BUSS 951 Critical Issues in Information Systems Lecture 7 Systems for Organisations 1: Informative Technologies Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-07: 1 Notices (1) General Unfortunately I was not able to be available for consultations during Thursday today as I have another commitment in Sydney. I have set up a replacement consultation time for Monday 14:30-16:30 (for one week only) I am consequently one day late in marking and due to other teaching commitments cannot restart this work until the weekend- I will hopefully have the Assignment 1s available during the replacement consultation time Make sure you have a copy of Assignment 2 BUSS951 is supported by a website (available from Tomorrow), where you can find out the latest Notices and get Lecture Notes, Tutorial Sheets, Assignments etc www.uow.edu.au/~rclarke/buss951/buss951.htm Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-07: 2 Notices (2) Readings for Week 7 1. Carroll, J. M. (1991) “Introduction: The Little House Manifesto” Reading 11 2. Landauer, T. K. (1991) “Lets Get Real: A Position Paper on the Role of Cognitive Psychology in the Design of Humanly Useful and Usable Systems” Reading 11 Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-07: 3 Notices (3) Readings for Week 8 1. Yu, E. (1998) “Why agent-oriented requirments engineering” Reading 6 2. Yu, E. S. K and J. Mylopoulos (1994) “From E-R’ to A-R’- Modelling Strategic Actor Relationshiups for Business Process Reengineering” Reading 7 Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-07: 4 Agenda (1) Technological Changes Evolution of IS Layered Architectures: Separation of presentation, application and data Distributed Applications Security and Personalisation Data Processing Critical Issues Layered Architectures and Planning Problems Diversification of Skills Tower of Babel Standardisation versus Innovation Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-07: 5 Technological Changes Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-07: 6 Technological Changes (1) Data Processing & Information Management in the 1990s much of the data processing scene has been transformed from that even since the 1970s and 80s (refer to Mowshowitz 1976 Reading 1) particularly, the kinds of technologies that were used to process data, and the manner in which data was processing by organisations, who gets to actually perform these duties that is EDP centres, data centres, outsourcers, ISPs and/or ASPs Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-07: 7 Technological Changes (2) Concepts & Statements differ- same Theory! there is now a dominant trend in considering work and its management from the point-of-view of knowledge work… …the reality is that the knowledge work being referred to follows exactly the same logic identified earlier in our lecture on information we are still dealing with the problems inherent with Shannon & Weaver but we still cannot see a way clear of it despite valiant attempts to consider for example ‘valued information’- something Shannon & Weaver is incapable of theorising as it does not deal with meanings (semantics) at all Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-07: 8 Technological Changes (3) Current IT developed decades ago current technological deployment is based on theory that is new very old 1960s technology relied on batch processing, in the 1970s the technology was dependent on the timesharing systems however in the 1980s there were two significant developments- networking architectures and microprocessor based systems- however attempts to combine these technologies were ineffective Reasons: many but it is true that users often preferred the independence from IT management control that personal computing power provided Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-07: 9 Technological Changes (4) Development of Client/Server Architectures … Client/server technology is a form of distributed processing where an application is split in a way that allows a front end (the client) to request services of a back end (server) Client/server technologies enable the possibility of having users interact with an application running on a mainframe, minicomputer or network server while the front end runs on their PC Of course the real impetus behind the adoption of this technology is the Internet and corporate Intranets- the web browser becomes a universal client (web pages, mail, ftp, server applications, search …) Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-07: 10 Technological Changes (5) Client/Server Architecture: Motivations Management Better equipment utilisation Utilising technical workers better Utilising non-technical workers better Better products and services Technological Advances Microprocessors- powerful systems Graphics- at the client side Network Operating Systems and LANs Software Development Tools- CASE tools can support it Standards- are required to develop new, sophisticated applications required by client/server computing often IT companies sabotage standards in order to retain market share!- Critical Issue Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-07: 11 Technological Changes (6) Client/Server Architecture: Advantages Off-loading Mainframes Improved Data Integrity Reduced Network Traffic Searches are processed on the workstation not on the traditional file server- followed by a sequence of record level requests made to the alternatively with Client/server style database server the search request is packages and shipped to the database server where it executes. When complete, the search results are sent back to the workstation as a unit Reduced Application Development Reusability Portations Developer Interdependence Reduced Cost Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-07: 12 Technological Changes (7) Client/Server Architecture: Advantages Complexity: applications are separated into several pieces that must communicate with each other across a network, client/server computing is inherently more complex that traditional data processing Lack of Standards: require overwhelming support- the problem as I perceive it is largely at the management levels of both the adopting organisations, and the marketing practices of managers in large IT companies (Problems between Sun and Microsoft in relation to Java- hardly isolated- see latter) Resource Intensiveness: very similar issues to the marketing practices of large IT companies who lock users out of the competition by developing proprietary standards (IBM was doing this in the 1960s- nothing has changed here!) Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-07: 13 Technological Changes (8) Distributed Processing/Applications the concept of distributed processing, distributing pieces of one software program entity across a number of processing systems, has been around since the 1970s and is was a direct influence on the development of ISO and IBMs SNA Architecture end users at the application level demand more than the computing power available at their fingertips more localised controllable types of applications have been spreading rapidly… …but are now becoming entangled with the problems faced by Wide Area Network (WAN) routing and management Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-07: 14 Technological Changes (9) Machine Architectures & System Software any two processors using different architectures are by definition incompatible and software developed on one will need to be ported and compiled on the other system- in fact this kind of incompatibility was and still is encouraged by all parties this is even the case with universal or standard software systems- any deviation is likely to affect compatibility and every system deviates… software rusts Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-07: 15 Technological Changes (10) System Software Incompatibilities even standards like UNIX which were meant to get around these problems have been subject to this kind of problem, example which flavour of UNIX (AIX, Xenix, ULTRIX, At&T, Berkeley flavours this incompatibility even extends to PC based versions, RedHat, Corel Linux, Caldera OpenLinux, Mandrake Linux etc even now there is still efforts at trying to get a core kernel for Linux, and to allow other producers like RedHat etc to package their distributions with whatever they want as long as they adhere to minimum standards for the kernel Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-07: 16 Technological Changes (11) Remote Procedure Calls (RPCs) there are a number of accepted ways to deal with the heterogeneous distributed systems- one popular way is to use Remote Procedure Calls (RPCs) Procedures are not only characteristic of distributed system about are also used within standalone nondistributed programs A procedure, function, or subroutine is a well defined program segment that performs a task or set of tasks and has a well-defined interface so that other program segments can use it RPCs extend this technique of intramachine procedure calls into intermachine procedure calls required in distributed processing Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-07: 17 Technological Changes (12) RPCs and Distributed Processing RPCs differ from local calls (used in subroutines etc) in that the address spaces for the caller procedure and the called procedure are located on separate machines which might be located on separate LANs or WANs the calling mechanism at the RPC client passes arguments and control to an RPC server via communications software similar software to used client side receives the information and simulates a local call to the intended procedure at the RPC server when the procedure is completed the communication software on the server returns any output data to the original caller Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-07: 18 Evolution of IS Data from Marchand (1990) Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-07: 19 Evolution of IS A Managerial Historical View (c.1960s) Competitive Thrust Technical Efficiency IS Strategy Maximization of throughput Seeking of economies of scale Technology in search of solutions IS systems High-volume mainframe applications Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-07: 20 Evolution of IS A Managerial Historical View (c.1970s) Competitive Thrust Cost Reduction IS Strategy Reduction of overhead Support function: back office operation IS systems Transaction processing Administrative systems Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-07: 21 Evolution of IS A Managerial Historical View (c.1960s) Competitive Thrust Office Effectiveness IS Strategy Networking End-user computing IS emerging from the back office IS systems Technology architecture Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-07: 22 Evolution of IS A Managerial Historical View (c.1990s) Competitive Thrust Flexibility IS Strategy Leveraging of technology architecture IS supporting business thrust IS systems Tailored work station Knowledge-based technology Multimedia environment Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-07: 23 Evolution of IS Critical Evaluation (1) actually although there are some elements of truth to the slides just presented - a common enough representation of some of the salient issues - it should not be construed as a correct interpretation of events as we shall see for instance how likely do you think it is that management had a major rethink about IS on January 1st of every decade for four decades consecutively!- if you believe that go buy a lottery ticket! Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-07: 24 Evolution of IS Critical Evaluation (2) in this case that somehow under the guiding hand of ‘information management’ organisations came to improve their understand of what makes for the good application of technology terms like ‘effectiveness’ smooth over a rather unsavoury corporate history of unemployment, downsizing, and corporate raiding that took place in Australia for example Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-07: 25 Evolution of IS Critical Evaluation (3) the items which characterise different decades are highly selective- for example you simply do not find much interest in multimedia systems in organisations I know for a fact that in some area of BHP, no new computing equipment is provided unless it can be cost justified 150%guaranteeing that they actually buy something that they need and that they get the most use out of it Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-07: 26 Evolution of IS Critical Evaluation (4) this kind of presentation and similar kinds of presentation in IS and management suffer from a fatal condition known as a post hoc argument a post hoc is the fallacy of assuming that temporal succession is evidence of a causal relation the same kind of problem happens in sciences and natural history museums as well- see Gee (2001)! Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-07: 27 Evolution of IS Sequential Implicativeness in this case even though there seems no logic implication that causes for “flexibility” to follow from “office efficiency” the mere act of locating them one after another creates a sequential implicativeness the author signals their desire to read this table left to right by placing labels which tell you which decade your in and also by having the last column ‘flexibility’ as a kind of happy ending- this reveals a deeper true about how this argument is being constructed... Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-07: 28 Evolution of IS Narrative Structure of Reality as you read from left to right one column to the next- the ordering becomes powerful because it literally suggests and then constructs a narrative (ie. this happened, then this happened...) in what the great Cultural Studies researcher Stuart Hall calls the narrative structure of reality Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-07: 29 Information Management and the Emerging Infomation Economy Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-07: 30 Information Management (1) now that we have established that there have been massive changes in the IS although we have strongly critiqued the management rhetoric which describes these changes it is important to focus now on the role of information management in organisations we should expect (and indeed we can easily find) changes to the concept of information occurring at the same time as we have the emergence of the so-called information economy Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-07: 31 Information Management (2) is seen as attempting to understand the many internal & external factors that shape organisations several of these ideas that are currently central to information management are: information and innovation learning and adaptation addressing value chains- key aspects of the job of knowledge workers) Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-07: 32 Information Management (3) current information management literature describes work in terms of value chains must be addressed at both the bottom and top of business organisations in service and goods-producing industries what is considered to link information and innovation in a business enterprise is the need to learn and adapt to key forces Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-07: 33 Information Management (4) information management services are now construed as contributing to the learning activities of the enterprise as they are reflected in group and individual work processes focus on enhancing the value chains of employees as knowledge workers this involves new requirements for sharing information resources in an enterprise as well as new ways of: coordinating the management functions related to human resources facilities planning information services and systems as they affect employee performance and productivity Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-07: 34 Information Management (5) Emergence of the Information Economy... information-oriented view of executives and workers as knowledge workers leads to new patterns of information use and sharing in businesses so if the information economy is an international, social, and economic reality, then what is its impact on business?Marchand (1990) identified the following responses from managers Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-07: 35 Information Economy’s Impact on Business Characteristics of the Information Economy Information economy is a business reality Knowledge and information are critical resources to respond to organised complexity The division of laour has shifted from indiustrial to information workers The internation ecomomy is an international phenomenon information processsing industry has developed as the basic industry of the information economy Effects on Business Knowledge is a key factor of production with capital, people, and technology information transforms agriculture amd industry manufacturing and service boundaries are blurred service sector boundaries are blurred entrepreneurial opportunities have been created information management evolves as a new business functions Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-07: 36 Current Views of Information the rhetoric changes from information processing to knowledge work we now see a shift in interest away from considerations data processing and more effort being expended into understanding more about what the term ‘information’ might mean this promising avenue of research will be limited by the types of theories that can be adopted... Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-07: 37 Current Views of Information Knowledge Work & ‘valued’ Information... note the quantitative overtones (minus, equals) together with the desire to think about information in qualitative terms (valued information) information minus available information used equals valued information Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-07: 38 Current Views of Information Knowledge Work & ‘valued’ Information... from a current information management point of view consideration of information must consider: information content or actual knowledge, timing or delivery of information the quality of the information the quantity or scope of the information the presentation format or relevance of the information the ease of retrieval or actual use oof the information, and, finally the cost of the information to the individual, work unit, or organisation Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-07: 39 Organisational Implications Data to Information Based Enterprises Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-07: 40 Organisational Implications Data to Information Based Enterprises (1) we have established that along with a change in the way IT is employed in organisations there has also been a commensurate shift in the way information as a category is described now we consider the organisational implications of the development of information based enterprises in an information economy and the effect that this change has on how organisation and workers are managed Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-07: 41 Organisational Implications Data to Information Based Enterprises (2) of course there have been major changes that can be seen in what IS are used, how they are used, who uses them and who controls them what changes are evident in the observed transformation from data processing to information based enterprises? what implications have these changes had to the organisations in which they have been deployed? Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-07: 42 Organisational Implications Data to Information Based Enterprises (3) traditional hierarchical model of organisation based on control and compliance does not promote effectively the focus on service management some authors have suggested a reversal of traditional pyramidal structure and a substantial downsizing to promote a focus on customer interaction with front-line employees where managers of support units strive to improve the quality of services Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-07: 43 Organisational Implications Data to Information Based Enterprises (4) managerial & organisational differences that characterise firms in the traditional, industrialbased model -vs- information-based model traditional industrial model 6 to 13 layers of control-oriented, top-down management knowledge resides at the top and is distributed on a need-to-know basis downward functional groupings tend to be rigid and poorly coordinated except at the top of the organisation Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-07: 44 Organisational Implications Data to Information Based Enterprises (5) hierachical control-oriented top down knowledge residing at the top and distributed on a need to know basis downward functional orientation From flatter, repsonsive horizontal, focused on the support of the worker shared information, targeted use of knowledge, expertise, and technology task, market orientation To Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-07: 45 Organisational Implications Value Chains of Knowledge Workers (6) a few ‘leading-edge firms’ are beginning to define all their workers as knowledge workers due to automation, increasing reliance is placed on the quality and productivity of the less numerous, yet more highly skilled production workers in charge of manufacturing processes an interesting possibility is to consider that the rhetoric of ‘knowledge workers’ is actually being re/produced solely to reduce costs by employing fewer workers- just a continuation automation during the 60s and 70s Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-07: 46 Organisational Implications Value Chains of Knowledge Workers (7) the new knowledge worker becomes the object of ‘value adding’ management practices which views them as incurs costs and subject to various managerial practices worker + Human Resources compensation package learning/training resources benefits menu merit, equity in worker relations Information M’gmt Division information uses and needs sources of information Info Tech Division types software availability and use quality tailored hardware to work task presentation format supportive tech. infrastructure ease of retrieval Facilities Dimension work environment physical coordination work processes location/site characteristics Knowledge Worker reasoning capabilities cognitive style education experience personality motivation Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-07: 47 Organisational Implications Value Chains of Knowledge Workers (8) interestingly, the actual value of the knowledge workers and the utter depedence of organisations and managers on their work is rarely acknowledged this erasure is evidence of workers is evident in the ways management practices address them (ie. refer to them, think about them etc) pay attention to the language that is being iused in the following dioscussion about ‘knowledge workers’- what you need to think about is how are the ‘knowledge workers’ being addressed... Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-07: 48 Organisational Implications Value Chains of Knowledge Workers (9) in general it is viewed as not a good idea to subject workers to these apparent disjointed activities of management! the literature suggests that this traditional approach to the management of business processes and workers (termed disease-oriented treatment) can lower quality and flexibility enormously ... ... and can result in treating the ‘symptoms’ of worker dissatisfaction and low productivity while being unable to deal with the causes of such problems Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-07: 49 Organisational Implications Value Chains of Knowledge Workers (10) the alternative that is proposed to addressing the value chain of knowledge workers is characterized as patient oriented perceiving and addressing the interactions and interrelationships between the key dimensions of the worker value chain production workers are perceived holistically, and task requirements needs to be addressed in a coordinated way by each group of functional experts Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-07: 50 Organisational Implications Value Chains of Knowledge Workers (11) in my experience the dissatisfaction faced by knowledge workers has an entirely different causes: often management does not understand the work process or is uninterested in being able to address worker ‘symtoms of dissatisfaction’ in some cases management actually can end up deluding themselves into thinking that every thing is OK Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-07: 51 Organisational Implications Value Chains of Knowledge Workers (12) Disease-oriented treatment problem specific fragmented functional independence, dealing with knowledge worker independently o fother functions Patient-oriented treatment worker oriented holistic coordinated impact of functional strategies on knowledge workers Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-07: 52 Data Processing Critical Issues Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-07: 53 Data Processing Critical Issues 1. Layered Architectures & Planning Problems the infrastructure is changing but the computing science theory behind for example client/server and distributed processing had been around for decades and has the internet that has propelled these technologies in recent years interestingly decision makers have been very selective in the ways they use technological possibilities such as those afforded by the internet (for example there is no pier-pier computing is used in organisations the real challenges involve the complete separation of presentation, application, data across distributed systems… Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-07: 54 Data Processing Critical Issues …Layered Architectures & Planning Problems separating these layered architectures but there is no way of easily layering these different types of architecture together into a single enterprise architecture to help planners get it all right a sterling effort by Zachman (2001) on the next slide shows how difficult this to achieve and how difficult these problems must be to implement in real organisations Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-07: 55 ENTERPRISE ARCHITECTURE - A FRAMEWORK DATA What FUNCTION How NETWORK Where PEOPLE Who TIME When TM MOTIVATION Why SCOPE (CONTEXTUAL) List of Things Important to the Business List of Processes the Business Performs List of Locations in which the Business Operates Planner ENTITY = Class of Business Thing Function = Class of Business Process Node = Major Business Location e.g. Semantic Model e.g. Business Process Model e.g. Business Logistics System Ent = Business Entity Reln = Business Relationship Proc. = Business Process I/O = Business Resources Node = Business Location Link = Business Linkage e.g. Logical Data Model e.g. Application Architecture e.g. Distributed System Architecture e.g. Human Interface Architecture e.g. Processing Structure Ent = Data Entity Reln = Data Relationship Proc .= Application Function I/O = User Views Node = I/S Function (Processor, Storage, etc) Link = Line Characteristics People = Role Work = Deliverable Time = System Event Cycle = Processing Cycle End = Structural Assertion Means =Action Assertion TECHNOLOGY MODEL (PHYSICAL) e.g. Physical Data Model e.g. System Design e.g. Technology Architecture e.g. Presentation Architecture e.g. Control Structure e.g. Rule Design TECHNOLOGY MODEL (PHYSICAL) Builder Ent = Segment/Table/etc. Reln = Pointer/Key/etc. Proc.= Computer Function I/O = Data Elements/Sets Node = Hardware/System Software Link = Line Specifications Time = Execute Cycle = Component Cycle End = Condition Means = Action Builder e.g. Data Definition e.g. Program e.g. Network Architecture Ent = Field Reln = Address Proc.= Language Stmt I/O = Control Block Node = Addresses Link = Protocols People = Identity Work = Job e.g. DATA e.g. FUNCTION e.g. NETWORK e.g. ORGANIZATION ENTERPRISE MODEL (CONCEPTUAL) Owner SYSTEM MODEL (LOGICAL) Designer DETAILED REPRESENTATIONS (OUT-OFCONTEXT) SubContractor FUNCTIONING ENTERPRISE List of Organizations Important to the Business List of Events Significant to the Business List of Business Goals/Strat People = Major Organizations Time = Major Business Event Ends/Means=Major Bus. Goal/ Critical Success Factor e.g. Work Flow Model e.g. Master Schedule e.g. Business Plan Time = Business Event Cycle = Business Cycle End = Business Objective Means = Business Strategy People = Organization Unit Work = Work Product People = User Work = Screen Format e.g. Security Architecture e.g. Timing Definition Time = Interrupt Cycle = Machine Cycle e.g. SCHEDULE e.g., Business Rule Model e.g. Rule Specification End = Sub-condition Means = Step e.g. STRATEGY SCOPE (CONTEXTUAL) Planner ENTERPRISE MODEL (CONCEPTUAL) Owner SYSTEM MODEL (LOGICAL) Designer DETAILED REPRESENTATIONS (OUT-OF CONTEXT) SubContractor FUNCTIONING ENTERPRISE John A. Zachman, Zachman International (810) 231-0531 Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-07: 56 Data Processing Critical Issues 2. Diversification of Skills Some literature suggests that future programmers can be grouped into four categories: IS department programmers: declining from 2,000,000 in 1994 to several hundred thousand by 2010- rather than centralised into EDP centres they are being distributed out into business units Software company programmers: numbers are rise from 600,000 in 1994 to several million by 2010 as a result of more packaged solutions Embedded software programmers: Code embedded in other consumer goods like cars. Increase from several million in 1994 to 10,000,000 in 2010 Occasional programmers: Other professions use programming as part of their duties. Rise from 20 million in 1994 to over 100 million by 2010 Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-07: 57 Data Processing Critical Issues 3. Tower of Babel there are now so many languages (complete, scripting etc) and technologies that it is simply impossible to find staff trained in all the necessary issues particularly the case in Intranet and Internet (e-commerce) applications the following slide is meant to show the range of technical options that need to be covered by IT managers and how technically difficult this can get for web enabled applications… Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-07: 58 Data Processing Critical Issues Web Database Applications- Components Browser Layer Application Logic Layer External “helper” program HTML Document CGI program Proprietary Web Server Database Gateway Layer Database Layer Java Application Java applet Vendor’s Database API Command-line interface to database Database (RDMS) Web Server API module ODBC JDBC Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-07: 59 Data Processing Critical Issues 4. Standardisation versus Innovation… we talked about systems software incompatibilities when describing distributed applications- there is a powerful disincentive to comply with these standardisation efforts big producers argue: big producers generally argue that it is market forces (often code for ‘marketing force’) that will dictate who succeeds and who fails they will represent the view that standardisation as stifles innovation- does this remind you of a certain BIG company! in general this argument is by those who wish to maintain or increase their market share and are unwilling to agree to standards which would be perceived as favouring smaller producers Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-07: 60 Data Processing Critical Issues … Standardisation versus Innovation… an interesting aspect is that this kind of argument plugs into a set of beliefs about people as ‘rational individuals’ free to choose and consume as they wish but of course I like many of you are not free to consume, we are locked into certain kinds of purchasing choices because of the market that favours the producer not the consumer … … the tragedy is that I might end up believing that my choice of a particular word processor is because ‘there isn’t anything better’ (ie. other people have got the same word processor so they are likely to load and read my documents) rather than I really like to use it Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-07: 61 Data Processing Critical Issues … Standardisation versus Innovation… Small producers want the advantage of creating products that have a chance of being adopted widely and are disadvantaged if a major player in the market locks up a greater percentage of its actual market Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-07: 62 References Gee, H.(2001) Deep Time: Cladistics, The Revolution in Evolution London: Fourth Estate Gebremedhin, E. (1991) “Distributed Processing: Concepts and Models” DATAPRO Managing Information Technology: Technology Issues & Trends 1212, 1-12 Marchand, D. A. (1990) “Infotrends: A 1990s Outlook on Strategic Information Management” Information Management Review 5 (4), Spring O’Lone, E. J. and A. Williamson (1991) “Client/Server Computing” DATAPRO Managing Information Technology: Technology Issues & Trends 1222, 1-11 Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-07: 63 Acknowledgements the author greatly acknowledges the use of material provided in a research talk developed by Jim McKee, Department of Information Systems Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-07: 64