Office Information Systems is a field of computer science concerned with studying offices and developing technologies to support office workers. The field initiated in 1982 suffered a gradual demise by 2004. However, many of the themes and issues that motivated the discipline continue to exist today. Office workers continue to struggle with routine tasks that do not have adequate IT support and the problem is worse for mobile employees. In this paper we provide a retrospective on OIS technologies with the hope of stimulating interest in the discipline and addressing the needs of office workers worldwide. The evolution of office technologies and a detailed discussion of past research are provided. The discussion shows that technology support for office workers is still inadequate. The paper suggests a technology vision and architecture to motivate researchers and identifies challenges for future research.
KeywordsOISOffice Information SystemsOffice SystemsOffice AutomationWorkflowEvolution of Office SystemsEvolution of OISOffice ProceduresOffice ProcessesOffice Technologies
Amaravadi, C.S. (1989) Towards a Conceptual Model of the Office: An Integrating Approach. Ph.D. Dissertation, The University of Arizona, Tucson.
Limb, J. (1983) Editor’s Introduction. ACM Transactions on Office Information Systems, 1, 1-2. http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/357423.357424
Desai, S. (1991) Unification of Underlying Concepts in Different Office Models. DataBase, 22, 38-45.
Swenson, K. (1996) SIGGROUP Name Change. SIGOIS Bulletin, 17, 3.
Walker, R. (2004) Notice of SIGGROUP Dissolution. http://www.acm.org/sigs/siggroup/siggroupinfo.html
Amaravadi, C.S., George, J.F., Sheng, O.R.L and Nunamaker, J.F. (1995) The Adequacy of Office Models. In: Advances in Computers, 40, Academic Press, New York, 182-247.
Makinen, S. (2012) Mobile Work and Its Challenges to Personal and Collective Information Management. Information Research, 17, 522 .
Tsichritzis, D. (1986) Office Automation Tools. In Jarke, M., Ed., Managers, Micros and Mainframes, John Wiley and Sons, New York, 11-20.
Amaravadi, C.S. (1985) An Examination of Integration Alternatives in Micro-Based Workstations. Technical Report, University of Arizona, Tucson.
Winograd, T. (1987) A Language/Action Perspective on the Design of Cooperative Work. Human-Computer Interaction, 3, 3-30. http://dx.doi.org/10.1207/s15327051hci0301_2
Georgakopoulos, D., Hornick, M. and Sheth, A. (1995) An Overview of Workflow Management: From Process Modeling to Workflow Automation Infrastructure. Distributed and parallel Databases, 3, 119-153. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF01277643
IBM (1997) Sample Applications for Flowmark. Image and Workflow Library, IBM Redbooks, IBM, Armonk.
Wikipedia (2013) CEO by Data General.
IBM (1998) IBM Internet Support Group. askibm@vnet.ibm.com
Email Museum (2013) Quick History of All-in-1. http://email-museum.com/2011/09/26/quick-history-of-all-in-1/
Dennis, A.R., George, J.F., Jessup, L.M., Nunamaker Jr., J.F. and Vogel, D.R. (1988) Information Technology to Support Electronic Meetings. MIS Quarterly, 12, 591-624. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/249135.
Parsons, T. (1997) Lotus Development. Personal Communication. Parsons/PHL/Lotus@lotus.com
Medina-Mora, R., Winograd, T., Flores, R. and Flores, F. (1992) The Action Workflow Approach to Workflow Management Technology. Proceedings of the 1992 ACM Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work, Toronto 281-288. http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/143457.143530
Leiner, B., Cerf, V.G., Clark, D., Kahn, R., Kleinrock, L., Lynch, D., Postel, J., Roberts, L. and Wolff, S. (2013) Brief History of the Internet. The Internet Society. http://www.internetsociety.org/internet/what-internet/history-internet/brief-history-internet
Heater, B. (2011) Browsers: A Brief History. http://www.pcmag.com/slideshow/story/262125/browsers-a-brief-history/3
Macworld (2007) Hello iPhone.
Amaravadi, C., Sheng, O.R., George, J.F. and Nunamaker, J.F. (1992) AEI: A Knowledge-Based Approach to Integrated Office Systems. Journal of Management Information Systems, 9, 133-163.
Ellis, C.A. and Naffah, N. (1987) Design of Office Information Systems. Springer Verlag, New York.
Faidt, K. and Karagiannis, D. (1990) Knowledge-Based Applications in Office Information Systems: An Integration Approach. In: Database and Expert Systems Applications Conference (DEXA), Vienna, 29-31 August 1990, 334-339. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-7091-7553-8_54
Mahling, D.E., Craven, N. and Croft, W.B. (1995) From Office Automation to Intelligent Workflow Systems. IEEE Expert, 10, 41-47. http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/64.393142
Christie, B. (1985) Human Factors of the User System Interface. North Holland, New York, 23-70.
Engel, G.H., Groppuso, J., Lowenstein, R.A. and Traub, W.G. (1979) An Office Communication System. IBM Systems Journal, 18, 403-431.
McLeod, R. and Jones, J.W. (1987) A Framework for Office Automation. MIS Quarterly, 11, 87-104. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/248830
Morgenbrod, H.G. and Schwaertzel, H.G. (1980) The Degree of Office Automation and Its Impact on Office Procedures and Employment. Computer Networks, I-II, 3-11.
Poppel, H.L. (1982) Who Needs the Office of the Future? Harvard Business Review, 60, 146-155.
Thachenkary, C.S. and Conrath, D.W. (1982) The Office Activities of Two Organizations. In: Naffah, N., Ed., Office Information Systems, North Holland, New York, 452-469.
Gerson, E.M. and Star, S.L. (1986) Analyzing Due Process in the Workplace. 3rd ACM SIGOIS Conference, Providence, 6-8 October 1986, 70-78.
Suchman, L.A. (1983) Office Procedure as Practical Action: Models of Work and System Design. ACM Transactions on Office Information Systems, 1, 320-328.
Bernal, M. (1982) Interface Concepts for Electronic Forms Design and Manipulation. In: Naffah, N., Ed., Office Information Systems, North Holland, New York, 505-518.
Lum, V.Y., Choy, D.M. and Shu, N.C. (1982) OPAS: An Office Procedure Automation System. IBM Systems Journal, 21, 327-350. http://dx.doi.org/10.1147/sj.213.0327
Tsichritzis, D. (1982) Form Management. Communications of ACM, 25, 453-478.
Yao, B.S., Hevner, A.R., Shi, Z. and Luo, D. (1984) Formanager: An Office Forms Management System. ACM Transactions on Information Systems, 2, 235-262. http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/1206.357413.
Hoffer, J., Ramesh, V. and Topi, H. (2013) Database Management. 9th Edition, Benjamin/Cummings, New York, 53-55.
WFMC (1999) Workflow Management Coalition. Interface 1: Process Definition Interchange and Interchange Language, Document # WFMC-TC-1016-P v 1.1. http://Wfmc.org
Harper, D.J., Dunnion, J., Sherwood-Smith, M. and Van Rijsbergen, C.J. (1986) Minstrel-ODM: A Basic Office Data Model. Information Processing and Management, 22, 83-107. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0306-4573(86)90117-2.
Lamersdorf, W., Schmidt, J.W. and Muller, G. (1986) A Recursive Approach to Office Object Modelling. Information Processing and Management, 22, 109-120. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0306-4573(86)90118-4.
Loucopoulos, P., Mcbrien, P., Schumacker, F., Theodoulidis, B., Kopanas, V. and Wangler, B. (1991) Integrating Database Technology, Rule-Based Systems and Temporal Reasoning for Effective Information Systems: The TEMPORA Paradigm. Information Systems Journal, 1, 129-140. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2575.1991.tb00032.x.
Pernici, B., Barbic, F., Fugini, M.G., Maiocchi, R., Rames, J.R. and Rolland, C. (1991) C-TODOS: An Automatic Tool for Office System Conceptual Design. ACM Transactions on Information Systems, 7, 378-419. http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/76158.76893
Wang, J.T.L. and Ng, P.A. (1992) TEXPROS: An Intelligent Document Processing System. International Journal of Software Engineering and Knowledge Engineering, 2, 171-196. http://dx.doi.org/10.1142/S0218194092000099.
Ang, J.S.K. and Conrath, D.W. (1993) The Ithaca Office Object Model: Modeling and Implementation. ACM SIGMIS Database, 24, 5-14.
Ram, S., Park, J. and Lee, D. (1999) Digital Libraries for the Next Millennium: Challenges and Research Directions. Information Systems Frontiers, 1, 75-94. http://dx.doi.org/10.1023/A:1010021029890
Aiello, L., Nardi, D. and Panti, M. (1984) Modeling the Office Structure: A First Step towards the Office Expert System. ACM SIGOA Conference, Toronto, 25-27 June 1984, 25-32. http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/800023.808330
De Jong, P. (1987) UBIK: A System for Conceptual and Organizational Development. Proceedings of the IFIP, Toronto, 17-19 August 1987, 19-36.
Pernici, B. (1990) Objects with Roles. ACM Conference on Office Information Systems, Cambridge, 25-27 April 1990, 205-215. http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/91474.91542
Lee, R. (1988) Bureaucracies as Deontic Systems. ACM Transactions on Information Systems, 6, 87-108. http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/45941.45944
Loucopoulos, P. and Katsouli, E. (1992) Modelling Business Rules in an Office Environment. SIGOIS Bulletin, 13, 28-37. http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/134376.134384
Ang, J.S.K. and Hong, J. (1994) AMS Formalism: An Approach to Office Modeling and OIS Development. DataBase, 25, 25-38.
Barbic, F., Ceri, S., Braachi, G. and Mostacci, P. (1985) Modeling and Integrating Procedures in Office Information Systems Design. Information Systems, 10, 149-168. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0306-4379(85)90033-X
Ellis, C.A. and Nutt, G.J. (1980) Office Information Systems and Computer Science. ACM Computing Surveys, 12, 3-36. http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/356802.356805
Kreifelts, T. and Woetzel, G. (1986) Distribution and Error Handling in an Office Procedure System. Proceedings of the IFIP, Pisa, 22-24 October 1986, 197-208.
Alonso, G., Agrawal, D., El Abbadi, A., Kamath, M., Guenthoer, R. and Mohan, C. (1996) Advanced Transaction Models in Workflow Contexts. Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Data Engineering, New Orleans, Louisiana, 26 February-1 March 1996, 574-581.
van der Aalst, W. (1996) Petri-Net-Based Workflow Management Software. Proceedings of the NSF Workshop on Workflow and Process Automation in Information Systems, Athens, May 1996, 114-118.
Basu, A. and Blanning, R.W. (1999) Metagraphs in Workflow Support Systems. Decision Support Systems, 25, 199-208.
Grundy, J.C., Hosking, J.G. and Mugridge, W.B. (1998) Supporting Large-Scale End User Specification of Workflows, Work Coordination and Tool Integration. Journal of Organizational and End User Computing, 10, 38-48.
Koubarakis, M. and Plexousakis, D. (2002) A Formal Framework for Business Process Modeling and Design. Information Systems, 27, 299-319. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0306-4379(01)00055-2
Ngu, A., Duong, T. and Srinivasan, U. (1996) Modeling Workflow Using Tasks and Transactions. Proceedings of the 7th International Workshop on Database and Expert System Applications, Dexa, Zurich, September 1996, 451.
Preuner, G. and Schrefl, M. (2000) A Three-Level Schema Architecture for the Conceptual Design of Web-Based Information Systems: From Web-Data Management to Integrated Web-Data and Web-Process Management. World Wide Web, 3, 125-138. http://dx.doi.org/10.1023/A:1019281629747
Dellen, B., Maurer, F. and Pews, G. (1997) Knowledge-Based Techniques to Increase the Flexibility of Workflow Management. Data and Knowledge Engineering, 23, 269-295.
Karbe, B., Ramsperger, N.G. and Weiss, P. (1990) Support of Cooperative Work by Electronic Circulation Folders. Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work, Los Angeles, 7-10 October 1990, 109-117. http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/91474.91496
Chung, P.W., Cheung, L., Stader, J., Jarvis, P., Moore, J. and Macintosh, A. (2003) Knowledge-Based Process Management—An Approach to Handling Adaptive Workflow. Knowledge-Based Systems, 16, 149-160. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0950-7051(02)00080-1
Mangalaraj, G.A. and Amaravadi, C.S. (2008) Connecting to the Next Generation Mobile Desktop. Proceedings of America’s Conference on Information Systems, Toronto, 14-17 August 2008, 71.
Satyanarayanan, M. (2001) Pervasive Computing: Vision and Challenges. IEEE Personal Communications, 8, 10-17. http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/98.943998
Cook, D.J. and Das, S.K. (2012) Pervasive Computing at Scale: Transforming the State of the Art. Pervasive and Mobile Computing, 8, 22-35. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pmcj.2011.10.004
Pejovic, V. and Musolesi, M. (2014) Anticipatory Mobile Computing: A Survey of the State of the Art and Research Challenges. Unpublished paper.
Hinton, G., Deng, L., Yu, D., Dahl, G., Mohamed, A., Jaitly, N., Senior, A., Vanhoucke, V., Nguyen, P., Sainath, T.N. and Kingsbury, B. (2012) Deep Neural Networks for Acoustic Modeling in Speech Recognition. IEEE Signal Processing Magazine, 29, 82-97. http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/MSP.2012.2205597
Papazoglou, M.P. and Georgakopoulos, D. (2003) Service-Oriented Computing: Introduction. Communications of the ACM, 46, 24-28. http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/944217.944233
Pallis, G. (2010) Cloud Computing: The New Frontier of Internet Computing. IEEE Internet Computing, 14, 70-73. http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/MIC.2010.113
Rosner, D., Grote, B., Hartman, K., Hofling, B. and Guericke, O. (1998) From Natural Language Documents to Sharable Product Knowledge: A Knowledge Engineering Approach. In: Borghoff, U.M. and Pareschi, R., Eds., Information Technology for Knowledge Management, Springer Verlag, Berlin, 35-51. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-03723-2_8
Amaravadi, C.S., Mangalaraj, G., Philip, S. and Balijepally, V. (2009) Envisioning the Next Generation Cellular Client. Proceedings of Conference-IRM, Al Ain, 21-23 May 2009, 21-23.