Integrated office systems: 1995 and beyond

December 1987-Vol. 25, No. 12 IEEE Communications Magazine 74 Introduction N o one can predict what office systems will be like a decade from now. If one were pressed to make a guess, however, the answer should be based on two questions: in what directions are the desires of users heading, and in what directions is the technology developing? The answers to these questions are important because the course of future development will be determined by the extent to which technological progress will be able to fulfill the desires of users. As Dr. Koji Kobayashi, the Chairman of the Board of NEC, has previously stated in his book ( l ) , the future information society will see the support of human creative and intellectual activities through the fusion of Computers and Communications (C&C). He refers to this as “modern communications,” and calls the resulting society supported by modern communications “Man and C&C.” T h e most desirable office systems of the future will beachieved primarily hy the implementation of modern communications, a C&C system unifying computers and communications, in the office.