The present paper deals with the impact of new Information Technologies (IT) on organizations. Its primary objective is the mapping of organizations in relation to the use of IT. But above all, this research is intended to find out how intensively problems manifest themselves when organizations adopt new ITs, as well as how successfully these problems are solved. The method chosen was the survey type research, carried out at big companies in the Porto Alegre metropolitan area, Brazil, between September and December 2000. Data was collected through personal interviews with IT managers. The final sample was composed of 91 out of a total of 164 companies initially contacted, i.e., 55.5% of these big companies were investigated. The profile of IT used by big companies in the Porto Alegre metropolitan area was mapped through data analysis. This profile was compared with the profile of different organizational areas, among others. As far as problems are concerned, the more intense ones were listed with a consideration for the highest averages. For actions concerning occurrence and success an analysis was carried out taking into consideration the highest average of occurrence intensity and the highest average of success intensity.
information technology; problems; actions
