Chapter 8

8.1 Professional Support Systems [Figure 8.1]

Knowledge work consists in developing new knowledge, processing information, and using knowledge and information to provide new products and services. Professional support systems (PSS) support an individual's knowledge work. The specifics of the PSS a person uses depend on the nature of the work he or she performs.

Professional support systems offer the following general features:

1. Support for modeling the objects to be developed

2. Multimedia representation of the objects

3. The ability to connect with other knowledge workers over telecommunications networks and to cooperate with some of them on a project

4. Group memory

5. Access to external information and knowledge bases

8.2 Objectives and Functions of Office Information Systems [Figure 8.2]

Office information systems (OIS) support office tasks with information technology. The primary goal of these systems is to increase the productivity of office work.

An office is an environment where the management and administration of an organization take place, but it is also an arena of social action where people plays out work roles, make decision, and exchange information. Managers, other professionals, and clerical and secretarial personnel work in an office setting, or in virtual offices when they telecommute.

The primary purpose of OIS is to facilitate communication between members of an organization and between the organization and its environment.

The principal unit of an OIS is a workgroup local area network (LAN), which permits coordination teamwork. Workgroup members communicate within their LAN, as well as with other workgroups and, as needed, with the firm's environment.

Functions of Office Information Systems [Figure 8.3]

Office information systems leverage personal computing - they do not replace it. OISs help organize work in the office by providing a smooth flow of documents and messages, assisting group work through support for meetings of various kinds, and enabling cooperative work on a project.

The principal functions of organizational office information systems are:

1. Document management

2. Message handling

3. Teleconferencing

4. Electronic meeting systems

5. Support of group work and groupware.

8.3 Document Management and Workflow Systems

OIS must limit the flow of paper documentation within a firm, facilitate prompt access to stored document images, and make it possible to produce documents in a streamlined fashion.

The document management functions of OIS include:

1. Creation of documents

2. Storage of documents

3. Retrieval of documents

Electronic Document Management [Figure 8.4]

Some documents are stored as images whose content will not be changed; others can be stored as text files that may be updated as needed. Electronic document management relies on digital image processing technology, which stores the document image in an archival computer storage where it will not be changed, or on managing text documents in writeable secondary storage, where changes are possible.

Elements of electronic document management include:

1. Input

2. Storage

3. Retrieval

4. Updating

5. Printing and publishing

Input

Digital image technology employs scanners to enter digitized images of documents, artwork, maps, and so forth into the computer where the image is preserved and may even be enhanced.

If you wish to store the document's text or data rather than its image, a scanner and the optical character recognition (OCR) software may be employed as an alternative to manual keyboarding.

Storage

Documents are stored in a computer-managed archiving system. The dominant storage technology of digital image processing is optical disk, in particular, WORM optical disk cartridges. Documents processed as texts are most often stored on magnetic disks, which permits the current contents to be overwritten.

Retrieval

The main advantage of computerized document management systems is that the documents can be indexed. Text information management systems are the equivalent of a DBMS in the realm of words instead of numbers.

Multiple technologies are often used for document management. Some systems:

1. Permit not only storage of text, graphics, and signatures, but also phone conversations or dictated memos.

2. Allow access to the stored documents with spoken commands.

Updating

Transaction documents and other images stored as images are not updated. We can simply add another item to a customer's Aelectronic file.@ The entire area of document processing concentrates on archiving the information in accessible form.

Printing and Publishing

Corporate electronic publishing is growing rapidly. It is based on powerful servers, since large volumes of text require the management of extensive storage.

Reprographic is the reproduction of multiple copies of documents, is now beginning to integrate photocopiers into information systems.

Hypertext is a form of an electronic document (or information base) in which nodes with textual information are interconnected by meaningful links to allow nonsequential access to the text. A node may contain a well-defined fragment of textual knowledge.

Hypermedia - is a multimedia database that includes links between related information items. A node may contain graphics, an audio message, a video image, or an executable spreadsheet. A document is built by creating nodes with information chunks and linking them to other related chunks.

Workflow Systems

Electronic documents are the foundation of workflow systems that enable an organization to redesign its business processes in the office. Workflow systems support documents based organizational processes by automatically routing electronic documents over the computer network to the appropriate workers for their contribution. Since they route document images to the appropriate people, workflow systems combine the features of electronic mail with those of image processing systems.

Electronic mail has brought with it immense capabilities for organizational communications. Message-handling services of office automation systems include:

1. Electronic mail

2. Electronic information services

3. Voice mail

4. Facsimile

Electronic Mail and Its Effects on Work in Organizations

Electronic mail, or E-mail, is generally used to exchange written messages sent and retrieved from personal workstations over telecommunications networks.

The key capability of an E-mail system is storing and forwarding messages. Many other E-mail capabilities include:

1. You can send a message when it is convenient for you

2. Recipients of messages can read them when it is convenient for them

3. Telephone tag is avoided

4. Screen out messages of no interest to you

5. Work from a virtual office

E-mail systems generally:

1. Allow you to store incoming messages in labelled files so that you can use the system as a private file cabinet.

2. Some meetings can be avoided, while others may become shorter because the participants have discussed the issues over E-mail beforehand.

3. Provide greater security than many alternative ways of communication, since users have passwords to access their messages

4. Save money in areas such as postage

5. Customers and peers in the industry can communicate easily

Problems associated with E-mail systems:

1. Unwanted messages

2. Information overload

Electronic Information Services and Bulletin Boards

Service providers combine E-mail facilities with access to electronic information services. These services are also available over the Internet. The most expensive category of these services includes access to databases with information on specialized subjects: patents, technical documents, legal precedents, or legislation.

E-mail systems usually offer electronic bulletin boards as the simplest form of computer- supported many-to-many communication. An open mailbox is established, and users can post messages to it or scan messages posted there by others. A bulletin board can be set up where informal feedback for the company's distribution channels is posted. Internal bulletin boards are commonly used within organizations for posting company announcements.

Voice Mail

A voice mail system stores and forwards voice messages converted to digital form. A sender dictates a voice message into the recipient's phone mailbox. The voice message is digitized and stored on a secondary storage device, such as a magnetic disk. When the recipient retrieves the message from the mailbox, the message is converted back to its original voice form.

Facsimile [Figure 8.10]

Facsimile (fax) is a long-distance copying technology. A fax is used to send a copy of a document or any other written message. Text, graphs, signatures, and handwritten items are transmitted as they appear on the original. The sender's fax machine scans the document and sends the digitized image over the telephone line to the recipient's fax machine, which produces a copy of the document.

8.5 Teleconferencing and Electronic Meeting Systems [Figure 8.11]

Computers and communications technologies have broadened the possibilities of many-to-many communications. A meeting can now be distributed with regard to place and time, in accordance with the situation. Several technologies are combined in different ways to provide alternatives. The participants can be situated at remote locations and supported by audio or videoconferencing, or by electronic meeting facilities.

Teleconferencing facilities enable people at remote locations to hold a meeting in which they can communicate by voice, text, or images - depending on the conferencing facility. There are three principal ways to hold a teleconference: audioconferencing, videoconferencing, and computer conferencing.

Audioconferencing - is an extension of the conference call without the need for an operator to establish the connection between remote conference sites. Typically, managers located in a conference room at one of the organization's sites hold a face-to-face meeting and, at some point, establish an audio teleconference connection with a similar meeting being held at another company site. With speaker phones installed in both conference rooms, all the participants can hear one another, but the remote participants cannot be seen.

Videoconferencing - in a two-way video teleconference, the participants can see and hear one another at a distance. Although audio teleconferencing is less expensive, participants in a video teleconference can see the body language that accompanies the spoken word.

Electronic Meeting Systems [Figure 8.12 a, b, & c]

Electronic meeting systems support meeting, which may be distributed in space and time, with information technology. Electronic meeting systems provide not only connectivity but also memory: the capabilities of computer storage enable participants to be at remote locations and their participants in a meeting to be spread over time.

The most often used settings for electronic meetings include:

1. Decision room - for same place - same time conferences

2. Computer teleconference - for meetings distributed both in space and time.

8.6 Workgroup Support and Groupware

Groupware supports communication and collaboration of a group of coworkers over an extended period of time. Group size depends on the project and on the organization. In general, it ranges between 2 and 45 members.

The Organizational Role of Workgroups

As the information society shapes new organizational forms, team-based horizontal organizations emerge as a replacement for vertical, hierarchical structures in order to respond to the fast-paced competitive marketplace. The realization has also occurred that much organizational effectiveness stems from the effective work of groups, equipped with autonomy and proper tools more than from actions of isolated individuals.

A team can be a highly responsive and flexible structure in responding to the uncertainties of the shifting business environment. Various teams serve different purposes. Teams may be composed of:

1. Project teams

2. Task forces

3. Brand teams

4. Sales teams

5. Account teams

6. New product teams

7. Crisis-response teams

Characteristics of workgroups include:

1. Some of these groups are relatively permanent, others are organized and disbanded as needed.

2. In some teams, members are doing similar jobs, other teams consist of members with different specialties

3. Group members may work in the same building or be separated by oceans

4. A workgroup has a functional goal: its members take on roles in the overall task set for the group; and a set of norms develops in the organization of the group

Groupware and its Functions [Figure 8.16]

Groupware is the software that supports a business group whose members work on interconnected personal workstations. Groupware offers support for communication and collaboration among group members, and for coordination of group work.

The principal emphasis of groupware is on the use of computers to facilitate human interaction. Groupware generally runs on personal computers that provide connectivity to other members of the organization and to the external world.

Principal functions of groupware include:

1. Information sharing

2. Document authoring

3. Messaging systems

4. Computer conferencing

5. Group calendaring

6. Project management

7. Support for team building