Generally, there are three basic activities of an office automation system: storage of information, data exchange, and data management. Within each broad application area, hardware and software combine to fulfill basic functions.
Information Storage
The first area within office automation is information storage which is usually considered to include office records and other primary office forms and documents. Data applications involve the capture and editing of files, images, or spreadsheets.
Word processing and desktop presentation packages accommodate raw textual and graphical data, while spreadsheet applications provide users with the capacity to engage in the easy manipulation and output of numbers. Image applications allow the capture and editing of visual images.
Text handling software and systems cover the whole field of word processing and desktop publishing. Word processing, the most basic and common office automation activity, is the inputting (usually via keyboard) and manipulation of text on a computer.
Today’s commercial word processing applications provide users with a sophisticated set of commands to format, edit, and print text documents. One of the more popular features of word processing packages is its preformatted document templates.
Templates automatically set up such things as font size, paragraph styles, headers and footers, and page numbers so that the user does not have to reset document characteristics every time he or she creates a new record.
Desktop publishing adds another dimension to text manipulation. By combining the features of a word processor with advanced page design and layout features, desktop publishing packages have emerged as valuable tools in the creation of newsletters, brochures, and other documents that combine text and photographs, charts, drawings and other graphic images.
Image handling software and systems are another facet of office automation. Examples of visual information include pictures of documents, photographs, and graphics such as tables and charts.
These images are converted into digital files, which cannot be edited the same way that text files can. In a word processor or desktop publishing application, each word or character is treated individually.
In an imaging system, the entire picture or document is treated as one whole object. One of the most popular uses of computerized images is in corporate presentations or speeches. Presentation software packages simplify the creation of multimedia presentations that use computer video, images, sound, and text in an integrated information package.
Spreadsheet programs allow the manipulation of numeric data. Early popular spreadsheet programs such as VisiCalc and Lotus 123 greatly simplified common business financial record keeping.
Particularly useful among the many spreadsheet options is the ability to use variables in pro-forma statements. The pro-forma option allows the user to change a variable and have a complex formula automatically recalculated based on the new numbers.
Many businesses use spreadsheets for financial management, financial projection, and accounting.
Data Exchange
While data storage and manipulation is one component of an office automation system, the exchange of that information is another equally important component. Electronic transfer is a general application area that highlights the exchange of information among multiple users.
Electronic mail, voice mail, and facsimile are examples of electronic transfer applications. Systems that allow instantaneous or “real time” transfer of information (i.e., online conversations via computer or audio exchange with video capture) are considered electronic sharing systems.
Electronic sharing software illustrates the collaborative nature of many office automation systems.
Office automation systems that include the ability to electronically share information between more than one user simultaneously are sometimes referred to as groupware systems.
One type of groupware is an electronic meeting system. Electronic meeting systems allow geographically dispersed participants to exchange information in real time. Participants in such electronic meetings may be within the same office or building, or thousands of miles apart.
Long-distance electronic sharing systems usually use a telephone line connection to transfer data; while sharing in the same often involves just a local area network of computers (no outside phone line is needed).
The functional effectiveness of such electronic sharing systems has been one factor in the growth of telecommuting as an option for workers. Telecommuters work at home, maintaining their ties to the office via computer.
Electronic transfer software and systems allow for electronic transmission of office information. Electronic mail uses computer-based storage and a common set of network communication protocols to forward electronic messages from one user to another.
Most of these systems allow users to relay electronic mail to more than one recipient, although they refer to this in an old-fashioned way as carbon copying or “ccing.” Electronic mail, or e-mail systems, provides security features, automatic messaging, and mail management systems like electronic folders or notebooks.
Voice mail offers essentially the same applications, but for telephones, not computers.
Other traditional office machines continue to undergo changes that improve their data exchange capacities as well.
Digital copiers, for example, are increasingly multi-functional (with copying, printing, faxing, and scanning capabilities) and connectable to computer networks.
Laptops, Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), and Blackberries (wireless cell phone and PDA units) use wireless data transfer technologies to provide users with almost instant access to information stored on a company’s computer networks and servers from just about anywhere within reach of a cell phone tower or wireless Internet transmitter.
That means just about anywhere within an urban area of the United States these days.
Data Management
Office automation systems are also often used to track both short-term and long-term data in the realms of financial plans, workforce allocation plans, marketing expenditures, inventory purchases, and other aspects of business.
Task management or scheduling systems monitor and control various projects and activities within the office. Electronic management systems monitor and control office activities and tasks through timelines, resource equations, and electronic scheduling.
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