Systemen, planning, netwerken

This book is a report of a study aimed to investigate in how far a computer can be used for controlling a process in an organization. The choice of this subject was suggested by the fact that in recent years the development of the applications of computers has not kept step with the technical development of these machines. In particular the introduction of the so-called 'third generation computers' has caused a fracture between the actual applications and the possibilities of application. In a recent publication of the firm of management consultants, Mc. Kinsey and Company Inc., the fact just mentioned emerges very cleary as a result of an investigation with a number of computers users. The following quotation is from the report concerned: 'From a profit standpoint, our findings indicate, computer efforts in all but a few exceptional companies are in real, if often unacknow- ledged, trouble. Faster, costlier, more sophisticated hardware; larger and increasingly costly computer staffs; increasingly complex and ingenious applications: these are in evidence everywhere. Less and less in evidence, as these new applications proliferate, are profitable results. This is the familiar phenomenon of diminishing returns. But there is one crucial difference: As yet, the real profit potential of the computer has barely begun to be tapped' (Mc. Kinsey, 1968).