Office automation and users need' for support

Abstract

We investigated a recently introduced office automation system at Swedish Telecom. In a first study, where 275 users answered an inventory, the users indicated that they found the system useful, but that they would like better user support. Paper and on-line support were most often used at the syntax level, but were not regarded to be very satisfactory. Human advisors were found to be consulted most often, as well as being reported the most satisfactory means of support at the task and conceptual levels. In an interview study concerning the electronic mail system, the results from 35 users showed that the users were satisfied with the system, but that they knew fairly little about it, particularly at the semantic level. A third study showed that the system support personnel knew their users rather well. When asked to describe the system, system support personnel mainly described the system in computer terms, whereas many other users described it non-informatively. It is concluded that knowledgeable human advisors are needed to support the efficient use of a system by illuminating task and semantic aspects. At the same time, easy-to-use manuals are needed to support the reminding about syntactic and interaction details.     

Office automation in British rail — On delivering value to end users

The development of a strategy for office automation within a large organisation is described. The process begins with the analysis of the existing office workers', some 25,000 staff. This analysis was used to identify potential benefits and target areas for office technology. The paper then describes the concepts used to think through the application of office automation. These were combined with the Corporation's business strategy to produce the strategy for office automation. This strategy was based on using office automation to help organisational change, particularly in the three key areas identified by the Corporation's top management. Also described in the article is an approach to identifying information requirements and separately, some comments on the training and education required.     

电子政务与办公自动化初探

电子政务是政府信息化的主要形式。从发达国家政府信息化的经验来看，电子政务的推行可以解决两个问题：其一，可以有效地利用政府内部和外部资源．提高政府的工作效率。电子政务可以通过信息技术、办公自动化以及网络技术的普遍应用，把行政系统连接在一起，实现信息、知识、人力等各种资源的真正共享，提高包括信息资源在内的各种资源利用的效率；其二，可以大大降低政府的行政管理成本。电子政务使行政工作可以在一种全新的网络状态下进行，从而有效地降低行政管理成本。如虚拟办公、无纸化办公，以及政府部门之间跨部门、跨地区的电子交换作业、公文电子化处理等，都可以大大减少行政办公费用和公文处理的费用。另外，通过政府网上采购，又可以节约大量的人力、物力、财力和时间。     

电子政务与办公自动化初探

电子政务是政府信息化的主要形式。从发达国家政府信息化的经验来看,电子政务的推行可以解决两个问题:其一,可以有效地利用政府内部和外部资源,提高政府的工作效率。电子政务可以通过信息技术、办公自动化以及网络技术的普遍应用,把行政系统连接在一起,实现信息、知识、人力等各种资源的真正共享,提高包括信息资源在内的各种资源利用的效率;其二,可以大大降低政府的行政管理成本。电子政务使行政工作可以在一种全新的网络状态下进行,从而有效地降低行政管理成本。如虚拟办公、无纸化办公,以及政府部门之间跨部门、跨地区的电子交换作业、公文电子化处理等,都可以大大减少行政办公费用和公文处理的费用。另外,通过政府网上采购,又可以节约大量的人力、物力、财力和时间。     

Office automation benefits: A framework

Most authors suggest that the main benefits of Office Automation are savings which are possible in work-time when using these new systems. The assumption underlying this approach is that productivity of office work is low at present, due to the fact that, to a large extent, office activities are carried out manually. Thus, in this approach, office work is analyzed as a group of time-consuming activities.This traditional approach is limited; we present here a more realistic and powerful framework by considering the real nature of different benefits resulting from the application of QA technology in the organization. In this approach, a catergorization of benefits is presented as a useful guide for anyone who has to decide on investments in new office systems.     

办公自动化系统管理Web技术的研究

办公自动化是企业普及第一种办公新基础,办公自动化将企业员工的计算机连接起来,有机组合成为大型的信息处理服务系统.办公自动化的建立技术种类繁多,其中以Web技术最受欢迎,基于Web技术的办公系统开发具有方便快捷,信息处理能力强大,同时具有很好的兼容性.深入分析Web技术,对办公自动化进一步改善提供理论基础.     

Office automation — reflections from the marketplace

The office automation marketplace is crowded with suppliers purveying very similar products, resulting in great confusion for first-time buyers. The paper suggests that buyers often ask the same questions. The reasons for asking these questions, and the likely answers, are discussed in detail. A number of suggestions which may guide buyers in their pursuit of a system which meets their requirements are also presented.     

RFID-enabled automation in support of factory integration

In recognition of the need for more effective and efficient factory system integration solutions, this paper improves the method proposed in our previous work, focusing on new mechanisms to bridge the gap between shop floor automation and factory information systems. As one of the mainstream identification technologies, radio frequency identification (RFID) technology makes possible all products uniquely identifiable across factories. By taking advantage of data capacity stored in an RFID tag, critical manufacturing information on a product can be locally stored with the product. RFID technology provides a means for a product to rapidly retrieve its needed information as it advances through shop floors. A corresponding framework to enable the instant delivery of pertinent data and information on a uniquely identifiable job/product at point-of-need across factories is proposed. A small-scale manufacturing application is presented to show how the proposed approach can be implemented on the shop floor.     

Automatic inspection-based support for obtaining usable Web sites for vision-impaired users

The aim of this work is to provide designers and developers of Web applications with support to obtain systems that are usable for vision-impaired users. To this end, a number of design criteria to improve Web site navigation through screen readers or other similar devices have been defined. A user test by blind and vision-impaired subjects showed that such criteria improve Web site usability both qualitatively and quantitatively. An inspection-based tool has been developed to ease the application of the defined criteria. Its main features are presented in this article along with examples of applications and related discussion.