Office automation:

Imba 10 th semester.

Unit 1 and unit 2.

Office automation refers to the varied computer machinery and software used to digitally create,
collect, store, manipulate, and relay office information needed for accomplishing basic
tasks. Raw data storage, electronic transfer, and the management of electronic business
information comprise the basic activities of an office automation system. Office automation
helps in optimizing or automating existing office procedures.
The backbone of office automation is a LAN, which allows users to transfer data, mail and even
voice across the network. All office functions, including dictation, typing, filing,
copying, fax, Telex, microfilm and records management, telephone and telephone switchboard
operations, fall into this category. Office automation was a popular term in the 1970s and 1980s
as the desktop computer exploded onto the scene.
Advantages are:

1. Office automation can get many tasks accomplished faster.

2. It eliminates the need for a large staff.
3. Less storage is required to store data.
4. Multiple people can update data simultaneously in the event of changes in schedule
5. What are the main Functions of an Office?
6. Article Shared By 
7. :
8. The efficiency of an office should be judged by the degree of promptness in supplying
correct information. The information dealt with by an office will be on accounts, orders,
prices, complaints, personal matters, etc.
9. It will go to the credit of the manager, if his office gives out needed information at a
moment’s notice. George R. Terry says, “The act of collecting, processing, storing and
distributing information comprise functions of the office.”
10. Modern business is complex. A business organization today is faced with the ever-
changing conditions. The present decade is the decade of change and challenge. With the
developments and advances in the field of science and technology, the manufacturing
techniques have undergone a rapid change.
11. The ever-widening markets also pose a challenge by themselves. All the problems can be
satisfactorily tackled only when adequate information is available. Thus man’s greatest
tool today is information. To identify new markets, to design new products, to make
decisions, to keep people informed and to keep abreast of knowledge, requires
information.
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Imba 10 th semester.

12. It is not only man’s greatest tool, but it is also one of the greatest needs. Information is
required by all members of enterprise and one of the problems in its management is to
determine the nature of the information required, by whom, and in what form.
13. Information is to help; it should assist its recipient in performing his assigned job. In
short, the acts of controlling, processing, storing, striving and distributing information
comprise the function of the OFFICE.
14. The functions of a modern office can be divided into the following categories; and they
are:
15. 1. Basic or routine functions.
16. 2. Administrative management functions or ancillary functions.
17. The following are the basic functions of an office:
18. 1. To receive or collect information.
19. :
20. 2. To prepare a record of such information.
21. 3. To process and arrange such information.
22. 4. To supply readymade information to the authorities when asked for.
23. 1. To receive or collect information:
24. The primary function of the office is to receive information from the various departments
of the organization or from outside through enquiries, reports, orders, circulars,
complaints, messages etc. If the information received is not complete, the office tries to
collect information by sending out enquiries of clarifications.
25. There may be different types of meeting within or outside the organization and pieces of
information will be helpful to the management and therefore the office has to collect it.
26. 2. To prepare records of information:
27. Information is usually received in the form of letters, enquiries, phone calls etc. and this
information has to be converted into other forms, which can easily be followed by the
management. These are orders, quotations, price-lists, replies to enquiries and
complaints, account books, etc., within the organization. All these records will be
retained for further reference.
28. :
29. According to the nature of the information, the record may be retained for many years or
they may be safely kept for a few years, after which they can be destroyed. The records
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of information prepared in the office must be preserved safely, made available to the
management within no time and must be easy to understand.
30. These records maintained by the office will be reference for further dealings. Moreover,
every business has to keep up- to-date books of accounts which are required to record all
business transactions.
31. The books like cash-book, purchase book, sales-book, goods returns book, productive
expense and other ledgers are to be kept by every office. Besides the account-books,
other books will have to be maintained by the office in order to have a smooth function of
the organization.
32. 3. To process and arrange information:
33. The information received by the office may be lengthy and the same in its original form
may not be much useful to the management. Therefore, after collecting such information,
it will be processed, categorized, arranged and systematically kept for readymade
information.
34. Certain letters will have to be converted into charts, statements etc. by doing calculations
or analysis over such information. For instance, orders have been received every day and
complied. The orders themselves will not serve any purpose to the departmental head
because the orders may be in the form of letters.
35. Therefore, it will be most useful to the Sales Manager, if these have been shown in a
compact form, say sales week wise. This can be done through charts, statements etc.
Then the sales manager is at ease to understand the position of the sales by looking at the
statements or charts and come to a decision within no time.
36. Thus it is possible for all the departments or the management to understand the position
easily and quickly and come to certain conclusion. If the information is not properly
analyzed or arranged, much time will have to be spent.
37. An efficient office supplies readymade information to departments or managers who take
proper decisions on the basis of such information supplied. Therefore, a good office is the
foundation of a business organization.
38. 4. To supply readymade information to the authorities:
39. An office is a machine which receives raw materials (scattered information) and produces
various items through processes (compiled and tillable). The office receives information
through letters, phones, meetings, complaints, business transactions, etc.
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40. These pieces of information are further recorded in proper books processed and thus
converted into charts, graphs, statements, and diagrams etc. which show the complete
picture of one type of dealings. The processed information is ready made information and
is easy to understand at a glance.
41. Usually, the office supplies information relating to estimates, statements of accounts,
progress report, book debts, sales, castings etc.
42. The information kept by the office must be complete and accurate and supplied to the
authorities as and when required, without wasting time. If the supply of information is
also kept in such place where it is easily visible and available at any time, it is a great
advantage.
43. Administrative and Management Functions:
44. 1. Management function:
45. The most important administrative functions of the manager include planning,
organizing, staffing, directing, communicating, controlling, coordinating and motivating.
The office manager must organize the office on modern lines for the efficient and
effective performance.
46. 2. Development of office systems and procedures:
47. All the jobs in the office are interrelated and interdependent. As such an office must
provide better services to interrelated departments. For a smooth flow of work,
development of office system and procedures is essential.
48. 3. Form designing and control:
49. Forms are the basic tools for all types of office work. There are many operations which
can be systematized with the use of printed forms. Besides, the use of the forms saves
time and energy at every operation. Information can be collected, recorded or processed
systematically and effectively with the help of office forms. Therefore, it is the task of the
management to design and to control the forms.
50. 4. Selection and purchase of office appliances:
51. The office manager must purchase the appropriate machines, equipment or furniture for
the office. Office work requires adequate equipment, machines and furniture and they
must be maintained properly for the efficient working order. Appliances must be selected
for full and proper uses.
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52. They must be suitable for the purpose. They must be simple in operation and
maintenance. They must be flexible and adaptable to different uses. The cost and benefit
must be compared when the appliances are purchased.
53. 5. Personnel functions:
54. The personnel function is performed by the personnel department. It is assisted by the
office. It recruits and selects the personnel. It places them in different jobs in the office.
For the efficient performance of the basic functions of the office, provision of adequate
and trained staff is necessary. The staff must get reasonable salary. Staff must be properly
motivated to achieve the best performance.
55. 6. Controlling office costs:
56. Office costs may be controlled by using machines in the office, using labour-saving
devices and adopting improved methods of management.
57. 7. Maintenance of records:
58. This is a secondary function of an office. Copies of all the correspondence must be
retained for further reference. From a business firm, a number of letters go out daily and a
number of replies are received, and if the copies of the original letters against which the
replies have been received, are not available, the decision cannot be taken wisely.
59. Therefore all the records must be maintained through proper filing system and preserved
for number of years. Certain documents need not be kept for more than a year while
certain documents have to be kept for a number of years.
60. 8. Planning schemes and policies:
61. In the present stage, production is always in anticipation of demand. Therefore for a
manufacturing concern, it has become essential to plan the activities of the concern for
the future period.
62. One cannot take a decision or plan unless one goes into the previous records and relevant
statistical data, studies the present market trends, and takes decisions on basis of all
information of the past period.
63. When a proper plan has been chalked out, it will be adopted as a policy. Planning and
policies will be good, when they have been drawn out carefully with the help of the
office, through collecting and processing information.
64. 9. Safeguarding the assets:
65. The job of an office is not only extended from the receipt of information to the supply of
processed information, but also to take care of various assets. To keep the record of
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customers (debtors) and keep the management to be informed of about the doubtful debts
so that necessary steps may be taken to prevent the occurrence of bad debts.
66. Books of accounts of all types (personal, real and nominal) are to be kept regularly.
Among them the most important are fixed assets plant, machinery, fixtures, buildings and
current assets goods, stationery, debtors, bills receivable, cash in hand, cash at bank, etc.
67. All these are the properties of the concern and the office must arrange to protect and
safeguard the assets against destruction, damage, loss by theft, fire etc. The management
must be informed of all types of misappropriation matters so that its occurrence will be
prevented in future through investigations.
68. 10. Public relations:
69. Public relations signify the relations of a business organization with the general public,
usually through the distribution of information. Public relations guide business enterprise.
Public relations are guided by public opinions.
70. The functions of Public Relations are:
71. (a) To inform managers of the current status and the changes in the opinions of public.
The public can be divided into two-internal and external. The internal public is key policy
makers, supervisory personnel; employees and shareholders. The external publics are
customers, suppliers and the general public.
72. (b) To suggest purposeful relations with the public and to warn unfavorable reactions.
73. (c) To communicate to the public the company’s policies and actions. Public interest is an
essential element for any good public relations. Office is the eyes and ears of a business.
It is the hand which makes friends for a company.

Q2. The basic features of an office automation system are discussed below.
Streamlines operational flow
An automation system can streamline the flow of operations. The process can digitally create,
collect, store and even manipulate or alter information. It can also help in operations through
timely storage, transfer and management of different business-related processes. Overall, such
systems give companies an opportunity to optimize their functioning.
Includes different office functions
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Imba 10 th semester.

While home automation may be limited to the use of computers for remotely handling different
home functions, office automation includes a variety of functions. Dictation, typing and filing,
record management as well as telephone and switchboard operations along with copying, faxing,
and so on, fall in this category. This helps offices accomplish tasks faster, while eliminating the
need for a large number of staff.
Document Management
By streamlining operations and including different functions in a single software system, office
automation provides benefits such as document management. Less storage is, therefore, required
for large amount of data.

Defined Access
Access privileges are critical for operations management. Office automation permits you to
assign access privileges. This ensures that only authorized members can use the software or
access its different features. At the same time, it enables better accessibility, allowing multiple
people to update data simultaneously.
Handles various processes at once
You must keep a track of your income and expenses. You have to handle emails as well.
Meanwhile, you need to schedule appointments and tasks while setting up your business to
handle credit cards. All of this can be done through  simple office automation software.

The five essentials of office automation tools

1. Easy workflow designer

Creating workflows used to be the domain of hard-core system coders. So, as workflow
software evolved, it assumed the people using it would be programmers as well.

However, a modern office automation system should start with the business user in mind, not the coder.

When you sit down to trial an office automation tool, start off by making your own workflows. How
easy is it? Can you intuitively create the sequence of tasks needed to finish a process? If you can’t figure
it out within the first five minutes, you need to move on to the next option.

A piece of software shouldn’t determine how your business should set its operations. It should instead
aid your teams to strengthen the existing processes.
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2. Mobile compatibility
Your office is mobile, and all your tools should be too. Whether you have remote workers or you just
want to check in while waiting for a flight, the office automation tool you choose should work just as
smoothly on someone’s phone while on a trip to China as it does on a PC at the main office.

Your marketing campaign can’t be delayed a day just because you need to wait for Greg to get back
from his vacation in Machu Picchu.

You should be able to run your core processes from a secure cloud and never have to worry about where
your data is or who is protecting it. If you use an office automation tool like Kissflow Workflow, then
Greg can go over the marketing plan on his mobile from his hotel lobby in Peru and give his nod before
he goes on to take selfies with the llamas.

3. Integration with other software

Office automation software isn’t the only thing you are running. You’ve got your internal database, a
CRM, a marketing automation tool, and your financial software, and that’s just for starters. When you’re
reliant on so many systems, you need a tool that doesn’t just keep to itself.

Of all the software out there, office automation should be the easiest to integrate with your other tools. If
it doesn’t, you are stuck pushing data around from one system to another.
When doing an evaluation, see what kind of pre-integrations the office automation software provides, or
if it takes advantage of connecting to a tool like Zapier to open access to thousands of other cloud tools.

4. Reports and analytics

How do you know if your office automation is yielding results? You can’t just evaluate process
performance based on how happy your team is. Data is the ultimate decision-maker, and it’s important
for your business to compare a process’ history, its speed, the outcome quality, etc.

Adopting another software to measure your workflow data is time-consuming and unnecessary. Why
not have a single piece of software that comes embedded with reporting and analytics features? The best
office automation products now come equipped with this feature as part of their fundamental offering.
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5. Access control options

Just like limiting entry to your office premises, you should also have access privileges set to all of your
business workflows.

A good workflow automation system understands this sensitive requirement and will have access
control as part of its integral features. Don’t overlook this capability when considering office automation
software for your business.

What are the functions of office automation software?

An ideal office automation software:

 Requires less space to store data

 Streamlines data storage and retrieval
 Retrieves information instantly
 Eliminates the need to preserve paperwork
 Removes any chance for data redundancy
 Allows multiple people to access data
 Reduces the possibility of errors

Successful change management requires a large commitment from executives and senior

managers, whether the change is occurring in a department or in a complete organization.
Leadership from the senior team is the most significant factor in helping employees to buy into
and support needed changes.

Senior leaders can do the following to lead effectively during successful change management
efforts.

 Establish a clear vision for the change management process. Paint a picture of where the
organization will end up and the anticipated outcomes. Make certain the picture is one of
reality and not what people wish would occur. When this vision and communication is
done well, each employee should be able to describe what he or she will experience on
the other side of making the change. For employees, the most significant factor is the
impact of the change in their job. This is an often neglected step.
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 Appoint an executive champion who owns the change management process and makes
certain other senior managers, as well as other appropriate people in the organization, are
involved. Change is easier when a large number of people who must change are involved
in planning and implementation.
 Pay attention to the changes occurring. Ask employees how things are going. Focus on
progress and barriers to change management. One of the worst possible scenarios is to
have the leaders ignore the process. 
 Sponsor portions of the change or the change management process, as an involved
participant, to increase active involvement and interaction with other organization
members.
 If personal or managerial actions or behaviors require change for the changes to take hold
in the organization, model the new behaviors and actions. Walk the talk. Senior leaders
play a huge role in teaching their reporting staff the expected and desired behavior
changes.
 Establish a structure that will support the change. This may take the form of a Steering
Committee, Leadership Group, or Guiding Coalition.
 Change the measurement, reward, and recognition systems to measure and reward the
accomplishment of the new expectations. Make the recognition public so that you
reinforce the behaviors that you really want to see with all of your other employees.
 Solicit and act upon feedback from other members of the organization. What's working?
Not working? How can you improve the processes? When you act on feedback or decide
not to, make sure you have let the employee with the idea know what you did or why not.
They thrive on feedback.
 Recognize the human element in the change. People have different needs and different
ways of reacting to change. They need time to deal with and adjust to change.
 Senior leaders must participate in the training that other organization members attend,
but, even more importantly, they must exhibit their “learning” from the sessions,
readings, interactions, tapes, books or research.
 Be honest and worthy of trust. Treat people with the same respect that you expect from
them. Change is difficult and progresses when the people involved feel supported,
respected, and that you care about them.

Chapter 3
Modern Equipment Used in an Office:
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Imba 10 th semester.

I. Instructional Machines:

1. Telephone:

Telephone becomes an important instrument in modern business houses. With the help of this
facility, a firm can have quick and prompt communication with others. Now-a-days it is
impossible to imagine the office without a telephone. It is the most convenient means of oral
communication. It is widely used for internal as well as external communication. According to
distance and area, telephone calls are classified as local calls, trunk calls and overseas calls.
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Imba 10 th semester.

The following are some of the internal and external services available to telephone users.

       Direct Link

        Direct Link with Extension

       Private Branch Exchange (PBX) System

              Private Automatic Branch Exchange (PABX) System

              Electronic Private Automatic Branch Exchange (EPABX)

              Intercom

2. Mobile Phone:

A mobile phone is a wireless device which can be used to make calls and send text messages. As
the technology changes rapidly; nowadays mobile phones are bundled with many additional
features, such as web browsers, games, cameras, video players and even navigational systems. A
mobile phone may also be known as a cellular phone or simply cell phone.
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Imba 10 th semester.

3. Dictation Machines:

Dictation Machines are generally used by the executives who need to draft letters, memos, and
reports are best off dictating the copy and recording it, as speaking is much faster than writing
and can be done while performing other tasks. This type of equipment chosen depends on the
preference of the dictators, number of users, frequency of use, and budget. Some dictation
equipment use cassette tapes and most of the modern versions are digitally recorded and also this
phone system is used for recording. Once the audio is recorded, this file is processed to another
employee, who transcribes the audio into a written document, saves and emails or prints it.

II. Accounting, Tabulating and Computing Machine:

 
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Adding Machine: Adding machines may either be manually or electrically operated. Most

adding machines have a roll of paper on which the figures are typed and this is known as a
“Tally Roll”. It is used for addition and also for multiplication, subtraction and division.

Calculating Machines: It calculates at a greater speed and runs without making any noise, but
such machines are usually expensive. The essence of a calculating machine is that it can perform
addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division operations.

Billing Machine: Billing machines are used to prepare invoices, bills of lading, cash memo, etc.
The machine makes all calculations of discounts, commission, addition, subtraction, total, etc.
Papers and carbons are fed into the machine and set automatically.

Accounting and Book Keeping Machines:

These machines are used for

              Posting in journals, cash book, ledger, etc.,

              Preparation of cheques, pay rolls, cash receipt and payment sheet

              Preparation of copies of ledger accounts along with posting

              Calculating and computing figures and drawing ledgers or cash book balances
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5. Tabulating Machines:

The tabulating machine is an electro mechanical machine designed to assist in summarizing

information stored on cards. It was invented by Herman Hollerith.

6. Electronic Computer:

It is an electronic device by which data is processed electronically at great speed. It is a replica of

human brain. It may be noted when the computers are used for data processing, the processes is
known as Electronic Data Processing (EDP). There are two kinds of computers (a) Analog
computer and (b) Digital computer. Analog computers are used for scientific and research data
processing. Digital computers are used for calculating the data in one billionth of a second.

 
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7. Electronic Payment or E-Payment:

Electronic payment system is a system which helps the customer or user to make online payment
for their shopping to transfer money over the internet. Some examples of EPS: a. Online
reservation b. Online bill payment c. Online order placing d. Online ticket booking (Movie)

III. Miscellaneous Machines:

Franking Machines:

Franking machine is used in large offices for affixing postage stamps on envelopes. The
outgoing mail is inserted in the machine and a handle is operated either manually or electrically.
It is automatically prints in a franking design comprising the postal charge and the date of
posting in bright red ink. It has a meter which records the amount and balance on hand.

  

Impression Stamps:

 
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These include rubber stamps bearing certain impressions like “paid”, “delivered”, “checked”,
etc. Stamps bearing date with time and numbering devices also fall under this category.

Time Recording Machines:

This popular machine is used for recording the accurate time of arrival and departure of the
office employees in offices and factories.

Payroll Machines:

It is used for making the payroll of the employees, calculating the amount to be paid to each
employee.

Slide Rule:

It is a type of scale which is used to make different measurements rapidly and accurately.

Punching Machine:

This is a small apparatus which punches holes on papers. The holes are required to tag and fasten
the papers. It is operated manually.

Stapler:

 
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It is a small machine which binds together a few papers with a small piece of thin wire. It is very
commonly used in small offices.

Calculators:

A variety of calculators are available in the market. It is useful for multiplication, division,
addition and subtraction, calculation of discount, internet, wages, etc. It helps to reduce human
labor in arithmetical calculations.

Envelope Sealing Machine:

This is a machine which automatically seals the envelopes. It will dampen the gummed flaps of
the envelopes; thus sealing of the envelopes becomes very easy.

IV. Modern Machines:

Swipe Machine:

A swipe machine is a payment terminal provided by the bank on which the merchant can swipe a
dip card to receive payments. Since the card can be a debit or a credit card the machine is also
known as a credit card swipe machine or a debit card swipe machine.
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Laptop:

It is a portable and compact personal computer with the same capabilities as a desktop computer.
Laptop computers have an L-shape design and the screen can be lowered and closed to allow for
easy transportation of the machine. It is a portable computer and suitable for using while
travelling.

 
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Pen Drive:

A pen drive is small storage device shaped like a pen with built-in data storage that connects to a
computer by a USB Port. (Universal Serial Bus- It is the most popular connection used to
connect a computer to devices).

Projector:

Projectors can be used for delivering lectures and presentations to large groups as well as
watching movies and other videos at a backyard home theatre. They can be found in a variety of
environments, including classrooms, conference rooms and in homes and yards.

5. LED (Light Emitting Diode) Projectors:

Instead of a traditional halogen lamp, they use light-emitting diodes, which are more
environment friendly and long lasting. LED projectors use either DLP technology, replacing the
colour wheel and white-light lamp with red, blue, green LEDs or LCOS technology which is
found in projectors.

 
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LCD:

Liquid crystal displays (LCDs) consist of liquid crystals that are activated by electric current.
They are used most frequently to display one or more lines of alpha-numeric information in a
variety of devices.

Bio-Metric:

A Biometric device is a security identification and authentication device.

Such devices use automated methods of verifying or recognizing the identity of a living person
based on a physiological or behavioural characteristics. These characteristics include
fingerprints, facial images and voice recognition.

Currency Note Sorting and Counting Machine:

A currency note sorting machine is a compact and portable desktop solution for multi-currency
counting and sorting challenges. It can denominate and authenticate different currencies at a
processing speed of 1000 notes per minute. A currency note counting machine is a machine that
counts money either stacks of bank notes or loose collections of coins. Currency counters are
commonly used in vending machines to determine the amount of money which has been
deposited by customers.
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CCTV:

It is called closed circuit TV. A self- contained surveillance system comprises of cameras,
recorders and displays for monitoring activities in a store or company.

Fax Machine:

A fax machine is the telephonic transmission of scanned printed material (text or images),
usually to a telephone number associated with a printer or other output device. The original
document is scanned with a fax machine, which treats the contents (text or images) as a single
fixed graphic image, converting it into a bitmap. In this digital form, the information is
transmitted as electrical signals through the telephone system. The receiving fax machine
reconverts the coded image and prints a paper copy of the document.
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Photostat Machine:

It is popularly known as “Xerox” machine taking its name from the company manufacturing this
machine. Photocopying machines help in getting exact copies of the original at a greater speed.
The term xerography means dry pictures. Copies of diagrams, illustrations, drawings etc. can
also be obtained. It eliminates the need for checking.
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Factors to be considered for selecting equipment:

Following are some of the factor to be considered while selecting appropriate equipment:

1.           Ease of Operation: Faster operation, less fatigue, and fewer errors go with ease of

operations. Here are some contributory factors; indexing the amounts, operating the control keys
etc.

2.           Flexibility: Unless there is enough work to keep a highly specialized machine busy, it is

better to select one which can be used for different types of work. In absence of flexibility, the
purchase of the machine is not at all justified.

3.           Durability: A machine is used by different people under varying conditions. Unless, it

is strong and durable, it would be a poor investment.

 
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4.           Portability: A machine is frequently moved from user to user or from one place to

another place in the same work area.

Compactness and ease of handling saves time and energy and increase the use of the machine.
Modern machine have been reduced in size and weight without the sacrifice of the quality.

5.           Adaptability: If a machine can be used without disrupting an existing system, it would

be better to do so than go in for one which necessitates a considerable rearrangement of the
forms and records involved in extensive recopying of information and of adjustments in
procedures.

6.           Service: Reliable and continuous performance demands quick repairs and proper

maintenance. The machine which can be serviced promptly has advantage over one which cannot
be serviced.

7.           Operating cost: This includes such things as supplies, the space occupied, the special
equipment and forms required, repairs, etc.

8.           Reputation of the Supplier: Few people have the expertise to judge the mechanical

qualities of a machine so one has to depend upon the integrity of the manufacturer and dealer to
furnish a good machine and to backup claims and guarantees.

important Departments of a Modern Office

Functional departments require some clerical service which may be provided by creating a
sectional office for each of these functional departments. The objective of the office is to provide
clerical service to the operating or functional department. Some office work is invariably
performed in the departments them self.

However, for reasons of economy and efficiency, some office activities which are common to all
the functional departments are centralized in the general office, under the supervision of an
office manager, who is naturally a specialist. Office services common to all sectional offices –
duplicating, typing, filing, mailing etc., are centralized in the general office.
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The purpose of dividing the office on the basis of functions into sectional or departmental offices
is to secure maximum efficiency in work at minimum cost. Each departmental office performs a
specific function and the staff becomes specialized in that particular function. The important
departments or sections of a modern office and their functions are as follows:

1. General Office
The general office deals with these office activities which are common to all the operating
departments, viz, typing, correspondence filing, mailing etc. Generally, the general office of a
large organization is divided into the following sections:

(a) Typing pool

Typing pool consists of typists responsible for typing correspondence, preparing statements and
doing such other works, relating to typing. When the volume of typing is large, a separate section
is set up for looking after the work. This section deals with all typing work of all the departments
including the general office.

Copying and Duplicating Section:

It is a well-known fact that as an office expands, there is greater need for copies of documents,
bulletins, etc. Copying and duplicating services become an important activity of an office.
Sometimes copying and duplicating may be created at a separate section. However, in a small
office this section may be combined with the typing section or pool.

(b) Correspondence Section

A separate correspondence section may have to be organized in a large organization. The main
function of the correspondence section is to look into different letters, enquiries; memoranda etc.
and prepare suitable replies. The work of preparing correspondence is performed by this section
for the office as well as for other functional departments.

The correspondence may be internal or inter departmental, where it concerns with the people
within the organization. The correspondence is external where it concerns outside people, outside
organizations and the Government departments.

(c) Mailing Section

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As the name implies, mail department handles incoming and outgoing mails relating to the entire
enterprise. All the incoming and outgoing letters, parcels etc. are routed through this department.
Chief functions are: (i) To keep record of all incoming and outgoing letters, (ii) To sort out
incoming mail and send it to the concerned officials, (iii) Keep accounts of postal stamps, and
(iv) To deal with post office.

(d) Filing Section

This department deals with the systematic preservation of all files and records of the business
which concern all the departments. The activities include; Receiving papers and documents for
filing; their classification indexing and cross referencing; filing the papers; issuing the files to
departments; follow-up of the files issue to other departments etc.

(e) Secretarial Section/Department

This department is the secretary’s own department. The main functions of this department are to
deal with general administration and co-ordination of the activities of the other departments.

It also deals with the issue, forfeiture, transfer etc. of shares, documents and papers relating to
capital, finance and control of business, filing returns with the Registrar of companies,
preparation of reports, budgets etc.

2. Purchase Department
Purchasing is an important function of modern office. This department is responsible for
different kinds of purchases-assets (machines, plants etc.), consumable items (stationary etc) and
raw materials for production etc.

The other functions are: receiving purchase requisition, inviting tenders, placing orders,
receiving ordered items, recording purchase details, issues, maintaining ledger and stock
positions etc. it also advices the management an different matters concerning purchases and
market conditions.

3. Sales Department
This department performs a number of functions

(i) Advertising and publishing the firm’s products;

(ii) Obtains and trains sales force;
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(iii) Keeping the selling expenses at minimum;

(iv) Activities relating to exhibition, trade fairs etc., at the appropriate time; and place;
(v) Receiving, recording, replies to customers enquiries, complaints etc.;
(vi) Conduct market research, survey etc.
(vii) Collection of outstanding bills;
(viii) Preparation of sales statistics;
(ix) Dispatching and transporting goods to customers.
(x) Advice the management about sales policy etc.
4. Accounts Department
This department is concerned with the maintenance of books of accounts and the preparation of
financial statements. The main functions include the following:

(i) To keep records of all financial transactions;

(ii) To deal with banks;
(iii) To prepare profit and loss account, balance sheet and other financial statements
(iv) To deal with wages, salaries, budgets etc.
(v) To manage cash

In very big concerns, there may be a separate Cash Department which deals with cash receipts
and cash payments, but in small organizations, cash section is a part of the accounts section,

(vi) To maintain cash vouchers;

(vii) To maintain cash books, petty cash book etc.

5. Personnel Department
It is an important department of an organization performing a number of functions – recruitment,
training, placement and development of staff. They lay down procedures for transfers and
promotions of staff. They maintain and keep the records of employees. In short the chief
functions of this department are:

(i) To select people for employment;

(ii) To provide training to staff;

(iii) To administer wage and salary policies;
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(iv) To keep personal records of staff;

(v) To help the management in the matters of promotion, transfer etc,
(vi) To provide welfare facilities;
(vii) To deal with labour problems and trade disputes;
(viii) To prepare retirement and pension schemes etc.
6. Production Department
The production department deals with work concerning various activities of the production of
finished products – Production control, quality control, material handling, control of stocks etc. It
also prepares materials scheduled; maintain stock records, job cards, cost accounting records,
wage and salary bills etc. It also provides relevant data for production planning and budgeting.

7. Export Department
A large organisation exporting goods on a large scale may have a separate export department to
look after the exports of the organisations. Its function includes obtaining export orders, keeping
liaison with importers, preparing export invoices, arranging insurance and shipment of goods,
etc.

Understanding the modern enterprise integration requirements

Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) is a complex problem to solve and different software
vendors have produced different types of software products like ESB, Application Server,
Message Broker, API Gateways, Load Balancers, Proxy Servers and many other forms. These
products have evolved from a monolithic, heavyweight, high-performing runtimes to lean,
modularized, micro-runtimes. Microservices Architecture (MSA) is having a major impact on the
way architects design their enterprise software systems. The requirements which were there 10
years ago has been drastically changed due to modern advancements of MSA, Containers,
DevOps, Agility and mainly due to crazy customer demands.
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If you came this way to understand about new EIP patterns, this is not the right place. In reality,
the 65 EIP patterns which were introduced by Gregor Hohpe is still in action with few more
additional patterns coming through. Refer the below link to understand the EIP patterns which
you can still use with the modern architecture which is presented here.

Another misconception is that “Integration” means just connecting different systems which
communicates using heterogenous protocols and messaging formats. In practice, integration
architects needs to understand the whole eco system of an enterprise software architecture.

Figure: Modern enterprise application integration requirements

The above figure depicts a typical integration architecture within a modern enterprise. It consists
of the following layers. You many find these layers glued together in some scenarios, but overall,
these functionalities are existed.
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 Data layer — This is the layer in which your business data resides. It can be databases of type
RDBMS, NoSQL or ERP/CRM systems like SAP, PeopleSoft or MS Dynamics or any
proprietary systems which you have built.

 Service layer — This is where the MSA and the technologies like containers, docker,
kubernetes are started to make an impact. With the concepts like Domain Driven Design
(DDD) or “doing one task at best” type of approaches have made this layer more lean.

 Integration layer — This is where the traditional integration happens with service
orchestrations, data transformations, protocol switching and all EIP patterns which are
mentioned above play a major role at this layer

 API management layer — This has become an integral part of any integration project where
it provides a clean abstraction for the business as well as consumers to act upon. The
capabilities like authentications, authorization, caching, throttling and analytics are provided
at this layer so that every integration or back end service does not need to worry about
implementing it.

 Load balancing layer — This is the layer where network and threat protection alongside load
balancing is implemented. External attacks like DOS, XML injections are prevented at this
layer

It is quintessential to know about these layers if you are designing enterprise software system. But
knowing them and the features at each layer is not enough to make decisions when you are
actually doing the implementation. You need to understand the main requirements of each and
every layer at an architectural level before deciding on specific technology or vendor/s.

Data layer

This is where the business critical data resides in your system. You should have the following
main requirements covered with any of the technology/vendor you are going to select for the
implementation.

 Consistency — The data you stored in this layer should be consistent. Any type of tampering
of data needs to be avoided and necessary measures needs to be taken to prevent such
attempts.
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 Persistence at scale — Your system should be capable of storing events at a very higher rates
without losing consistency. In the meantime, it should be available to read the persisted data.

 Security — This is a critical requirement of your data stores since this data derives the value
for your business. Any unintended use or access needs to be prevented

Services layer

This layer consists of actual business logic and services which offers the information which is
needed by most of the client systems. In SOA world, you may have few services with each
service covering a particular area of functionality at a macro level. But in a MSA type of
implementation, each service covers a unique functionality which is at a micro level. As an
example, you may have a flight booking service at SOA world and a flight information service,
flight schedule service and flight rate service as separate microservices in a MSA world. In any of
the situations, you need to deploy these services indepedently so that they will not have an impact
on each other when there is a failure. At this layer, the system should be capable of fulfilling the
below main requirements

 Agility — This layer should be implemented in an agile manner with proper testing and
automation strategies built around that. Since this layer provides the more up-to date business
critical information, new services needs to be implemented more frequently when the business
grows. Proper CI/CD processes and build pipelines needs to be integrated with the selected
technology.

 Latency — Another important aspect of this layer is the latency. The results should be
delivered with minimum latency since there are additional layers which adds up to the overall
latency due to network interference. The services implemented at this layer should more clean
and efficient to provide better latencies.

 Automation — The other important factor to consider here is the level of automation and the
different levels of testing carried out before releases. Since this layer is at the heart of the
enterprise system and the core of your business, any false data or service outages can cause
loss of business.

Integration layer
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This layer provides the mediation capabilities required for different systems to interact with each
other. You can find tons of different integration products and technologies which provides the
feature set which is required at this level. But not every technology/vendor is capable of fulfilling
the below mentioned critical but future-proof requirements.

 Simplicity — Integration of services need not to be as hard as implementing business logic at

services layer. You should have easy to use syntax and visual tooling to build these
integrations without much fuss. In the meantime, it should provide the necessary building
blocks to deal with integration requirements at production deployments. Concepts like data
types, resiliency, containerization needs to be supported.

 Agility — This might have not been a requirement in the past where you had bulky ESBs,
Message Brokers deployed for integration. But in a modern enterprise, your integration
technology needs to be agile and capable of supporting frequent releases, automation and
devOps integrations

 Stability — When you deal with heterogeneous systems, there is a high chance that the system
might interact with lot of unexpected data types. This can cause stability issues in your
integration layer. It is essential that your integration system should be capable of handling
such scenarios without losing the stability

 Resiliency — Another aspect of integrating heterogeneous systems is that those system can
fail at any moment and the integration layer should be able to withstand those failures without
propagating those failures to upper layers. The technologies like Circuit Breaker and retry
needs to be supported for resiliency.

 Performance — When it comes to performance at the integration layer, it should be capable of

accepting concurrent requests at a higher rates while dispatching them at a lower rates to the
backend services which are not that capable of handling concurrent connections. This
capability is critical when you have systems which has different message processing rates.

 Caching — This is kind of nice to have capability at the integration layer given that it is much
closer to the actual back end service. If the backend services layer is malfunctioning,
integration layer can provide some sort of cached data in some scenarios.

API management layer

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Once you have the backend services layer and the integration layer implemented, the system is
ready to expose valuable information to external systems. If your system is dealing with internal
systems, you might not need an api management layer. But in most of the pragmatic integration
projects, api management layer is a core requirement. Instead of implementing common
requirements at each and every services level, it is more efficient and scalable to add an api
management layer. You will find dozens of API management vendors in the market which offers
the same set of basic features required for traditional API management requirements. A more
modern api management solution should be able to cater the below set of requirments.

 Authentication and Authorization — The system should be capable of authenticating the users
who requests access to the services layer. Authorization can be an added feature to secure the
services at a fine grained level. OAuth2 has become the defacto standard for access delegation
and authentication. The system should be capable of handling OAuth2.

 Throttling — The system needs to be properly controlled so that users get a fair share of
access across the board and if you are charging for usage, you need to apply more advanced
throttling policies.

 Analytics — Monitoring and analyzing your API usage is critical to improve your business
processes and drive new revenue. Business level analytics is more critical here alongside with
system status monitoring.

 Availability — High availability is critical at this layer since users don’t want to see empty
pages or internal server errors at any given time. By making this layer highly available, we
can account for failures at upstream layers like integration and back end services through
caching at API gateway.

 Resiliency — Another critical requirement at api management layer is the ability to withstand
failures at upstream layers. It should not propagate the failures of those systems to other
downstream layers like load balancers. This can be achieved by having mechanisms like
circuit breaker, bulkhead, retry at this layer.

 Caching — Intelligent and adaptive caching technologies can be useful to provide

uninterrupted service to the consumers. Caching helps to improve the overall performance of
the system by reducing the load on the backend systems. When the back end services are not
available, intelligent caching systems can still provide cached results to the consumers.
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 Developer experience — If you are exposing your APIs to the developers to browse through
the APIs and create their own applications, developer experience is another key requirements
of the system. Sometimes developers may need to build their own APIs by composing
existing APIs. This API composition capability is a nice to have requirement in most cases.

Load balancer/Proxy layer

Exposing your business functionality to public internet needs to be done very carefully given the
number of data breaches and hacking activities happen around the world. That is why you need to
have a proper load balancing or proxy layer to provide basic protection to your information
system. Main requirements which needs to be fulfilled at this layer are

 Security — This layer should be able to handle basic security threats like DOS attacks, XML
injection, CSS, CRLF and others. It should also be able to support SSL.

 Resiliency — At this layer, resiliency means that any failures in the upstream systems must
not take this layer down. When the upstream systems are not available, it should be properly
handled at this layer through techniques like circuit breaker, retry.

 Performance — This is the layer which will serve all the requests coming into the system. We
can reduce the load on back end systems by using caching technologies at other layers. But
this layer is not able to do that since it is at the forefront of the users. Having a good
performance in terms of concurrency handling is essential at this layer.

 Caching — Having caching capabilities at this layer will eventually improve the overall
system performance by reducing the load on the upstream systems. But the caching needs to
be intelligent and adaptive since there are multiple layers of data invalidation happens at the
upstream systems

 Load balancing — Obviously, this is one of the core capabilities required at this layer to
handle the enormous load coming into the system.

 Availability — This is the layer where availability is most critical. Since there are no other
ways to mimic the availability of this layer (similar to caching), having HA at this layer is a
must.
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As discussed in the above sections, having a layered architecture allows us to think deeply about
those layers and their requirements. Also it makes the way to choose the best suited technology or
vendor at each layer. There are technologies/vendors who are highly praised by analyst reports for
each and every layer. It is the task of solution architects and CTOs to take the final decision.

Q. What is an intranet and how it is used for in

business
There are a number of reasons why a business might want to implement an intranet system –
improve communications, teamwork, organization, workflows, efficiencies.

Very often wanting to take advantage of an intranet could be down to one particular reason, such
as boosting collaboration between colleagues and teams, but businesses soon realize that it can be
used for much, much more.

Intranets are used to improve communication

Ask anyone, do a Google search, look in a trade magazine and the top reason for getting an intranet
will always be to enhance internal communications. Integrating video, voice, instant messaging,
email and social, an intranet will certainly get colleagues communicating better with each other.
Also, easy to use content management systems and publishing applications mean that updates and
news can be more easily and quickly shared.

GUIDES

8 ways to transform internal communications with an intranet

Download our essential guide as we highlight eight ways your intranet can transform your internal
communications. Packed with practical solutions from real organizations such as the Hershey
Company, this guide will help to inspire your own communications strategy.

Intranets are used to better control documents 

With more people working on the same documents, there could be confusion as to what the latest
version is, who wrote or edited it, or even where it is. Most intranets provide users with access to
document storage and version control apps as standard. The most effective solutions integrate these
seamlessly with other collaborative tools to help employees know exactly at what stage of drafting
the document is at, who has been working on it or needs to, as well as where the document is in
terms of approval. This enables the effective and efficient production of a final version that is
accurate and of a high standard.

Intranets are used for training and information sharing

Businesses perform better when everyone knows how to best do the tasks assigned to them.
Improved communications and document control, mean that best practice and training can be
more effectively shared with those that need to know it, through written documents or even audio
or video files.
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Important updates and news can be more easily and rapidly disseminated to colleagues via a
quality intranet’s simple-to-use content management system and publishing tools.

Intranets are used to cement brand identity

A quality intranet will offer a bespoke look and feel that is unique to the business purchasing it.
Ideally when a user logs on the intranet home page will have a design that reinforces the brand
identity and is written to the organization’s style guidelines. This will act as a continual reminder to
employees about the ethos, language and quality they should be working with or towards.

.Electronic Business (E-Business) is the administration of conducting any business using the
internet, extranet, web, and intranet. This would include buying and selling of goods or services
using commercial transactions conducted electronically along with providing customer or technical
support with the help of the internet. E-business is similar to E-commerce but it is more than just a
simple act of buying and selling services or goods online. In fact, it is the method of utilizing digital
information and advanced communication technologies to streamline different business processes –
from the initial to the implementation phase. E-business includes a lot of business processes
including online order processing, CRM (Customer Relationship Management), supply chain
management, and many more. E-commerce is a part of e-business, so let me give you a
comprehensive detail about what is e-business

E-business has several components including BI (Business Intelligence), CRM (Customer

Relationship Management), ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning), SCM (Supply Chain
Management), Collaboration, online activities, and electronic transactions within the firm. But
following three areas have great importance for e-business: 

1. E-Procurement

It is also known as supplier exchange in which business to business, business to government,

business to consumer, and sales of services are made with the help of the internet. Basically, e-
procurement is a way adopted by companies to reduce costs and efforts by sourcing products or
services electronically. 

2. Online Stores

It is electronic sourcing (website or application) for products or services, such as online shopping
stores. Online stores are also known as e-shops, internet shops, web-store, virtual stores, web-shop,
m-commerce, and online storefront. The main purpose of these online stores is to save precious time
and money.  

Anyone can buy products or services by making online payments using credit cards, cash on
delivery, and other payment methods. The owners of online stores should host their eCommerce
website on the PCI compliant hosting because Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council
(PCI SSC) makes it compulsory for those who are accepting the online payments.
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3. Online Marketplace

It is electronic commerce that connects the buyers and suppliers to the services or products over the
internet. Keep in mind, that the operator of an online marketplace only presents the inventory of
other people and provides the transaction facility. 

Moreover, the following are also known as e-business areas:  

4. Online Communities

Online communities (also known as web communities or internet communities) are groups of

people having the same interests or purposes who use the internet to communicate with each other.
It is used between individuals and organizations to prepare transaction decisions.

5. Online Companies

It is electronic business cooperation that connects the individual companies and forms a virtual
business with a common transaction offer.  

Order Fulfillment Process

The order fulfillment process is based on all the activities needed for a customer to get his ordered
product or service including the related customer services.