Office Automation Consideration: People, Tools and the Workplace

GTU Question Format: How Office Automation System (OAS) affect People and Structure of Organization?

Businesses engaged in launching or upgrading office automation systems must consider a wide variety of factors that can influence the effectiveness of those systems. 

These factors include budgetary and physical space considerations, and changes in communication infrastructure, among others. But two other factors that must be considered are employee training and proliferating office automation choices:

Training„People involved with office automation basically include all users of the automation and all providers of the automation systems and tools. A wide range of people„including software and hardware engineers, management information scientists, executives, mid-level workers, and secretaries„are just a few of the people that use office automation on a daily basis. 

As a result, training of personnel on these office automation systems has become an essential part of many companies’ planning. After all, the office automation system is only as good as the people who make it and use it, and smart business owners and managers recognize that workplace resistance to these systems can dramatically lessen their benefits. 

“It’s true that as technology matures the need for special training will decline„because tomorrow’s software and hardware will be much more intuitive and loaded with built-in teaching drills„that time is not here yet,” wrote Zarowin. “Training is still essential.”


Choice-A dizzying array of office automation alternatives are available to businesses of all shapes, sizes, and subject areas. Such systems typically involve a sizable investment of funds, so it is wise for managers and business owners to undertake a careful course of study before making a purchase. 

Primary factors that should be considered include: cost of the system, length of time involved in introducing the system, physical condition of the facility into which the system will be introduced, level of technical support, compatibility with other systems, complexity of system (a key factor in determining allocations of time and money for training), and compatibility of the system with the business area in which the company is involved.

As the high-tech economy, information age economy, or new economy continues to evolve, business experts warn small businesses not to fall too far behind. Some small businesses remain resistant to change and thus fall ever further behind in utilizing office automation technology, despite the plethora of evidence that it constitutes the wave of the future. 

The entrepreneurs and managers who lead these enterprises typically defend their inaction by noting that they remain able to accomplish their basic business requirements without such investments, or by claiming that new innovations in technology and automation are too expensive or challenging to master. 

But according to Zarowin, “those rationalizations don’t acknowledge what many recent converts to technology are discovering: the longer one delays, the larger the gap and the harder it is to catch up. And though many businesses still can function adequately with paper and pencil, their customers„and their competition„is not sitting on their hands.”