Investigating the Support Role of the Information Center

During the past decade, end-user computing has been subject to several research efforts. One result is common to nearly all of the studies on that topic: the importance of providing support to users. Descriptive studies have identified this result as a major issue; critical success factor studies have reported it as a key element, and models of factors of success have found that it is significantly related to user satisfaction with end-user computing. This article reports the results of a study that further investigates user support, in the particular context of the information center. The study examines the relationships among some of the key features of the information center in its support role and reports on user satisfaction. The results are based on the data provided by 172 users and 19 information center managers in 19 organizations. Analysis fo the data suggests that the number of information center employees, the number of databases, and the number of software tools provided to user are negatively correlated with the user satisfaction, while the proximity of the information center, the diversity of services offered, and the proportion of the information systems budget devoted to the information center are positively related with the various dimensions of user satisfaction.