A survey of Office Automation technology for academic computing centers

ABSTRACT

At Northwestern University the Personnel Department helps individual departments in studies related to word processing equipment selection. Many departments have acquired standalone word processors from a number of different vendors. The result has been that the specialized word processing needs of departments are being covered. However, universities are not as knowledgeable as industry in applying the new technology.

For this reason I've gone to industry to learn how Office Automation is currently being applied. My experience has shown that the academic computing centers with their strong technical base have a role to play in evaluating how the new technology represented by Office Automation can best be delivered to the university.

Because of this new technology, futurists predict that by the year 2000 nearly three fourths of the workforce will be engaged in managing information rather than producing goods. Already one half of the workforce can be classified as knowledge workers. Within universities almost everyone is already a knowledge worker.

During the decade of the 70's industrial workers experienced a 78 percent increase in productivity while clerical workers realized only a four percent increase. It has been argued that this happened partly because industrial workers are supported by an average capital investment of 64,000. Can similar productivity increases be made in offices and can Office Automation technology result in cost savings for universities?

Index Terms

• Applied computing

  • Enterprise computing

    • Enterprise information systems

      • Enterprise applications

• Information systems

  • Information systems applications

    • Enterprise information systems

      • Enterprise applications

• Social and professional topics

  • Professional topics

    • Computing and business

      • Automation

    • Management of computing and information systems