Office Automation

Some Statistics
 In US in 1950s over 25 billion cubic feet of space occupied by Govt records. Records management cost $4 billion annually.  Records in Govt of India estimated to occupy 25 KM of linear storage space  In Japan in 1980, 41.6% of workers were office workers.

Some Statistics
Cost indicators in 1982, British Civil Service
A4 letter costs 3.28 to type in London Dispatching a document b/w 2 London buildings costs 3.00 Use of copying machine costs 1.00 per page Total accommodation, furniture & work services / manager in London, 4866/annum Typing, duplicating & support services/executive, 1550/annum

What is Office Automation ?

Office automation refers to the use of integrated computer & communication systems to support administrative procedures in an office environment.

Office Models
Office models tend to mimic the office working Classification according to Newman
Information flow models (b/w offices) Procedural models (procedures executed) Decision making models Database models (information records) Behavioral Models (social activities)

Office Models
Data-based models use forms in offices to perform storage, updating, retrieval etc. Process-based models use activities as the basic element Agent-based models- agents as active entities in an office and perform different roles Mixed models- combination of above 3

Office Automation Systems (OAS)

Toward A Paperless Office* Redesign Of Work Flow Integrated Software Ergonomic Design Bright, Cheerful Work Space

* No paper company has suffered, though!

Example: PRESENTATION GRAPHICS

Office Automation System (OAS)

OAS can create, store, modify, display, and communiczate business correspondence, where in written, verbal or videl form. Example: word, ppt, excel, notetaking systems

Components of Office Automation Systems

Document Storage & Retrieval

Microform Document Systems Inexpensive means of preserving & disseminating rare as well as deteriorating documents. Computer Assisted Retrieval (CAR) Microform Systems, is an improved version. Elements of CAR Microform system
Camera System for filming source document. Microform retrieval unit (reader/printer) Computer system for indexing & addressing documents Terminal interface to couple reader & computer

Document Storage & Retrieval

Types of Microforms used: 1)Roll Microfilm: Standard width of 16mm film is used in cassette.Can hold 2000 images. Operator retrieves the film cartridge and inserts into the reader which searches for the film. How to locate image- at the time of recording image an image mark-blip is recorded on the film, sensed by photo electric cell. The electronic counting circuitry locates the desired frame in terms of its serial no counted from the start of the roll. Major vendors Bell & Howell, Kodak, 3M.

Document Storage & Retrieval

Microfiche
Most Computer output Microform (COM) is on Microfiche. Storage is on a small rectangular film. Areas of application airlines, fire services, police forces telephone directory assistance

Document Storage & Retrieval

Ultrafiche Systems
Ultra strip measuring 35mm X 200mm; store 2000 images at a reduction of 1:200; compactness permits the use of small, lowinertia mechanism for retrieval of images.

Ultrafiche Systems

Document Storage & Retrieval

Scroll Systems Microfiche scrolls through, with the cut marks on the film helping to locate the required fiche.

Document Storage & Retrieval

Capacity of Microforms
100 Ft of 16m film @ 1:27 reduction holds 3,300 pages. Microfiche @ 1:24 reduction holds 98 pages COM recorder @1:48 can record 270 pages 300Ft roll of 105 mm scroll can hold 252000 pages @1:48 reduction.

Document Storage & Retrieval

Videomicrographics System : are CAR (computer Assisted Retrieval) systems attached with a scanner which digitally retrieves the image and display on a bit-mapped computer display terminal. Advantage: overcomes the limitations of microforms slow retrieval speeds & inability to electronically distribute.

Optical Storage Systems

Optical Technology: Optical disks have 10,000-20,000 laser Created tracks/inch compared to <50 for magnetic Disk. Adv: cheap & large storage, faster retrieval than magnetic disk. Optical surface does not suffer any damage during read/write process 2 kinds CD-ROM & WORM (write once read many)

Optical Storage Systems

CD-ROM storage device Worm Storage Systems (write once read many)
used for very high capacity storage mainly found in mainframe applications ideal for storing archival-type material usually readable only on drive on which data were written

Optical Storage Systems

Scanners
The basic principle of a scanner is to analyze an image and process it in some way. Larger versions have a flat bed, like that of a photocopier, on which the input document is placed and scanned. Image and text capture (optical character recognition or OCR) allow you to save information to a file on your computer.

Scanners
 Scanners Produce a digital image of a document for input and storage in a computer  You can then alter or enhance the image, print it out or use it on your Web page.  Resolution = dots per inch, the more dpis the better the quality

Optical tape
medium for optical storage consisting of a long & narrow strip of plastic on to which patterns can be written & read

primary objective - possibility of far greater storage capacities than either magnetic tape or optical discs.

Optical card
technology similar CD ROMs the material is comprised of several layers that react when a laser light is directed at them

it card can currently store 4 to 6.6 MB of data like photographs, logos, fingerprints, x-rays

Optical Disk - File systems Philips Megadoc : P4000 series minicomputer act as file server. Hold up to 45000 digitized images on 2GB storage. Scanner of 12dpi @ 12documents/minutes. Display station 15 @ 200 dpi resolution. Routines- data capture, validation, archiving, display & output

Optical Disk - File systems Canofile 5500 : Hybrid filing system microfilm scanner unit, 2 optical disk drivers, system controller with a 5.25 inch hard disk and a 5.25 inch floppy disk, a document scanner & laser printer. Usage- optical disk for highly active parts; whereas less frequently used pages should go on the micorfilm.

Optical Disk - File systems Hitachis Hitfile : Comprises a scanner, lsre printer, high resoultion monitor with keygoard, 12 inch optical disk and a 16 bit intel microprocessor with 50MB Winchester disc. Optical disk store 2.6 GB / 80,000 images. Filing options- store, retrieve, update, delete, title print. File Net : High end hybrid system with a jukebox with 200 disk capacity. Microfilm scanner can digitize images recorded on microfiche/microfilm jacket at 1:24 or 1:48.

Optical Disk - File systems

Acctex FIND : Acctex FIND (Filed, Indexed, Document, optical disk work satation) low cost optical disk document filing system configured with IBM PC, 5.25 inch optical drive, desktop scanner, full page high resolution monitor, laser printer & RDBMS software package.

Multimedia Document Storage System Information objects in office

Memos, reports, letters, invoices, graphs, pictures, voice messages etc. IT enabled the digitalization & storage of these information Multimedia database management system - key to document storage systems. Complex non-formatted data graphs, drawings, paintings, photos, films, videos etc Basic operations filing, retrieving, browsing, updating

Office Document Architecture

Standardized office document architecture facilitates document interchange both Intra office & Inter-office. ISO & ECMA(European Computer Manufacture Association) ODA provides layout & logical structure of document. logical structure- summaries, titles, sections layout structure- pages, columns

ODA Model
Document
Document profile

Generic Logical layout Generic layout layout relations definition definition

Specific Logical layout Specific logical relations logical structure structure

Generic content

Specific content