Answer

Office Automation

Microsoft Office is a family of server software, client software and services that was first announced by Bill Gates at COMDEX in Las Vegas on August 1988  after being developed by Microsoft (Riley,Henderson & Windle, 2019). Office has a number of programs and tools that include Microsoft PowerPoint which is a tool used to develop interactive presentations and slides, Microsoft Word which is a tool for word processing that a business organization can use to type and edit their documents, Microsoft Outlook which is a tool for calendar and email management, Microsoft Excel which helps a business organization create spreadsheet programs to help in accounting and other operations, Microsoft Access and it allows users to create database management programs,Microsoft which allows its users to create and synchronize their notes efficiently. Microsoft Visio is also another Office tool and it helps individuals or organization create simple and complex diagrams and flowcharts to facilitate comprehensive report creation. Microsoft Office Project is also another essential Office tool for preparing and tracking project progress. Another important Office tool is Microsoft SharePoint and through it, users are able to store, organize and share on different platforms. Microsoft Lync is also an important Office tool which is a cloud-based software and it allows online communication. The last Office tool discussed here is Microsoft Publisher and it is an ideal tool for creating different kinds of publications such as business and greeting cards, calendars and newsletters.

In any software installation, there are two sections of the software that should be integrated and interconnected to ensure that the software runs smoothly without any issues and they are the front-end and back-end of the software application. The front-end of an application is its user interface which is a platform where users of the system can interact with the system and the user experience which is what the users undergo while interacting with different modules and interfaces of the system. The back-end of a software system is the server-side of the application which deals with how the system works in responding to the user’s requests and commands. The back-end deals with what happens from when a user enters a command to when the user receives a response. Back-end deals with the background tasks that take place during the user interaction with the system. The back-end deals with interpreting user’s commands to machine readable formats. In Microsoft Office, the interfaces on all the Office tools are the front-end of the applications and what happens in the background until users’ requests are processed and the result displayed are the back-end of the applications.

A turnkey solution can be defined as a system with easy implementation into the current business process and is designed to meets various business processed and is ready upon installation and implementation (Ma & Geng, 2017). Installing the new Office into the business will be a turnkey solution because it is easy to use and it will meet various business processes in the organization.

In the make-or-buy decision for acquiring the new Office into the business, acquiring is the best option since making the whole application is complex and time consuming. Acquiring the off the shelf application will be easy and economical since the application comes with all the functionalities for supporting business operations. Outsourcing is the option taken in acquiring the software product.