Justifying office automation: benefits and problems

Abstract

Difficulties in measuring the benefits of office automation are preventing investment in systems. Examines the problems for organizations attempting to cost‐justify office automation. Benefits attributed to office automation used to be quantifiable, however, more recently office automation is being used to support managers whose benefits are much “softer” and not as quantifiable. Proposes that today′s methods of justification focus too strongly on quantifiable benefits and do not neccesarily justify expenditure on office systems. Suggests that, while it is understandable that management will need to be able to justify investments in financial terms, these methods need to evolve to access benefits at both a quantitative and qualitative level which will provide a more credible measure of the value of investments.