- Email: [email protected]
Developments in the electronic office
Developmentsin the electronicoffice :
:
e;
-
1
@‘-
i%‘HRmsR
’
. .
T 1 Q II
e-
*
1
*
at
eel
*...,,.a
;
L, **.
As
~~LI”~~~~_Y~~~~~~~__~__~~t-~~-l--~~~-L---~~~
*_a‘.:‘,
-._
,,
.’
L”,..
themovetowardsthe paperless office
con~nues, business executives are involvedin office automation, Following thisarticle onthe present state of automated office systems, threecase studies show how successfully theyare being implemented by DAVID CASEY
A
Abstract: Office automation is a development from word processing. Automated offices are based on local networks, which may be star, ring or Ethernet type. Speech is now being inte~ated into OA facil~~s. Keywords: data processing, office automation, local area networks.
David Casey is a technical
8
journalist.
OOll-484~82/0~008-04$3.00
s the first step towards the paperless electronic office, the word processor is gaining acceptance as an essential tool in business administration. For most of the secretaries who have upgraded from golf-ball typewriter to vdu, there has been a smooth transition; the WP system emulating the traditional functions, while offering a more sophisticated range of facilities. Executive interest in automated text handling has been a more impo~ant factor in the scale on which word processors have been introduced. While it was very rare for a highly paid businessman to use a conventional typewriter, there is little opposition raised against keyboarding both text and data to a video screen. The need to combine word and data processing activities at a single terminal has seen the development of WP
@) 1982 Butterworth
& Co (Publishers)
Ltd.
software packages for business computers. Through a desk-top workstation, an executive can access files of text and numerical information from a common database. Office automation is the logical development of integrated word and data processing. On a physical plane, a network of terminals may be set up to share a central database facility, or make more cost-effective use of expensive capital equipment such as typesetters and laser printers. Software systems are evolving to provide discbased filing and to link workstations through electronic mail - two facilities which will help establish office automation as a more advanced administrative technique. The route to the paperless office will inevitably involve interfacing equipment from several sources. As the scale of office automation increases, it
data processing
becomes essential that there is an element of standardisation between suppliers. There is no standard for the design of local networks which could form the basis of an automated office. In the public sector, however, the International Telegraph and Telephone Consultative Committee (CCITT), rec0mmend.s communications protocols. Four technologies have evolved as the basis for office automation systems. In addition to star networks (in which communications are routed through a central processor), there are systems based on internal telephone networks, and two types of information bus.
Approaches to networks The diversity of office automation applications makes a single technology impracticable. In the United States, where OA has been implemented more widely than in Britain, attempts are being made to define protocols for handling information in private networks. The American IEEE has a local networks standards committee which has opted in favour of two different technologies. One of the recommendations in IEEE 802 is for a central intelligence bus to which processors and peripherals are attached. The other is for a continuous circuit loop joining the devices. Applications of office automation technology in the UK are already taking advantage of all four approaches to networks. Resembling a private telephone exchange, star network configurations route messages from terminals through a centralised switching mechanism. While much of the signal traffic will be from terminal to database or printer, the network permits direct communication between two workstations - the basis of electronic mail. When an organisation is installing a digital telephone network, there is a case for Iinking office automation
Vol 21 No 4
qxilimay
1982
facilities through the same system. Telephone extensions become data ports for word processors or desk-top micros without the additional expense of cabling a separate network.
Ethernet or rings The remaining network systems for office automation are based loosely on the alternatives proposed by the IEEE. In the UK, the Ethernet type of common bus system and Cambridge Rings provide suitable communications frameworks. The Xerox organisation, which developed Ethernet, has licensed the concept to other commercial suppliers (DEC and Intel amongst them) with the intention that it will become a standard for local networks. Ethernet is based on a single co-axial cable to which processors are attached through microprocessor controlled interface boards. The current specification for Ethernet systems supports a total data transmission rate of 10 million bits of information per second. For even a large scale electronic office, with 100 terminals or more, this capacity would far exceed the workload. Xerox has launched a range of office
Busitzess systems offer WP.
automation products based on the Ethernet concept. Workstations for the 8000 network facility are designed for two levels of user, recognising that secretarial applications will place different demands on a system from the executive. The 860 Information Processing System is based on conventional Xerox WI” technology, but the 8010 Star unit has evolved as an integrated workstation. When it was launched in the UK in April 1981, the Xerox Star was the first business system to support fully interactive graphics; 2 feature included in several subsequent OA products. While the laser printer technology associated with the 8000 series was available before Ethernet, the economics of such a device supporting a single Star terminal would not have been cost-effective. While the Xerox technology and its standards can be licensed from the company, other manufacturers have decided to develop systems along parallel lines. Zilog, for example, is establishing the Z-Net for ,a sector of the automation market where Ethernet would be too expensive to implement. By operating at only 800,O~ bits per second between MCZ-2 micros, the Zilog product requires less expensive hardware in the node processors. Ring-based systems form the second major category of information network, with two alternative technologies to control the access of processors to the circuit. In the approach *adopted by Cambridge University, where the Cambridge Data Ring was developed, an information transporter is passed continually between the nodes. A packet of information can only be loaded on the cable from a processor when the carrier has reached that point in the ring. Toltec and Logica VTS have launched commercial systems based on this technology. The Primenet system of Prime Computers employs an alternative method of access: an authority token
9
signal circulates between the processors, permitting only one processor to transmit a data packet at a time. Both the Ethernet bus and the ring networks operate under baseband transmission in which data is pulsed directly on to the co-axial cable. An alternative mode of communication is broadband, in which several types of signal can be transmitted in parallel, on carrier waves of different frequencies.
Broadband
techniques
While broadband is a more flexible technique for communicating within an electronic office, the complexity of the decoding equipment makes such a system more expensive to implement. Wang has opted for broadband in developing its networking product, WangNet. The transceivers located in each WangNet node span a frequency range of some 350 MHz - a bandwidth broad enough to support three types of communication simultaneously. At transmission rates from 300
There is more executive
10
to 64,000 bits per second, an Interconnect Band allows other suppliers’ kit to be integrated within a WangNet. A Wang Band, with a total data throughput of 12 million bits per second, links different types of Wang equipment. Wang’s Utility Band takes up 42 MHz of the total bandwidth for video circuits. The integration of Wang’s computer and word processing systems through WangNet has demanded consistency in product design. A word processing package has been launched by the company to run on the 2200 series of mini-computer. The characteristics of this system are identical to the WI’ software on the higher level dedicated word processor, so that the hardware becomes transparent to an operator. There is total software compatibility for archiving across the whole of the Wang product range; a floppy disc back-up from the 2200 could be reproduced directly on an 01s word processor. The software implementation of Wang’s office automation concept is
interest in vdus than in typewriters
Mailway, an electronic mail and message system which can be supported at three levels of sophistication, from basic links between word processors, to a complete mail network for an organisation based on the VS computer. The Alliance workstation recently launched by Wang could serve as a terminal to Mailway, or combine the roles of word processor and data processing system. Unlike the software supported by other office automation systems from the same manufacturer, the Alliance runs under the Q/M operating system and can therefore handle any application program written for this medium. Following the course set by Compucorp and the IBM Displaywriter, the Alliance terminal carries an 80,000-word spelling dictionary, and a novel development, the “diction checker”. Running this routine over a document will assess the readability factor of the material as defined by a range of US clarity tests. While data processing and the printed word are important areas of office automation, there is a case to be made for integrating speech into the range of facilities provided. The Alliance system, for example, is provided with a telephone handset for the operator to add voice annotation to a document on the screen. Using editing techniques analogous to those on the word processor, these messages can be modified before the document is returned to disc. Office Technology’s Information Management Processor was the first UK product to combine conventional word processing, with DP and speech in a single intelligent workstation. Each IMP installation is handled by a central controller, which undertakes electronic filing for the terminals and routes messages on the mail network. While the IMP system was designed around a single controller, communications protocols are supported which would allow multiple IMP clusters to
data processing
be implemented within a network. A major development is the operator terminal, which can integrate text handling with basic graphics, a forms design facility and arithmetic processing. “User profiling” allows individual operators to define a wide range of system parameters which are called up during log-on. One of the operator defined features, for example, is the rate at which the cursor block blinks on the screen. OTL regards this degree of operator customisation as an essential feature of a user-friendly workstation.
Voice input When voice input is required, the information is held on disc as digital signals for tiling with the documents to which it refers. A user calling up a file which has been annotated with a message would find a symbol in the margin of the text. Switching on the replay mechanism at that point reproduces the recording without further searching. When a memorandum is forwarded to users through the electronic mail facility of IMP, any verbal messages will be sent with the screen text. Electronic mail - but without speech transmission - is a component of the Officeman system developed by the Cheltenham-based Corporate Business Systems. A menu-driven module, Deskman, handles the electronic mailboxes required for Postman, the system’s mail facility. Officeman has one major advantage over “proprietary” office automation systems reaching the market, in that it is independent of the bardware base. While Corporate Business Systems would normally implement a pilot project on DEC PDP-11 equipment, the company recodes the software to run on whatever sycjtern is already in use on the purchaser’s site. Security is a major problem for office automation, but the approach varies between suppliers. The Guard-
man module, for example, from Corporate Business Systems, will scramble data to prevent access by even systems programmers and computer technicians. System failure can present a threat as serious as breach of confidentiality. While a database could be copied to a security disc, back-up floppy discs and cartridges are of little practical value if a key processor goes down just before a security copy is due to be taken. Electrical failure can occur while data is being transferred between workstations, for example, or being written to a defective storage disc. Xionics, a London company, has developed the Xibus network which is based on a ring configuration with a master controller to handle traffic flow. Data is checked at each stage of the transmission to prevent corrupt information being received by a processor. Duplicate sets of cables make it unlikely that the network would ever be broken. All data files on Xibus are stored twice on disc drives which are physically and logically independent. Irrespective of the number of simultaneous copies of a file, it would be possible to overwrite with an incorrectly edited version, destroying the original. The Xionics approach has been to retain a log of every file in its pre-edited state, with a record of the time and date on which changes are made. Even this log is duplicated for security. While the level of Xibus security would be excessive for most commercial installations, there are applications where the failure of an office automation system would have severe consequences. Users are becoming increasingly dependent on electronic information processing but will not give up the use of conventional filing systems until they can be assured that a disaster could not occur. The Cabinet Office in Whitehall has an obvious requirement for system reliability, and is one of the pilot sites on the Department of Indus-
try’s Office Automation project. Xionits was the supplier selected for this installation.
The next step At this comparatively early stage in the development of office automation tekhnology, a sufficiently broad range of products has been brought on to the market to meet the requirements of any organisation. While many managements will be content with the advances brought by a business computer, or the innovation of word processing, the opportunities created by office automation will encourage companies to takle the next step. Whether the route is towards large scale information networks, or the integration of words, (data and voice into a single workstation, the systems required to support these developments are beyond the prototype stage and available for ,general office use. It only requires a few adventurous souls to make the automated office take off in the same way that word processing has already done. -.-..._..-... For further information: Zilog, Babbage House, Ring Street, Maidenhead, Berks. Tel: (0628) 27442. Toltec, 25 Thompson’s Lane, Cambridge. Tel: (0223) 312347. Logica, 64 Newman Street, London. Tel: 01-637 9111. Prime Computers, The Hounslow Centre, 1 Lampton Road, Hounslow, Middlesex. Tel: 01-572 6241. Wang, Wang House, 100 George Street, London. Tek 01-486 0200. Office Technology, Eaton Road, Hemel j Hempstead, Hertfordshire. Tel: (0442) 3272. CBS, Jcssop House, 30 Cambray Place, Cheltenhtmr, Gloucester&ire. Tel: (0242) 42115. Xionics, Dumbarton House, 68 Oxford Street, London. Tel: 01-636 0105.
L-
Rank Xerox, Bridge House, Oxford Road, Uxbridge,_~^__. Middlesex. Tel: (0895) ._.___. .._ 51133.
11
:
e;
-
1
@‘-
i%‘HRmsR
’
. .
T 1 Q II
e-
*
1
*
at
eel
*...,,.a
;
L, **.
As
~~LI”~~~~_Y~~~~~~~__~__~~t-~~-l--~~~-L---~~~
*_a‘.:‘,
-._
,,
.’
L”,..
themovetowardsthe paperless office
con~nues, business executives are involvedin office automation, Following thisarticle onthe present state of automated office systems, threecase studies show how successfully theyare being implemented by DAVID CASEY
A
Abstract: Office automation is a development from word processing. Automated offices are based on local networks, which may be star, ring or Ethernet type. Speech is now being inte~ated into OA facil~~s. Keywords: data processing, office automation, local area networks.
David Casey is a technical
8
journalist.
OOll-484~82/0~008-04$3.00
s the first step towards the paperless electronic office, the word processor is gaining acceptance as an essential tool in business administration. For most of the secretaries who have upgraded from golf-ball typewriter to vdu, there has been a smooth transition; the WP system emulating the traditional functions, while offering a more sophisticated range of facilities. Executive interest in automated text handling has been a more impo~ant factor in the scale on which word processors have been introduced. While it was very rare for a highly paid businessman to use a conventional typewriter, there is little opposition raised against keyboarding both text and data to a video screen. The need to combine word and data processing activities at a single terminal has seen the development of WP
@) 1982 Butterworth
& Co (Publishers)
Ltd.
software packages for business computers. Through a desk-top workstation, an executive can access files of text and numerical information from a common database. Office automation is the logical development of integrated word and data processing. On a physical plane, a network of terminals may be set up to share a central database facility, or make more cost-effective use of expensive capital equipment such as typesetters and laser printers. Software systems are evolving to provide discbased filing and to link workstations through electronic mail - two facilities which will help establish office automation as a more advanced administrative technique. The route to the paperless office will inevitably involve interfacing equipment from several sources. As the scale of office automation increases, it
data processing
becomes essential that there is an element of standardisation between suppliers. There is no standard for the design of local networks which could form the basis of an automated office. In the public sector, however, the International Telegraph and Telephone Consultative Committee (CCITT), rec0mmend.s communications protocols. Four technologies have evolved as the basis for office automation systems. In addition to star networks (in which communications are routed through a central processor), there are systems based on internal telephone networks, and two types of information bus.
Approaches to networks The diversity of office automation applications makes a single technology impracticable. In the United States, where OA has been implemented more widely than in Britain, attempts are being made to define protocols for handling information in private networks. The American IEEE has a local networks standards committee which has opted in favour of two different technologies. One of the recommendations in IEEE 802 is for a central intelligence bus to which processors and peripherals are attached. The other is for a continuous circuit loop joining the devices. Applications of office automation technology in the UK are already taking advantage of all four approaches to networks. Resembling a private telephone exchange, star network configurations route messages from terminals through a centralised switching mechanism. While much of the signal traffic will be from terminal to database or printer, the network permits direct communication between two workstations - the basis of electronic mail. When an organisation is installing a digital telephone network, there is a case for Iinking office automation
Vol 21 No 4
qxilimay
1982
facilities through the same system. Telephone extensions become data ports for word processors or desk-top micros without the additional expense of cabling a separate network.
Ethernet or rings The remaining network systems for office automation are based loosely on the alternatives proposed by the IEEE. In the UK, the Ethernet type of common bus system and Cambridge Rings provide suitable communications frameworks. The Xerox organisation, which developed Ethernet, has licensed the concept to other commercial suppliers (DEC and Intel amongst them) with the intention that it will become a standard for local networks. Ethernet is based on a single co-axial cable to which processors are attached through microprocessor controlled interface boards. The current specification for Ethernet systems supports a total data transmission rate of 10 million bits of information per second. For even a large scale electronic office, with 100 terminals or more, this capacity would far exceed the workload. Xerox has launched a range of office
Busitzess systems offer WP.
automation products based on the Ethernet concept. Workstations for the 8000 network facility are designed for two levels of user, recognising that secretarial applications will place different demands on a system from the executive. The 860 Information Processing System is based on conventional Xerox WI” technology, but the 8010 Star unit has evolved as an integrated workstation. When it was launched in the UK in April 1981, the Xerox Star was the first business system to support fully interactive graphics; 2 feature included in several subsequent OA products. While the laser printer technology associated with the 8000 series was available before Ethernet, the economics of such a device supporting a single Star terminal would not have been cost-effective. While the Xerox technology and its standards can be licensed from the company, other manufacturers have decided to develop systems along parallel lines. Zilog, for example, is establishing the Z-Net for ,a sector of the automation market where Ethernet would be too expensive to implement. By operating at only 800,O~ bits per second between MCZ-2 micros, the Zilog product requires less expensive hardware in the node processors. Ring-based systems form the second major category of information network, with two alternative technologies to control the access of processors to the circuit. In the approach *adopted by Cambridge University, where the Cambridge Data Ring was developed, an information transporter is passed continually between the nodes. A packet of information can only be loaded on the cable from a processor when the carrier has reached that point in the ring. Toltec and Logica VTS have launched commercial systems based on this technology. The Primenet system of Prime Computers employs an alternative method of access: an authority token
9
signal circulates between the processors, permitting only one processor to transmit a data packet at a time. Both the Ethernet bus and the ring networks operate under baseband transmission in which data is pulsed directly on to the co-axial cable. An alternative mode of communication is broadband, in which several types of signal can be transmitted in parallel, on carrier waves of different frequencies.
Broadband
techniques
While broadband is a more flexible technique for communicating within an electronic office, the complexity of the decoding equipment makes such a system more expensive to implement. Wang has opted for broadband in developing its networking product, WangNet. The transceivers located in each WangNet node span a frequency range of some 350 MHz - a bandwidth broad enough to support three types of communication simultaneously. At transmission rates from 300
There is more executive
10
to 64,000 bits per second, an Interconnect Band allows other suppliers’ kit to be integrated within a WangNet. A Wang Band, with a total data throughput of 12 million bits per second, links different types of Wang equipment. Wang’s Utility Band takes up 42 MHz of the total bandwidth for video circuits. The integration of Wang’s computer and word processing systems through WangNet has demanded consistency in product design. A word processing package has been launched by the company to run on the 2200 series of mini-computer. The characteristics of this system are identical to the WI’ software on the higher level dedicated word processor, so that the hardware becomes transparent to an operator. There is total software compatibility for archiving across the whole of the Wang product range; a floppy disc back-up from the 2200 could be reproduced directly on an 01s word processor. The software implementation of Wang’s office automation concept is
interest in vdus than in typewriters
Mailway, an electronic mail and message system which can be supported at three levels of sophistication, from basic links between word processors, to a complete mail network for an organisation based on the VS computer. The Alliance workstation recently launched by Wang could serve as a terminal to Mailway, or combine the roles of word processor and data processing system. Unlike the software supported by other office automation systems from the same manufacturer, the Alliance runs under the Q/M operating system and can therefore handle any application program written for this medium. Following the course set by Compucorp and the IBM Displaywriter, the Alliance terminal carries an 80,000-word spelling dictionary, and a novel development, the “diction checker”. Running this routine over a document will assess the readability factor of the material as defined by a range of US clarity tests. While data processing and the printed word are important areas of office automation, there is a case to be made for integrating speech into the range of facilities provided. The Alliance system, for example, is provided with a telephone handset for the operator to add voice annotation to a document on the screen. Using editing techniques analogous to those on the word processor, these messages can be modified before the document is returned to disc. Office Technology’s Information Management Processor was the first UK product to combine conventional word processing, with DP and speech in a single intelligent workstation. Each IMP installation is handled by a central controller, which undertakes electronic filing for the terminals and routes messages on the mail network. While the IMP system was designed around a single controller, communications protocols are supported which would allow multiple IMP clusters to
data processing
be implemented within a network. A major development is the operator terminal, which can integrate text handling with basic graphics, a forms design facility and arithmetic processing. “User profiling” allows individual operators to define a wide range of system parameters which are called up during log-on. One of the operator defined features, for example, is the rate at which the cursor block blinks on the screen. OTL regards this degree of operator customisation as an essential feature of a user-friendly workstation.
Voice input When voice input is required, the information is held on disc as digital signals for tiling with the documents to which it refers. A user calling up a file which has been annotated with a message would find a symbol in the margin of the text. Switching on the replay mechanism at that point reproduces the recording without further searching. When a memorandum is forwarded to users through the electronic mail facility of IMP, any verbal messages will be sent with the screen text. Electronic mail - but without speech transmission - is a component of the Officeman system developed by the Cheltenham-based Corporate Business Systems. A menu-driven module, Deskman, handles the electronic mailboxes required for Postman, the system’s mail facility. Officeman has one major advantage over “proprietary” office automation systems reaching the market, in that it is independent of the bardware base. While Corporate Business Systems would normally implement a pilot project on DEC PDP-11 equipment, the company recodes the software to run on whatever sycjtern is already in use on the purchaser’s site. Security is a major problem for office automation, but the approach varies between suppliers. The Guard-
man module, for example, from Corporate Business Systems, will scramble data to prevent access by even systems programmers and computer technicians. System failure can present a threat as serious as breach of confidentiality. While a database could be copied to a security disc, back-up floppy discs and cartridges are of little practical value if a key processor goes down just before a security copy is due to be taken. Electrical failure can occur while data is being transferred between workstations, for example, or being written to a defective storage disc. Xionics, a London company, has developed the Xibus network which is based on a ring configuration with a master controller to handle traffic flow. Data is checked at each stage of the transmission to prevent corrupt information being received by a processor. Duplicate sets of cables make it unlikely that the network would ever be broken. All data files on Xibus are stored twice on disc drives which are physically and logically independent. Irrespective of the number of simultaneous copies of a file, it would be possible to overwrite with an incorrectly edited version, destroying the original. The Xionics approach has been to retain a log of every file in its pre-edited state, with a record of the time and date on which changes are made. Even this log is duplicated for security. While the level of Xibus security would be excessive for most commercial installations, there are applications where the failure of an office automation system would have severe consequences. Users are becoming increasingly dependent on electronic information processing but will not give up the use of conventional filing systems until they can be assured that a disaster could not occur. The Cabinet Office in Whitehall has an obvious requirement for system reliability, and is one of the pilot sites on the Department of Indus-
try’s Office Automation project. Xionits was the supplier selected for this installation.
The next step At this comparatively early stage in the development of office automation tekhnology, a sufficiently broad range of products has been brought on to the market to meet the requirements of any organisation. While many managements will be content with the advances brought by a business computer, or the innovation of word processing, the opportunities created by office automation will encourage companies to takle the next step. Whether the route is towards large scale information networks, or the integration of words, (data and voice into a single workstation, the systems required to support these developments are beyond the prototype stage and available for ,general office use. It only requires a few adventurous souls to make the automated office take off in the same way that word processing has already done. -.-..._..-... For further information: Zilog, Babbage House, Ring Street, Maidenhead, Berks. Tel: (0628) 27442. Toltec, 25 Thompson’s Lane, Cambridge. Tel: (0223) 312347. Logica, 64 Newman Street, London. Tel: 01-637 9111. Prime Computers, The Hounslow Centre, 1 Lampton Road, Hounslow, Middlesex. Tel: 01-572 6241. Wang, Wang House, 100 George Street, London. Tek 01-486 0200. Office Technology, Eaton Road, Hemel j Hempstead, Hertfordshire. Tel: (0442) 3272. CBS, Jcssop House, 30 Cambray Place, Cheltenhtmr, Gloucester&ire. Tel: (0242) 42115. Xionics, Dumbarton House, 68 Oxford Street, London. Tel: 01-636 0105.
L-
Rank Xerox, Bridge House, Oxford Road, Uxbridge,_~^__. Middlesex. Tel: (0895) ._.___. .._ 51133.
11