An office information system having a device which provides a user with an operational message of the system is disclosed. In an embodiment of the office information system, a path record storage device stores a plurality of path records related to components of the system, each path record indicating a locating path needed to reach a location of a specific one of the components in the system when a failure related to the specific one of the components occurs. A failure location detecting device detects a location of a component in the system when a failure related to the component occurs. A reached location determining device reads a path record from the path record storage device when the location of the failure is detected, and determines a currently reached location in the system based on the path indicated by the path record. A message device generates, when the reached location is determined, an operational message needed for recovering the failure at a subsequent location in the path following the reached location.