BMIS 2411 Information Systems

Fall Semester 2010

Katz Graduate School of Business, University of Pittsburgh

8:00 AM - 9:20 AM Tues & Thurs in Mervis 104 (course #20746)* 9:30 AM - 10:50 AM Tues & Thurs in Mervis 104 (course #20832)** * cross-listed with BA ACC 2411, course #20756 ** cross-listed with BA ACC 2411, course #20830

Professor: Dennis Galletta 342 Mervis Hall Phone: +1 412 648-1699 Skype name: pittdoctorg e-mail galletta@katz.pitt.edu Secretary: Pat Koroly 341 Mervis Hall Phone +1 412 648-2250 e-mail pkoroly@katz.pitt.edu

COURSE DESCRIPTION

Most areas of study in a reputable MBA program address strategic rather than operational issues. For instance, in Finance you do not learn how to become a cashier. In Marketing you do not learn how to film or script an advertisement. In Accounting you do not learn how to enter transactions into a variety of systems. Instead, all of those areas cover how to manage: what decisions to make; what trade-offs there are; what opportunities might be uncovered. This course is no exception.

The corporate world has made tremendous investments in IT. Those investments have grown over the years to be roughly equivalent to that of "plant" (of "property, plant and equipment" fame): 23% of expenditures. Corporate IT investments now have surpassed $5,000 per employee (from McAfee: "Managing in the Information Age" course overview, April 2005).

The difficulty with such expenditures is that it has taken many years to show "bottom line" benefits from these expenditures. There is a tremendous variance in benefits of IT investments, showing that such investments are unreliable in generating ROI. Variability has been increasing over time, making matters worse. We will show how this begs for strategic treatment. There are many different activities, ranging from forecasting to analysis to communication. Those activities start from determining the need and ending with deployment and evaluation. Each activity is a link in the overall chain, only as strong as its weakest link.

Common sense is not enough. Very smart people implement failed systems, miss opportunities, and, perhaps most importantly, launch initiatives that do not have sustainability. It is a matter of being aware of the technological possibilities, understanding how to complement corporate strategy, and applying principles to increase the sustainability of those moves.

As is the case nowadays in many fields, the operational focus is more likely to be outsourced. Strategic frameworks and analytical processes win out over programming. We focus on how to make use of information technology to fulfill or enable corporate strategy, competitive advantage, and perhaps even to shape a marketplace.

You are likely to become involved in technology decisions almost immediately in your career. As a team or committee member you will see very familiar issues and you will remember that common sense will not be enough. You, and others who have a similar background, will contribute valuable points of view that others using only their common sense will not be able to contribute. You might save the organization millions of dollars at each opportunity.

Learning Objectives

The strategic focus of this course points to decisions that executives need to make about information technology. This "view from 30,000 feet" is intended to emphasize millions of dollars rather than day-to-day decisions that probably don't belong in an MBA program. Strategic frameworks and analytical processes win out over programming and the use of tools. We focus on competitive advantage and the potential to shape a marketplace. When you finish this course, you should be able to:

• Make informed decisions about new information technologies and their implications
• Apply strategic models to discover and evaluate IT possibilities
• Build competitive advantage through IT by knowing the targets that deserve your accurate aim
• Assess sustainability of that competitive advantage
• Strengthen strategic alignment of IT with the goals of the organization
• Converse intelligently abut enterprisewide data sharing, and options thereof
• Assess and improve plans for reengineering of business processes
• Communicate with IT professionals effectively
• Work as a valuable partner with IT professionals as they engage in the system development process
• Make better decisions about what data should be stored and how it can be manipulated in a relational database system (Microsoft Access)
• Support efforts towards better security and avoid being an individual victim of security weaknesses
• Resolve ethical dilemmas faced in technological situations
• Manage outsourcing and offshoring opportunities
• Manage knowledge in an organization
• Develop a Technology Business Case or Plan

Computer:

On days that you do bring along your laptop, please do not distract other students with it by catching up on your e-mail or doing casual browsing during class. Constantly-open laptops could result in lower course participation scores and will result in less learning for your hard-earned (or borrowed) dollar!

Name Tag:

Please use name tags, assuming I do not know your name. Lack of a name tag will result in lower course participation scores.

Text:

Pearlson, Keri E. and Saunders, Carol S. Managing & Using Information Systems: A Strategic Approach (4th ed.), 2010, Wiley. ISBN 9-780-470-34381-4.

Articles:

• McAfee, Andy “Technology Beats a Full House,” (2008) available here.
• Carr, Nicholas "IT Doesn't Matter," Harvard Business Review, May, 2003 (download from library—see instructions on Blackboard).
• Brynjolfsson, Erik “VII Pillars of Productivity,” Information Week, May 1, 2005, available here.
• Brandel, Mary “Extreme ROI: Four Projects that Blew the Doors Off,” Computerworld, February 11, 2008, available here.
• Cummings, Joanne "How SOA could change the way you buy electricity" Network World Oct 22, 2007, available here.
• Kay, Russell “Quick Study: Cloud Computing,” Computerworld August 4, 2008, available here.
• Eisenmann, Caroline "When Hackers Turn to Blackmail," Harvard Business Review, October 2009 (download from library—see instructions on Blackboard).

Other Material:

• Microsoft Access packet (available on Blackboard)

Cases:

In the order in which they are assigned (dates in parentheses--if two, then date written/date revised).

Buy the cases at http://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cb/access/6689473

• Lands’ End (available free on Blackboard)
• Evergreen Investments: Mobil CRM (Harvard N9-605-057) (2005) Andrew McAfee
• CVS (Pharmacy Service Improvement at CVS) (A) (Harvard 9-606-015) (2005) Andrew McAfee
• Caregroup (Harvard 303-097) (2003) Rob Austin and Warren McFarland
• iPremiere Company (A): Denial of Service Attack (Graphic Novel Version) (Harvard 609-092) (2009) Austin, Robert D., Jeremy C. Short
• Zara: IT for Fast Fashion (Harvard 9-604-081) (2004) Andrew McAffee
• MDCM, Inc. (B): Strategic Portfolio Management (Kellogg case; Harvard KEL172) (2009) Mike Jeffrey and Joseph Norton

• Threadless: The Business of Community (Harvard 608707) (2008) Lakhani & Kanji

Final Project: Innovation Project

Under the "Assignments" tab, you will see a description of a group project that introduces some information technology to an organization. The required elements are specified in detail there, but include the following elements:

1. Context
2. Technology
3. Competitive Environment
4. Economics
5. Implementation

This assignment will give you a little creative freedom and come up with a good idea for modernizing a firm. It will guide you through a rather careful analysis of what to do, why, and how. You will also present your ideas in a short amount of time to your classmates and also respond to perhaps one or two of their questions.

How to Submit:

Please do not e-mail me your case answers and other items due! Please use Blackboard unless there is some kind of emergency. In addition, please SUBMIT, don't just ADD, your items whenever you use Blackboard. You will receive a warning if you just ADD the assignment. If you ignore this warning, your grade could be affected.

Item	Type	Score
Individual cases (4 @ 7 points)	Individual	28
Group cases (5 @ 4 points)	Group	20
Innovation Project and Presentation	Group	16
Access assignment	Individual	4
Quizzes (3 @ 8)	Individual	24
Class discussion/attendance/peer evals	Individual	8
Total		100

Academic Honesty: It is expected that all assignments will be your own original work, not copied and pasted from any source (friends, web sites, etc.). Failure to cite a source and mark quoted material is a serious violation of academic integrity, no matter how small the assignment, and could result in a failing grade in this course and/or the MBA program.

Please note that the lack of quotation marks and specific citations could be grounds for failing the course or being dismissed from the MBA program, even if you provide a reference at the end of the document.

Disabilities: If you have a disability for which you are or may be requesting an accommodation, you are encouraged to contact both your instructor and Disability Resources and Services (DRS), 140 William Pitt Union, (412) 648-7890/(412) 383-7355 (TTY), as early as possible in the term. DRS will verify your disability and determine reasonable accommodations for this course.