The high-tech pay-off

OFFICE technology rolls on apace: not necessarily resulting in the

much-vaunted paperless workplace but making nevertheless for increased

inter-communication.

Whether in the office, factory, supermarket, or even at home, the need

is to acquire useful information, store it, and then use it to carry out

sensible decisions or tasks.

That gives a very basic working definition of IT, or information

technology, and the accompanying management information systems. It is

generally taken for granted that much of the information once passed on

by word of mouth or letter is now electronically stored. The information

can be sent over long distances, for immediate use or storage and later

retrieval.

The watchword is convenience of use, for sender and receiver alike.

The telephone has touchtone dialling. It can be moved around, being

cordless. It can be used as a portable. A bleep lets you know someone

else is trying to get through, while you answer another call.

There is a paging system for those on the move. A single machine can

take in messages as an answerphone, or send out messages combined with a

fax, or facsimile reproduction machine.

Telephone numbers can be stored in memory, programmed for

single-button transmission. The number can automatically redial, until

the call is answered. The telephone may well tell you how long the call

has lasted, and what it cost.

If you really want to see who is calling, there is the videophone with

its small colour picture on the screen. Teleconferencing and

videoconferencing are sophisticated versions of this, with cameras and

microphones combining to show who is speaking.

The saving is in terms of time and travel: queries can be dealt with

and decisions made at senior level, on the spot.

In offices, the answerphone is playing a major role. Record a message

for callers, listen to who is calling before deciding whether to answer,

or leave the machine to take a message while you get on with something

else.

Take a remote access controller when you go out, and you can still

monitor the calls made and the messages left.

The idea is to provide flexibility and a measure of control over your

business life. You don't have to wait in until the telephone rings. You

do not have to stay in the office all day: you can carry on business

over the weekend, at a distance.

The combined fax, phone, and answerphone seems to do half of the

office work on its own, with a convenient option of thermal paper or

plain paper for the fax. Things start to get more complicated, however:

there is automatic redialling again, the option of speaking to the

caller, automatic differentiation between a telephone call and a fax

message, and the freedom to decide the time when a mesage is sent out.

Often a copier facility is built-in to the fax machine, but the

dedicated copier really stands on its own. It can double the paper size

from A4 to A3 or reduce it by half to A5, and it can collate and print

double-sided on normal or recycled paper.

There is also a further option of linking many operations with that

other office co-ordinator, the computer. Instead of a world of paper,

you are now in the realm of VDUs, or visual display units.

As hammer and chisel gave way to writing on clay, then to quills and

pens, so has the manual typewriter changed to electric and then

electronic, with built-in memory to display several lines of type and an

editing capability. Finally, it was incorporated into the computer,

familiar to school children today if not to all of their parents.

The computer has become office secretary and manager alike. The

operator can carry out word processing, with a standard typewriter

keyboard or newer ones which can be set to any arrangment of letters

required. Electronic files and folders are created, saved, and stored on

disc -- floppy or hard, depending on capacity and speed of operation.

And errors are easily attended to: electronic systems store

information in memory and display it on screen for amendment as

required, long before it is printed out as a separate exercise.

The printing itself has moved on, from direct output by a manual

typewriter, to machines using a series of pins to create letters and

digits via suitable ribbons, on to laser technology creating type that

looks as good as traditional printing.

Increasingly, colour printing is seen as a feasible in-house

operation. Proper training is needed, but the option is there to be

exploited as needed.