July 1996 7.
Firms select from a growing menu of communications and transportation choices.
Moreover, even with the best electronic communication systems, confidence between team members of a project team spread out over the globe seems to decay, even if they have real time contacts through electronic mail . . . Confidence between engineers has perhaps, like nuclear radiation, a half-life time. By contrast, routine giving and receiving of orders and of information is more likely to be conducted by telephone. Business and contacts by telephone are important means of communication to establish confidence and make it possible to solve problems in a short time. Electronic mail and fax are needed when the receiver is hard to reach, as when there are time differences.