Critical Success Factors for Information Center Managers

A stage hypothesis for information centers (ICs) is proposed and 26 critical success factors (CSFs) for IC managers are investigated. Based on 311 responses from IC managers, support is found for the proposed stages and information is provided about the importance of the CSFs. A principal components analysis is performed on the 26 CSFs which identifies five composite CSFs: (1) commitment to the IC concept; (2) quafity of IC support services; (3) facilitation end-user computing; (4) role clarity; and (5) coordination of end-user computing. Statistical tests show that the importance of these composite CSFs tend to vary among themselves but is relatively constant individually across the IC stages.