IP: feudal empires.

[David Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

HIGHER ED CIOs COME IN ALL SIZES
"The three major problems that confront higher education today are quality,
costs and access," says Educom President Robert C. Heterick, Jr.
"Institutions that are trying to improve in those areas are invariably
looking to information technology."  Meanwhile, Peter Segall, a partner in
Coopers & Lybrand's higher education consulting group, points out that these
information technology needs vary by institutional size, making the academic
CIO's role flexible:  "You can't be a chief of anything at (large research
institutions) because they are feudal empires.  Decision making is
decentralized to the local level where each dean runs the show."  Mid-sized
universities with budgets ranging from $25 million to $200 million are more
manageable, while smaller colleges allow a CIO to have the most influence:
"Those CIOs have an easier time dictating technology decisions because
there's more acceptance of centralized control, particularly when it comes
to administrative computing," says Segall.  (CIO 15 May 97)