Anderson School of Management

The 1997 Fourteenth Annual UCLA Survey of Business School Computer Usage extends the focus of the previous surveys, providing a comprehensive overview of the business school computing, communication, and information environment. Results of the survey show that business schools are now allocating about the same amount of their overall budget to support information technology as in 1985. The 1997 ratio of 3.3% represented a drop from the peak of 4.6% in 1993. The average number of business school owned microcomputers, 244, also declined from the 1993 peak of 258. The figure emphasizes that although budgets have returned level of a decade ago, the average number of microcomputer systems supported is three times what it was in the mid-eighties.

Other findings showed 85% of the business schools with access to distance learning and teleconferencing equipment, but only 39% with regular usage for instruction. Further, required on-line student use of databases and information resources has grown substantially, reflecting the power of the World Wide Web. Reminiscent of the early surveys when there would be 25 different word processing packages on the market, each offering something slightly different, the schools identified 108 separate Web tool software packages.

Detailed appendices identify key bench marking metrics by business school including computers ownership requirements, microcomputers and staff density ratios, as well as innovations in the areas of curriculum, Web development, and the technological environment.