IOIS: A knowledge-based approach to an integrated office information system

Research on organizational decision making, cooperative work, and relevant technological support such as group decision support systems, model management, artificial intelligence, and expert systems,has falled to provide a functional architecture of the integrated, automated office environment which is essential to support knowledge workers in the office of the future. Previous research has been fragmented, focusing only on certain office tasks, or theoretical, lacking the concrete architecture of a working prototype. This paper describes an integrated office information system architecture which uses knowledgebased techniques to assist managerial and clerical workers in a complete spectrum of tasks ranging from group process support to resource management. The use of this system is illustrated with a scenario incorporating typical tasks found in many organizations. Problems encountered in the design and implementation of the system are described, and future research directions are listed.