THE SUPPORT AND MANAGEMENT OF USER COMPUTING IN THE 1990S

As company investment in end-user computing (EUC) grows, so does the n eed for the organization 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, a nd resource acquisition. To satisfy these needs, many organizations ha ve established Information Centres !IC). ICs have been shown to be ver y dynamic organizations which are continuously evolving and vary drama tically from company to company in terms of location, resources availa ble, and the types of services provided. The study reported in this pa per surveyed 156 organizations to assess present shifts in EUC and IC activities, as well as the impact of IC performance on EUC overall com pany effectiveness and payoffs from EUC. The results show among other things that in many organizations the EUC support burden is being shif ted to IS departments, to outsiders, and to the end-users themselves; that EUC support is indeed a requirement for overall EUC effectiveness and for the company to derive payoffs from the EUC investment.