The purpose of this study was to make an investigation into some of the major factors thatrnhindered the development of strategic information system in Addis Ababa University. It wasrnalso intended to identify the flow of information in the offices of the top managers of thernUniversity, the level of application of computers in the various academic and administrativerndepartments, and to suggest appropriate information system architecture to support itsrnadministrative and academic activities. To achieve these objectives, the existing infonnation system was studied with particularrnreference to the application of computers in the various offices and the perfonnance of therncentral computer center- System Design and Data Processing Center (SDDPC), including itsrnmaterials and human resources, its weaknesses and strengths. It was observed that differentrntypes of computers are used in both the academic and administrative departments in thernuniversity. However, most of the computers are used to run word processing applications andrnfor some rudimentary networking activities. The central computer center uses very old technology (mainframe based system) and it runsrnshort of skilled manpower. Because of this and other related factors, the center couldn't servernthe University community as it should or as its stated objective in that nearly half of thernacademic and administrative departments do not even know the existence of the center.rnFurthermore, even the central administration of the University does not have on-line access tornany of the misinformation that the center keeps. The investigation has also revealed that the university does not have clearly stated and wellrnchartered information system plan/strategy and mission that guides the various efforts ofrnindependent segments to integrate information technology to their activities. The interviewrnresults indicated that the major reasons for the absence of well documented or clearly definedrninformational system strategy are: other priorities being more important, budget constraints,rnlow perception of the concept by the University administrators, lack of appropriate planning,rnlack of organizational/top management support, shortage of appropriate technical supportrnstaff, and absence of optimum use of available material and human resources. The critical success factors of the University are identified to be: human resource, teaching,rnstudents' academic record keeping, students administration, academic information resources,rnresearch activities, and finance. The major organizational processes of the University, and thernoffices (managers) that perform these processes are identified. Information requirements forrneach organizational process are also determined. Finally, based on the observed flow of information, a distributed (client/server) informationrnsystem that is organized on hierarchical basis is recommended. It is suggested thatrninformational systems be organized following the lines of the functional areas. The lower levelrnsystems report to the higher ones and the University will have a central information systemrndepartment that coordinates and supervises informational system activities and projects in thernUniversity. This center which has its own sub units like systems development, networking,rndatabases, programming, etc. will house the information system for the central administrationrnthat provides information to supplier their unstructured and semi-structured decision makingrnactivities