AD016 Managing IT and Information Systems I Paul Fox - pfox@salle.url.edu Course Contents DESCRIPTION This class continues our analysis of business applications of information systems, and provides an introduction to key technologies in networking, information security, the Internet, knowledge management, and enterprise computing. Students will have learnt about the processes and techniques of managing the information, knowledge and IT functions and the importance of managing customer and client needs (internal and external) when designing information architecture. Students will also be aware of the importance of aligning IT and information and knowledge resources with corporate strategy and operational priorities: and the need also to evaluate investment in IT, knowledge and information. We will also explore challenges with distributed teams, participating in a partially distributed teams project where your team members are located in other countries, and you must collaborate to complete a project. OBJECTIVES By the end of the course the students will: Be familiar with the latest business technology terminology. Be able to identify the potential role of IS in providing competitive advantage. Be aware of the process and limitations of formulating IS strategies. Be aware of the opportunities and limitations of IS in decision-making. Be aware of the benefits and challenges of participating in distributed teams. Be able to identify the ethical issues that may arise from the use of IS. Methodology A. Reading assignments: read text assignments prior to class and be prepared to discuss the text material, answering instructor questions orally with well-organized thoughts and ideas. B. Class attendance: you are expected to attend each class period, be on time and stay the full class period or be counted absent. You are responsible for all course material missed due to absence. The instructor does not provide class notes for classes missed. Note: Absence from class for any reason will result as a 0 for that class unless you turn in a written summary of the materials for that day within a week. C. You will participate in a partially distributed team project for five weeks from October 3 through November 6. You ll work with students around the world to research a business problem and propose a solution. Several deliverables are required throughout the project. A sample project description is at the end of this syllabus. D. You will prepare a group presentation analyzing the benefits and challenges of implementing an information system. Readings Required Textbook "Information Systems: A Manager s Guide to Harnessing Technology" Available online at http://www.flatworldknowledge.com/pub/1.0/information-systems-manager%e2%80%99s-#web- 199456 Recommended Text books:
Management Information Systems, 8 th Edition, O Brien and Marakas (2008). Management Information Systems: Managing the Digital Firm. Laudon and Laudon (2006). Pearson Prentice Hall. 11th Edition. Competencies Critical Thinking. Basic theoretical knowledge of the subject. Development of written and oral communication skills. Development of Information management skills. Problem-solving skills. Project management and teamwork. Cross-cultural skills. Creativity. A search for quality excellence. Self Motivation. Learning Outcomes By the end of this course, students should be able to have achieved the objectives set up for this course and have developed the competencies listed above. Labs Classes for the PDT project will be held in the computer lab (ALCOI) Continuous Assessment REQUIREMENTS, EXPECTATIONS, AND ASSESSMENT Punctuality (respect for your time and that of others!) and active participation (of highest quality and building on the comments of your classmates) are two essential requirements for this course. Follow the Cell phones & Laptops policy. Cell-phones are off limits during class: no calls no text messaging- no Iming. Please, turn them off. No cell-phones are allowed on the table to check the time. Your professor will inform you when it is the time to finish the class. If you have an emergency situation that requires you to be contacted quickly during class time, let your professor know at the beginning of class and an exception may be made if the professor considers so. Laptops. The use of laptops are only allowed under the professor s permission and with the only purpose of taking notes. In case, the professor has the feeling they are used for other purposes; they will be strongly forbidden and the student will have to leave the class. That will mean an absence. Those students allowed to use a laptop will have to show the professor the notes taken with it at the end of each class. Moreover, they will have to sit at the front of the class. Retake Exam
Consists of those of the following which you failed during the regular course: topic presentation, case analyses (Zara, Tektronix, ipremier), and Midterm and Final exams. Your grade on the re-take will be the average of your final grade for the regular course and your grade on the re-take. Revision Date Once the semester is over and final grades posted, there will be a time slot of a day devoted to revision. In case of repeating the course Students should choose within the first week of the academic year one of the following two alternatives below: First Modality Attend the course and follow the Regular course policy. Second Modality Topic Presentation Written analysis of Zara, Tektronix, and ipremier cases Midterm and Final Exams Students MUST notify the teacher via mail (pfox@salle.url.edu) which modality they choose; in case students don t notify the teacher within the first week of the course, they will be assigned the second modality by the beginning of the second week of the course. Even when students are assigned with the second modality, it is their OWN and ONLY RESPONSIBILITY to contact the teacher to know what to do and how to proceed. EVALUATION Your final grade consists of five parts: 1. Class Participation 25% 2. Midterm exam 20% 3. Partially Distributed Teams Project 20% 4. Student Topic Presentation 15% 5. Final exam 20% Identified cases of PLAGIARISM in individual or group submissions will lead to suspending the course. Below are the evaluation criteria for each part: 1) Class Participation: Come to class ON TIME, PREPARED to take part in the case discussions and other activities. You will be assessed on the QUALITY of your comments and your ability to CONNECT with and build upon the comments made by your colleagues. Some assignments you will be asked to read and to be prepared to discuss in class, and a few you will be asked to upload to estudy. Any assignment received after its due date will receive a 0. Note: Absence from class for any reason will result as a 0 for that class unless you turn in a written summary of the materials for that day. 2) Partially Distributed Team Project: You will work on a project in cooperation with students at other universities from October 4 to November 6. Please see the sample project description following the course agenda. Each week you will have deliverables to complete as part of the project. Your grade will reflect the successful completion of the deliverables as well as your participation in class activities related to the project. 3) Mid-term Exam: The first exam will test your knowledge of language and concepts related to the topic presentations (the PDT project will not be included).
4) : In this project, you will examine a specific information technology (IT) of your choice and its relevance/application to contemporary businesses. The goal of this project is to make you comfortable with intelligently discussing a leading-edge IT and making an informed decision of its applicability to today s businesses. The project will be executed in teams of 3-4 students. Each team will make a presentation in class (about 30 minutes). Your target audience for this project is senior corporate management. Please address the following issues in your presentation: 1. What is the technology, what are its features, and how does it work? 2. Describe the history/evolution of the technology. 3. What benefits does the technology provide/promise for businesses? 4. What infrastructure or complementary technologies are needed to use this technology? 5. Describe 3 businesses that currently use it and how. What are the main benefits and challenges they have experienced in using this technology? 6. Compare the key vendors of this technology, their solutions, and cost. 7. What are the risks or challenges in implementing this technology? 8. What are the competing technologies, if any? 9. List of references (at least five). 10. Also distribute a 1 to 2 page summary of the questions above to your classmates. The use of relevant, short videos is encouraged. Please also make these sessions interactive; the best presentations will purposefully initiate and coordinate class discussion. Some suggested topics for technology briefs include: outsourcing/offshoring data mining and business intelligence telecommunications and mobility ubiquitous technology and the paradox of choice knowledge management cloud computing enterprise 2.0 artificial intelligence wireless technologies green IS/IT bioinformatics technology use in a particular industry vertical You can also propose a topic of your own. Project topics will be awarded on a first come, first served basis. I need your choice of topic, proposed presentation date, and names of team members by the second week of class. How can you research for this project? Google is a good starting point; CIO magazine also has high-quality pages on the basics of various technology topics. The challenge will be to filter, validate, and synthesize useful content. Online IT magazines such as Business 2.0, Wired, MIT Technology Review, and Information Week, and vendor web sites are also useful sources of information (see the links in the Supplementary Reading List). Note that a lot of materials on the Internet are plain hype and present an overly rosy picture; you should not buy into everything you read, but validate it using reliable, third-party sources. 5) Final Exam: The first exam will test your knowledge of language and concepts related to the topic presentations since the mid-term.
Agenda Sessions and Course Syllabus AGENDA FOR THE SESSIONS: Classes are held on: - Monday from 12.40 to 14.00 - Tuesday from 9.40 to 11.00 - Wednesday from 12.40 to 14.00 Sep 12 Sep 13 Sep 14 Sep 19 Sep 20 Sep 21 Sep 26 Sep 27 Sep 28 Oct 3 Oct 4 Oct 5 Oct 10 Oct 11 Oct 12 Oct 17 Oct 18 Oct 19 Oct 24 Oct 25 Oct 26 Oct 31 Nov 1 Nov 2 Nov 7 Nov 8 Nov 9 Sessions Introduction The World is Flat World is Flat discussion Gallaugher Chapter 2: Strategy and Information Systems Nerds 2.0.1 Part I Music Industry Porter s and Value Chain Laudon and Laudon: Ethics in Information Systems Nerds 2.0.1 Part II Gallaugher Chapter 3: Zara Fast Fashion From Savvy Systems Nerds 2.0.1 Part III Net Neutrality Wrap-up Gallaugher Chapter 6: Understanding Network Effects Outsourcing Video Review Nov 14-18 Mid-Term Nov 21 Nov 22 Nov 23 Nov 28 Nov 29 Nov 30 Dec 5 Dec 6 Dec 7 Dec 12 Dec 13 CRM and Data Mining videos Wikileaks Gallagher Chapter 10: Cloud Computing
Dec 14 Dec 19 Dec 20 Dec 21 Jan 9 Jan 10 Jan 11 Tektronix Case Tutorial Information Security Video: Cyber War ipremier Case Video: Smart Mobs Review Jan 17-28 Punto de control (Final) Finals Sample Description BTMAPS Project: As part of the global war against terrorism, the Swiss Ministry of Defense wants to have a plan for protecting its citizens against bioterrorist threats. They have decided to use Zurich as a test case because it is the country s largest city and an important global financial center. They have requested proposals for development of a Bioterrorism Management and Planning System (BTMAPS) that will support analysts in detecting bioterrorist threats to Zurich as well as management of resources needed for the associated response. BTMAPS is used to cover threat detection, executive decision-making, and general emergency resource management (e.g., transportation control, law enforcement, care facilities, anti-dote distribution). A separate proposal will focus on the biological and medical analysis as well as treatment aspects of bioterrorist attacks. The Zurich Metropolitan Area Zurich is situated where the river Limmat leaves the northern end of Lake Zurich; it is surrounded by wooded hills. The geographic (and historic) center of the city is the Lindenhof, a small natural hill on the left bank of the river Limmat, about 700 meters north of where the river leaves the lake. Many financial institutions have their headquarters in Zurich, making it the world's primary center for offshore banking. In fact the financial sector accounts for about one quarter of the city's economic activities. The financial success of Zurich is due to many factors, including a very low tax rate and no inheritance tax on private fortunes. Another factor is its Research and Development industry that is fueled by the prestigious ETH Zurich and University of Zurich. Your Challenge You are part of a distributed team that is bidding on the Request for Proposal (RFP) for BTMAPS. You have been asked to work with other analysts to determine the capabilities/functions to be incorporated into the bioterrorist threat detection and associated resource management system. The envisioned information system should be able to identify and track emerging infectious diseases that could be the result of bioterrorism attacks, for example by documenting outbreaks, and monitoring epidemic trends (of anthrax, small pox or other deadly diseases) in a timely fashion. The decision-making and resource management (i.e., deciding when an attack has occurred and how to manage the resources needed for response) should focus on Zurich but should include evidence from surrounding areas (e.g., an attack that may have initiated in Paris). If successful, the new system will be generalized and provided to other metropolitan areas, so your analysis should assume possible future integration with similar systems. In your analysis you should consider the following aspects of the problem: 1. What and how disease/epidemic trends should be monitored.
2. What decisions are needed, when and by whom, and how to support these decisions. 3. What civil or governmental resources that are relevant to a response, how they should be organized, accessed, deployed, and monitored. 4. Who will utilize the system (or parts of the system) that is, who are the user groups that you are designing the system for? Deliverables Your team is to prepare a proposal that addresses the results of your initial investigation regarding the Request for Proposal. A template that is partially completed is provided. You must complete the following major portions of the template: 1. Goals of the BTMAPS information system 2. Description of the users 3. High-level Functional Requirements 4. High-level Design (i.e. user interface screen mockups) 5. Next Steps Your audience: Your proposal is to be written for a non-technical audience. It is to include highlevel functional requirements and design (NOT detailed specifications). Observations Professor: Paul Fox Email: pfox@salle.url.edu. Office: Lluçanès Building, 4th floor, office L45. Office Hours: By appointment. Class Meeting Time: - Monday from 12.40 to 14.00 - Tuesday from 9.40 to 11.00 - Wednesday from 12.40 to 14.00 About the Professor: Paul Fox is a Professor at La Salle Business Engineering School, Barcelona, pursuing a Ph.D. from ESADE, and teaching courses in information systems, ebusiness, entrepreneurship, and technology-driven innovation. In addition to 9 years teaching at the university and MBA levels, his background includes an MBA from the University of Texas at Austin in information management, 7 years' experience in accounting/finance management positions for startups and a multinational, and 3 years' experience at DiamondCluster as a strategy consultant (manager) specialized in creating new Internet and communications ventures for established companies. Research interests include innovation ecosystems, Internet affiliate marketing programs, Internet business models and search engine marketing and optimization.