Managing the growth of electronic office information systems

Organizations, and particularly their information services departments, are facing more difficult problems as society inexorably moves into the information age. The ability of organizations to survive in the future may very well depend upon their capacity to satisfactorily cope with the pace of technological change. With the rate at which technologies such as word processors, electronic mail, personal computing, facsimile devices, private automatic branch exchanges (PABXs), voice recognition systems, intelligent copiers, to name but a few, are being introduced in organizations, well thought out information management strategies are needed. The purpose of this paper is to propose a stage theory of growth which could help organizations develop appropriate information management strategies dealing with electronic office information systems; and additionally, to underline the key role that electronic information systems may play as organizations face the problems of moving into the information age.