High finance meets high technology in automated offices

Press, 28 June 1983, Page 33

High finance meets high technology in automated offices

“The Office of the Future” is a phrase used by the computer industry to describe its view of the paperless, push-button, electronic world where high finance meets high technology in a triumph of whitecollar productivity. Every office worker will have a desk-top computer, a computer terminal or a word processor, all connected together in local and remote networks where messages and data flow almost instantaneously from

desk to an-

This week in Christchurch, the Computer Society is holding a seminar on “The Office of the Future,” and the New Zealand Post Office is flying in experts to talk about “Telecommunications and Business — Today, Tomorrow and Beyond.” Companies addressing these seminars will claim that they have the products to make the automated office a reality today. They

are waiting only for New Zealand companies to see the light, or dig deeper into their pockets. Overseas, there are frequent reports of multimillion dollar sales of office automation products. The largest commercial bank in the United States, the Bank of America, already has more than 1000 word processors or terminals in place and about 1500 personal computers. The bank’s budget for automation doubled last year and will probably double again this year. Every business person should be aware of office automation concepts because they will become an increasingly important factor in his world.