Office Systems

C

Microfilm/Microfiche

Although computer-generated documents are usually stored as files on magnetic tape or disks, both computer documents and paper documents may also be stored on microfilm or microfiche. The space needed for document storage is reduced, and handling and retrieval are simplified by use of microfilm equipment, which photographically reduces images, producing miniature transparencies that can then be magnified for viewing or printing.

IV

Communications

With facsimile transmission, or FAX, the dark and light areas on text or graphic material are digitized, or converted into a series of electrical pulses corresponding to a digital code. At the receiving site, the incoming signal is reconstructed to produce a facsimile of the transmitted information. Special types of FAX equipment can transmit microfilm images to remote locations for reconstruction as microfilm or paper copies.

Telex, a system of direct-dial teleprinter exchange, and Teletypewriter Exchange (TWX) are well-established examples of electronic mail technology. TWX is customarily used within North America, and Telex for international message transmission. In either case, a message is entered at a typewriterlike terminal for transmission over a network of telegraph lines to a designated compatible receiver that prints the message onto paper. An operator need not be present at the receiver. Some word processors can also prepare messages for transmission to TWX or Telex terminals or to other word processors. Computer-based electronic message systems are an alternative to telephonic communications or conventional interoffice memoranda.

A

Electronic mail (e-mail)

E-mail has become a key part of the communications networks of most modern offices. Data and messages can be transmitted from one computer to another using telephone lines, microwave links, communications satellites, or other telecommunications equipment. The same message can be sent to a number of different addresses. E-mail is sent through a company's own local area network or beyond, through a nationwide or worldwide communications network. E-mail services use a central computer to store messages and data and to route them to their intended destination. With a subscription to a public e-mail network, an individual PC user needs only a modem and a telephone to send and receive written or vocal messages. Because of the huge amount of e-mail that can be generated, systems have been developed to screen mail for individual users.

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A specialized type of e-mail system, voice mail, is a relatively simple, computer-linked technology for recording, storing, retrieving, and forwarding phone messages. It is called voice mail, or voice-messaging, because the messages are spoken and left in a “voice mailbox.” The telephone doubles as a computer terminal, but instead of presenting the information on a computer screen, the system reads it over the phone line, using prerecorded voice vocabulary. The systems are based on special-purpose computer chips and software that convert human speech into bits of digital code. These digitized voices are stored on magnetic disks, from which they can be instantaneously retrieved. Callers are offered a menu of choices, and the messages they select are played; they can leave messages in “voice mailboxes,” or they can access huge computer databases.

B

Telecommuting

All of the electronic links among the people in a modern office can be extended beyond the building walls to workers at home or in satellite offices. This capability has led to a sharp increase in telecommuting. In 1991 an estimated 5.5 million U.S. workers worked at least part of the time outside the main office, a 38 percent increase over 1990. Managers and professional employees were the major participants in this trend. Early reports of increased productivity among people who no longer spent hours traveling from home to office indicated that further increases in telecommuting were likely.

V

Other Advances in Automation

Although some purely mechanical devices remain in use, the newest models of many machines contain electronic components. These devices include mail-handling equipment (postage meters, scales, letter-opening machines, folding and inserting machines); automatic addressing equipment; audio paging systems; paper cutters, binders, and staplers; time-recording machines; and coin-sorting, counting, wrapping, and related money-handling equipment.

Electronic calculators, both hand-held and desktop devices, have virtually replaced older, strictly mechanical adding machines. Electronic calculators are built around a CPU and incorporate a display unit, such as a liquid-crystal display; a keyboard; and, in some models, a paper-printing function. Calculators designed for statistical, engineering, and scientific tasks are programmed to perform predetermined sequences of mathematical operations automatically.

Computerization of automated machines is widespread in both commerce and science. By the late 1980s, fully automated mail delivery machines were being used in very large offices. Early robots used four different sensor systems simultaneously: video cameras, both ultrasound and infrared sensors, and inertial guidance. Some are guided by magnetic wires embedded in the floor. Other robots now travel about 100 ft (about 30 m) along a virtually invisible guide-path painted onto the floor and tracked by photoelectric sensors. Stops and other directions are encoded in the guide-path. This new technology increases the frequency of mail delivery and eliminates most of the need for central collection and redistribution.

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