This year's survey reinforces this reality. Paying for technology is a critical issue and many schools, public and private, supplement their computing operating budget with computer fees. The major developments in the operations area dealt with the addition of Web staff and outsourcing. Fifty-four percent of the schools responded that they have allocated staff exclusive to Web development. Collected for the first time this year, the outsourcing data showed that about half the schools relied exclusively on the central university for telecommunication support and for Internet and Web services.
Training remains an ongoing challenge.
Given the rapid technological changes in both hardware and software, the need for users to keep current with these developments is critical. However, the data shows very little change from four years ago in terms of the schools effectiveness of their training efforts. Business school ownership of combined desktop and laptop microcomputers is averaging 244 systems per school, about the same as it was two years ago. This confirms observations from previous surveys that except for upgrades and replacements, there is little expectation of further growth in the number of microcomputers at the business schools. Some labs have cluster tables where groups of students can share a monitor.