Individual Presentation -

Office Computerization
by Kenneth Kung

1. Introduction

In recent years, computers have become more and more common, especially in Business field. As a BBA student, I found this topic interesting and hope to briefly introduce the use of computers in offices to all of you.

In this presentation, I would like to talk about:

  1. The main jobs of computers in an office and their advantages.
  2. Basic hardware and software needed in simple Office Computerization.
  3. Reasons of computerizing offices.
  4. Factors preventing Office Computerization.
  5. Draw backs of Office Computerization.

I hope everyone of you would find it fruitful. Thank you.

2. The main jobs of computers in offices and their advantages

They are

  1. Word Processing and Desktop Publishing
  2. Data processing
  3. Communication
  4. Miscellaneous

A. Word Processing and Desktop Publishing

Computers can be used to produce documents like letters, minutes, invoices, advestisments, invitations, etc. Well, why should we use computers instead of traditional typewriters?

First, Computers can produce better outlooking text since typewriters have only fixed character fonts and size. However, word processing software have many choices of them.So computer is better than typewriter.

Second, computer is more efficient and convenient, especially when producing large quantity of documents. Consider a situation: You are a secretary and you are told to send a letter to 25 companies. If you use a typewriter, you at least have to type the letter once with the address blanked and make 25 copies. Then you have to insert the sheets to the typewriter and type the address one by one. However, if you use a computer, you only need to type the letter once and then correct the address in the softcopy one by one before printing them out. Is it more time and labour saving? By all means!

Third, it is easy to make corrections by computer than typewriter. Maybe some of you have experienced it: If you typed a long letter and then found you have missed a line! You would thank the god if you are using a computer. Otherwise, you might kill yourself since you have to type it again!

B. Data processing

Computer can store data and information in a systematic way. As a result, you can find a document by just pushing some buttons. If you have many many written files, it may take long for you to find the one you need. Moreover, using computer to store data can save many space. One 3.5 inches diskette can hold more than 20MB of data. A dictionary can be changed into only two diskettes! Since we can use diskettes to store data, we can use less paper and it really help environmental protection!

C. Communication

It includes the one we often use and one we seldom use. Electronic mail and Computer teleconference. All of you know email very well and I don't want to waste time. Computer teleconference allow attendants to see and hear others on the terminal computer screen no matter how far apart they are. It saves large amount of travel cost and for long run , it is worthy to do so if you need to travel frequently.

D. Miscellaneous

Computer can do many other things. For example, it helped me to produce this slide presentation. It can be used to produce graphs, table, to do mathematical works and even provide recreation!

3. Basic hardware and software needed in simple Office Computerization

The hardware needed is very simple. Only microcomputers, modem, printer and CD ROM. Even some of you have already got them all. Software, for word processing , we can use microsoft Word or WordPerfect. For Data processing, we can use dBASE, one of the Database Management System DBMS. For communication, we can use Nupop, Eudora , microsoft mail or Noverll to send email. If you want to have computer teleconference, you have to use CU-SeeMe.

4. Reasons of computerizing offices

In 1990, the department of Administration Information Management of Hong Kong Baptist College conducted a survey about Office Automation. 205 people from 200 companies were interviewed and the result is as follows:

The reasons supported by the interviewers are:

  1. Faster information retrieval
  2. Can obtain more up-to-date, reliable information
  3. Speeding up of office functions
  4. High efficiency in decision making
  5. Have improved competitive edge
  6. Increase productivity
  7. Enhance financial/operational control
At least more than 60% of interviewers agreed these reasons promote office computerization.

5. Factors preventing office computerization

According to the previous research, we found that the factors seen as preventing office computerization are as follows:
  1. It is cost and expensive
  2. It needs to provide more training to users
  3. It is unable to cost-justify the expense
  4. It is difficult to hire new staff
  5. Machine is replacing people's job
However, from the graph we found that these factors are not strongly agreed by the interviewers. Except the cost, all factors got below 50% of support. What does it mean? It means that most people had positive attitude toward office computerization and the obstacles in the road of it become less and less.

6. Draw backs of office computerization

Again, according to the research, the potential drawbacks of office computerization agreed by most interviewers are:
  1. Jobs elimination
  2. No new hiring
  3. Need for new skills

7. Summary and Conclusion

From the above information, we find that office computerization is very useful in Business field. As a result of office computerization, a company can
  1. upgrade its image
  2. increase its productivity
  3. increase its working efficiency
  4. enhance its internal understanding
  5. enhance its information collecting ability
To conclude, it is believed that computer will enter the business field more quickly and in huge number.