Office automation: A challenge: Better tools simplify some office tasks, but serious problems block the integrated office of the future

Upcoming communications services, to be made available with new commercial satellite and microwave systems, will greatly accelerate the drive toward the fully automatic “office of the future.” The concept received impetus from the introduction of word/text processors in the mid-1970s, but so far the average office continues to operate with a potpourri of mechanized tools but no integrated automated system. The efficiency of isolated tasks has been improved perhaps, but there has been little dramatic effect on productivity.