Abstract The article discusses what information system (IS) users are saying they want; information for solving new problems, when they want it, in the form they want it. Information users are beginning to realize they ought to be able to access more information directly, without the use of intermediaries. Some users are beginning to rebel at the traditional division of responsibility under which system designers specify IS and users do the best they can with the information the system provides. Users are no longer content to live in a two-person information economics model-users want to specify their own IS because they believe they will have information needs that system designers will not be able to anticipate. Although they have been spared accountants' fixation on GAAP, IS professionals have their own impediment. Because of their customarily large number of disorganized source statements written in languages no one uses anymore, legacy systems are inordinately difficult to modify or replace. In some cases, IS professionals' response to users' demands for information has been to stitch separate systems together with graphical interfaces that make it seem like the separate systems have been integrated.
A. Faye Borthick (Tue,) studied this question.