Office Automation and Group Collaboration Technologies

Introduction

Two technologies play central roles in supporting workplace productivity: imaging technology, used for office automation, and Lotus Notes, used for group collaboration. The following sections describe the practical applications, benefits, and challenges associated with each of these technologies in an organizational context.

Imaging Technology for Office Automation

Imaging technology has proven highly valuable for office automation because it eliminates the need for paper in many areas of business. By removing paper from several key business processes, organizations can significantly improve performance by reducing the need to re-key information that was previously recorded in paper format. Tasks that were once performed sequentially can now be completed simultaneously, because imaging technology provides concurrent access to documents. Multiple people can therefore do their jobs at the same time. This kind of parallel access offers considerable improvements to overall processing time and product quality.

Imaging can also increase efficiency by reducing bottlenecks — points where document processing slows because of the difficulty of moving physical documents. Transferring paper documents within an organization is a time-consuming process, and imaging effectively eliminates that constraint.

In addition, imaging provides much-needed disaster recovery capabilities for existing manual systems. This benefit is largely unrecognized, since many companies fail to appreciate the value of having digitally preserved records until a loss event occurs.

Imaging technology also gives organizations improved management of their records — something senior management and records managers have long sought but found difficult or impossible to achieve in a manual environment. Most companies rely on redundant filing systems and other expensive strategies to make information more accessible. Over time, however, these filing systems become costly and difficult to navigate. The use of imaging technology helps preserve records and enables organizations to determine precisely what their access and retrieval needs are. Finally, imaging has proven critical in the redesign of business processes. Through business process redesign, organizations have been able to eliminate a number of redundant processes and streamline operations.

Challenges in Cost Justification for Imaging

The biggest challenge in adopting imaging technology is finding a justifiable cost for the system. Establishing a sound financial justification is important but often difficult. In many business cases, imaging systems have been approved based on estimates rather than fully defensible numbers. If the business case is designed to cost-justify the imaging system, it is important that the organization use quantifiable data rather than rough estimates.

To do this effectively, managers must conduct a detailed analysis of current business processes, develop a solid understanding of how work is actually being performed, and determine what the new process should look like. Once management has modeled existing processes, the organization can then model new ones and examine the effects of various solutions to current problems. This step allows managers to evaluate alternatives and decide on improvements. With an in-depth understanding of current processes, management can then clearly determine the costs and benefits of adopting new imaging technology.