Acquiring New Technology

Increasing competition for scarce resources and new demands for accountability create information management challenges for human service agencies. A survey of managers of human service agencies is used to identify obstacles to acquisition of new information technology in both public and nonprofit agencies. Agencies with donors committed to new technology, managers with discretion to choose among technology alternatives, and a workforce with few volunteers are likely to acquire technology. The results are consistent with theoretical approaches to the nonprofit sector that emphasize similarities between nonprofit and public agencies. Both types of agencies are dependent on external sponsors.