New Office Revolution: Improving Productivity through the “Denshi Archive” and More

The first office revolution, driven by the widespread adoption of telephones, facsimile machines, and copiers, dramatically improved white-collar productivity. Yet it also created new bottlenecks, including the emergence of managers as information brokers and lower efficiency caused by conversations on open floors. Under the technology available at the time, these were necessary evils.

Now, however, new information technologies represented by groupware and workflow systems offer an opportunity to break through these bottlenecks. This is the second office revolution—the new office revolution. By making work asynchronous and sharing an “information soup” in cyberspace, organizations become flatter, open floors disappear, and quiet offices emerge. Moreover, as remote offices become widespread, geographical constraints vanish and an environment is created in which people can work anytime, anywhere.

Meanwhile, information brokers who were responsible for passing information along disappear, and true professionals who make judgments come to the fore. Although productivity improves, the intensity of work also increases considerably.

Table of Contents

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Contents

I Improving Productivity through the “Denshi Archive” and More

1. The old office that discarded 6 percent of its people
2. The first office revolution through telephones, copiers, and facsimile machines

II 6 problems facing today’s offices

1. Rising costs and missing information caused by longer search paths
2. The emergence of managers as information brokers
3. The problem of waiting time inherent in synchronous communication
4. Reduced work efficiency caused by conversations on open floors
5. Dynamic information cannot be conveyed without meeting in person
6. Information is scattered

III 5 new information technologies supporting the second office revolution

1. Networked personal computers as information and communications infrastructure
2. Groupware that enables information sharing and retrieval
3. Workflow systems that transmit and process information in line with business operations
4. The Denshi Archive, which brings information on paper onto the network
5. Authoring tools for expressing one’s ideas effectively

IV The image of the new office

1. Personal computers replacing meeting rooms
2. Standardizing processes with workflow systems
3. Working anytime, anywhere, just as in the office

V The new office that resolves every one of today’s problems

1. Improved information retrievability and assurance of completeness
2. The extinction of information brokers
3. Eliminating waiting time through asynchronous communication
4. Higher work efficiency through quiet offices
5. Effective transmission of dynamic information
6. Concentration of information on the network

VI Effects of the new office revolution

1. There is great room for productivity improvement
2. A rosy office?

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