Here and Now, 1990s
PCs Meet Individual Needs, Not Organizational Needs
vMainframe and associated costs up from 1% to 1.5%.
²Mainframe systems run the business, but they are hugely expensive, hard to use, inflexible, and time consuming to develop. Still, the systems pay their own way — they run the business. Every transaction, every piece of work done, is justified based on ROI (return on investment). New mainframe systems don’t get built without a business justification.
vPCs, a previously nonexistent budget category, have also jumped to 1.5% of organization budgets in 10 years.
ØThe problem is that PCs can’t be used to run the business.
²PCs make individuals more productive. They’re easy to use, and application development is relatively quick and flexible.  Although individually inexpensive, in the aggregate, they cost as much as mainframes. They require support, network connections and servers, and a variety of other infrastructure and orgware costs. Worst of all, the costs can’t be justified on a ROI basis because PCs meet individual, not organizational, needs.
vSomething has to give.