Office information systems: Challenge for the 80´s

Today´s office is plagued by problems of rising costs and low productivity. Office automation and office information systems are proposed as a possible solution to many of the information handling problems of the office. The technology is available and the market place is ready for office automation. However, several challenges need to be met before the proposed remedy can be applied effectively. Automated solutions to the different aspects of the office information handling problem need to be integrated. Models and techniques need to be developed to represent and analyze information flow in an office. Interfaces need to be developed that are easy to use and integrate many different capabilities. Finally, one must examine the impact on people of office automation and produce solutions that are acceptable to the end users. To attack these problems, human factors, software and hardware engineering techniques have to be brought to bear.