Uses of computers in an office
... Using computers for these tasks has several advantages: computer records can be rapidly searched to retrieve information; computer records can be accessed remotely with no human intervention -- for example, if a member of staff needs information on some subject, he can retrieve it directly from the central records using his own office computer, without requiring the staff of the records office to gather and copy the appropriate data; computer records can be easily archived for secure storage (for example, they can be dumped to tape and the tape held in a fire-proof safe in another building); the records can be processed to automatically generate reports (such as a list of all outstanding bills); computer records generally take up less space than paper records; computer records can be readily fed to other computer systems for analysis (that is, once the information is in electronic form, it can be readily used by any computer program).