Automating Taiwan's Offices

Office automation is coming to the Republic of China, and although it might appear to be a simple matter of installing machinery, in fact it is a challenge on several levels. Companies must define just what sort of automation they like. Then they must be sure to implement it properly. And sometimes that whole process of automation encounters various problems, including resistance from workers employed in the firm.

Sinorama spoke to various experts about the course of office automation in the Republic of China. Frank L. Hung, president of Taipei's Harvard Management Service, Inc., points think automation is computerization. In fact, computerization does not at all equal automation, promoting automation is raising the work efficiency of offices; it's the direction every industry should follow; but not in every case by means of computerization."

Paul S. T. Liu, Chief of the Data Processing Division of the Electronic Data Processing Center, Executive Yuan, points out, "An industry must, before implementing automation, understand what it needs, and what return it hopes machines will give, and on this basis decide what machine to use. A computer isn't a panacea; it's not that buying a computer can solve everything; in fact, in some jobs using human brains is more convenient than using a computer."

Companies should look at their capital and overhead before buying a computer. For instance, a company with fifty employees can take care of personnel and payroll with just a glance at some file cards, and doesn't have to buy a computer and hire an operator.

But for the larger company, as Matthew F. C. Miau, Chairman of Taiwan Automation Co., explains, "The biggest benefit of computerization isn't substituting for human labor to do some regular, repetitive tasks, but to help make every linking task more precise, to rationalize and systematize the work flow."

But for computers to give good results, the work process must first be standardized, and materials must be inputted systematically. The computer is a very stupid machine, which if run in a confused system will give out bad results, as it is said, "Garbage in, garbage out." Paul S. T. Liu says, "Therefore, in many public and private organizations computerization doesn't bring any results; the reason isn't with the computers, but with the unsoundness of their systems."

Everyone in the industry knows a fairly common phenomenon. When a unit implements computerization, and the budget includes expenses for both hardware and software, the boss will say that he heard a friend say, "The hardware company provides software as part of the package." He is unwilling to agree to the software portion of the budget.

This comes about because of the attitude that software is not important. Yet just about everyone in the industry agrees that "software is the soul of the computer; without software to generate them, a computer has no way to produce results. Customers don't understand software's importance, and are unwilling to invest a lot of money in it. This has caused considerable problems in the industry here."

Carol Chou Li, senior information systems officer at Security Pacific National Bank, Glendale, California, compares the situation in the United States: "A lot of companies have their programming work done by outside software consulting firms, because the software firms are specialists, and their quality is more dependable; companies that hire out don't need to find their own employees to do the work, and management is simpler. And some small companies don't even buy their own computer, but just link up to the one at the software firm."

In the Republic of China, because all software consulting firms are rather small, and they haven't established their reputations, almost no customers are prepared to consult such a firm, so many continue to use in-house computer experts when setting up a computer system, even if an outside firm helps.

"Only the user best understands the situation in the business, and knows his own needs best, and the cooperation of the user is the most important thing," notes Miau. But if the user just doesn't know anything about computers, even if someone from the computer department acts as a go-between, when he speaks of his work situation and of his expectations for the computer, there will still be problems.

The way the software companies dig up their information about the customer's needs is for the systems analyst and program designer to work with the users a few days, to understand their situation, and to put forth questions about things they aren't clear about, to be in close touch with the managers and, in meetings, with the users to understand their demands and to introduce the ability of computers to them.

But another kind of situation is the user not cooperating with computerization. People tend to have doubts about things they are unfamiliar with, and as far as the company's workers are concerned, maybe after the computerization the conditions at work will change, making it less convenient for them. Moreover, some regular, repetitive tasks, that formerly took three workers, might only take one worker; will two workers be unemployed? Doubts like these add obstacles to promoting automation.

Chairman Miau counters that "although with automation, some workers can be laid off, the new computer department will need people; let the people who originally understood the work be familiar with computers, and they can help with programming, and make the computers even more effective."

In free China, promoting computers has a special difficulty: computers were invented in the West, and many already-developed software packages are in English; at present in promoting automation, if a company wants to use Chinese to process materials, it is more expensive than just using English. Moreover, Chinese writing is ideographic; input is more difficult than alphabetic English. At present, however, there are simplified input methods, that cut up Chinese characters into several basic shapes, inputting these to form one character.

The most important problem in automation is still people. The development of automation will surely change mankind's traditional lifestyle and customs. The advance of civilization is hard for any man to hold back. After the industrial revolution began, many people opposed it, but mechanization went on. Contemporary people facing the revolutionary changes brought by the computer should have the wisdom to deal with them, that is to face up to the computer, master it, and let it become a tool for handling things.

[Picture Caption]

Left, Chang Ming-che, chairman of the National Science Council, discussing with his secretary data displayed on a computer screen. Right, A computer is an effective instrument for office automation; a secretary can use it for keeping records, arranging the boss's schedule, and typing documents.

1. By educating workers beforehand, it is easier to promote office automation. The picture shows a computer specialist asked by Union Petrochemical Corp. to give a lecture on computers. 2. A facsimile machine is also one kind of office automation equipment. The office worker is using a telephone to contact the recipient of the document to be sent. 3. Frank L. Hung, president of Taipei's Harvard Management Service, Inc., says, "Anything that can raise office productivity can be called automation equipment. Automation is not the same as computerization." 4. Paul S. T. Liu, Chief of the Data Processing Division of the EDP Center, Executive Yuan, thinks that before buying a computer, enterprises should reliably understand their own needs, and the capabilities of computers. 5. The President of Union Petroleum Corp. (and Chairman of Taiwan Automation Co.), Matthew F. C. Miau, points out that sometimes the reason for failure of computerization isn't the computers, but the inadequacy of the unit's organization. 6. Jackson Lin, general manager of the Taiwan subsidiary of Wang Laboratories, Inc., reminds customers they must be willing to invest in software to get something out of their computers. 7. Carol Chou Li, senior information systems officer at Glendale, California's Security Pacific National Bank, says, "People are opposed to unfamiliar things; computerization early on encountered opposition, both in China and abroad."

Domestic banks already use computerized equipment; a customer can withdraw money directly from an automatic teller.

Right, A computer is an effective instrument for office automation; a secretary can use it for keeping records, arranging the boss's schedule, and typing documents.

1. By educating workers beforehand, it is easier to promote office automation. The picture shows a computer specialist asked by Union Petrochemical Corp. to give a lecture on computers.

2. A facsimile machine is also one kind of office automation equipment. The office worker is using a telephone to contact the recipient of the document to be sent.

3. Frank L. Hung, president of Taipei's Harvard Management Service, Inc., says, "Anything that can raise office productivity can be called automation equipment. Automation is not the same as computerization.

4. Paul S. T. Liu, Chief of the Data Processing Division of the EDP Center, Executive Yuan, thinks that before buying a computer, enterprises should reliably understand their own needs, and the capabilities of computers.

5. The President of Union Petroleum Corp. （and Chairman of Taiwan Automation Co.）, Matthew F. C. Miau, points out that sometimes the reason for failure of computerization isn't the computers, but the inadequacy of the unit's organization.

6. Jackson Lin, general manager of the Taiwan subsidiary of Wang Laboratories, Inc., reminds customers they must be willing to invest in software to get something out of their computers.

7. Carol Chou Li, senior information systems officer at Glendale, California's Security Pacific National Bank, says, "People are opposed to unfamiliar things; computerization early on encountered opposition, both in China and abroad.".