Senior management's responsibilities in promoting information technologies: some empirical perspectives

After reviewing the reasons urging the direct involvement of senior management in promoting information technology, the author discusses the requirements for effectively harnessing the potentials of information technologies and provides some empirical perspectives on the results of some major applications. It is suggested that effective development and utilization of information technology systems should be recognized by top management as requiring a comprehensive long-term program of progressively broader applications rather than an array of independent acquisitions of whatever components promise attractive short-term returns during periodic evaluations of new capital allocation proposals. Sound planning of an information technology program would benefit from an early broad perspective which envisions the overall sequential stages of development.<>