Aucbvax.1903
fa.works
utzoo!duke!decvax!ucbvax!DPR@MIT-XX
Wed Jun 24 05:07:41 1981
Productivity gains without using workstations
Kirsch has an extremely valid point. The fundamental question is what
leverage does computerization provide in doing a function. However, let's
not be miserly--even Xerox STAR's are incredibly cheap as an investment,
so the amount of leverage they must provide is small.
Personally, I think companies with cash to invest ought to invest it
in ecnomic sectors of maximum productivity gain--however, there are
immense barriers to this. Most companies restrict themselves to internal
reinvestment of their funds. Since our largest and least productive
companies have the higher percentages of funds to invest, and since they
are largely white-collar offices, there is a great move toward
office automation, even though productivity gains are slim in most
office applications.
The sterling exception to this observation about the utility of workstations
lies in tools of high leverage like VisiCalc--which make order of magnitude
changes in labor required to do a task. The Star seems to be able to do this
with the production of business graphics--but I am not sure that they
will be largely used in this domain, or if the graphics thus produced
would have been produced had there not been a Star.
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