Digicel Communication

1. Introduction

Digicel was first launched fifteen years ago, April 2001, in Jamaica. From there onwards the company has become one of the fastest developing mobile telecommunications machinists in the Caribbean. The company is operated by Irish billionaire, Denis O’Brien (Executive Chairman) and Colm Delves (CEO). Digicel has expanded quickly and now spans across 31 markets in the Caribbean, Central America and Asia Pacific. The company has over 6,000 employees and over 13 million wireless users. Digicel was established in Trinidad and Tobago in April 2006.

Digicel is the foremost benefactor of Caribbean, Central American and Asia-Pacific sports teams, as well as the Special Olympics teams throughout these districts. Digicel sponsors the West Indies cricket team. In the years 2005, 2007, 2008, and 2010 it was the title sponsor of the Digicel Caribbean Cup. Furthermore, they also are benefactors of the Cayman Islands Digicel Cup in football, preliminary in 2006. Digicel sponsors the highest level of football in Trinidad & Tobago, the TT Pro League, known for sponsorship reasons as "The Digicel Pro League". In April they were declared as the first global sponsor of the 2013 inaugural tournament for the Caribbean Premier League.

Presently, Digicel is satisfied to serve consumers and business clients alike and to offer the worlds of mobile communications, business solutions, media and entertainment. According to (Digicel Corporation, 2001), they made it their duty to deliver the finest network, the best service and top value to their customers and to repay their communities.

In 2011, key personnel from Digicel Tonga completed a three day training course in “Advanced Communication Skill within the Workforce” in line with company goals to develop talent from within. Digicel came to the conclusion that the best type of communication technics that has worked for them are verbal and written.

1. Communication

What is communication?

Communication is simply the reporting, passing on or exchange of information, ideas or views by the use of speech, writing or illustrations.

Forms of Communication

Message: this is the information that is encoded. It is comprised of the information in which the sender wants to pass on to the receiver.

Medium: this is the way in which the message was sent or expressed. There are three main ways a message can be sent:

• Written
• Oral
• Visual

Channel: the physical means by which the message is passed on.

1. Communication Channel

On interviewing (Quamina, 2015), she stated that the most frequently used communication channels by them are written and verbal. However, the one that is most commonly used by her is written. Reason being is because she manages logistics and customs which involves a vast amount of paperwork. She said “Written is most effective as the documentation is 90% of the task. Most shipments are sent from Europe and Asia so communicating verbally or otherwise is difficult with the time difference.”

She also stated that the written method is best suited when dealing with multiple parties and that it provides better context, especially when better interacting with global partners. I do agree with her to an extent. However, they may face some challenges pertaining to feedback regardless of the time difference.

Written Communication

Written communication is the most common form of business communication. It is important for business owners and managers to develop effective written communication skills and to encourage the same in all employees. Written communication lets businesses communicate developments, expectations and legalities to employees and connections in the outside world.

Types of Written Communication used by the business

• Email
• Internet websites
• Letters
• Proposals
• Telegrams,
• Faxes
• Postcards
• Contracts
• Advertisements
• Brochures  
• News releases
• Reports
• Questionnaires or Form

The ones that are most commonly used by this company are emails, reports, letters and advertisements.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Written Communication for the business

• Advantages:

Easy to preserve: If it is needed, essential information can be collected from (Anon., n.d.)the preserved documents. (This was stated in the interview)

Easy presentation of complex matter: Written communication is the best approach to represent any difficult matter easily and attractively.

No opportunity to misinterpret: there is any chance to misunderstand the information or messages of written communication.

• Disadvantages

Time consuming: It is a time consuming media. It costs the valuable time of both the sender and the receiver.

Complex words: Sometimes the writer uses complex words in writing a message. It becomes difficult to meaning out to the reader. So the aims of the communication may lose.

Difficult to maintain secrecy: It is an unexpected medium to keep business secrecy. Secrecy is sometimes impossible to uphold through written communication.

Emails

Email is short for electronic mail, this is information stored on a computer that is exchanged between two users over telecommunications.

• Advantages:

Emails are fast. No other form of written communication is as quick as an email.

The language used in emails is simple and informal.

Emails do not use paper which makes them environment friendly.

Products can be advertised with emails. Companies can reach a lot of people and inform them in a short time.

• Disadvantages

Emails may carry viruses.

Many people send unwanted emails to others. These are called spam mails. It takes a lot of time to filter out the unwanted emails from those that are really significant.

Emails cannot really be used for official business documents. They may be lost and you cannot sign them.