The paperless office of the future: companies jump on bandwaggon

Press, 1 February 1983, Page 31

The paperless office of the future: companies jump on bandwaggon

If all the pieces of paper used in the world’s offices last year were laid end to end they would stretch from here to' the Sun and back. These esoteric statistics, computed by Philips, explain why 50 per cent of Britain's workers are now white-col-lared. They also explain why so many companies are jumping bn the office of the future bandwaggon, with its tempting prospect of the paperless office. Last- year world sales of advanced office equipment totalled $6.5 billion: by 1986 this figure is expected to top $21.8 billion. Recently IBM and Apple, the two bestknown names in the computer industry. climbed aboard. Each launched major new equipment as the centrepiece of their electronic office plans. ■ The arrival of the big boys into the market comes just in time to save the office of the future from getting a bad name, or even not arriving at all. Too many bushy-tailed young salesmen have been rushing around in the last few years with a mouthful of fancy technological buzzwords. The products have been there, but often too

sophisticated and in advance of the actual needs for improving office efficiency. “The problem has been that in selling the office of the future you are trying to sell a concept." says Mr Donald Wilson, the managing director of Rank Xerox U.K. "This makes it much harder than selling simple office equipment like a photocopier. You are making a fundamental change in a customer's workstyle." The changeover should improve office efficiency and decision making. At a'lower level it does mean that some jobs will go: a word processor which produces hundreds of letters a day with just one operator is going to take the place of several typists. At a managerial level, however, improved efficiency should free them from some of the frustrations of information retrieval, and let them get on with the job of managing. The tools of the office revolution have been around for some time: the computer, telecommunications equipment. word processors, copiers. viewdata. What is different now is the convergence of technology as computing and telecommuni-

cations become increasingly interwoven: the dramatic fall in prices of certain equipment. and ease of use. Five years ago the computer was a huge and expensive machine which hid in the bowels of the office, understood only by a systems analyst or data processing manager. Now it is smaller, cheaper, more powerful and simple to understand. Until comparatively recently the cost of putting in advanced . office machinery has been hard to justify, particularly as its effects cannot be judged for several years. In a recession firms are more concerned with survival than expansion. Yet just as manufacturing industry is realising that automation can in the long term make them more likely to succeed, so offices are noting that automation through advanced information and voice processing can improve their business. Investments of between $32,000 and $45,000 in capital equipment per worker are quite common in manufacturing industry. In the office, it is usually below $2500. "The office is a very unproductive place,” says Mr

Fred Heys, of the office consultant. Butler Cox. The trouble is that office workers do not do what they are supposed to do. Typists do not sit down all day. banging out letters: only about 15 per cent of time is spent doing that. General administration takes about 25 per cent, being away from the desk 20 per cent, phoning 10 per cent — and doing nothing 10 per cent. Bosses are just as bad. Contrary to what they would like to believe, they do not spend most of the time managing or decision taking. Productive "think time" comes to about 30 per cent of the day. Meetings, many unproductive, take up nearly 50 per cent, and about a quarter is totally wasted, much of it waiting for a vital phone call, letter or meeting. Up to 75 per cent of total office costs go on managers. Yet only 30 per cent of office automation investment goes on them. One major problem is that many managers still do not like to use office equipment themselves, regarding it as their secretaries' job to use a keyboard, or even dial a telephone number.

"This means that a lot of them do not know how long it takes to get information by traditional office equipment routes." says Mr Heys. “They shout at their secretary to get a file or a phone number, not realising the hassle. It all means that they have little concept of what improvements are needed for the office." Office equipment makers, on the other hand, have little doubt about what is needed. Yet. too many firms have jumped on the electronic bandwaggon. There are at least 120 different firms selling word processors in Britain. Last year those 120 word processing firms only sold about 20,000. “I reckon that that 120 will have to fall to about 12." says Brian Gifford, managing director of Datapoint U.K. Advanced office equipment makers have also been guilty of not finding out what products offices really want. Another error is not knowing who to sell to in a firm. Once, the decision to buy a new typewriter or photocopier was a low level decision. But a plan to buy advanced electronic typewriters. which can be linked

together and into computers, or a so-called intelligent photocopier. which can scan pages by laser, print out at a different terminal and reproduce information from a word processor, is a much more important step. A series of new office computers, or advanced telecommunications exchanges, which will have an impact on the whole of the firm, must be a high level decision. Those firms in Britain that seem to be taking the right route for the offices of their future are getting top management involved in deciding what advanced office equipment should be bought. Top management is both using the equipment, and also deciding through experience what the firm should buy “You cannot and should not go out and buy an off-the-peg office of the future." says Fred Heys. "You must build up gradually." For the equipment maker's like IBM. Wang or Rank Xerox, the office of the future may have been a little late in arriving, but at least now some of the myths and buzzwords are being swept aside, to be replaced by sales.