Course IntroductionIT Strategy I

1
Course Introduction/IT Strategy I
Cecil Eng Huang Chua Information Technology
Operations Management aehchua_at_ntu.edu.sg
2
Outline

• Principles of Technology
• Using IT in Organizations
• Management of IT

3
Outline

• Principles of Technology
• Hardware
• System Software
• Databases
• Telecommunications
• Security Software
• Using IT in Organizations
• System Acquisition
• Networking
• Security
• Management of IT
• IT Strategy
• E-Commerce
• IT Operation Decisions

4
Lesson Outline

• Role of Business
• IT in Business
• What can IT do for us?
• Should we invest in IT?
• How should we invest in IT?
• The Course
• What we will cover
• This section
• Grading
• Your instructor
• HW Roboto

5
Role of Business

• Basic goal of the firm
• Maximize profit
• Must manage stakeholders
• Customers
• Suppliers
• Employees and Managers
• Regulators (government, CASE, activists)
• Investors (shareholders, VCs, owners)
• Competitors
• Media, researchers
• Etc.

6
Lesson Outline

• Role of Business
• IT in Business
• IT in the Organization
• What is Information
• Benefits and Costs of Information Technology
• The Course
• What we will cover
• This section
• Grading
• Your instructor
• HW Roboto

7
IT and Organization

• IT Provides one way to meet organizational
  objectives
• Example Global stakeholders
• IT makes global organizational management
  possible
• Link company using Internet technology
• Not always the way
• Examples
• EZ-link S300 million
• Nike US400 million

8
Information and the Organization

• ITInformation Technology
• InformationData that we employ to perform an
  action or make a decision
• Actions/Decisions
• Transactional Routine operations
• Tactical Short term decisions
• Strategic Long term decisions

9
Information Technology and Organization Benefits

• Information Technology enables more efficient and
  effective manipulation of information
• Makes existing information processing better
• Enables new ways of processing information

10
IT and Organization Benefits Examples

• Transactional
• Makes Existing Better Barcode scanner
• Enables New Processing Online auctions
• Tactical
• Makes Existing Better Route scheduling
• Enables New Processing Oil exploration
• Strategic
• Makes Existing Better War Simulations
• Enables New Processing Enterprise Systems

11
IT and Organization Costs

• Benefits of IT must outweigh costs
• Cost
• Real costs opportunity cost
• Not necessarily paper costs
• Example Cashcard
• Makes losses
• Main role to keep association of banks to money

12
Question For You

• You are a mid-level manager
• You want to buy a computer for your
  administration clerk
• How much does the computer cost?

13
The Grim Reality

• 70 of IT Projects Fail
• Costs of IT Projects are wildly misestimated
• Most managers underestimate IT costs by gt200

14
If IT Is So Horrible, Why Do We Use It?

• Because we need it!
• Imagine a supermarket without barcode scanners
• Can UPS not offer package tracking when FedEx
  does?
• Do you know how to use a manual typewriter?
• We live in an IT world
• You cant avoid it
• You have to learn to live in it
• You have to live with

the IT person
15
Which is your IT Person?

• Find out, in this course!

16
You are hiring a new IT person
Thinks a brick is a hard disk Very helpful and
has good people skills
Very competent in IT Wonders what would happen if
he ran 2000 V through you
Who would you hire?
17
Careers in IT IT Project Manager

• IT People are the best project managers
• Hardest types of projects to handle
• Involve people
• Involve technology
• A good project manager is worth his weight in
  gold
• Most IT project managers arent IT trained
• Remember that 70 project failure?
• Remember that gt200 cost overrun?

18
IT Project Manager Skill Set

• Familiarity with technology
• Knows enough about tools to catch lying vendors
• Knows enough about development to catch lazy IT
  employees
• Strong people skills
• Gets users to work together
• Many IT employees are crazy. Need a charismatic
  leader to make them work
• Strong project management skills
• Did we mention our project management course?
• BCXXX Project Management

19
Lesson Outline

• Role of Business
• IT in Business
• IT in the Organization
• What is Information
• Benefits and Costs of Information Technology
• The Course
• Material and sequencing
• This section
• Grading
• Your instructor
• HW Roboto

20
What You Need To Know

• Principles of Technology
• What information technology is
• What information technology can do for you
• What information technology cannot do for you
• Application of Technology
• How to use technology to make your life easier
• How to use technology to support business
• Management of Technology
• Theories of Information Systems
• IT Strategy

21
Topics

• Principles of Technology
• Hardware
• System Software
• Security Software
• Databases
• Telecommunications
• Application of IT
• Integrated Software
• Hierarchy of MIS
• Security Systems
• Internet Technology
• Systems development
• Management of IT
• IT Strategy

22
Within Class Sequence

• Hour 1-2 Knowledge material and problem solving
• Lectures (minimum necessary)
• Exercises
• Discussion
• Activity
• Group presentations
• Hour 3-4 Go to lab to use technology

23
This AB113 Section

• Your instructor has a reputation
• Please ask the year 2s about Cecil Chua
• I do not care if you skip class
• Your responsibility to keep up with material
• Your notes and readings are not complete
• Cover things in greater depth than most AB113
  sections
• Writing skills and dogged determination essential
  to your survival in this course
• You do not have to be technologically competent.
  I will explain the technology to you.
• You will be technologically competent at the end
  of this course.
• You will work while AB113 students elsewhere relax

24
Grading

• Individual 351
• Group 1510
• Final Exam 50

25
Grading Individual (35)

• Class Participation 5
• Oral case discussion 5
• Homework 5
• Quizzes (up to 3 surprise) 20
• Extra Credit Game Assistance 1

26
Individual Participation

• Marked at every class
• Get points say something insightful
• Lose points I cold call and you demonstrate
  ignorance of material
• Demonstrate interest in course
• Readings for the day are to be read before coming
  to class

27
Case Preparation

• Case 1 Bradley C. Wheeler, George M. Marakas
  (1999) Consumer Products International Business
  Case and Biogenetica San Jose ITSA Replacement
• Case 2 Donald J. McCubbrey, Paul Bloom and Brad
  Younge (2005). USA Swimming The Data Integration
  Project. Communications of the Association for
  Information Systems. 16. 299-316.

28
Individual Homework

• Excel assignment due week of Feb 06
• Query-by-example assignment due week of February
  27
• HTML assignment due week of March 20
• All assignments due before class on specified week

29
Quizzes

• Unannounced
• Format to be determined
• Not from the test bank
• Really Hard
• Curved
• Extra Credit

30
Grading Group (1510)

• Groups of up to four
• Biography 5
• Written case analysis 10
• Extra Credit Robot battle/robot dance 10

31
Biography (1)

• Famous people in IT
• Hopefully, you dont know about them
• Human side to technology
• Maximum 10 minutes
• Tell us interesting things about person
• Answer the questions asked

32
Biography (2)

• Alan Turing
• Ada Lovelace
• Grace Hopper
• Frederick W. Smith
• E. F. Codd
• James Ellis, Clifford Cocks, Malcolm Williamson
• Antonio Meucci
• Edwin Armstrong
• Hedy Lamarr
• Radia Perlman
• Sanford Wallace
• Meg Whitman and Anne Mulcahy

33
Choose a Biography

• If you believe in equal opportunity Alan Turing
• If you like royalty Ada Lovelace
• If you believe women can do anything Grace
  Hopper
• If you like the idea of ignorant instructors
  Frederick W. Smith
• If you like corporate intrigue E. F. Codd
• If you like spy stuff James Ellis, Clifford
  Cocks, Malcolm Williamson
• If you like corporate intrigue Antonio Meucci
• If you like corporate intrigue Edwin Armstrong
• If you like movies Hedy Lamarr
• If you believe in dreams Radia Perlman
• If you like villains Sanford Wallace
• If you like powerful women Meg Whitman and Anne
  Mulcahy

34
Case Analysis

• Two cases
• 1000 words maximum each case
• Argument should follow a logical flow
• Proper spelling, grammar, punctuation
• Your score will be the higher score of the two
  cases
• Exception If you fail to turn in one case on
  time, your score will be the average of your two
  cases

35
Case 1

• Select either Consumer Products International or
  Biogenetica
• Will you approve this project?
• Why or why not?
• Due Before class on Week of January 30

36
Case 2

• Case and questions to be determined
• Due Before class on Week of March 27

37
Extra Credit

• Robot Battle
• Develop a robot that can defeat corners, rammer,
  fire, and side (partial credit)
• Develop a robot that can defeat robots submitted
  by your colleagues (full credit)
• Robot Dance
• Develop one or more robots that can perform an
  aesthetically pleasing dance (partial credit)
• Win the robot dancing competition (full credit)

38
Final Exam

• Will give you more details as they are made known
  to me

39
Grading Mechanism

• No ceilings or floors
• Can get over 100 on any assessment
• Can get negative score on any assessment
• Exception
• Final class score between 0 to 100
• Final class score curved to mean75, stdev10
• Final exam score between 0 to 100

40
The Book and the Course (1)
The IT Discipline
Book
41
Why You Should Buy The Book

• I cover 80 of what you need
• I will not cover some things (e.g., DSS, AI,
  kinds of Application Software)
• No time
• Material is not cognitively stimulating
• Read the book for the things I dont cover
• The book offers second chance to understand some
  material
• Contradiction Im right, the book is wrong
• Im not necessarily always right
• In a contradiction between me and the book, your
  book is definitely wrong

42
Your Instructor

• Room S3-B2A-16
• Tel [phone]
• E-mail aehchua_at_ntu.edu.sg
• Office hours Im in most of time

43
About Your Instructor

• Specialties
• Databases
• Software Development
• Project Control
• Internet Crime
• Philosophy of research
• The American accent comes from living overseas
  most of life

44
Personal Policy Non-Group Collaboration

• May seek outside assistance
• Must demonstrate self-competence
• Help on group assignments
• Ok to ask for outside help
• Must be able to discuss and perform by yourself
• No assistance for in-class exams

45
QA

• (Form groups and choose biography)

46
Mr. Roboto (1)

• Step
• Moves forward 1 step
• Turn
• Turns right 90 degrees
• Touch
• If nothing then 0
• If something but not chair then 1
• If chair then 2
• Store ltvargtltvaluegt
• Mathematical
• ,-,x,/
• And, or , not
• While lttest conditiongt EndWhile
• If lttest conditiongt Else EndIf

47
Mr. Roboto (2)

• Mr. Roboto moves until it touches something
• While touch0
• Step
• EndWhile

48
Mr. Roboto (3)

• Remembering how many steps he took
• Store x0
• While touch0
• Step
• Store xx1
• EndWhile

49
Module Summary
50
Homework (1)

• Read
• Computer hardware
• Do
• Make sure can log onto blackboard
• Create a working coffee machine
• Submit
• Group membership Biography
• Personal form

51
Homework (2)

• Group Biography Alan Turing
• What was he famous for?
• What interesting personal characteristics did he
  have? Why did he commit suicide?
• What famous award is given in his honor?
• Coffee Machine assignment waived

52
Homework (3)

• Group Presentation Ada Lovelace
• Who was she? Who was her father? What were her
  interesting vices?
• What famous person did she work with?
• What is she famous for?
• What are the things named after her?
• Coffee Machine assignment waived