Defining Computer Information Needs for Small Business: A Delphi Method
探讨小企业如何定义计算机信息需求，指出先选硬件再定需求的常见错误，并推荐使用德尔菲法来系统化需求定义，帮助小企业避免决策失误。
DEFINING COMPUTER INFORMATION NEEDS FOR SMALL BUSINESS: A DELPHI METHOD With the development of mini- and micro-computers, the opportunity of small businesses to benefit from computerized information systems has increased substantially. Through the use of a mini- or micro-computer, a small business can develop an information system that will allow better and faster decisions to be made. However, the process of developing an appropriate information system and selecting the appropriate hardware usually presents more difficulties for small businesses than for larger ones. There are two reasons for this. First, a small business is unlikely to have an in-house expert. Second, a small business usually has fewer resources than a larger firm to allocate to developing a computerized information system. One special problem for small businesses is deciding what management wants a computer system to do, particularly when the administrative officers have no computer background. Too often, hardware is selected before deciding on the type of software required and, more important, before defining the information needs of the firm. Before software and hardware can be selected and/or developed, the small business manager must define their information needs.1 These needs ideally should be defined in terms of both existing and future information requirements.2 It is a serious mistake for a firm to select software and hardware without first defining information needs. Newpeck and Hallbauer provide two good examples of this error. 1 Edgar H. Hemmer and Margaret Fish, Information Processing for Professional Small Businesses,' Journal of Small Business Management (July 1983), p. 8; Frederick F. Newpeck and Rosalie C. Hallbauer, Some Advice for the Small Business Considering Computer Acquisition,' Journal of Small Business Management (July 1981), p. 21. 2 Hemmer and Fish, Information Processing for Professional Small Businesses,' p. 9. One profitable construction firm showed a $250,000 loss the year it acquired its computer, because it could not access the data in the cost estimating system. . . . Similarly, a manufacturing firm automated its accounting functions and later was unable to access its accounting data for government auditors.3 3 Newpeck and Hallbauer, Some Advice for the Small Business,' p. 21. These examples demonstrate what can happen when software and hardware are selected before needs are defined. The appropriate sequence is that information needs are defined, software is considered, and hardware is selected. It is important, at this point, to define what is meant by a small business. An extremely small business normally would have no need for a computer system. For such businesses, the cost advantage of having a computerized system, rather than a manual system, probably cannot be justified. Therefore, for the purposes of this discussion, small businesses are defined as firms that have reached a growth position of specialization of tasks, but are still considered small in scope. According to Steinhoff, a manufacturing firm may employ as many as 1,500 employees and still be considered a small' business.4 While this may represent an extreme case, the type of small business being addressed in this article is not the mom and pop' operation, but the business that has grown to the point of developing specialized functions. 4 Dan Steinhoff, Small Business Management Fundamentals (New York: McGraw-Hill, Inc., 1982), pp. 7-9. How can small businesses define their information needs? Defining small business information needs for a computer system is a topic which is often ignored. Most of the emphasis has been on selecting software and hardware systems. A number of difficult approaches--many of them highly subjective--have been suggested for this purpose. The method recommended here is to use a Request for Proposal (RFP). …