The term "Office Automation" implies much and means little. The word "Office" is usually reserved for units in an organization that have a rather general function. They are supposed to support different activities, but it is notoriously difficult to determine what an office is supposed to do. Automation in this loose context may mean many different things. At one extreme, it is nothing more than giving people better tools than typewriters and telephones with which to do their work more efficiently and effectively. At the opposite extreme, it implies the replacement of people by machines which perform office procedures automatically. In this book we will take the approach that "Office Automation" is much more than just better tools, but falls significantly short of replacing every person in an office. It may reduce the need for clerks, it may take over some secretarial functions, and it may lessen the dependence of principals on support personnel. Office Automation will change the office environment. It will eliminate the more mundane and well understood functions and will highlight the decision-oriented activities in an office. The goal of this book is to provide some understanding of office . activities and to evaluate the potential of Office Information Systems for office procedure automation. To achieve this goal, we need to explore concepts, elaborate on techniques, and outline tools.

Every pioneer takes large risks, hoping that the new frontier he seeks will provide the benefits of independence and good fortune. Don Tapscott is such a pioneer in the area of office automation. He has been a true pioneer, having entered the field in its early days and taken the risk of working not in technol ogy, which was fashionable, but in the field of the problems of organizations, which was less fashionable, but in many ways more important. The utilization of computers for data processing, accounting, inventory, and other "bread and butter" applications is now well entrenched in our society and culture. The process of designing such systems tends to focus on the needs of the company and the constraints of the equipment, leading to efficient systems with little tolerance for the variety of people who must use or interface with them. Within the office automation area, these methods do not work nearly as well. The frequency and amount of human interaction in the office environment, and the wide variety of situations and reactions there in, demands a different design methodology.

Visual FoxPro developers are used to building large, complex applications using only VFP as their programming environment. But Windows users are demanding more - integration with other applications such as the Microsoft Office suite - Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook. Visual FoxPro can be used to automate - either visually or behind the scenes - any task or process that you could do manually in Office - plus much more. In Microsoft Office Automation with Visual FoxPro, you'll learn how to create powerful applications that span the entire Office suite, using Visual FoxPro in the driver's seat.

This study assesses the consequences of the continuing and rapid introduction of information and telecommunications technologies in offices. The report of the study contains 12 chapters. After a brief look at the context of office automation from the perspective of history, the first chapter highlights some expectations about the technologies and their development over the next 15 years. It also introduces a framework that guides the assessment, summarizes the findings, and identifies policy issues for the next decade. Chapters 2 through 6 discuss the possible effects of office automation in more detail. They deal with potential effects on employment levels; the kind of training and education needed for office work; changes in work content, jobs, occupations, and organizations; the quality of work life, the office environment and labor management relations; and the security and confidentiality of information. Chapters 7 and 8 consider two alternatives to conventional offices, made feasible by office automation: home-based work and performance of data-entry operations in countries with lower paid workers. Chapter 9 and 10 look at office automation in the public sector, while Chapter 11 deals with office automation and small businesses. The final chapter considers the implications of office automation for two groups: working women and minorities. Appendix A describes office automation technology as it is now and as it is likely to develop between 1985 and 2000, while Appendix B summarizes case studies of the automation of several offices. (KC)