OFFICE AUTOMATION – I MODERN OFFICE EQUIPMENT 6. THE MODERN OFFICE: INTRODUCING AUTOMATION All companies are organized across specific departments each of which performs a particular role in the company. All departments also have common functions which are carried out by its teams. Most of these functions are supported by automated equipment to help the employees deliver these functions effectively and efficiently. This lesson will help you to be aware of these different departments and functions and understand how automation plays an important role in these. In subsequent lessons you will learn in detail how to utilize these equipment in a real life scenario.
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Objectives After going through this lesson, you will be able to:
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6.1
Understand the main departments of an office, Understand the main functions of these departments Understand the areas where office automation makes an impact. You will also become aware of the different types of automated equipment used in offices.
Introduction The automation and equipment used in offices have themselves evolved over a period of time. More and more sophisticated equipment are introduced each day to help employees increase efficiency in their jobs. It is important for you to get an understanding of the basic functionality of automation to assist your learning. Usage of these equipment can bring about a large improvement in your efficiency. Today’s secretary in a Modern Office is highly dependent on various office automation tools to be effective.
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Activities of a typical office Departments A typical office has several departments, each with its particular functions and activities.
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The diagram below depicts the departments of a typical organization.
Some of the significant departments and their key functions are described in the following sections. Executive Management Executive Management of an organization includes the senior management that leads the organization including the Board of Directors and the Managing Director(MD) or Chief Executive Officer (CEO). The board of directors might not be physically located or seated at a permanent location. The managing director or CEO sits in the head office of the company and a large part of the senior management as listed below is also located in the same physical office or location as the MD or CEO. Senior Management This includes Vice Presidents and General Managers who head each of the functions listed below. The senior management also includes Regional or zonal managers who lead the organization’s operations in a particular part of
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the country. These regional managers are located at different cities in the country and are responsible for the business and operations of the company in a certain geographic area. The geographic area could be a large city or a state or several states. Each of these executive managers has some executive assistance and support to help them run their department and the various functions efficiently. Sales and marketing This department sells the products or services for the organization to customers. The sales & marketing department can be organized in several ways - as per the different types of products, or geographic locations etc. The sales and marketing teams are also located in several places in the country, depending on the product or services being sold. Some of the sales and marketing employees operate from very small offices with just an office assistant to support them. Reception or Front office This is the first set of people that visitors to an office meet. The receptionist sometimes also performs the function of a telephone operator who connects external visitors to people in the company and the employees to external people using telephone connections. The reception also deals with all visitors to the office and guides them to appropriate departments and officials that the visitors come to meet. The receptionist coordinates the meeting times for some of the departments, for example with Finance and accounts etc. The reception function also performs some of the tasks of coordinating with external agencies and services providers including couriers, transport providers, food delivery persons, bill collectors etc. The reception function needs to know all key officers of the company, their contact details including telephone numbers, mobile phone numbers, residence numbers and addresses and other details. Human resources (HR) The HR or Personnel function of an organization deals with all employee issues including recruitment or hiring, training, performance appraisal and promotions, salary issues, employee welfare, complaints resolution. Finance and Accounts Managing finances and accounts for the organization, keeps track of spending and earnings, manages investments of funds, reporting to government, payment to vendors and collection of payments due from customers, dealers, distributors etc. This department is responsible for all external and internal financial dealings, paying vendors and accounting for payments received against the company sales or services etc. It also files all statutory reports required by the
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government including taxes, financial reports, annual reports, balance sheet etc. The department also works with banks, financial investors and other agencies related to borrowing and investing funds on behalf of the company. It also takes care of ensuring availability of money to make salary payment to all employees. The finance department also works with internal and external auditors for auditing its accounts and financial statements for release. This department also has a investor relations or shareholders relations for public listed companies that works with external agencies like stock exchanges and with investors, financial institutions etc. Legal and Secretarial The legal department is responsible for ensuring the company operates within the rules and laws specified by the Government. There exist several government rules and laws that are required to be adhered to in a company. The company legal representative and company secretary department ensure that the company follows these laws and submit the required reports to the government. These reports are required to be submitted in time and as per the formats specified. Government rules and laws also keep on changing, which need to be tracked and the company kept compliant of these laws. The legal department also protects the company’s business through drafting legal contracts and agreements with all external suppliers and customers, employees and with Government. The legal department needs to keep a large number of records of all such contracts, agreements, dealings etc. Manufacturing or Production Department The Manufacturing department makes the products that the company sells. The manufacturing department takes in raw material, semi finished goods and other inputs and puts together the final product for sale to customers. The manufacturing department or divisions could be spread across several locations or cities or even states. Each such location will then comprise of a production head for the location or plant. The operations of manufacturing plants could also be different for different types of products. Services Department Many businesses do not manufacture any products, for example hotels, airlines, railways, telephone service providers etc. These are called services business. The manufacturing department is replaced by either a services department or employees who provide these services to customers instead of manufacturing products. The services are further divided into different types and the services department could be further divided into sub-departments based on the type or location of services.
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Logistics and Purchase The purchase department buys all raw material or other goods required for manufacturing the products or for providing services. The logistics division takes care of getting raw material from the suppliers, forwarding the manufactured products to customers, and transporting semi-finished goods within the company’s manufacturing plants. For services providers, the logistics department takes care of making the services available to the customers or transportation of material and services within the company’s departments. Information Technology and Support The Information Technology (called IT) department supports computerization in the company. It deals with computer hardware and software required to run the business. The IT department develops software with its own team or it can get software and other IT systems developed from other suppliers. Research and Development (R&D) The R&D department works on new solutions or products which customers need. The manufacturing department subsequently produced these new solutions or products that the R&D department has developed. Administration and support The administration department supports all the office processes, interface with external agencies example government agencies, security companies. The administration department also looks after the facilities and premises and its upkeep, cleanliness, physical workplace requirements and other functions. Office automation has affected functions and activities in each of these departments listed above.
Self-Check questions 1. List the various departments in an organisation. 2. What are businesses that do not manufacture any product called? Answer True or False 3. The Finance department is responsible for conformance to government laws 4. The Information Technology department gives out information
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Functions within an office This section will discuss the various function that are performed within each of the above departments, specifically focusing on the functions of an office Secretary within each of these departments. There are several common functions that are performed within each of the departments. In addition there are specific functions that some departments perform that are not done by other departments. The main common functions within an office include the following: Communicate Internally Talk to, write to or meet visitors and office staff for different activities of the company. Almost all employees of an office communicate with each other for official purposes. The official communication verbal or written is both ways – from superior official to juniors and vice-versa.
Communicate Externally A large number of employees also communicate with people external to the company (or not employed with the company) including with customers, suppliers, government bodies, trade bodies, groups of companies, the Press or media and others. The task of an office secretary is to enable many of the above internal or external communications and in many cases prepare and deliver the communication on behalf of the officials.
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Organize meetings All offices hold meetings for several purposes, some examples include meeting of executives for planning, measuring performance, giving out information, taking feedback or suggestions from employees, discussing purchase orders with suppliers.
These meetings could be internal, that is meeting of with employees; or these meetings could be business meetings, as with suppliers or customers or with other agencies. An office secretary is required to organize these meetings, which includes several actions: ensure the attendees are available and their time is blocked for the meeting, ensuring all attendees are informed of the time and venue of the meeting, making physical arrangements for the meeting, collecting material for the meeting from all presenters, setting up presentations etc, and writing the records (or minutes) of the meeting. Another important activity in some of the meetings is making presentations. In some of the meetings, internal or external information is shared through the medium of presentations using LCD projectors, overhead projects or document projectors. These presentations could be in electronic form or physical documents.
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Organize calendars for executives or officers An office secretary is required to ensure that the executives he is working for are able manage to their time to cover all the activities required for running the business effectively. This includes making sure that the executive are available to attend all meetings, take phone calls, make visits to customers or other external agencies. This means that the secretary needs to plan for the executive’s day and week such that these activities do not overlap. For example, the secretary needs to ensure that an executive is not scheduled to attend two meetings at the same time. This is called managing the “Calendar� for the executive. This is a very critical function which increases the efficiency of the business.
Record Keeping and Filing A company needs to keep records of all its dealings, with external agencies and with internal people. All records need to be kept for communication and correspondence with customers and suppliers, critical and mandatory information shared with employees, information reported to government and agencies, legal contracts, purchase orders raised, money paid or to be received. In addition a record of proceedings or minutes of all official meetings needs to be kept. A secretary needs to be able to keep a record of all such communication and proceedings. Some of the records are required by law to be physical copies, while the others can be electronically stored. It is critical that the company be able to locate the copy or records as and when required.
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Make information available for various uses Each company required various types of information for its efficient operations. This information is again internal or external related. The volume of information in any organization is very high and there are several types of information, used for various purposed. For example, information about the number of employees, their qualifications, the number of employees in each department, location of these employees etc is one type of information. Another type of information is about customers, for example, recording which customer purchases what type of products, how many products they purchase from the company in a year, how much money they owe the company etc. Each company has several such types of information being generated at all time. These information need to collected and stored or recorded for use. It is critical for efficient functioning of a company that the information required be available in time, and be accurate.
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Copying documents All departments in an organization keep records and some of these are physical records. The departments also receive and need to send out communication to other departments or to external agencies, partners, customers etc. some departments also need to refer to a large number of documents and research etc.
Copies of all such communication or reference material need to be made, for record keeping or use. Hence all departments have a need to prepare copies of documents. Liaison / Coordination with other departments or external agencies including government agencies A lot of work of a company can be completed only through cooperation or combined working of more than one department of the company. For example to manufacture any product some raw material is required, this is procured by the purchase department, while transporting these is done by the logistics department, and the finance department makes the payment to the supplier. All departments need to coordinate with other departments who are dependent on them for information and support. Some of these departments also need to coordinate with external agencies / suppliers. Some functions are very specific to certain departments and are performed by that department alone. Some such key functions are as below:
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Reception manning
The key function of reception is to interact with visitors and guide them to the concerned department or person. The other key function is to receive phone calls from external people and either connect the callers to relevant employees within the organization or respond to the caller’s requirement on their own. The person in-charge of reception needs to know the key people within the office and also be able to locate the right person requested by the visitor or caller very quickly. The receptionist also needs to be able to handle several such queries at the same time, in an efficient and courteous manner. Arranging travel for officials Many officials or executives of a company need to travel for official purpose including meeting customers or suppliers, internal business meetings with other officials and executives, attending external conferences or seminars. An office secretary might be required to arrange the travel for these officials. This would include making their airlines or train reservations, making reservations in hotels, arranging for transportation to move within a city.
Tracking compliance to rules and policies A specific department conducts internal audits to ensure all external rules and regulations and internal policies are followed.
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This function is also known as internal audit function.
Self-Check Questions 5. List down the functions in an office Answer True or False 6. Filing is not necessary in offices 7. Communicating externally means talking on the phone 8. Anyone can handle the Front Office / reception
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Historic methods and Automation in offices Offices have a mix of manual and automated systems to help support the various functions and activities as listed in the sections above. This section will touch upon some of these critical functions and highlight how these activities have been done historically and how some of these have been automated. Verbal Communications As described in an earlier section, one of the most critical functions for all departments is to communicate with its employees and with external agencies. Historically companies have used the following means to communicate. Some of these means are still used and are very efficient. Verbal communications include talking to employees, customers or external people for different purposes. This also includes communications within an office or with people external to the company. Historically customers who would call an office would have to wait for the relevant employee to come to the phone and take the call. A company cannot have unlimited number of telephone lines, one for each employee. Only a few officials have a direct or dedicated telephone number for their use. All other lines are common and shared between several employees. With the advent of PABX or ‘Private Automated Branch Exchange’, a few external telephone lines can now be efficiently shared between large numbers of employees. All employees or departments could have several telephones and employees can now be reached at their desk itself through the PABX or EPABX (Electronic PABX).
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The PABX system also enables all employees located in on office to talk to each other without having to go though an external telephone line. Each connection of the EPABX within an office has a Extension Number which is a short telephone number, employees can dial this number and talk to the other person directly. A feature of the EPABX is that external people can reach employees in an office without the receptionist or operator having to connect them. The external people can dial the common telephone number and then the extension number to connect directly. Other automation and advances in communication include ‘Conferencing Facility’. This facility enables several people to talk to each other using telephones. These people could be located at any place, either in the same office but at different departments; or same company but different offices or cities or even countries. All people who need to get on to the conference call a common telephone number and all attendees can hear each other and talk to each other as if sitting in the same room. Meetings This is a very efficient means of communication and comprises of employees meeting each other or officials meeting employees personally. The personal meetings could be with one or a several employees at the same time. Historically a personal meeting took place only when the official and employee or employees were present at the same physical location. Some of the modern techniques have enabled these meetings to be held even if the officials or employees are not present physically in the same location. The meetings can now be held through video conferencing, or audio conferencing or even conferencing using the internet. Audio and Video conferencing enables meetings to be held without all participants having to travel to a common place.
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Making presentations during meetings is a key function. Computers are widely for preparing and presenting information. Presentations from computers are projected onto screens using LCD projectors or onto LCD monitors. The LCD projector is connected to a computer containing an electronic copy of the presentation using specific cables and the presentations are projected onto a screen in front of the projector.
Written communications No organization can exist without written communications. An organization communicates through letters to customers, suppliers, employees, quotations, internal memos and orders and several other forms of written communications.
Historically and in several companies documents are still typed using a manual ribbon typewriter. 14
These manual typewriters were replaced by Electronic typewriters and now with computers and ‘word processor’ software. There are several benefits that computers bring over manual typewriters including ability to make corrections, check spellings, better formatting and layout of the documents etc.
Written communications needed to be delivered physically to the recipients, one copy needed to be printed for each recipient. With the introduction of electronic-mail or e-mail, several people can be marked on the same communication via e-mail.
E-mails also enable transmission of communications, copies of documents etc electronically to one recipient or a group of people, instantaneously.
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Several officials dictate letters or documents to their secretaries who copy the same in shorthand to save time, and then type the letter or document. This is called taking dictation for letters. In the past, physical copies of documents could only be sent via post to other offices or to external parties. Facsimile or Fax machines now enable copies of documents to be transmitted immediately to the destination.
A machine called the ‘Dictaphone’ is a small recorder that can record the dictation and the secretary can listen and type the document at a convenient time. The official can also record the dictation at a time convenient to her. Copying – Carbon, Cyclostyling, Photocopy, Scan, printing All offices have a requirement to keep records of their communication, their letters and memos, contracts, bills, invoices and almost all documents exchanged with external people. In addition, copies of documents are required for giving out information to employees, sharing information to make decisions in meetings and other functions where several copies of same information is required to be given to a large number of people. The only means, historically, of copying documents was to make a ‘carbon copy’ which is prepared by inserting a sheet of carbon between the original being typed or written and the duplicate. One such carbon sheet has to be kept for each copy. The other means of copying large number of documents is ‘cyclostyling’, which however is cumbersome and slow, manual and not very neat.
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The invention of Photocopy machine enabled exact copy of documents to be created. The photocopying machine can make as many copies as required, each an exact replica of the document. The copying can be done at a high speed and is very easy to operate.
Copies of documents can also be made using a ‘Scanner’ which is an electronic device that creates an Electronic Copy or image of the document. These copies can then be stored electronically or communicated electronically. Documents typed using computers are printed using electronic printers that can print several pages in a minute. Using a combination of computers for typing letters and documents and printers, a very large number of copies of documents can be created very efficiently.
Record Keeping As mentioned in the previous section, keeping records of all transactions or dealings is very critical for a company.
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Records of physical documents were kept in files, which are physically stored in filing cabinets. With facilities and tools including e-mail, scanning, electronic documents typed using computers etc being introduced it has become very efficient and easy to keep records of communications.
Records of all electronic communication can be kept very efficiently in several types of electronic media including computer CDs, Computer Tape drives and computer hard disks. Additionally, records of physical documents can be kept by scanning these and storing the electronic version, either as a copy for records or as an original document itself. Electronic record storage provides the ability to store the record using specific identifiers or words which inform the key characteristics of the document. Some examples are documents can be stored by date, by company name, by type of document i.e. contract, bill etc.
A major benefit of electronic record keeping is the high level of ease with which the records can be searched and the appropriate document located by using the identifiers or characteristics. With manual storage, personnel have to search through several filing cabinets, several files etc before the required document or record can be located.
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Benefits of Office Automation As you read in the previous section, automation in offices exists in almost all functions of the company. Automation positively affects and helps improve the operations of an office in 3 key ways.
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Increased Efficiency Increased Accuracy Increased Productivity Increased Efficiency Efficiency means how a task can be done using a lesser number of resources or inputs. That how can we achieve same results using lesser effort or time or lesser energy etc. With relations to office functions, increased efficiency means how we can reduce the time taken to do a task. Examples of automation increasing efficiency include o EPABX A few external telephone connections shared between several people in place of a direct telephone line for each employee leads to lower expenditure while being able to reach all of employees. It also means employees can talk to each other without going through external telephone connections, again saving money and time. o Electronic-mail or e-mail E-mail leads to communications being sent to several people at the same time, and delivered instantaneously. This example again highlights the savings in money and time. o Video or Audio conferencing This enables several people to talk to each other as if in the same room, while be physically far, maybe even in different countries. This saves time and expense on travel and arrangements for a meeting etc. o Electronic Storage Records and Documents can be searched very quickly by specifying their properties while storing. Using powerful computers several thousands of documents and records can be searched in minutes to locate the required record. Electronic storage also provides the benefit of saving space required to store large number of physical copies of letters and documents etc. 19
Another linked benefit is timeliness – with automation work can be completed much faster, which means that actions due at specific date or time can now be done much faster. For example communications sent to a large number of people using e-mail reach at the same time to all people. All of the recipients are now informed at the same time of actions or the required information. Improved Accuracy Accuracy means how correct is output as compared to the specified requirements. With Automation, the accuracy of most of the functions has increased dramatically. Examples include the following: o With the photocopy, scanning machines, and word processors and office printers exact copies of original documents and letters can be created. There is no need to re-type to create large number of copies. o e-mails to multiple people at the same time enable the same message goes out to all people and the scope for errors in message sent to different people are reduced. Improved Productivity Productivity means the ability to do the same task better, or the ability to do more tasks by the same person, through tools and automation. Examples of office automation helping to increase productivity include: o Officials can use electronic calendars and e-mail to plan their meetings and coordinate with other officials etc.* o e-mails can be sent to several people at the same time, along with several documents or other information* o An office secretary can use computers and Internet to simultaneously make reservations for airline flights, hotels, and other travel arrangements through a single source and get the best price for the above (footnote 1)
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Additional details on this are available in following Units
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Self-Check Questions 9. List the 3 advantages of automation in offices 10. What type of automation has replaced letters? 11. List the ways in which a document can be copied? Answer True or False 12. The full form of FAX is Far Away conneXion 13. Electronic storage means storing electronic equipment in cupboards
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Summary In this lesson you have learnt how office automation has enabled the entire world of business to make immense progress and has tremendously increased the efficiency, productivity and accuracy in office operations. You were also introduced to the several departments and functions of a typical office and the various automation that each of these function uses. You were also introduced to equipment commonly used in modern offices.
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Answers to Self-Check questions
1. Sales , Marketing , HR , Finance , Legal , Manufacturing , Services , Purchase , Logistics , IT , R&D , Admin etc . 2. Services Businesses 3. False 4. False 5. Communicating Internally & Externally , organizing meetings , organizing calendars , record keeping & filing , making information available , copying documents , Liasioning with external agencies , reception manning , arranging travel , tracking compliance etc 6. False 7. False 8. False 9. Increased Efficiency , Increased Productivity and Increased Accuracy 10. Email or electronic mail 11. Using Carbon paper , cyclostyling , photocopying , scanning & printing , digital imaging. 12. False – it is Facsimile 13. False
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Terminal Questions
1. List all Automation in an office, briefly mention how these were done historically and one key benefit that automation has given. 2. List all office automation equipment, describe its key function and describe in what way it increases or improves efficiency, accuracy and productivity. 3. List as many departments of an office and briefly describe their main role.
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Glossary Office: a place or building where a set of people sit together to manage the various aspects of a business or organisation. CEO, MD: Chief Executive Officer, Managing Director – These are senior management personnel and are responsible for the functioning of the organisation. Automation: The method of reducing manual labour in any activity by using machines or electronic systems. Meetings: A system by which a set of people get together at one location or at more than one location to debate and decide various issues related to the organisation. Records: Documented information in hard copy that can be stored and retrieved for future usage.