The support and management of user computing in the 1990s

As company investment in end-user computing (EUC) grows, so does the need for the organisation to provide end-user support and training, to encourage resource sharing, to establish mechanisms for management and operational control over data resources, systems quality assurance, and resource acquisition. To satisfy these needs, many organisations have established Information Centres (IC). ICs have been shown to be very dynamic organisations which are continuously evolving and vary dramatically from company to company in terms of location, resources available, and the types of services provided. The study reported in this paper surveyed 156 organisations to assess present shifts in EUC and IC activities, as well as the impact of IC performance on EUC overall company effectiveness and payoffs from EUC. The results show among other things that, in many organisations, the EUC support burden is being shifted to IS departments, to outsiders, and to the end-users themselves; and that EUC support is indeed a requirement for overall EUC effectiveness and for the company to derive payoffs from the EUC investment.