Managing Computers in Large Organizations

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Managing Microcomputers in Large Organizations http://www.nap.edu/catalog/167.html About this PDF file: This new digital representation of the original work has been recomposed from XML files created from the original paper book, not from the original typesetting files. Page breaks are true to the original; line lengths, word breaks, heading styles, and other typesetting-specific formatting, however, cannot be retained, and some typographic errors may have been accidentally inserted. Please use the print version of this publication as the authoritative version for attribution. MANAGING MICROCOMPUTERS IN STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT 115 Managing Microcomputers in State and Local Government Fred Dugger* State and local governments, like private sector companies, face a new and formidable challenge—how to harness the technology of powerful, inexpensive microcomputers to improve the organization's productivity. The computing power and low cost of these devices are well known. What is not as well known is how to manage their prudent use. We must initially identify areas where productivity might be improved by using micros. Then we must address issues of product selection, procurement procedures, software acquisition and development, communications network integration, education, and maintenance. We must determine how microcomputer technology can enhance rather than confuse our information generating systems. We must distribute computing power throughout our organizations while maintaining the necessary information flow to top management. And we must accomplish this in an environment so dynamic that tomorrow's product announcements may make yesterday's requests for bids obsolete. This dynamic environment extends to users and potential users as well. It seems that almost everyone has a strong, sometimes * Fred Dugger is director of the Department of Data Processing, State of Nevada (Carson City). Copyright © National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
Managing Microcomputers in Large Organizations http://www.nap.edu/catalog/167.html About this PDF file: This new digital representation of the original work has been recomposed from XML files created from the original paper book, not from the original typesetting files. Page breaks are true to the original; line lengths, word breaks, heading styles, and other typesetting-specific formatting, however, cannot be retained, and some typographic errors may have been accidentally inserted. Please use the print version of this publication as the authoritative version for attribution. MANAGING MICROCOMPUTERS IN STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT 116 highly emotional opinion about micros and personal computers. People who own them often consider them a friend; their children almost always do. These people believe that micros have a definite place in their own office environment. They are probably right. Other people with little or no direct contact with micros are still intrigued. The media have brought home the fact that ours is a computerized society; our children have frequent access to computers at school; Dick Cavett, Charlie Chaplin, and Captain Kirk have shown us how we can generate sophisticated graphics for our businesses with a single keystroke. And with the plummeting price of hardware how can we afford not to install one? There is surely a sales rep at the other end of the telephone who can solve all our problems. Then there are the professionals in traditional data processing organizations who have sweated blood for so many years developing, installing, and maintaining enormous, highly sophisticated systems. These systems perform large-scale accounting operations, transfer millions of dollars daily around the country, and provide countless other services in government and the private sector. Will these organizations lose the power they have acquired, the talent they have gathered? If they no longer control computer acquisitions, will the chaos of the early days return in the form of unmaintainable systems; programs written by authors who have long vanished, unstructured, unplanned systems; communications incompatibilities; a complete lack of documentation? Finally, there is the largest group of all, the uneasy white-collar workers who believe they will have to embrace this new and strange technology, master it instantly, and improve productivity measurably while continuing to cope with everything they are now barely able to accomplish. These people know that they will soon have to alter fundamentally and permanently the way in which they accomplish their day-to-day tasks. They know that change means stress. And they are worried. So what do we do? Do we even have a choice? Can we opt to refuse the new technology, to continue with methods that now appear to be at the peak of efficiency? The answer is no. We have no choice on whether micros will be in our organizations. We do have a choice as to how they will be controlled, acquired, supported and, in general, put to productive use. But how do we measure productive use? The answer is economics, pure and simple. Unfortunately, in all too many cases the Copyright © National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
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