Factors impacting the evolution of office automation

This paper examines some of the market factors which will be central to the evolution of Office Automation (OA). Corporate motivation to implement OA is related to their basic goal of improving profitability. White collar worker needs are positioned in the larger context of their working environment and what is personally important to them. Based upon the substantial portion of office Worker time spent in interpersonal communications, their three leading activity areas of voice communications, meetings, and document communications are described in terms of problems with current processes and generic solutions. Due to the benefits of automating an entire business communications cycle, desirable tools are envisioned as logically integrating multiple applications and modes of communication. Future evolution, relying upon systems architectures which encourage user customization and modular growth, will increasingly provide workable systems solutions to the problems of information handling.