Instructor
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William Wresch,
Ph.D. |
(920)
424 – 4151 (office) |
|
|
(920) 231 – 2789
(home |
|
Clow Faculty 231 |
|
|
|
www.uwosh.edu/faculty_staff/wresch |
|
|
|
Applegate, L., McFarlan, F. W.,
and McKenney, J., Corporate
Information Strategy and Management: Text and Cases, 6th. Ed., McGraw-Hill,
Irwin 2003
Weekly
Discussions
|
Week |
Discussion
Topic |
Chapter |
Prepare |
|
Jan 29 |
The Impact of IT on Business
Basics |
1 |
Taco |
|
Feb 5 |
IT & Emerging Business models |
2 |
Quicken Insurance (p79) |
|
Feb 12 |
IT & Value Chain Models |
3 |
National Logistics Management
(p165) |
|
Feb 19 |
|
Web site |
Cisco Systems (p601) |
|
Feb 26 |
Global Systems |
Web site
|
Submarino.com (p191) |
|
March 5 |
eEntrepreneurs Student Presentations |
Web site |
Internet Securities (p342) |
|
March 12 |
IT Management |
7 |
Tektronix (p 637) |
|
March 26 |
Organizing IT |
8 |
Harley Davidson (p617) |
|
April 2 |
IT Security |
6 |
IPremier Company
(p491) |
|
April 9 |
IT Outsourcing |
9 |
Xerox – outsourcing (p655) |
|
April 16 |
IT Projects |
10 |
Ford Motor Company (p500) |
|
April 23 |
IT infrastructure |
5 |
Postgirot Bank
(p519) |
|
April 30 |
The CIO |
Web site |
|
|
May 7 |
Student Presentations |
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|
This course has two principle objectives. First, IT is changing both the way we do
business and the very models for business.
You can now be in more businesses than you could be a decade ago. We want to explore those possibilities. Second, the IT systems we use every day have
to be managed. We will walk in the shoes
of IT managers to see what problems they face and what approaches they take to
manage the IT function.
This course will help you learn how to assess technical and
business opportunities and risks, how to achieve a fit between business
strategy and information technology architecture, and how to optimally organize
the corporate IT function.
Case Presentation (10 pts)
Once during the course you will be one of two people who will lead discussion of a case. A sign-up list will be circulated during the first class period. Your description will have three parts:
History – Each case will include a description of the circumstances of the company. You are to select the events that are most important and describe their significance. Be selective. You don’t need to repeat the entire story of the company. Show that you have a sense for which events in the history of the company had the greatest impact on their current circumstances. Please don’t list every event on the history of the company.
Problems and opportunities - Of all the things currently happening with this company, what are the biggest problems management faces? Where are the opportunities?
Recommendations – If the executive team of this company called you in as a consultant, what would you recommend? Why?
Executive
case analyses (5 pts each, 40 total)
You will submit 8 cases for
grading. Each case analysis will be one
page (single spaced) in length, and will be an analysis of which
events/problems/opportunities presented in the case should be looked at by the
CEO.
Begin with this premise – any executive is constantly being bombarded by well-meaning people with lots of ideas for improving the company. But no person can do everything. Having just read the case, what 1-3 things do you think should make it to the top of the CEO’s to-do list? (Ideally, these would be things the CEO might not already have considered.) Describe each in a short paragraph. Explain why your problem or opportunity is the most important.
2
Interviews (10 pts each, 20 pts total)
The
best way to learn about IT issues is to talk to someone who is involved in IT
projects. Each of these papers is to be 3-4
single-spaced pages.
Look
around your business – or a business you know and respect. What have they done with IT that has enhanced
their business, either by cutting costs significantly, or by opening up
additional revenue streams? Find someone
who was involved in that project and conduct an interview. How was the innovative project
conceived? How was it evaluated? How was the project staffed and led? How was it managed? How do people on the team feel about the
project now that it is completed? What
would they do differently? Finally, add
your own analysis of the project. What
do you see as the main strengths and weaknesses of the project? Due Mar 5
During
the second half of the course we discuss such IT areas as operations,
infrastructure, security, and project management. Interview an IT manager and find out how that
manager has addressed all the topics we considered. Ask which requires the most management
time. Which is growing in
importance? Be sure to also ask how the
IT function is linked to the rest of the organization
and how its priorities are set. Once you
have a good feel for how this manager approaches this set of management
challenges, present your own view. If
you were CIO, what would you keep and what would you change? Due May 7
2 summary
papers (15 points each, 30 total)
Our course really has two halves.
The first half addresses general implications of how businesses are being
changed by the application of IT. The
second half addresses how the IT resources of a company should be managed. Your job is to write a summary paper for each
half.
Each paper will be 4-5 pages in
length and will explain how you would apply the concepts you are learning to a
company you now work for or have worked for in the past. The material you gather from the interview
should be helpful, and you may include ideas from additional outside
reading. Format each paper as if you
were giving a 15 minute presentation to your CEO explaining how you think a
company can take advantage of IT business opportunities, and (in the second
paper) explaining how you think IT should be managed. You might also think of these papers as the
presentation you might give if you were being interviewed for a promotion. You will present a summary (5 minute version)
of your paper during one of the scheduled evening sessions. The first paper is due March 5 and the second
is due May 7.
General
comments about written work:
Work should be single-spaced with at least one-inch margins
on all sides. Use 12 point type. No work should exceed page limits. If it does, I will simply stop reading after
the page maximum. Learn to be
concise.
Spelling and grammar are important. Your grade will be lowered if your English is
poor. Write complete sentences and
paragraphs. Bullet points are also
useful to highlight lists of ideas, but such bullets should be used
judiciously. Keep your sentences short
and avoid business jargon (please don’t tell management to “be proactive”). Use a spelling and grammar checker.
Important:
No late work will be accepted.
All written work is due at the start of the class where the case is
discussed.
Grades: What am I
looking for? Creativity
and specificity. In the cases,
you need to find the biggest issues facing management. If you distract the CEO with minor issues, it
will hurt your grade. Explain why the
issues you name are the primary issues for his/her attention. Provide support for your position. It should be clear that you know enough about
business to help a CEO find the central problems or opportunities that move a
company forward.
A=
93-100, A/B = 88-92, B = 83-87, B/C = 78-82, C = 72-77
Contacting me
Use
email (wresch@uwosh.edu). I have an
answering machine on my phone both at work and at home, so you can try me that
way, but it is usually easier on both of us if you just email when you have
time, and I answer when I have time. I
check my e-mail once or twice an hour.