Office Automation (OA for short) is a new office mode that combines the functions of modern office and computer network. There is no unified definition of office automation, and all new technologies, machines and equipment used in traditional offices belong to the field of office automation. In administrative organs, office automation is often called e-government, and enterprises and institutions are often called OA, that is, office automation. By realizing office automation, or digital office, we can optimize the existing management organization structure, adjust the management system, increase the ability of collaborative office on the basis of improving efficiency, strengthen the consistency of decision-making, and finally achieve the goal of improving decision-making efficiency.

The characteristics of the professional platform can be summarized as follows.

A platform:

Unify the basic management platform to realize unified management of user data, unified distribution of authority and unified identity authentication.

Two portals:

Unified planning of portal websites and collaborative office platforms, close integration of external network information maintenance, customer service, interactive communication and daily work, effectively improving work efficiency.

Group management:

The application object covers multi-level institutions and realizes the application mode of "big OA with small OA".

Four major applications:

Four core applications: workflow, knowledge management, communication and auxiliary office.

Openness-the ability to integrate applications with other software systems.

The system "landing" permeates all aspects of management in real management, and no software can independently complete all aspects of management requirements. Therefore, the software supporting the system "landing" must have comprehensive and extensive integration, can automatically obtain relevant information from other software systems, and complete the necessary related integrated applications.

From a technical point of view, adopting highly integrated technology architecture (J2EE) as the underlying design will be decisive for software integration. In this way, the software can reserve a large number of interfaces and provide sufficient technical support for integrating other systems. At the same time, practical integration experience is also essential, because the integration application not only involves the technical level, but also includes practical skills requirements such as management understanding of real business, practical skills of integration, and control of integration projects.

Office automation is to use information technology to electronize and digitize the office process and create an integrated office environment, so that all office workers can work together in the same desktop environment.

Specifically, it mainly realizes the following seven functions: (1) Build internal.

Communication platform based on. Establish an internal mail system to make the communication and information exchange within the organization fast and smooth.

(2) Establish an information dissemination platform. Establish effective information release and exchange places, such as electronic bulletin, electronic forum, electronic publications, etc., so that internal rules and regulations, news briefings, technical exchanges, announcements, etc. are widely disseminated among employees of enterprises and institutions, so that employees can understand the development trends of their own units.

(3) Realize the automation of workflow. This involves real-time monitoring and tracking of the circulation process, solving the problem of multi-post and multi-department collaborative work and realizing efficient cooperation. Each unit has a lot of procedural work, such as document processing, sending and receiving documents, various approvals, asking for instructions and reporting. , are procedural tasks. By realizing the automation of workflow, various tasks can be standardized and the efficiency of cooperative work can be improved.

(4) Realize the automation of document management. All kinds of documents (including all kinds of files, knowledge and information) can be saved, enjoyed and used according to the authority, and have convenient retrieval means. Each unit will have a large number of documents, which are kept in everyone's filing cabinet in the case of manual work. Therefore, it is very difficult to save, appreciate, use and reuse documents. In addition, in the case of manual operation, it is very difficult to retrieve documents. There are so many documents that you can't find what you need in time, or even find it. Office automation makes all kinds of documents electronic, and the documents are saved in the form of electronic filing cabinets, which can be used and enjoyed according to the authority. After realizing office automation, for example, when a new employee comes to a certain unit, as long as the administrator registers an identity document and gives him a password, he can see the accumulated things, rules and regulations, various technical documents and so on. Publish the information of this unit on the Internet. As long as his identity is in line with the range he can read, he can naturally see it, thus reducing a lot of training links.

(5) auxiliary office. There are many contents involved, such as meeting management, vehicle management, goods management, book management and so on, which are combined with our daily office and realize the automation of these auxiliary offices.

(6) Information integration. Each unit has a large number of business systems, such as purchasing, sales, inventory, ERP and other business systems, and the information sources of enterprises are often in this business system. Office automation system should be well integrated with these business systems, so that relevant personnel can effectively obtain the overall information and improve the overall response speed and decision-making ability.

(seven) to achieve distributed office. This is to support multi-branch, cross-regional office mode and mobile office. Nowadays, the geographical distribution is more and more extensive, and mobile office and cross-regional office have become urgent needs.

basic framework

Realizing digital office is different from traditional OA and MIS construction. Its structure is the structure of intranet, and its construction idea is top-down, that is, first, the whole intranet is regarded as a whole, and the object of this whole is all users on the Internet. It must have a foundation, that is, the intranet platform, just as a PC must have an operating system as the foundation. Intranet platform is responsible for managing all user objects, all network resources (including network applications), hierarchical authorization of network resources, open standards of network resources and providing common network services (such as mail, forums, navigation, retrieval and announcements, etc.). ). On the basis of the platform, plug in various business applications (which can be understood as traditional MIS), and these applications are network resources. Users access the network through a unified browser interface, and the network provides corresponding information, functions and services according to the user's authority, so that users can work in the network environment.

Technical thinking on digital office

The realization of digital office needs good technical support. Considering the authorization and openness of digital office, Internet technology and standards should be the first choice, and relevant technologies should be adopted on this basis.

The realization of digital office is inseparable from workflow technology. At present, the workflow technology based on mail system, or groupware technology, is more popular. With the development of WEB technology, there are more and more workflow software based on Intranet mode. This kind of workflow directly uses messaging middleware as a means of message delivery, and does not use a special mail system as a message platform. In this way, the whole workflow software has the advantages of light load, good openness, convenient maintenance and easy combination with other online business systems. This technology is also consistent with the technical direction used in e-commerce. Therefore, WEB-based workflow software will dominate the future digital office field.

development tactics

According to the present situation and existing problems of China's office automation construction, China's office automation construction will embark on the track of healthy and rapid development, and the following countermeasures should be taken in the office automation construction:

In terms of organization and implementation, we should change from the traditional industrial project management system to a professional and product-oriented implementation system, ensure the operation and maintenance of the system and the continuous upgrading of the system, and take the road of cooperation and division of labor simultaneously. This can create a group of large professional software companies with office automation as their business core.

In terms of technology selection: choose the technology that conforms to the world development trend. The technology that is still popular now does not mean that it will be popular in the future. The standardization and openness of technology should be high. Key applications advocate independent development and develop national industries. In terms of technical structure, we should change from client/server structure system to browser/server structure system as soon as possible, adopt B/S thinking, unify the final user interface to a browser, and all application systems are on the server side, which is a standard three-tier structure system. The system has the advantages of light load, good openness and convenient maintenance and upgrade.

System design method: Considering the current situation of office automation in China, the life cycle method and rapid prototyping method are combined, and on the basis of existing products, rapid prototyping method is the main method. In terms of implementation, it follows the principle of unified specification and distributed implementation.

In terms of design ideas, the traditional business-oriented design has turned to user-oriented design, that is, the focus of design is the user object, and the scope of design perspective is the whole intranet. On this basis, the relevant business design is carried out. Introduce the idea of object-oriented into system design.

In the implementation method, the traditional structured design is changed into the theory of complex adaptive system (CAS), that is, the key complex adaptive system is abstracted from the general business requirements, which can adapt to the changes of the environment. The longer the system is used, the more valuable things will be accumulated. ..

Office automation system has the following six functions:

1. Word processing. Including file input, editing, modifying, merging, generating, storing, printing, copying and printing. This task is usually accomplished by word processors, intelligent copiers and light-weight printing equipment for electrophotographic typesetting.

② File management. Including document registration, filing, classification, retrieval, confidentiality, tabulation, etc. Generally, it is realized by establishing a public or private distributed relational database system.

(3) Administration. Including chart generation, schedule, work plan, personnel management, financial management and material management. , mainly through computer graphics system, database and various application software.

④ Information exchange. OA system mainly exchanges information through e-mail and electronic conference, and has developed from telephone network, telex network and computer network to integrated service digital network.

(5), decision support. OA system can be equipped with decision support system (DSS) and group decision support system (GDSS).

⑥. Image processing. Includes inputting printed letters and numbers directly into the computer with an optical character reader, and inputting graphic characters into the computer with a photoelectric scanner or digitizer. Some office automation systems are equipped with image processing systems, which have the functions of image recognition, enhancement, compression and recovery.