Office Information Systems: A Retrospective and a Vision

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 this important area and addressing the needs of office workers worldwide. The evolution of office technologies and a detailed discussion of past research is 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.