Managing Computers in Large Organizations

More documents

Recommendations

Info

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 UNCONTROLLABLE GROWTH 45 Managing Uncontrollable Growth John H. Bennett* The explosion in the acquisition and use of minicomputers and microcomputers is by now quite familiar. Over the past 10 years I have observed this growth from the point of view of a large, driversified, multinational corporation, United Technologies Corporation (UTC). United Technologies is a Fortune 100 corporation whose companies manufacture many kinds of high technology products. These include Pratt & Whitney Aircraft engines, Sikorsky helicopters, Carrier air-conditioning systems, Otis elevators, Mostek semiconductors, and a broad range of electrical and electronic devices and controls. All of these companies are experiencing the current microcomputer revolution. Since UTC allows its divisions a high degree of autonomy in management, each has reacted in its own way, both to the pressures of technological change and to the guidelines provided by the corporate office. Thus, UTC offers a unique opportunity to study a variety of companies, determine what the major common problems are, and see what managerial responses seem to be most successful. Most organizations using computer technology experience growth in the number of terminals used. While this growth rate is * John H. Bennett is corporate director of data processing for United Technologies Corporation, Hartford, Connecticut. 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 UNCONTROLLABLE GROWTH 46 steady, it is by and large related to the rate of installation of systems on a central computer. Thus, it is nominally under control. Workstation growth is a different story. Proceeding from a smaller base, word processors, personal computers, engineering design stations, and intelligent remote job-entry stations are growing at a much faster rate. Many of these applications require little or no immediate support from an organization's main data center. The systems are inexpensive enough to get over or around the hurdles of cost justification that corporate bureaucracies have placed in the path of computer acquisition. Their growth is thus difficult to control. However, management of the process is obviously necessary for a couple of reasons. Many applications will eventually require data access and data integrity; others clearly should be carried out on a central computer. The reasons for this rapid growth are threefold: service, economics, and control. Most computer service organizations or departments have a backlog of up to two years of cost-justified applications. Customers see minicomputers and microcomputers as a shortcut around this bottleneck. Their cost is relatively easy to justify, and users have at least the appearance of being in control of their own destiny. The impact of these developments on computer service organizations has been devastating. The first symptoms of change took the systems departments by surprise. User departments presented requests for special-purpose, minicomputer-based terminal systems for special applications. The first requests seemed innocuous enough: a computer for a laboratory; a dedicated test application; a stand-alone, computer-aided drafting application. Such projects were outside the normal range of competence or responsibility of most data processing departments, and they were clearly limited in scope. Or were they? At United Technologies over 500 of the Digital Equipment Corporation PDP 11s have now been brought in for these “limited” applications. There are over 50 VAXs with their full network of supported terminals, virtually all of which are beyond the direct control of the systems department. The same drama is about to be played out in the area of manufacturing support. The first microcomputers were brought into my corporation by their owners, who were convinced of their utility but could not get approval to purchase them. In one division I found that an employee had set up his own micro in a conference room and provided Copyright © National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
Page 1 and 2:
http://www.nap.edu/catalog/167.html
Page 3 and 4: Managing Microcomputers in Large Or
Page 53: Managing Microcomputers in Large Or
Page 105 and 106:
Managing Microcomputers in Large Or
Page 107 and 108:
Page 109 and 110:
Page 111 and 112:
Page 113 and 114:
Page 115 and 116:
Page 117 and 118:
Page 119 and 120:
Page 121 and 122:
Page 123 and 124:
Page 125 and 126:
Page 127 and 128:
Page 129 and 130:
Page 131 and 132:
Page 133 and 134:
Page 135 and 136:
Page 137 and 138:
Page 139 and 140:
Page 141 and 142:
Page 143 and 144:
Page 145 and 146:
Page 147 and 148:
Page 149 and 150:
Page 151 and 152:
Page 153 and 154:
Page 155 and 156:
Page 157 and 158:
Page 159 and 160:
show all

Managing Computers in Large Organizations

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?