ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the distinctions of coordination that have implications for computer support in general and are guides to assessing and introducing new technologies to improve coordination at Aetna. Corporate Technology Planning is Aetna’s advanced development group. To use these distinctions as a basis of design of computer tools to support coordinated actions, another set of distinctions is helpful: distinctions of communication. Computer support for coordinated work will consist of a set of technologies that supplement, and only in a limited sense, substitute for older systems of coordination. Telephone and mail service are obviously the most pervasive access technologies. But as people are increasingly unavailable by telephone, it becomes less effective. As costs for people and transportation increase, both internal and external mail service become less attractive. New technologies such as write-once optical storage now open up new options for redesigning sequential work flows and vastly improving coordination.
