The dual role of information centers: An assessment of end user computing management strategies

This article evaluates the impact of different management strategies on the success of End User Computing (EUC). The study is based on the empirical survey of sixteen organizations with 151 end users. The analysis showed that accelerating management strategies resulted in significantly better success than the controlling strategies. However, there seemed to be no clear connection between the existence of a formal information center (IC) and the success of EUC. Instead, an IC seemed to play a dual role. If the organizations with an IC were managed by accelerating growth policies, success measures were significantly higher than if managed by controlling growth policies. In the organizations with controlling growth policies and an IC, success measures were even lower than in the organizations without an IC. On the basis of our findings we recommend that the IS managers should critically re-evaluate and adjust their EUC strategies: an IC alone does not guarantee any success.