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A2 Impact of modern technologies GapFill
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In 2020, millions of workers around the world were forced to work from home because of a global pandemic. For many, modern technologies allowed working from home a fairly smooth experience. Had such a shutdown occurred fifteen or twenty years, people would have found working much more difficult – many of these technologies we now take for granted in our everyday life were in their infancy, lacked features, were sometimes prohibitively expensive, or were almost impossible without fast broadband access in homes and businesses – if they had even been invented. Try to imagine that as the millennium dawned, social media, VOIP, smartphones and broadband barely existed, the phrase ‘the cloud’ was only used by a handful of engineers, and even the release Windows XP was nearly two years away.
Technology has certainly made the world a much smaller place, allowing large multinational companies to expand into new markets and cheap and fast communications have allowed collaboration between offices and teams working around the world. It’s no surprise that we call a group of employees spread around geographically as . As you can expect such teams cover people from different religions, cultures, ages, abilities, genders, who speak different languages and come from different working cultures. While this team could sound a little chaotic on the surface, they are a melting pot for ideas and collaboration.
Being located in different time zones, the team can be highly productive – often working over longer hours or even . When an office in one country closes, another one opens. The team in one office may send a/an or message giving an update on progress and provide new targets, bug fixes and consideration points to the next set of workers. Some of the team may be working rather than the office. This gives them greater flexibility in the hours that they work – such as fitting work around childcare or other responsibilities. The team may also be made up of a mix of talents and could include a mixture of , temporary and causal staff, or contractors and consultants who bring expert advice, knowledge and skills to the team when necessary. Technology has also allowed staff with disabilities to work easily within these teams – such as screen readers and text magnifiers allow visually-impaired to do the same job as anyone else, or larger buttons or alternative layout could help those with mobility issues. We call this (facilitation of member's needs).
Companies also engage with their ‘stakeholders’ – which is anyone who has an interest in the business including its employees, and its who purchase its products. The main way that people often find out through a company is through its . On this platform, they can often read about the products and services on offer, view a contact page, and sometimes purchase products online. Email, letters and voice can be used to contact a company formally – for example, calls may be recorded and stored. But more informal methods include and live chat. Live chat may be used in a similar way, for example contacting , but not for promoting products and relaying information and updates to a wide audience.
If a business was sending bills or personalised written communication to customers, it would use messages because they are personal and not to be seen by anybody else. New promotions, offers and money-off codes could be provided directly to customers by email, or posted on social media or their website – these are communications, where the company wants the widest audience possible.