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4.29.15
IT 4
Problems
It became clear very quickly that the managers had bought something that they didn't
understand and either had to discard the machine (as happened in many schools who were
encouraged by government to acquire computers) or had to be supported to get the most
out of their purchases. The particular problems which were posed for the organizations into
which these PCs had been introduced were:
a. Lack of standardization between the various purchases leading to:
i.
inability to share data;
ii.
no economy of scale in purchasing;
iii.
a variety of requirements for maintenance, in the few cases where the
problem had actually been considered.
b. Lack of control over the requirements of legislation, such as software copyright, data
protection, health and safety and the specific legal constraints covering the
organization.
c. Demands for assistance with:
i.
systems analysis and design;
ii.
programming;
iii.
software procurement;
iv.
sizing - machines which have been purchased but are too small for the job;
v.
maintenance;
vi.
fall-back;
vii.
lack of documentation;
viii.
data security;
ix.
environmental control;
x.
file conversion and data acquisition;
xi.
data organization.
Management Structure
In organizations where the Computer Centre already reports directly to the Board (ie
there is a Chief Information Officer) the Information Centre is normally part of the Computer
Centre. In organizations where the Computer Centre reports to some other function (eg
finance) the Information Centre is usually independent and reports directly to the Board. A
structure which is becoming common now is for the Chief Information Officer (a Board level
appointment) to be responsible for:
i.
ii.
iii.
a strategy group;
the Information Centre, and
the Computer Centre.
This arrangement allows the end-users to see the Information centre as independent
from the Computer Centre, yet still provide a co-ordination mechanism.
Skill Requirements
The kind of skills needed by computer professionals in the Information Centre is quite
different from those working in the conventional data processing department. A deep
knowledge of software packages, communications, contract matters and trouble shooting is
more important than information gathering, although conventional analyst or technician
skills are required to some degree.
System Development
Panko identifies five environments in which development for end-user computing is
taking place. These vary from DP systems through single-user systems that can be bought
off-the-shelf to systems, which are developed specifically for departments.
a. Environment 1 - conventional DP systems.
b. Environment 2 - one-off PC applications.
c. Environment 3 - large end-user projects in which several people are going to use a
system, some of whom might be outside the sponsoring department - the
development would still be done by the end users themselves.
d. Environment 4 - large end-user projects which have to be delegated to computer
specialists to develop.
e. Environment 5 - departmental systems.
All this does, however, involve the development of systems specifically for end-users.
Remember that end-users must be involved, through participative design, in any systems in
environments one or five.
1. Safeway introduced a tool whereby a registered customer could record on a personal
recorder each item that they put into their trolley. This record could be used to advise
the customer of their bill to date and of related special offers and it could be used at
the check-out to eliminate the need to scan each item in the trolley, thus saving a lot
of time. Both the store and the customer benefited. Because the customer was
registered the output from the tool showed the customers individual purchases each
visit. The store could note the purchases made every week and pre-package those
before the customer visited. This would create customer loyalty. Note that this was not
Web dependent.
2. British Airways sees each individual customer as his/her own segment. The aim is then
to package a product for each individual customer. One way is to maintain a database
of customer preferences and use those preferences to tailor price/facilities to what the
customer wants. For example, instead of offering a range of tickets for a journey, BA
will ask a customer what he wants to pay and will then offer a type of ticket that they
think will be attractive to the proposed purchaser.
Reference:
http://www.slideshare.net/engineerrd/end-user-computing