Office automation is a new concept proposed with the development of computer science in recent years. Office automation was originally called Office Automation in English, abbreviated as OA. Office automation systems generally refer to the automation of transactional business in the office, while office automation includes a broader meaning, including networked large-scale information processing systems.
There is no unified definition of office automation. Anyone who uses various new technologies, new machines, and new equipment to engage in office business in traditional offices belongs to the field of office automation.
Usual office business mainly involves processing a large number of documents, drafting documents, notices, various business texts, accepting external documents for archiving, querying department files and external documents, generating document copies, etc. Therefore, using computer word processing technology to produce various documents, storing various documents, using other advanced equipment such as copiers and fax machines to copy and transmit documents, or using computer network technology to transmit documents are basic features of office automation.
The office is where leaders in various industries make decisions. Leading organs make decisions and issue instructions. In addition to the exchange of documents, the deeper work is actually the collection, storage, retrieval, processing, and analysis of information to make decisions and pass the decisions as information to subordinates. Institutions or cooperative units, or business-related units.
OA (Office Automation) technology is divided into three different levels: the first level is limited to the application of word processing, spreadsheets, databases and other auxiliary tools on a single machine or a simple small LAN, generally called It is a transactional office automation system.
With the maturity of the three core pillar technologies: network communication technology, computer technology and database technology, OA in the world has entered a new level. In the new level, the system has four new characteristics. :
(1) Integration. The integration of software, hardware and network products, the integration of people and systems, and the integration of a single office system with social and public information systems form a "seamlessly integrated" open system.
(2) Intelligent. For daily affairs processing, it assists people to complete intelligent tasks, such as: Chinese character recognition, understanding and in-depth processing of official document contents, assisting decision-making and handling accidents, etc.
(3) Multimedia. Including comprehensive processing of numbers, text, images, sounds and animations.
(4) Use electronic data interchange (EDI). Through the data communication network, exchange and automated processing are carried out between computers. This level includes information management OA systems and decision-making OA systems.
In office affairs OA, the most common applications include word processing, electronic typesetting, spreadsheet processing, file sending and receiving login, electronic document management, office schedule management, personnel management, financial statistics, report processing, and personal database wait. These commonly used office transaction processing applications can be made into application software packages, and different applications in the package can call each other or share data to improve the efficiency of office transaction processing. This office transaction processing software package should be versatile in order to expand its application scope and improve its utilization value.
In addition, a variety of OA subsystems can be used at the office transaction processing level, such as electronic publishing systems, electronic document management systems, intelligent Chinese retrieval systems (such as full-text retrieval systems), and optical Chinese character recognition systems. , Chinese speech recognition system, etc. In public services, companies and other business operations, computers are increasingly used to replace manual processing, such as ticket booking and ticketing systems, counter or window systems, and savings business systems in the banking industry.
The functions of transactional or business-type OA systems are to handle daily office operations and are directly oriented to office workers. In order to improve office efficiency, improve office quality, and adapt to people's office habits, a good office operating environment must be provided.
The information management OA system is the second level. As the importance of information utilization continues to increase, there is an increasing need for comprehensive information in office systems that is closely related to the operational goals of the unit. An information management office system is an integrated office information processing system that closely combines transaction-based (or business-based) office systems with comprehensive information (databases). The comprehensive database stores information necessary for the day-to-day work of the unit concerned.
For example, in government agencies, this comprehensive information includes policies, decrees, regulations, official documents, letters, etc. about superior governments and subordinate agencies; the comprehensive databases of some public service institutions include all comprehensive information related to service projects; companies The comprehensive database of enterprise units includes industrial and commercial regulations, business plans, market dynamics, supply and marketing business, inventory statistics, user information, etc. As a modern government agency or enterprise or public institution, in order to optimize daily work and improve office efficiency and quality, it must have a comprehensive database that can be shared by all departments of the unit. This database is built on the basis of transaction-level OA system and constitutes an information management-type OA system.
Decision support OA system is the third level. It is based on the information management level OA system. It uses the information provided by the comprehensive database system to construct or select a decision-making digital model for the subject that needs to be decided, and combines the relevant internal and external conditions to execute the decision-making program by the computer to make the corresponding decision.
Transaction level OA system, information management level OA system and decision support level OA system are the three functional levels in the general or complete OA system composition. The interconnection between the three functional levels can be made by calling program modules and computer data network communication means. The meaning of the integrated OA system is to use modern computer network communication systems to integrate three levels of OA systems into a complete OA system, making the circulation of office information more reasonable and reducing many unnecessary steps of repeatedly inputting information, in order to Improve the efficiency of the entire office system. The advantage of an integrated and networked OA system is that it not only makes the operation of office information more compact and efficient within the unit, but also facilitates information communication with the outside world, making information communication wider and more convenient and efficient. Quickly establish information communication between long-distance offices, and potentially integrate into the sharing of information resources worldwide.
Transaction-level OA systems are called ordinary office automation systems, while information management-level OA systems and decision support-level OA systems are called advanced office automation systems.
For example, municipal government offices actually collect various documents submitted by district, county governments and other agencies on a regular or irregular basis, then store them in files and submit them to relevant leaders for reading. , process, and then keep the approved documents properly for future reference. Leaders make decisions after studying various documents, and generally return processing instructions to subordinates in the form of documents. This process is a typical office process. In this process, the file itself is information, and its transmission is the information transmission process. However, it should be noted that when leaders analyze and make decisions, they may have to read and search a lot of relevant information and refer to research before making decisions. Therefore, relevant information inquiry, analysis, and decision-making selection are also part of the information processing process.
For example, the Dongcheng District Government of Beijing submitted a document requesting the construction of a public building in a certain area and applied for approval. The document was passed to the relevant agencies of the municipal government. After seeing the document, the relevant city leaders went to look for it. The city's documents and regulations related to planning and building buildings require studying the city's budget and many other reference materials, and then deciding whether to agree or disagree. And feedback the decision information to the Dongcheng District Government in the form of documents or notices.
In this example, information is transmitted and processed in the form of files; the relevant regulations that leaders check and refer to are also information, which is data information. Study the decision-making process, mainly the will of the leader. However, through objective information analysis, several alternatives can be made. In this process, if computers are used to process incoming and outgoing documents, it can be said to be a preliminary degree of automation. For example, computers can be used to query various data, which is a further step in automation. If the computer automatically analyzes the data related to this event and automatically provides several possible decisions for decision makers to adopt, it will be a deeper level of office automation with the concept of artificial intelligence.
To further analyze this example, if the municipal government's computer office system, the municipal government's regulations information database system, and the municipal government's financial management system are an integrated unified system, the computer will automatically retrieve agency information from the relevant systems. , this kind of system is a higher level of integration of office automation.
In addition, if the municipal government office system and the district government office system are an integrated computer network system that can transmit information through the network and handle business remotely, then this is a further networked office automation system.
So, the office automation system itself is a multi-level system. At various levels, it can be said to realize part of the office automation business. Starting from the most basic automation, depending on the technology used, And gradually form a more advanced automation system.
Chinese experts proposed at the first national office automation planning seminar that the definition of office automation is: using advanced science and technology to materialize some office business activities in various modern office equipment other than people. A human-machine information processing system composed of people and technical equipment that serves a certain office business purpose.
People are the first factor in the system, that is, the main factor in the office is the staff, including various personnel. In addition to the traditional office roles, some professional and technical personnel who manage equipment are now added, such as computer engineers. , other equipment maintenance personnel, etc.
Technical equipment, computers are another factor.
There are various machines in the equipment, such as computers, copiers, speed printers, telephones, fax machines, network equipment, CD players, etc. These equipment are collectively called hardware equipment, or hardware. Various information equipment also requires software to manage the equipment, such as computer operating systems, network operating systems, word processing software, special work program software, etc., which will be detailed in other chapters.
Obviously, office automation, a man-machine system, is indispensable for both man and machine. In terms of equipment, both hardware and necessary software must be available. We can also think that the office automation system is a system for humans to process information, and it is a new concept after humans enter the information age.