F272
Critical IT Decisions for Business Executives
Course Syllabus Spring 2006
Instructor: Office: Phone: Fax: E-mail:
Professor Vijay Gurbaxani School of Business SB 315 949 824-5215 949 725-2832 vgurbaxa@uci.edu
Faculty Assistant: Office Phone: E-mail:
Jeannine Straus SB 316 949 824-8391 jstraus@uci.edu
Course Materials: Readings: Available via Catalyst and UCI Reader Service.
Supplements: The instructor may distribute additional cases, readings, and handouts in class.
Introduction The course will focus on developing an understanding of critical management and economic issues related to information systems and electronic business. This course is based on the following premise: as information technology gets ever more integrated into the operations of a firm, numerous critical issues arise. These issues are of concern broadly to managers in a firm, as well as to the management consultants and IT executives. The topics that will be discussed are listed in the course schedule. The course will be structured as a seminar course with extensive in-class discussions. Students in the class will have two major deliverables, an in-class presentation and a term paper. The presentations and paper should be done in small groups. Groups will be formed in the first class session. Each week, a group will make a presentation for the first half-hour of class. Then, the instructor will lead a discussion of the management issues related to the discussion topic. To facilitate discussion, each student (who is not in the presenting group) will submit two questions for discussion at the start of the class. These questions will be graded. In several sessions, industry executives will present their viewpoints on the subject. The deliverables for the term paper are as follows. The paper should be a 15-20 page document, 12 point, double spaced with 1” margins and is due on June 6th. The paper should be targeted at a senior manager in a company, for example, a chief executive officer, a chief information officer, a chief financial officer, or a senior strategy executive. The paper should read like a briefing paper that will aid senior management in making related information technology decisions. Students are expected to read articles, interview managers, collect and analyze data for inclusion in the paper. Some level of original thought is expected. A short presentation summarizing the key findings (3-5) slides in the paper is scheduled for June 6th. The instructor will meet with each group to discuss specifics of the presentation and the paper. Students are also encouraged to bring the attention of the class to readings in the business press (WSJ, NY Times, FT, Business Week, Business 2.0, etc) that relate to the topics being discussed in class. These will help illustrate the managerial perspective on these issues, as well as highlight the importance of these issues to businesses.
Grading Student performance in the course will be graded as follows: Discussion in class Written questions Presentation Term paper Let’s look forward to a successful quarter. 20% 5% 25% 50%
Critical IT Decisions for Business Executives
Class 1. April 4, 2006 INTRO AND COURSE OVERVIEW Critical Issues in IT: The Senior Executive’s Perspective “Who is Accountable for IT? Business Leaders – That’s Who,” The McKinsey Quarterly, Dan Lohmeyer, Sofya Pogreb, Scott Robinson, Winter 2002, p.39(10). “Six IT Decisions Your IT People Shouldn’t Make,” Jeanne W. Ross and Peter Weill, Harvard Business Review, November 2002, pp.8491 RO211F.
Readings:
Class 2. April 11, 2006
IT SPENDING IT Spending trends Developing and managing IT budgets Industry effects “Getting IT Spending Right This Time,” Diana Farrell, Terra Terwilliger, and Allen P. Webb, McKinsey Quarterly, 2003, No.2. “CIO Spending in 2006,” Kishore Kanakamedala, Vasantha Krishnakanthan, and David Mark, McKinsey Quarterly, Spring, 2006. “Unraveling the Mystery of IT Cost,” Andrew M. Appel, Neeru Arora, and Raymond Zenkich, McKinsey Quarterly, Fall 2005. “The Economics of IT,” Laurie M. Orlov, Forrester Research, Inc., June 6, 2005.
Readings:
Class 3. April 18, 2006
RETURNS TO IT INVESTMENT Productivity impacts of IT Productivity paradox or new economy? Methodologies for valuation “Information Technology and Organizational Performance: An Integrative Model of IT Business Value,” Nigel Melville, Kenneth Kraemer, Vijay Gurbaxani, MIS Quarterly, Vol.28 No.2, June 2004, pp.283-322. “Information Technology and Economic Performance: A Critical Review of the Empirical Evidence, “ Jason Dedrick, Vijay Gurbaxani, and Kenneth L. Kraemer, ACM Computing Surveys, Vol. 35, No.1, March 2003, pp.1-28.
Readings:
“The Real New Economy,” Diana Farrell, Harvard Business Review, R0310G, October 2003, pp.104-112. “Beyond Computation: Information Technology, Organizational Transformation and Business Performance,” Erik Brynjolfsson and Lorin M. Hitt, Journal of Economic Perspectives, Volume 14, No 4, Fall 2000, pp.23-48.
Class 4. April 25, 2006
SOURCING IT SERVICES Determining what and how to source externally Developing and managing an external sourcing relationship Role of strategic intent “How to Manage an IT Outsourcing Strategic Alliance,” F.Warran McFarlan, and Richard L. Nolan, MIT Sloan Management Review, Vol. 36, No. 2, Winter 95, pp.9-23, reprint 3621. “IT Outsourcing: Maximize Flexibility and Control,” Lacity, M., L. Willcocks , and D. Feeny, Harvard Business Review, Vol. 73, MayJune 1995, pp.84-93. “Strategic Intent for IT Outsourcing,” A. DiRomualdo, and Vijay Gurbaxani, MIT Sloan Management Review, Summer 1998, Vol.39, No.4, pp.67-80, Reprint 3945. “Hidden Costs of IT Outsourcing,” Jerome Barthelemy, MIT Sloan Management Review, Spring 2001, pp.60-69.
Readings:
Class 5. May 2, 2006
BUSINESS PROCESS OUTSOURCING Identifying candidate processes Contracting for BPO services Maintaining an integrated enterprise “Taking the Measure of Outsourcing Providers,” David Feeny, Mary Lacity and Leslie P. Willcocks, MIT Sloan Management Review, Spring 2005, pp.41-48. “Making The HR Outsourcing Decision,” Paul S. Adler, MIT Sloan Management Review, Fall 2003, pp.53-60. “Getting Offshoring Right,” Ravi Aron and Jitendra V. Singh, Harvard Business Review, December 2005, R-0512. “The Coming Commoditization of Processes,” Thomas H. Davenport, Harvard Business Review, June 2005, pp.100-108, R0506F.
Readings:
Class 6. May 9, 2006
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY STRATEGY PROJECT TEAM MEETINGS No Readings.
Class 7. May 16, 2006
OFFSHORE SOURCING Determining what processes to source offshore Economic and political impacts Role of offshoring in innovation “Globalization and Offshoring of Software: A Report of the ACM Job Migration Task Force,” William Aspray, Frank Mayadas, Moshe Y. Vardi, 2006, ACM, 0001-0782/06/0200, pp.1-36. “Offshoring: Is It a Win-Win Game?” Diana Farrel, McKinsey Global Institute, August 2003, pp.1-15. “Exploding the Myths of Offshoring,” Martin N. Bailey and Diana Farrell, MIS McKinsey Quarterly, July 2004.
Readings:
Class 8. May 23, 2006
BUILDING A NET-CENTRIC ORGANIZATION Determining scope of a firm Markets versus hierarchies Capabilities, skills, culture in NCO’s “In Praise of Walls,” Nicholas G. Carr, Sloan Management Review, Spring 2004, pp.10-13. “Loosening up: How Process Networks Unlock the Power of Specialization,” John Seely Brown, Scott Durchslag, and John Hagel III, McKinsey Quarterly, Mid-summer edition 2002, p.59 (11). “The Impact of Information Systems on Organizations and Markets,” Vijay Gurbaxani and Seunglin Whang, Communications of the ACM, January 1991, Volume 34, No.1.
Readings:
Class 9. May 30, 2006
GOVERNANCE OF IT Role of governance Governance models Selecting your governance model “Principles and Models for Organizing the IT Function,” Agarwal, Ritu and V. Sambamurthy, MIS Quarterly Executive, 2002, Vol.1, No.1, pp.1-16. “Don’t Just Lead, Govern: How Top-Performing Firms Govern IT,”
Readings:
Peter Weill, MIS Quarterly Executive, 2004, Vol. 3, No.1, pp.1-17. “The Case for Contingent Governance,” Paul Strebel, MIT Sloan Management Review , Winter 2004, Vol. 45, No.2, pp.59-67.
Class 10. June 6, 2006
PROJECT PRESENTATIONS