Most efforts to achieve more effective administrative computing in higher education have focused on technical questions or on isolated applications required by middle management. Much less attention has been paid to the question of the proper role of administrative computing in the accomplishment of overall institutional objectives. The enormous variety of environments, missions, and goals found among institutions in postsecondary education precludes easy, all-inclusive answers. But answers must be found if institutions are to make major improvements in their information systems and administrative computing functions. Improvements will occur only if top-level management takes an active role in finding those answers. After defining the alternative roles that administrative computing can play in an institution, and after the various stages by which administrative computing is developed, an institution should be able to assess where its administrative computing effort stands. The next step is the involvement of top-level management by identifying the roles and responsibilities of users, the administrative computing organization, and external agencies. (Author/KE)