Practical Uses of Multimedia in the Office

Practical Uses of Multimedia in the Office

By Kevin Shepherdson

office It has been more than four years since multimedia made its debut on the PC platform. More than 50 million titles have been sold. Creative Technology moves about 1 million sound cards every month and has sold more than 17 million sound cards worldwide. The entertainment and educational scene have been overwhelmed by the Multimedia fever.

Almost every PC that is sold now comes with a CD-ROM drive and a sound card. Yet, the corporate world is slow to accept the technology. It is something more widely read about than used.

The fact is that multimedia is perceived very differently in business. The element of sound let alone video from the PC seems annoying to any manager wanting to create a productive working environment - noise, as it is often referred to. While everyone agrees that multimedia has a variety of uses, the technology has often thought to have been abused in the office. What seems unattractive to managers is the possibility that employees may play games on the PC or listen to a Compact disc played from the CD-ROM drive.

Limited Usage of Multimedia in the Office Environment

It is therefore not surprising that the full impact of multimedia has not been felt in the corporate world. This does not mean that multimedia is hardly used at all. According to a recent Dataquest report, the mainstream use of multimedia in the business environment is in presentations and training. Companies are slowly but steadily developing multimedia courseware to train their staff. To draw attention and to beef up the image of their products, some companies have also turned to using multimedia presentations with impressive graphics, dramatic music and sound effects. However, fewer companies are using multimedia for other uses such as demo disks, multimedia databases and video-on-demand. Multimedia is used in specific areas.

But what about the everyday use of multimedia? Most of today's productivity software have built-in multimedia support. The most practical use of multimedia here is that it allows users to add voice annotations to any document or spreadsheet. Unfortunately, the widespread use of multimedia has yet to take off. As one report puts it: "Voice annotation is more hype than substance."

As far as multimedia is concerned, it is not a hype. In reality, there are many uses of multimedia that can be applied in the field of business - these are often overlooked :

Multimedia in Sales & Point of Purchase
Multimedia in Training
Multimedia in Direct Mailing
Multimedia in Presentations
Multimedia in Communications
Multimedia in the Net

Video Conferencing & Telephony: Multimedia Innovations that will be Popular in Businesses

Despite the uphill task that multimedia vendors are facing, they continue to introduce new multimedia products and productivity software for a broad spectrum of business usage. But the surest bet for them is in the area of telecommunication. One multimedia innovation that can be reckoned with in the corporate environment is desktop video conferencing.

Videoconferencing systems which once cost tens of thousands of dollars have only been accessible to high level management or those who could afford until recently. Today, more people can enjoy the benefits of speaking an seeing each other without the need of being physically present. A desktop video conferencing now costs less than US$4,000. Although the video quality is not as good as the expensive systems, the desktop models offer many more advantages such as application and whiteboard sharing as well as document transfers via the PC. These are examples of pragmatic functions which businessmen will appreciate; prompting them to use multimedia naturally.

In an attempt to make desktop video conferencing even more practical and affordable, Creative Technology introduced the ShareVision PC3000, a desktop video conferencing solution that runs on a regular telephone line instead of an ISDN line at an attractive price of US$999. The company's strategy of enabling video conferencing via regular telephone line for convenience in use and installation has propelled it to be one of the top seven video conferencing system suppliers in 1994 even though the product was only shipped towards the fourth quarter of that year.

While video conferencing is relatively new today, it will be a natural means for communication given the right price point and the improvement in compression technologies.

The gradual success of desktop video conferencing is an indication that multimedia can serve the needs of the corporate world. In fact, business communication can indeed be enhanced by multimedia technology.

Enter Telephony Systems

Another multimedia application in the corporate environment is in the area of telephony where sound cards incorporate telephony features.

Sound cards have always been very popular among game enthusiasts. Creative Technology sells 1 sound card is about every 3-5 seconds. Nevertheless, sound cards have not made their mark in the business environment.

Recently, however, multimedia vendors have attempted to make the sound card more practical to businesses. A number of companies are building telephony features into the sound card. A typical telephony card today allows users to call someone from his or her computer or even fax directly from it.

It also has a built-in modem that allows users to access to on-line services or the Internet.

What's so special about this? There's always the telephone or the fax machine, you may say.

The fact is having a sound/fax/modem card installed in your PC provides users with a powerful communications manager - one that can work for twenty-four hours a day. Like a personal assistant, a telephony board can manage communications tasks professionally, discretely and exactly the way users want. For example, Creative's Phone Blaster will work quietly in the background, taking calls and faxes while a user complete other tasks on the PC. It can gently remind users of incoming calls. The alert may not necessarily be in the form of a telephone ring. Users can program the card to play any sound such as dog barking each time there is an incoming call.

A telephony card also screens calls so that users can determine when to pick up and when to let the system answer on his or her behalf. A typical card also greets callers with a list of options and provides background music while the caller is on hold - complete with general-interest messages about a user's company if needed.

Another benefit of telephony cards is that when users are away, they can be notified via their pagers of incoming voice messages and faxes. Users can then call back to their PCs to receive the voice messages and faxes from a remote location.

Broadcasting faxes to a list of clients is also possible with a telephony card. Besides replacing the regular functions of a fax machine,a telephony card can also provide fax-on-demand to prospects wanting to receive information. In addition, cards such as Creative's Phone Blaster can handle multiple "mailboxes", so different people or departments can have messages relayed to them and no one else. Security and privacy is maintained.

Given the practical features, the improved productivity and the convenience that telephony cards offer, it is not difficult to guess that telephony will be the next big thing that will make multimedia practical to businesses.

Multimedia will be very much part of Business functions in the near future.

One can expect multimedia to play a more important role in business in the near future rather than just being limited to training and presentations. Already, larger companies are embarking on video-on-demand and interactive customers service using video conferencing. Publishing companies are currently exploring the CD-ROM media as an alternative platform for delivering information. Similarly, advertising companies and specialized multimedia service providers have started to offer interactive services such as creating multimedia presentations and multimedia demonstration disks. We may not notice it - but the right infrastructure for the proliferation of multimedia in business is slowly but surely being established. MIS managers and staff as well as traditional programmers are now aware of the relevance of multimedia.

In addition, government policies in various countries also favor the growth of multimedia. Finally, educational institutions are actively pursuing research in multimedia technology and are recommending how it can be used to enhance communication and improve productivity. While all these are being established, multimedia courses and degrees will be sprouting out everywhere - in both commercial and government institutions. Multimedia, by then, will have been firmly entrenched in the business culture.