Back office
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Office types
A back office is a part of most corporations where tasks dedicated to running the company itself take place. Examples of back-office tasks include IT departments that keep the phones and computers running, accounting, and human resources. These tasks are often supported by back office systems: secure e-commerce software that processes company information (i.e. a database). A back office system will keep a record of the company’s sales and purchase transactions, and update the inventory as needed. Invoices, receipts, and reports can also be produced by the back office system.
In banking the back office is the heavyweight IT processing systems that handle position keeping, clearance, and settlement. In investment firms, the back office is the administrative functions that support the trading of securities, including recordkeeping, trade confirmation, trade settlement, and regulatory compliance. If used in sales, the back office fulfills customers’ orders and may usually perform the duties involved in customer support call centers.
Sometimes back offices may be somewhere other than the main headquarters of a company. Much of the time they are in suburban areas with cheaper rent, or these functions are outsourced to contractors in other countries. This global back office is referred to as cross-border business-process outsourcing.
The term comes from the building layout of early companies where the front office would contain the sales and other customer-facing staff and the back office would be those manufacturing or developing the products or involved in administration but without being seen by customers. Although the operations of a back office are usually not thought of, they are a major contributor to a business
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Business Link (2006). Maintaining your web content and technology. http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/bdotg/action/detail?r.s=sl&type=RESOURCES&itemId=1075383691. Retrieved Jun. 25, 2006.
Haag, S. et al Management Information Systems for the Information Age (3rd Canadian ed.) Toronto: McGraw-Hill
Investorwords.com (2005). Back Office. http://www.investorwords.com/376/back_office.html. Retrieved Jun. 24, 2006.
Knowledge @ Wharton (2006). Special Section: The Rush to Send Back-Office Business Overseas - Part 1 and 2. http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/100902_ss.html.Retrieved Jun. 24, 2006
MSN Encarta Dictionary (2006). Back Office. http://encarta.msn.com/dictionary_561532699/back_office.html. Retrieved Jun. 24, 2006.
