost every administrator will have a mobile phone that can receive messages from almost anywhere in the world. Even in meetings the phone is often turned to silent but text messages are quietly read.

The Short Message Service (SMS) is available on a vast array of mobile networks (3G, GSM, PCS etc etc) and in almost every country in the world. The international SMS gateway servers take our messages and deliver them to our subscribers via the subscribers gateway, regardless of the underlying delivery method (3G, GSM etc). Text messages are delivered almost instantaneously and can be configured to be delivered to multiple users or even to users based on their shift system. TELECONFERENCING Teleconferencing is interactive group communication (three or more people in two or more locations) through an electronic medium. In general terms,

teleconferencing can bring people together under one roof even though they're separated by hundreds of miles. Teleconferencing was first introduced in the 1960's with American Telephone and Telegraph's Picturephone. At that time, however, no demand existed for the new technology. Travel costs were reasonable and consumers were unwilling to pay the monthly service charge for using the picturephone, which was regarded as more of a novelty than as an actual means for everyday communication. But things have changed in the past 10 years. Basic Types Today, teleconferencing is used in many ways. There are three basic types:

Video conferencing-television-like communication augmented with sound. Computer conferencing-printed communication through keyboard terminals. Audio-conferencing -verbal communication via the telephone with optional capacity for telewriting or telecopying.

In some state Extension programs (Wisconsin and Illinois), teleconferencing is a basic communication technique. Yet, the verdict is still out in many other states. This article highlights some of the major advantages and disadvantages of teleconferencing and answers some questions for those uncertain about using teleconferencing in their Extension activities. Advantages One of the major advantages of teleconferencing is its potential to reduce the cost of group meetings. Savings come primarily from reduced travel costs. In fact, teleconferencing can reduce national business travel-associated costs by about 30% annually-a $4.5 billion savings. A good example of the dollars that can be saved is a teleconference conducted by the Spruce Budworm Technology Transfer (SBWTT) Program for the Lake States Region-part of the Canada/United States Spruce Budworm Program. The SBWTT project is a forest entomology research effort concerned with disseminating information about the spruce budworm to forest managers in Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. Part of the project involved a cost comparison between a 14-person audioconference and a comparable FTF meeting in St. Paul, Minnesota. The comparison revealed that the audioconference cost 42% less that the FTF meeting. The major difference between the two was the travel-related expenses. Although saving money is a big advantage of teleconferencing, there are several other advantages:

People (including outside guest speakers) who wouldn't normally attend a distant FTF meeting can participate.

Follow-up to earlier meetings can be done with relative ease and little expense.

Socializing is minimal compared to an FTF meeting; therefore, meetings are shorter and more oriented to the primary purpose of the meeting.

Some routine meetings are more effective since one can audioconference from any location equipped with a telephone.

Communication between the home office and field staffs is maximized. Severe climate and/or unreliable transportation may necessitate

teleconferencing.

Participants are generally better prepared than for FTF meetings. It's particularly satisfactory for simple problem solving, information exchange, and procedural tasks.

Group members participate more equally in wellmoderated teleconferences than in an FTF meeting.6

Disadvantages While teleconferencing is characterized by many advantages, it does have disadvantages:

Technical failures with equipment, including connections that aren't made. Unsatisfactory for complex interpersonal communication, such as

negotiation or bargaining.

Impersonal, less easy to create an atmosphere of group rapport. Lack of participant familiarity with the equipment, the medium itself, and meeting skills.

Acoustical problems within the teleconferencing rooms.

Difficulty in determining participant speaking order; frequently one person monopolizes the meeting.

Greater participant preparation and preparation time needed. Informal, one-to-one, social interaction not possible.

To minimize some of the potential problems, users should carefully evaluate their meeting needs and goals to determine if teleconferencing is appropriate. Users should also assess their audience. For example, consider the size of the group, their level of experience with teleconferencing, and the extent of their familiarity with each other. These precautions won't eliminate all the problems that could arise, but they should reduce the likelihood of their occurring. TELECOMMUTING Telecommuting, remote work, or telework is a work arrangement in which

employees do not commute to a central place of work. A person who telecommutes is known as a "telecommuter", "teleworker", and sometimes as a "home-sourced" employee. Many telecommuters work from home, while others, sometimes called "nomad workers", use mobile telecommunications technology to work from coffee shops or other locations. According to a Reuters poll, approximately "one in five workers around the globe, particularly employees in the Middle East, Latin America and Asia, telecommute frequently and nearly 10 percent work from home every day". The roots of telecommuting are found in early 1970s technology that linked satellite offices to downtown mainframes through dumb terminals using telephone lines as a network bridge. The ongoing and exponential decreases in cost along with the increases in performance and usability of personal computers, forged the way for moving the office to the home. By the early 1980s, branch offices and

home workers were able to connect to organizational mainframes using personal computers and terminal emulation. Telework is facilitated by tools such as groupware, virtual private

networks, conference calling, videoconferencing, and Voice over IP (VOIP). It can be efficient and useful for companies since it allows workers to communicate over long distances, saving significant amounts of travel time and cost.

As broadband Internet connections become more commonplace, more and more workers have adequate bandwidth at home to use these tools to link their home to their corporate intranet and internal phone networks. The adoption of local area networks promoted the sharing of resources, and client server computing allowed for even greater decentralization.

Today, telecommuters can carry laptop PCs which they can use both at the office, at home, and nearly anywhere else. The rise of cloud computing technology and Wi-Fi availability have enabled access to remote servers via a combination of portable hardware and software. Furthermore, with their improving technology and increasing

popularity, smartphones are becoming widely used in telework. They substantially increase the mobility of the worker and the degree of coordination with their organization. The technology of mobile phones and personal digital assistant (PDA) devices allows instant communication through text messages, camera photos, and video clips from anywhere and at any time. Telecommuting offers benefits to communities, employers, and employees. Telecommuting individuals, or more specifically those in "work from home" arrangements, may find that it improves work-life balance, reduces their carbon footprint and fuel usage, frees up the equivalent of 15 to 25 workdays a year (time

they would have otherwise spent commuting), and saves thousands of dollars per year in travel and work-related costs. In general, telecommuting benefits society in economic, environmental, and personal ways. The wide application of ICTs provides increasing benefits for employees, especially ones with physical disabilities. It also leads to a more energy-saving society without adversely impacting economic growth.

ELECTRONIC DATA INTERCHANGE (EDI) Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) is a method for transferring data between different computer systems or computer networks. It is commonly used by big companies for e-commerce purposes, such as sending orders to warehouses or tracking their order. It is more than mere e-mail; for instance, organizations might replace bills of lading and even cheques with appropriate EDI messages. It also refers specifically to a family of standards. In 1996, the National Institute of Standards and Technology defined electronic data interchange as "the computer-to-computer interchange of strictly formatted messages that represent documents other than monetary instruments. EDI implies a sequence of messages between two parties, either of whom may serve as originator or recipient. The formatted data representing the documents may be transmitted from originator to recipient via telecommunications or physically transported on electronic storage media." It distinguishes mere electronic communication or data exchange, specifying that "in EDI, the usual processing of received messages is by computer only. Human intervention in the processing of a received message is typically intended only for error conditions, for quality review, and for special situations. For example, the transmission of binary or textual data is not EDI as

defined here unless the data are treated as one or more data elements of an EDI message and are not normally intended for human interpretation as part of online data processing." EDI can be formally defined as the transfer of structured data, by agreed message standards, from one computer system to another without human intervention. Organizations that send or receive documents between each other are referred to as "trading partners" in EDI terminology. The trading partners agree on the specific information to be transmitted and how it should be used. This is done in human readable specifications (also called Message Implementation Guidelines). While the standards are analogous to building codes, the specifications are analogous to blue prints. (The specification may also be called a "mapping," but the term mapping is typically reserved for specific machine-readable instructions given to the translation software.) Larger trading "hubs" have existing Message Implementation Guidelines which mirror their business processes for processing EDI and they are usually unwilling to modify their EDI business practices to meet the needs of their trading partners. Often in a large company these EDI guidelines will be written to be generic enough to be used by different branches or divisions and therefore will contain information not needed for a particular business document exchange. For other large companies, they may create separate EDI guidelines for each branch/division. Trading partners are free to use any method for the transmission of documents. Furthermore, they can either interact directly, or through a third party.

VSAT TECHNOLOGY VSAT stands for Very Small Aperture Terminal and refers to

receive/transmitterminals installed at dispersed sites connecting to a central hub via satellite usingsmall diameter antenna dishes (0.6 to 3.8 meter). Traditionally, the satellite is a radiorelay station that receives, amplifies and redirects analog and digital signals containedwithin a carrier frequency. These signals contain data, voice, and videocommunications. VSAT systems can be configured for bidirectional or receive-onlyoperation. In bi-directional operation, the dish both sends (uplinks) and receives(downlinks) the information for use in LANs. What are VSATs? The term VSATs stand for Very Small Aperture Terminal, these are fixed satellite terminals that are used to provide interactive or receive only communications. Why are VSATs used? VSATs are used for a wide variety of telecommunications applications such as Corporate networks, Rural Telecom, Distance Learning, Telemedicine, Disaster Recovery, Ship - Board communications (communication on large ships), etc. Who uses VSATs? VSATs have become increasingly popular, because they are a flexible communication platform that can be installed quickly & cost effectively to provide telecom solutions to consumers, governments & corporations. VSATs have a wide range of users starting from large corporates with large value chains having a wide geographical spread to smaller organizations which have

office in different locations, the defense establishments, stock exchanges, manufacturing & FMCG companies are the typical users of VSAT's. What are the advantages of using VSATs? Some of the advantages of using VSATs are: a) VSATs are highly reliable & boasts of uptimes as high as 99.5% b) Since VSATs use a satellite to communicate geographical boundaries or terrain is not a constraint. c) A centrally managed network, which reduces a lot of logistics cost for the customer. d) In case of a failure the Mean Time to Repair is in the order of a few Hours. e) No last Miles for the customer f) Most important One Vendor Management.