5.7 Benefits of electronic communications The workshop briefly discussed the benefits of electronic communications, as opposed to the paper-based system. Electronic communications allow for faster, more extensive retrieval of data, with a much larger storage capacity. In addition, the medium allows for analysis, comparison, cross-tabulations, editing, use of templates, resulting in an overall increase in efficiency and performance of the system. However, the issue of cost-savings may be debatable given the financial requirements to initiate the system, and the limited resources available to some countries. To achieve a functional system, the key inputs were training, infrastructure and internet facilities.
