Here and
Now, 1990s
PCs Meet Individual Needs, Not Organizational Needs
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.
èThe 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.