Automatic Information System

In last few years, the development of multi function devices has changed the concept of office automation. In this article, we shall see how the Multi Function Devices have emerged? How the range of quality products with various price ranges has provided flexibility to select the devices?

Multi Function Devices (MFDs) or all-in-ones came into existence about five years ago when printer and copier manufacturers realised the increasing need for converged devices amongst IT users, on the home as well as enterprise front. Irrespective of the size of the needs, the product can be chosen. Keeping in mind issues like lower costs, quality of service and device, and space constraints, the vendors decided to merge standalone devices like printers, scanners, copiers and faxes into one box and create this new product category. The product has defined the office automation system.

The evolution of the MFD

MFDs have developed from copiers, printers and, in some cases, traditional fax machines. Initially sold as individual entities, vendors soon realised that they were reaching a saturation point in their product markets and some new innovation was needed. Therefore, companies like Xerox and Canon added printing, scanning and faxing capabilities to their copiers and pushed them as multi-functional devices to take care of all the documentation needs of a user. On the other hand, companies strong in printing capabilities like HP and Lexmark added features of copying and scanning to protect their market shares. The success of this move can be gauged by the fact that over the last four years, stand alone printers, scanners and faxes have been relegated to target and specialized user segments, while the regular market for these products has been taken over by MFDs.

Today, the market for MFDs is defined by the technology from which the device has evolved and the user segment. For instance, a copier-based MFD that works on laser technology is targeted at the SME and large corporate segments, while inkjet-based devices that have actually evolved from printer technology are popular in the home and the small and medium enterprise segment.

From printouts to office automation

MFDs leverage the concept of 'the office automation' rather than just printouts. Traditionally, documents in an organization were referred to as paper documents. But the term covers both paper and electronic versions. Increased printing speeds have been made possible due to higher processing power and faster data transfer speeds; Faster communication speeds and larger spooling capabilities avoid loss of critical data and long waiting periods. In simpler terms, there has been a convergence between 'hard' and 'soft' copies. This has resulted into a office automation system.

Office Automation System

The emergence and convergence of technological devices have automated various functions of the office. It has become simple and fast to carry out different office work through existing devices.

Let's look at an example to understand this idea better. Let's suppose there is an important paper document you need to mail to your client as a digital file. Earlier, it would have meant scanning the entire document and sending it across as a bulky image involving a loss of a lot of precious time and energy. But with many existing MFDs that have e-mail capabilities, all one has to do is to scan the paper document and provide the device with the e-mail address of the client. The device will automatically convert the document into a PDF file and mail it.

Documents, either in paper or electronic form, make up the information base of a company and managing them is a cumbersome task. MFD companies are now launching various solutions to make this task easier. Better known as 'document management solutions', these are tools that enable users to store, easily locate, retrieve and exercise control over document-based information.

Availability of MFDs

Let's take a closer look at what different companies have to offer in the MFD segment.

Canon: One of the pioneers in the product segment, Canon offers a wide range of models, both for the enterprise as well as for SMEs. The compact iR2016J comes with a price tag of Rs 84,995, as well as innovative on-demand fixing technology, enabling an energy saving sleep mode to be automatically initiated when the device is not in use.

Xerox: Xerox may a synonymous with photocopying but that has not stopped the company from making its presence felt in the MFD segment. Its Workcentre PE 114E (price: Rs 17,000) offers the convenience (high quality printing, copying and scanning in one computer machine with 8 MB memory. Its Scansoft Omni Page SE and Scansoft PaperPort OCR software allow customers to convert and edit paper documents in electronic format.

Epson: With the acceptance of digital requirements growing in homes for small business, along with a PC penetration, more and more home users are interested in low-end MFDs that them more capabilities than a lone machine. Epson's Photo I, priced around Rs 21,595 and 0, priced at Rs 8,789, are targeted segment. They enable full colour, order-free printing and copying. Photo lab quality at 5760 dpi print option and image quality of 1.5 pl ink size, they allow creative printing and copying on CDs and DVD media so intended for the home segment CX 3700 (price: Rs 6,229).

Ricoh: Ricoh's 3035 and 3045 multifunction document management systems are designed to simplify document creation and production while enhancing office productivity. Their features include Internet fax, IP fax, LAN fax, paperless fax (inbound fax to folder) and Multiport (3 G3 line fax) LDAP support. On the security front, they provide data overwrite security feature, Windows authentication, LDAP authentication, user code authentication, notes authentication, address book encryption and password encryption. The Ricoh 2020 and 2020D digital imaging systems can scan documents and integrate them into the network, print files and reproduce existing hard copy documents, and send and receive faxes directly from the system or workstation. Their control panel provides high ­performance network printing, and has standard support for PCL5e/6 and optional Adobe PostScript3.

Samsung: Samsung’s SCX-4200 and SCX-4321 MFDs are laser-based and priced at Rs 11,700 and Rs 14,500, respectively. Their ID Copy feature allows copying of both sides of an ill card or small document onto a single sheet of paper. The SCX-4200 MFD comes equipped with OCR (Optical Character Reconnaissance).

Future for MFDs

While most MFDs from leading 4 are similar in features, they differ of the solutions offered with the vendors are focusing on software solutions to create this differentiation.

Benefits of MFDs

Security: Addressing the concerns over document security, MFDs allow users to accounts on them. Features such as separate mailboxes and passwords make sure document reaches the right person.

Cost savings: MFDs save on costs, space and power.

Performance: With better memory address ability, MFDs offer better compared to standalone devices.

Maintenance: Most MFDs in the market today come with self-diagnostic capability and user alerts. They can be configured to alert the administrator in case maintenance or required.

Conclusions

MFDs have become the essential device for home and small office segments. They have to grow as complete office automated system.

E-Commerce - A Boon or Bane

Introductions

The growth of computers has changed the life of every person in this world. Computer networking has become an integral part of our life. The technology has changed the way we live and work. The magnificent developments of computer technology have forced the people to use them. Computers are being used in every aspect of our life. We carry out our bank operations, mail services, and reservations of tickets through this technology. Electronics commerce is one of the important operations of computer networking. Generally, there is a discussions that whether e-commerce is a boon or bane. In this article, we shall see the detail to find the answer.

Definition of Electronic Commerce

Electronic commerce or e-commerce is used for buying, selling and marketing various products or services over computer networks. It can also be referred to as the conduct of business commercial communication and management through electronic methods such as electronic data interchange (EDI) and automated data collection systems.

Initially, electronic commerce meant the facilitation of business transaction electronically in which purchase order or invoice were sent electronically. The contracts were passed from one location to others through computer network. But slowly and steadily, the use of electronics commerce increased tremendously. Now purchasing, selling, payments and other commercial transaction are done electronically. The reliable availability of World Wide Web via secured servers which encrypt confidential data for protection has enhanced scope of e-commerce.

Advantages of E-commerce - A Boon

Any organization small or big has to use some form or other of e-commerce for their commercial ventures. In the existing competitive market, it has become essential for all organization to exploit the benefits of e-commerce. There are several reasons for the success of e-commerce venture in commercial transactions.


Customers Satisfactions – Company can offer their product and services to different customers at a very competitive prices.
Ease of operations- It is comfortable for both the sellers and buyers to have ease of operations in a commercial transactions.
Brand creation – Companies can create their websites which are available on 24X7 bases. The customers can access the information as and when required. With the help of web-site, it is easier to create brand and consolidate on successive growth.
Personalized services – The database for customers’ information can be easily developed by the companies. This helps in achieving personalized services to customers.
Developing progressive business model – The availability of records for sell, purchase and storage provide immense opportunities for the companies to develop a business model. The model can be easily improved depending upon dynamic data to suit the market requirements.
Value additions – The availability of stores on electronic media provide limited number of core competencies. It is easy and comfortable to do value additions in whole transactions.

Disadvantages of E-commerce - A Bane

Although, e-commerce is very advantageous and profitable proposition for any companies as well as customers, there are few disadvantages too if proper care in the implementation stage is not taken. The major issues can be summarized as follow-

Lack of understanding of customers – Because, the customers are not coming in view of sellers, there could be a situation where lack of understanding arise.
Inability to predict environment reactions – It is difficult to predict environment reactions. The competitors can create their brands in a very different way. As the available medium is fast, competitor can make changes fast which could be more effective.
Lack of coordination and management – As there are few core competencies and they have to be integrated and coordinated properly to achieve the advantages. The lack of interest and knowledge may create lack of coordination. This throws a challenge for managing activities.
Failure to obtain senior management commitments – The lack of clear understanding of technology by senior management results in poor appreciation of necessity of resources. This results in lack of commitments.
Unreliable medium – The success and availability of computer network depends upon many media in between. The weakest link of the whole network may become the bottleneck of the whole e-commerce operation. This generates unreliable situations.

Scope of e-commerce

There is a limitation when we decide about the scope of e-commerce. All conventional products available in the market can not be found suitable for online transactions. Many companies who were dealing with digital products like electronic devices, information storage, music, movies, e-learning, education, communication, software, photography and financial transaction found e-commerce suitable. However slowly all other companies are using e-commerce to enhance their productivity.

E-commerce can be used for non-digital products especially which have a high value-to weight ratio. They can also be used to reach to remote locations. They have a capability to cross the national boarder. People are in a position to conduct various economical transactions on network with the help of e-commerce.

Credits, Debit, Mutual Funds, cash, on-line cards are few of the working models in the market. The technology is still emerging. The scope is ever expanding. There are many online companies which are doing online transactions. Few important ones are – eBay, amazon.com, goggle, lulu.com, yahoo, paypal etc. Almost everyday, a new company is added in this segment.

Limitations of e-commerce

People are used to normal conventional way of transactions. The utilization of e-commerce has been slow. People are generally fearful to carry out virtual transactions. There are various reasons for this.

Security concerns – Many people are afraid to use credit card because of fear of fraud and misuse.
Absence of physical transactions – The transaction on network is not taking place physically. There is no passbook which is updated on regular basis on the transaction at bank ATM.
Poor Access – There is a sever scarcity of access of networking to common household and smaller cities or towns. This results in limited access of e-commerce of various products.
Social Changes – The e-commerce is a new medium for many people. People still feel comfortable in talking to sales person before carrying out purchases. This facility is not available in online shopping.


Future Awaits E-commerce

21st century is going to be the century for the people who embrace technology to enhance their effectiveness and efficiency. E-commerce is very integral part of our growth. The spread of call centers and BPOs, now KPOs and many other process outsourcing are the indication of its prevalence. It is important that we consider e-commerce as boon and move accordingly so that we are not caught unaware. It is a challenge for all of us and at the same time, it throws immense opportunities for our growth and better living. E-commerce is a boon.