Analysis of the current situation of paperless office

Paperless office includes two levels of meaning: The first level of meaning refers to paperless office understood from the literal meaning, neither using or An office style that rarely uses paper; the second meaning refers to using computers to work using modern computer technology, network technology, and information technology, that is, realizing informatization.

First of all, let’s start with the first meaning of paperless office. Many people want to get rid of paperless office. Paperless office has been mentioned for so many years, but in reality, paperless office has truly been realized. How many offices are there? So is it still necessary to mention paperless office?

One of the most common questions people ask is that the means for enterprises to implement paperless office is a set of office automation software. But in fact, after the implementation, paper has not been reduced, but more paper has been used. Some leaders of companies or departments are unwilling to use computers to handle some work due to limited computer application skills and other reasons, and are willing to use paper to feel more reliable. There is even competition between departments to see who can print clearly and beautifully. If you use a dot matrix printer, I will use a laser printer. If you print in black and white, I will use a color printer. So sometimes the preferences of some leaders lead to the waste of a lot of paper. The development of office automation provides the possibility of saving paper and even paperless office. For example, email and the Internet can easily provide relevant information to the parties in need. Of course, it can also be saved without having to use paper. as a carrier. But good wishes do not equal reality. The reality is that global office paper consumption is still growing at an annual rate of 4% to 7%. At this rate, global office paper consumption will double in another 10 years.

Some people think that the increase in paper consumption due to paperless office is temporary, just like boxing. Before punching, you have to retract your hand first, and then the punch can be more powerful. Nowadays, a large amount of paper is used Paper is for a paperless future. This sounds reasonable, but if you taste it carefully, you will feel that people’s understanding of paperless is so limited. In fact, companies spend money to build local area networks and connect to the Internet not just to save some paper. Of course, office expenses can be continuously reduced by establishing an office automation system, but the starting point for establishing the system should be to improve the level of office management.

At present, standards for office automation are still being formed, and the contents of many manufacturers' products are also very different. But the system in everyone's mind should include: document processing, email, meeting management, file management, information release, electronic forums, work management, etc. In fact, after several years of development, the office automation system has undergone great changes in content and form. After more than 10 years of development from the late 1980s to the present, my country's office automation system has evolved from initially providing auxiliary office work for single machines to today's large-scale collaborative work management for enterprise-level applications. Domestic office automation systems have currently gone through three stages of development and achieved two revolutionary leaps. The first generation of office systems started in the mid-1980s, with personal computers and office suites (Microsoft Office, Wps) as the main symbols, realized the electronicization of data statistics and document writing, and completed the transformation of office information carriers from original paper media to electronic bits. A leap in the way. Starting from the mid-1990s, with the advent of workflow groupware technology represented by Lotus Notes and the rapid development of network communication technology, the office automation system has undergone its first revolutionary evolution. The second generation of office automation system With network technology and collaborative work technology as the main features, it realizes workflow automation and realizes a leap from the traditional manual method of sending and receiving documents to the workflow automation method. With the advent of the era of knowledge economy in the 21st century, knowledge has become a key resource for economic growth, social development and enterprise growth. Mastering and utilizing knowledge to the maximum extent has increasingly become the core of the informatization construction of enterprises and institutions. The unprecedented emphasis on knowledge has led to the upgrade of office automation systems centered on workflow to the third generation of office automation systems centered on knowledge management. The fourth generation will be an overall system that effectively integrates workflow, business flow, financial flow, and logistics.

Although office automation systems have been integrated with new management ideas such as knowledge management, when we conducted research in enterprises, we found that there are still many unsatisfactory aspects that affect paperless Office process.

1. The understanding of office automation systems varies greatly

In the eyes of many people, office automation systems mainly process some official documents, send and receive emails, and realize computerization of paper work . In fact, there are many people who think like this, but they don’t know that office automation is a vast knowledge, involving behavioral science, management science, sociology, systems engineering and other disciplines. The application of office automation has become one of the symbols of modern enterprise management.

The core issue of office automation is how to improve daily office efficiency. Therefore, all the contents of our daily work can be included in the scope of office automation system processing, such as word processing, fax, application approval, office supplies, document management, library management, conference management, data management, file management, customer management, ordering and sales , even inventory management, production planning, technical management, quality management, cost management, personnel management, etc., can all be included within the processing scope of office automation software.

There are different opinions on the standard issue we mentioned earlier, that is, what content is included in the office automation system, and there is no fixed statement. This leads to the common practice of software companies: first assign some simple functions to the office automation system according to their own ideas to form a framework. When the enterprise has needs, it will be customized and developed based on the functional requirements put forward by the enterprise users. The result is that whatever the enterprise proposes, the software company will develop it and try its best to meet the needs of the enterprise. Although it seems to be customer-centric, in fact there are many problems. For example, the office automation system should incorporate many new management ideas, such as collaborative office, knowledge management, customer relationship management, etc., and should not become an electronic version of manual work. If you just follow the customer's requirements and do not have a set of good management ideas to guide the company's office management, it cannot be called good office automation, and it will not be beneficial to both parties. For software companies, development becomes more difficult and difficult to promote in other places; for enterprises, they cannot use office automation systems to improve management, and the benefits are relatively reduced. Therefore, office automation systems will not be as easy to promote as financial software. One of the main reasons is that the financial system is supported by the country's complete policies and standards, and there are relatively standardized practices to follow, but currently the office automation system cannot do this.

2. The ideological awareness of leaders and users needs to be improved

For paperless office to become a reality, it is very important to change people's concepts and habits. In people's traditional concepts, "black and white writing on paper" has a certain degree of authority and is authentic and credible. Leaders can also directly circle or make comments on the paper, which gives them a certain sense of accomplishment. It is easier for people to relax when reading things on paper, and they are not restricted by time and place. Written things are easy to carry. In addition, paper has obvious advantages: compared with computer screens, we can see the content printed or written on paper more clearly even under poor lighting conditions, and we can also easily print on paper. Feel free to comment and modify. Handwritten documents with the same content can display more information than e-mails or floppy disks, and body language is revealed. Through handwriting, you can feel the other person's emotions, personality, cultural accomplishment and other aspects of information.

This is just the idea of ????some people being nostalgic for paper, but the convenience brought by informatization is more and more, which is unmatched by the original way of using paper. For example: The advantages of information sharing enable you to work no matter where you are, as long as you are connected to the Internet. Online offices have been recognized by people. Especially when implementing office automation systems through B/S architecture, there is no need to install complex application software on the internal network of the enterprise. You only need to obtain the corresponding user name and password on the system's main server. Let your employees use the people and functions in the online office. There is also a third-generation office automation system that, based on the second-generation, provides relevant knowledge in all aspects of processing, ensuring that every user can learn from experts and the existing knowledge of the company anytime and anywhere as needed, so that The status of employees in the office automation system changes from passive to active, thereby greatly improving the overall innovation and adaptability of enterprises and institutions in the process of improving each employee's creative ability.

Also, for large enterprises and groups with thousands of institutions across the country, it is unimaginable to rely on traditional management models, but it is not difficult to manage through information technology.

The reason why many users are unwilling to use office automation systems is very simple. The system generally requires the input of a large amount of original data and information, which increases everyone's workload, especially when it involves some departments and departments. People subconsciously do not want to disclose personal interest data. Therefore, there will be some resistance during the implementation of the system. What needs to be mentioned in particular is that information construction is a top-level project. The top leaders mentioned here are not only the top leaders of the enterprise, but also the heads of various departments.

3. Office automation technology also needs continuous innovation

In the application process of office automation systems, the application of some technologies will also promote its development. An important issue mentioned by many leaders is the matter of signatures. In fact, there are still many technical details that need to be improved, such as network signature authentication technology, local area network communication, file network broadcast, etc.

For example: in the process of applying computers to batch sign and transfer files, when users all sign and modify files on the computer, how to retain the modification traces of different users is a matter of great concern to users. . When signing manually, different people have different handwritings, so it is easy to identify. However, when modifying and editing files on a computer, it is not an easy task to retain the traces of each person. Some systems deal with this problem by making a copy of the files modified by each person, and then comparing the differences between the two copies. This method is not intuitive enough and does not conform to the user's usual working habits. Moreover, it requires saving multiple copies, which is a serious waste of space. Some systems write their own editing software, and users draft and modify files in the editing software. However, because the editing software used is designed and compiled by themselves, it can be seamlessly and closely connected with the OA system, so traces of modifications by different users can be more easily show. Although this method is more flexible, the editing software you write yourself is difficult to compare with mainstream word processing software (Microsoft Word, WPS Office, etc.) in terms of functionality. On the other hand, if the end user is already familiar with the operation of a commercial word processing software, it will be difficult to accept other editing software.

I believe everyone has seen these problems, and some companies have already had good solutions. But in the current application process, there are still technologies that you have, but I don’t have; technologies that I have, you don’t have. As a result, the level of many office automation software companies is uneven, and they cannot cooperate to take advantage of each other's advantages. Especially many small and medium-sized software companies around us cannot fully cooperate, and vicious competition often occurs, resulting in both parties not being able to make great progress.

4. Integration with other systems will definitely become a bottleneck

People working in enterprises know that in addition to office automation systems, enterprise informatization also has many contents, such as financial systems , production management system, purchase, sale and inventory management system, human resources management system, customer relationship management system, business system, CAD, CAPP, etc. The current application status of enterprises is: due to many reasons, a large number of information islands have been constructed, and they can rarely be closely coordinated. Data cannot be connected between various systems, resulting in a lot of duplication of work and inaccurate data. The existence of information islands leads to a large amount of information redundancy and a large amount of junk information. The consistency of information exchange cannot be guaranteed. It is difficult for individuals and departments to share information, and it is difficult for leaders to take charge of the overall situation. Since the system is provided by multiple suppliers, even if you want to integrate it, there are many difficulties. In particular, the database is not unified, which makes the integration more difficult. More importantly, mutual cooperation will also become a big problem. At present, this phenomenon exists in most enterprises in China with information systems.

The problem of "information islands" has seriously hindered the overall process of enterprise information construction, making it difficult for enterprises to make decisions when making a new round of investment. The key to solving the problem of "information islands" is not only software technology, but more importantly, enterprise process management and standardization of related technologies.

Therefore, before an enterprise implements an office automation system, it is necessary to make a standardized overall plan, and do not always hope to connect scattered systems through "interfaces". It is impossible to simply connect the original isolated and decentralized application systems through a large number of interfaces. Instead, it is necessary to re-plan and re-conceive a unified information system model to establish a holistic and unified information system model. Only then can a real system be realized. integrated.

Many factors have hindered the progress of paperless office. When we are immersed in the craze of ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) and CRM (Customer Management), looking back we still have a lot of basic work to do. Do it. Although there are still many problems and it will take a long time to reach the level of paperlessness, don’t wait for the rain to stop before traveling far, start taking action!