Effects of Technology in Administrative Office Systems - Essay Example

Effects of Technology in Administrative Office Systems. Introduction Technology is a name well known to man. From its advent in the middle of the last century technology has evolved into its present state of dominance. Presently almost everything around man is technology oriented and man has been made dependent on it. The thought of the survival of human lives without the existence of technology is impossible now. Technology has been a source of ease and comfort for man but along with innumerable advantages it has bought with it certain drawbacks as well. Excessive dependence upon technology and its practically implemented turnaround such as Smartphone, the Internet and tablet PCs has shown signs of certain disadvantages that may have long-lasting effects if not addressed timely. Since connectivity to the internet is not an issue anymore it is possible to access both personal and office related work via the internet just about any time during the day. All one needs to do is to log into the internet and begin to access your work while even sitting at your home. For some people this may seem like a precious facility but the fact is that excessive usage of this facility is leading to personality disorders among individuals. Writing in the New York Times author Tara Parker-Pope maintains that, " Typically, the concern about our dependence on technology is that it detracts from our time with family and friends in the real world. ... It may be that the immediacy of the Internet, the efficiency of the iPhone and the anonymity of the chat room change the core of who we are." (Pope, 2010) It is vital to state here that though it is important to make use of technology throughout the day but this usage should be constrained and should not affect the personal responsibilities of an individual. Tara Parker-Pope also emphasizes in her article that excessive dependence upon technology emerges like a disease that needs to be treated just like any other psychological disorder. Not only does this dependence make a person negligent of his responsibilities towards himself and his family he may even turn out to become beholders of virtual personalities which are entirely different from their own individual existence. This war of an individual with his own self is mainly overcome by the virtual self leading to devastating effects in the days to come. While technology has begun to have adverse affects upon the personalities of individuals, the core advantages that it has bought to the human society greatly outweigh drawbacks associated with it. Administrative Offices have many organizational and managerial tasks at hand. It is imperative that their details be discussed in order to narrate the changes that would be bought with the fusion of technology in them. For a conventional office system administrative tasks may merely be as simple as the maintenance of records of the employees working for an organization and the maintenance and generation of their payroll, regularly, on a monthly basis to the strategic tasks as those involving major business decision making. A number of tasks that may be assisted greatly by the infusion of technology are: Recording and Managing of Organizational data. Maintenance of records of purchases, products and merchandise. Business related human interactions. Accounting. Communications in business. Organization in business. Correspondence and Collaboration. Strategic Decision Making. Managing of administrative knowledge, in a knowledgeable manner is the key to betterment in the implementation of these processes. Shannak (2010) researched the effect of managing knowledge upon administrative decision making and quotes the following as part of his research, "Knowledge Management is a technique that seeks to improve the performance of individuals and organizations by making use of the present and future value of knowledge assets. It is presumed that the performance will be improved by providing the right knowledge to the right people at the right time." (Shannak, 2010) The introduction of technology has revolutionized the nature of administrative office tasks. The transition from manually entered official data in a handwritten manner to its entry in intelligence based systems has been amazing indeed. Infusion of technology does not only enable handling of data but also intelligently process and analyze it in order to make meanings out of it. The very basic administrative office systems are termed as : 1. Automated billing systems 2. Online entry of data 3. Centralized departmental access to data 4. Auditing and accountability via online information systems. 5. Collaboration and correspondence via cloud based information processing. 6. Microsoft Office, Spreadsheets and database systems handling organizational data. Information systems are computerized software packages that take raw data as input and process it to provide analytical results that assist in administrative decision making. Automated Billing Systems are example software that have the names of all the products being sold at a store already saved in its database along with the quantity of goods available and the existing cost they are being sold at. Each product is assigned a unique barcode which is an identification number. When a buyer comes in and attempts to purchase a product the barcode number of the product is entered into the system and its credentials spring up automatically. An automated receipt is generated at the end of the transaction. This is just one of the several types of administrative office systems that can be embedded for the accuracy and assistance of administrative tasks. Administrative office systems not only assist in the getting of the tasks done in much lesser time but they are also devoid of human error and are more precise and accurate than human calculations and analysis. Majumdar et. al (2009) narrate how the introduction of another technology, broadband, transformed their organization. Mentioning the benefits they quote, " in addition to the benefits to consumers and firms at the receiving end of the new technology, create the potential for better technological efficiencies and increased productivity for the deploying firms." (Majumdar et. al, 2009) Improvement in efficiency and maintenance of responsibilities are parts of administrative tasks. A value added, strategically led organization can be achieved if efficiency and flexibility of an organization are substantially addressed. These are all possible within very less time if office administration tools are incorporated within an organization. Focused structural domains, targeted productions, optimized performances and usability cherished customer services are just a few of the traits of a technology enriched corporate arena. Human resources of an organization get more time to focus on strategic decision making when the mere tasks that involved human dependence such as payroll generation are being taken care of by the information systems designed specifically for administrative tasks. Names of some office administration systems currently available in the market are: " Oasys HR, the first out of the three, is a leading workforce management tool for streamlining human resource administration." (Deloitte, n.d.) and again, " WinTime is an engagement management system to manage time effectively spanning the entire engagement lifecycle; from job scheduling, to capturing time to automated cost analysis derivation." (Deloitte, n.d.) and " WinCost, delivers the necessary functionality for automated and manageable costing, billing and budgeting and customer relations fine-tuning by keeping track of important billing information and outstanding balances. (Deloitte, n.d.) The uses of technology being discussed above tend to be beneficial examples of technology implementations than any disadvantages associated with it. Office administrative systems in fact are the most key contributions of technology to an organization's life. Owing to the use of technology administrative tasks are far simpler than before. Besides the above mentioned advantage other benefits associated with computing are speed reliability consistency storage communications. The excessive use of any technology laden facility, however, is not recommended. It should particularly be addressed that the facility of technology to take official work home via internet connectivity and cloud based data sharing should be monitored so that it may not turn into a nuisance rather than a privilege. Thus it may be observed that there lies a very thin boundary between the facilitations and nuisances that are associated with technology. Though the benefits of computing systems outweigh the cons associated with it by a large margin, technology overload is a phenomenon which definitely needs to be administered. "People overloaded with technology often feel uncomfortable or nervous when they cannot use the internet or the cell phone for even short duration of time. Some mental health experts believe that technology overload is a health problem which can be treated just as other compulsions are treated." (Shelly, et. al, 2012) There is an immediate need to address the cons associated with technology that may even reach the organizational boundaries someday. It is therefore advised and highly recommended that training programs be conducted and people should be made aware of the drawbacks associated with technology so that they may learn to use it intelligently and effectively. Conclusion Conclusively it may be said that the emergence and prevalence of technology come with pros and cons both just as any other human invention does. It is highly recommended that while man should avail the limitless advantages that technology has bought he should also use the same to address the cons as well. There is immense potential in technology to be of both assistance to man and also to enable the human society to excel as a whole. The future holds prosperity and advancements both in the corporate as well as social arenas. References: Deloitte. (n.d.). Office Administration System OASYS . Retrieved December 6 2012, from http://www.deloitte.com/view/en_CY/cy/services-cy/consultingcy/enterprise-applications/office-administration-system/index.htm Majumdar, S. K., Carare, O. O., & Chang, H. H. (2010). Broadband adoption and firm productivity: evaluating the benefits of general purpose technology. Industrial & Corporate Change, 19(3), 641-674. Parker-Pope, T. (2010, June 6). An Ugly Toll of Technology: Impatience and Forgetfulness. The New York Times, Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/07/technology/07brainside.html?ref=yourbrainoncomp&_r=0. Shannak, R. O. (2010). Knowledge-based Systems Support for Strategic Decisions. European Journal Of Economics, Finance & Administrative Sciences, (21), 7-20. Shelly, G. B., Vermaat, M., Quasney, J. J., Sebok, S. L., & Freund, S. M. (2012).Discovering computers: Your interactive guide to the digital world : complete. Australia: Course Technology, Cengage Learning. Read More