The Hindu Business Line : Manners in the e-age

Techno-etiquette. What's that? "Minding your manners in the electronic age," says Jacqueline Whitmore in Business Class, from St Martin's Press (www.stmartins.com) .

"This idea of manners and courtesy is not something quaint, a notion that to some people may conjure up images of high teas, curtsies, and powdered wigs," writes Harry Beckwith in Foreword. "This is something simpler and universal: a series of lessons in how to be a human being."

Intro alerts: "Raw talent, education or experience, and competency are no longer enough to get a job, keep a job, and advance in a job." Success comes when you are able to put others at ease, says Whitmore. For, it is a reflection of the ability to get along well with all kinds of people.

Skipping the initial screening that tests your `etiquette intelligence' — and the chapters on making lasting impressions, small touches, suiting-up, mastering mingle-ability, small talk and effective listening, art of the meal, and avoiding international incidents — let us look at tech from an etiquette angle.

"With the proliferation of cell phones, pagers, e-mail, and other technological means, our business relationships are far less social than they once were. One of the many paradoxes of modern technology is that gadgets meant to connect us also isolate us," rues the author. The saving, though, is that despite our reliance on technology to communicate, we can still maintain the personal touch by practising `good techno-etiquette in the workplace'.

"One of the many paradoxes of modern technology is that gadgets meant to connect us also isolate us."

A section on e-mail extols the `e' medium as one of the most efficient ways of staying in touch with customers and clients. "It's cheaper and faster than a letter, less intrusive than a phone call, less hassle than a fax, and often more convenient for the recipient." But, how much is too much?

Asks Whitmore, "Do you stare a long queue of unread, unanswered e-mails on your screen every day?" She cites a study at Intel that found the average employee to be receiving about 200 new e-mails daily, "30 per cent of which were deemed unnecessary." Alarmingly, "With this amount of data overload, employees easily spend nearly 3 hours a day managing e-mail... Whenever there is e-mail abuse, errors occur and stress is added to our immense workload."

A simple pair of guidelines reads thus: "In general, e-mails should be used for simple matters, such as notification of when a contract arrives, scheduling an appointment, or following up on a previous conversation. More important issues, such as discussing contracts, proposals, or negotiations, and communications with new clients, are handled more effectively in person or by telephone."

E-mail etiquette includes points such as: don't `cyber shout' using all uppercase letters, skip fancy decorations, be brief but not abrupt, treat e-mails like business letters, use the subject line to inform, respond quickly, proof read before you send, use BCC with care, don't be a pest by sending the same e-mail over and over again, send attachments only with permission, and avoid unnecessary frustrations in the form of long signature files or chain letters.

Praise in person, counsels Whitmore, because "a congratulatory e-mail doesn't have the same impact as a personal thank-you note." No e-mail is private, she cautions. "E-mails can be duplicated, forwarded, and printed, so don't send or say anything you wouldn't want repeated or posted in your company's newsletter." For confidential interaction, use the phone or go meet.

When in a meeting, give your full attention, urges the author. "Suppress the urge to doodle, tap your pen, chew ice, swivel, rock back and forth in your chair, sleep, clip your fingernails, or check e-mail on your BlackBerry."

Valuable inputs.

Lots of SAP in this

The book intends to provide "visibility into key facets of SAP terminology, usage."

In King Henry VIII, Norfolk speaks of `the sap of reason' that can `allay the fire of passion'. To those of reason in information technology, SAP is business software. Serving more than 33,200 customers worldwide, and the third-largest independent software provider overall, announces www.sap.com, the site of SAP, which has its headquarters in Walldorf, Germany.

"The name SAP stands for Systems, Applications and Products in Data Processing," explains www.pcwebopaedia.com. "SAP was founded in 1972 as Systemanalyse und Programmentwicklung by five former IBM engineers in Mannheim, Germany," informs Wikipedia. "The acronym was later changed to stand for Systeme, Anwendungen und Produkte in der Datenverarbeitung... Since the 2005 annual general meeting the company's official name is just SAP AG." (Pronounced ess-aye-pea aye-gee.)

SAP is much in news too. For instance, ITBusiness.ca, Canada reports, `IBM offers greater SAP integration,' 8 hours ago, at the time of writing this. `HP and SAP introduce central print management,' states Finanzen.net, Germany 16 hours ago. `Oracle touts several wins over SAP,' notes ADT Magazine 10 hours ago. And `Microsoft, SAP Join on Business Apps Link,' according to E-Commerce Times 12 hours ago.

SAP's focus is on ERP or enterprise resource planning. The company's main product is SAP R/3, where R is for real-time data processing, one learns from http://en.wikipedia.org. "Number 3 relates to a three-tier application architecture: database, application server and client (SAPgui). SAP R/3's predecessor was R/2."

Can you learn SAP in a day? Yes, assure George W. Anderson and Danielle Larocca in the second edition of SAP in 24 Hours, from Pearson Education (www.pearsoned.co.in) . Organised in 24 chapters, the book intends to provide you with "visibility into key facets of SAP terminology, usage, configuration, deployment, administration, and more."

In the first hour, get introduced to SAP NetWeaver and ECC (ERP Central Component), which is the core OLTP (online transaction processing) system. Know that LUW or logical unit of work is what contains `all the steps of a transaction'. Hour 2 exposes you to SAP basics, such as logging in and off, session management, and GUI (graphical user interface). Wade through RDBMS (relational database management system) structures, during the following hour. Customise displays in the fourth hour, and navigate in SAP in the fifth. Screenshots and mini tips guide the reader throughout.

About ten hours later, you take a dip into SAP Basis, the WebAS or Web Application Server. This is "the middleware or software that functions as a conversion or translation layer between the technology and business application layers of a computing solution and allows the various SAP applications to run on different hardware and system platforms," explain the authors.

Hour 15 is devoted to system administration, and hour 16 to systems and performance management. In the latter you'd read about `the tune summary' or `the red swap screen' with "real time visibility into how well each SAP application server's memory and many buffers are performing."

In The Winter's Tale, Florizel tells Camillo, "I am bound to you: There is some sap in this." Of the book, however, I'd say, "Lots of SAP in this!"

Tailpiece

"The company has hired the fourth ERP consultant in two years. What did the previous three do?"

"Burp!"

http://BookPeek.blogspot.com