Personal computer-based office automation software has become an indispensable part of election management in many countries. Word processing programs have replaced typewriters; spreadsheet programs have replaced ledger books; database programs have replaced paper-based electoral rolls, inventories and staff lists; personal organiser programs have replaced paper diaries; and so on.
Starting with basic, cumbersome word processing and spreadsheet programs in the 1970s, by the 1990s office automation programs had become very sophisticated. These programs have served to empower ordinary office workers by enabling them to complete tasks in-house that once had to be sent off-site to be completed by specialists.
For example, desktop publishing programs allow relative novices to produce professional-quality publications, where once even the simplest of typesetting tasks had to be sent to professional typesetters and printers. Database and spreadsheet programs running on high-powered personal computers allow ordinary users to input, store and use data in ways that once would only have been possible on large main-frame computers operated by specialist programmers.
Types of Office Automation Software
A typical 'suite' of office automation software could include some or all of the following kinds of programs:
- word processor
- spreadsheet
- database
- desktop publisher
- project manager
- presentation
- computer file manager
- email
- internet browser
- internet publisher
- personal organiser
- financial management system
- personnel management system
Many books, magazines and web sites can help you choose office automation software suitable for your purposes. In many cases, office automation software will be provided with the appropriate hardware, either as part of the purchase agreement or as part of a government standard.
Using Office Automation Software
It is desirable that all users of office automation software be trained in its use. In many countries external training providers will be available. Some electoral authorities may be able to provide in-house training using its own skilled staff. Most software packages also come with user manuals (paper and/or on-screen) and many come with self-paced on-screen tutorials.
Modern office automation software is very powerful. Skilled users can develop very sophisticated products. For example, an electoral authority could use office automation for:
- producing all or most of its publications in-house, including books, brochures, forms and newsletters
- composing, editing and printing all correspondence in a standard corporate style, incorporating automatic printing of logos and corporate livery
- developing computer-generated presentations for projection on overhead screens for seminars and training purposes
- entering, storing and using electoral roll data
- automating various parts of the election process, such as issuing and receiving postal votes
- capturing and analysing election results data
- storing and manipulating employee records
- automating large scale personalised mail-outs to clients and staff
- keeping inventories
- maintaining a corporate web site and an internal intranet
- planning and monitoring all aspects of a major project
- organising a financial management system
- sending individual and grouped electronic mail to internal staff and external clients
- sharing files across a network
Applying Standards to File Names and File Structures
As the use of office automation software expands, the need to apply standards becomes more and more important. Where many users are sharing systems and files, it is important to ensure that files are stored in logical locations using a standard set of file naming conventions.
Computer files are generally stored in folders. Folders can be 'nested' in other folders so that subsets of files dealing with specific subjects can be located in folders within other folders dealing with a broader subject. For example, a folder called 'Finance' could include within it folders for the previous financial year, the current financial year and the next financial year. Each of those financial year folders could be further broken down into folders called 'Administration costs' and 'Staff costs'.
Folders should be set up in a logical manner familiar to all users. In order to maintain logical consistency, it may be desirable to limit rights to create folders to systems administrators.
Logical consistency should also be used for individual file names. Up until the end of the 1990s, most computer systems limited filenames to an 8-digit name with a 3-digit suffix separated by a dot (the suffix indicating to the computer system the type of the file), with no spaces or upper case letters permitted in names. For example: 'annrep99.doc'. By the end of the 1990s, it became possible to use longer file names incorporating spaces and upper and lower case letters, thereby facilitating the use of more self-explanatory file names. For example: 'Annual Report 1999.doc'.
In order to assist users to name files consistently to allow the users to find those files again, it is useful to establish naming conventions. It may also be useful to create index files that could be used to give more detail about files so that a file can be located. Some software systems allow the creation of linked indexes to files, which help regulate and enforce naming standards.
Upgrading Office Automation Software
Off-the-shelf office automation software is regularly upgraded. Upgrades typically are released every 2-3 years for most popular products. Upgrades generally provide more powerful versions of existing features, provide some new features, and fix known problems in previous versions of the software. (Notoriously, upgrades sometimes have their own set of new problems or 'bugs', which can be fixed by the next upgrade.)
Upgrading software can be expensive, and electoral administrations need to judge if and when they should upgrade their software. One way to avoid this dilemma is to lease software rather than purchase it, and include automatic upgrades as part of the lease agreement. Government software policies may also be in force, which may dictate if and when software will be upgraded.
If an administration's current software suite is performing acceptably, there may not be any compelling reason to upgrade it as soon as an upgrade becomes available. One reason is to wait for other users to identify problems with the new software that can be fixed by the software developers using 'patches'.
Unfortunately there will be pressure on an administration to upgrade its software as clients and other organisations it deals with move to the upgraded version. While upgraded software is generally 'backwards compatible', meaning that the new version can read files created under the old version, the old software often cannot read files created using the new software. When this becomes a significant problem, it is time to upgrade.
While in some cases it may be desirable to delay upgrading, in other cases the new features available may make the expense of an upgrade worthwhile.
