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. MANAGED INNOVATION CONTROLLING END-USER COMPUTING IN THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT limit training to broad brush exposure is not enough. All 50 people involved in the pilot project stressed the need for much more initial hands-on training in order to achieve competency in a much shorter period of time. In the area of technical support GSA found it indispensable to have an inhouse group of people who are not vendors to advise and help users by answering questions, many of them procedural, on how to get things going. Such in-house capability eliminates the problem of a vendor walking off after delivering equipment or software and leaving users to their own devices as problems arise. In the area of procurement GSA found some isolated cases in which computers were being chosen on the basis of price alone, with no consideration for training and support components. In certain cases the hardware came from vendors hundreds of miles away, making on-site support extremely difficult. Such experiences emphasized the importance of procurement procedures that focus not merely on the hardware price alone, but include the total package of hardware, software, training, and technical support. GSA is now applying the knowledge gained from the pilot project to its microcomputer management system. The agency has also moved into requirements contracting to cover its end-user computing needs. GSA learned through this end-user computing experiment that there are four or five applications that cover 85 percent of the needs. The requirements package being provided for the acquisition of hardware will meet the needs of those predominant applications. GSA has made considerable progress in dealing with the problems of enduser computing in the federal government. However, there is still much to learn. Looking to the future, the agency expects the current initiatives of the managed innovation program to evolve into a management pattern that will benefit the federal government and ultimately the taxpayer in a cost-effective way. 59 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. PERSONAL COMPUTERS AND THE OFFICE OF THE FUTURE 60 Personal Computers and the Office of the Future James H. Bair* A historical perspective is helpful in understanding where small computer technology is headed. In the beginning, back in 1945, Vannevar Bush proposed that computers could serve as an extension to human memory. That idea took shape at Stanford Research Institute in the early 1960s as an augmented human intellect system. This system in turn evolved into augmented knowledge workshops and eventually into the concept of office automation, a system that was actually demonstrated at the National Computer Conference in 1967. The “office of the future,” as it was conceived then, never really got off the ground. It was generally superseded by personal computers. But some of the issues that were typical then are still important today and will continue to be issues as we move toward integrating the personal computer into the mainstream of digital technology. One way to look at evolution—in this case, the evolution of digital technology—is in terms of the “share of mind” that a technology commands at a given time. In fact, it is not really the technology but some manifestation of it that has the share of mind. Prior to 1960 scientific and military computing was the dominant manifestation. Then, management information systems * James H. Bair is manager of advanced systems for the Information Systems Group, Hewlett-Packard Co., Cupertino, California. Copyright © National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
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