Chapter 380: The Market of Office Software

"Government Procurement--" Yang Jier hesitated after hearing this.

"Well, my idea is not only to sell computers, but also to build office automation software-" Chen Mingluo said to Yang Ji'er. After he raised this topic, his mind turned flexibly, thinking that if Yang Ji'er came forward to do this, it would be a good idea.

Selling computers alone is not a long-term approach. After all, many manufacturers will join in the hardware field, and the final profit will gradually become diluted, or there will be negative profits. It is not advisable to plunge it head-on.

However, domestic office automation is just starting out and has not yet been finalized. The market potential here is very great, so Chen Mingluo's key idea is to start from here.

A more popular saying nowadays is office automation. The so-called office automation is actually the application of computer technology in the office field, and simply put it as computer applications in enterprises and government agencies.

This matter is still in its infancy, and everyone is not very interested.

Office automation system is a comprehensive technology developed rapidly in developed countries in the mid-1970s.

The country has developed office automation in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and it has been around for nearly ten years.

In the early days, most office automation software was written by computer personnel or enthusiasts in enterprises and units using foxba color and foxpro. These software were not the office automation software we refer to now, but were developed for a specific demand in the office. Most of them were stand-alone operating modes and could not realize information exchange and sharing. The contents they did were often just inputting certain specific contents and then printing them in a certain format. Therefore, these software cannot be said to be office automation software in the true sense.

After entering the mid-1990s, as network technology, groupware systems, database technology and various object-oriented development tools and other technologies and products became widely used, they were gradually matured. At the same time, due to the rapid development of the domestic economy, the gradual fierce market competition and the expansion and optimization of government management functions, all of this led to the rapid growth of government and enterprises' demand for office automation products.

It was also from this time that office automation began to enter a stage of rapid development.

With the gradual development of the software market, domestic companies specializing in software development have gradually grown up and customized office automation systems for governments and enterprises. Since these systems are developed according to the specific needs of users, their functions are relatively complete and can better meet the actual needs of users.

But it has some fatal shortcomings, which are obvious. One is that the development cycle is long, the other is that the investment is large, and the other is that it requires continuous maintenance after software development is completed, which is very laborious and money.

There are many reasons for these shortcomings, such as the unreasonable team formation model of the software development company, the lack of experience in developing office automation products, the lack of understanding of office automation products, etc., but the real important reasons are often caused by changes in user needs during the development process or after development is completed. It often occurs during the development process, resulting in continuous modification of software due to the continuous changes in user needs, and even the entire development cycle is extended and development costs are overspent.

After working hard to develop the software, the software will be continuously modified and maintained due to changes in user needs.

In the end, the entire software is like a piece of clothing that has been stitched and repaired, with greatly reduced performance and usability.

Many software development companies believe that these problems arise from the constant changes in user needs. In fact, this idea is not correct, because the development of society and the reform of state institutions will inevitably lead to changes in the management model of state organs and enterprises, and this change in management model will cause changes in users' demand for office automation software.

Since changes are inevitable, as a designer, we must naturally allow the software to adapt to this change.

In recent years, with the gradual improvement of the construction of computer networks of various state organs and enterprises, and the emergence and rapid development of the international Internet, the communication and contact methods between people in the entire society have also undergone essential changes, and electronic information exchange methods will gradually become the mainstream.

At this time, some office automation software developed in the early stage exposed some disadvantages.

Early office automation software was mostly designed based on the local area network environment. Since the selected platforms were not unified at that time, data exchange between multiple local area networks was encountered, such as data exchange with superior and subordinate or horizontal units encountered great resistance, and an information gap emerged. Information transmission between local area networks can only be transmitted through original text, thus forming independent information islands. This situation greatly hindered the development of domestic office automation.

But the actual situation is that due to the rapid development of the domestic economy, the increasingly fierce market competition has triggered, and information technology has entered a leaps and bounds. Every enterprise must keep up with the pace of the times, strengthen corporate competitiveness and improve the management capabilities of modern enterprises. All this has led to the rapid growth of enterprises' demand for office automation products, and office automation has begun to enter a stage of rapid development.

However, many problems have been exposed in the development of office automation, mainly manifested in large investment, low effects, low levels, more duplicate construction, more hardware investment, less software investment, and simulated manual work to increase management burden.

There are many reasons for these problems. Whether designers or users, they lack the necessary understanding of the essential role of office automation systems. They usually only understand office automation as the use of advanced technologies and equipment in the office process. The purpose of use is to improve efficiency. In fact, the important role of implementing office automation is to improve the decision-making efficiency of management agencies.

Some people believe that as long as advanced technology and equipment are available, office automation can be achieved. Some users spend most of their work focus on the establishment of application systems and do not pay enough attention to later practical applications, which has led to many office automation systems not being able to truly bring qualitative changes to enterprises.

Designers often work for the sake of money, and really consider it less for users. The flexible construction function of the software is relatively poor. When the user's needs change, even if it is just a slight change, it needs to rely on the developer to solve it, which affects the user's usage efficiency and is also a huge burden for developers.

The most important point is that there is no unified standard in this regard, and office automation requires strong standardization. Without a complete set of indicator systems for standards and evaluation, office automation management, demander, developer and evaluater lack a common basis and foundation, and it is impossible to cooperate closely with each other. In order to cater to customer psychology, many developers provide customers with large and complete standardized products without in-depth analysis and research on customer actual application needs. Their functions are all-encompassing, but there are few functional modules that can be actually used and recognized by users.

Chen Mingluo visited their office automation environment when he went to the Mingyang Municipal Government. He felt that there was no improvement in other aspects except for the work that used computers and needle printers to print files to standardize, which is a rather regrettable thing.

Moreover, for the users of the municipal government, there is only one beneficiary, which is the staff of the original lead printing room. She had to arrange the lead type according to the leader's manuscript, then print it with ink, and then bind it into a book. Now after learning and training, she can use Wubi font type to complete her tasks and use a needle printer.

Even if it is mimeographed, you can use wax paper to print the template, which is indeed much easier than before.

"This topic seems to be a bit big, and I think I can't do this." After listening to Chen Mingluo's idea, Yang Jier felt that it would be difficult to complete this task with her own abilities.

Chen Mingluo smiled and said, "You don't need to do the specific work yourself. As a boss, you just need to consider it from a big perspective. Our task is to recruit soldiers, then study and analyze the current situation of office automation in China, find ways to solve the problem, and finally make some decisions based on actual needs. This should be relatively simple, right?"

"It's still very difficult-" Yang Ji'er said, holding her chin, "I feel that it's easier to trade stocks."

"The stock market is not a place to stay for a long time." Chen Mingluo replied.

"I'm sure to sell computers, but I really feel unsure about working on office software or something-" Yang Ji'er thought for a while and said, "But if you can help me to the end, I can still consider giving it a try."

Chen Mingluo nodded and replied, "It's okay to help you come up with ideas, but don't expect me to do specific management work. I am more afraid of trouble."

However, Chen Mingluo thought about it and found that the scale of these domestic software companies was indeed relatively small at this time. If Yang Jier could be guided to create a listed software company based on selling computers, it would be a relatively proud achievement.

While the two were talking, they heard the sound of glass shattering suddenly there. Then they saw a tall figure flying out, rolling on the floor, and humming in pain.
Chapter completed!