Professor Detmar Straub

Computer Information Systems (CIS) Department

904 J. Mack Robinson College of Business Building
Georgia State University
Atlanta, Georgia 30302-4015
Phone (404) 651-3827; CIS Department telephone #: (404) 651-3880

E-mail: dstraub@gsu.edu

                 Instructor-Participant Meetings:

Dr. Detmar and Dr. Osama will be available for counsel & discussion after class.

---

 

	Course Description

  

In the past century, few things have changed the face of business more than information technology and systems. There is no reason to suspect this trend will reverse itself anytime in the foreseeable future.  E-commerce is the latest in this inevitable trend toward more computerization of business processes. This course addresses what every MBA student needs to know in order to leverage information systems for the design and implementation of business models of an organization. Another objective of the course is to understand how information technology can enhance the quality and efficiency of decisions made by individuals, groups, and organizations. The course is designed around a model that views the firm as an information processing entity that must sense and respond to its environment.  The environment in which firms operate today is one in which there is greater complexity, reduced cycle times, increased globalization, and greater competition than ever before.  Firms capable of successfully competing in this kind of environment will be those that have the ability to develop and implement nimble organizational models with high-quality decisions being made at all levels in the organization.  Seen in this light, information technology should be examined in terms of its strategic impact on the organizations and its role in supporting individual, group, and organizational decision processes. The course is designed for managers who need to (1) understand the role and potential contribution of information technology for their organizations, and (2) be able to understand and apply various computerized support systems to make better decisions. The course will emphasize the strategic role that computer-based information systems now play in modern organizations. We will explore how rapid advances in hardware and software technology are impacting strategies, structures and processes within organization.  Much of what managers do involves the search (both internal and external to the firm), processing, interpretation and use of information.  As a bridge between information search and information use, managers often need to build and manipulate models. The course examines how information technology can help managers, groups, and organizations search for information, analyze information, and make decisions. Students will complete hands-on exercises to understand data modeling concepts, relationship modeling among variables, and the use of certain information technology tools to explore relationships. Finally, the course will explore various approaches for developing or acquiring information systems. A great deal of the course will be on the latest manifestation of the power of information technology, that is, electronic commerce (EC).  EC is transforming industries worldwide and Egypt is no exception.  It is critical that JMBA student-managers understand the principles and implementation actions that will make EC useful for Egyptian businesses and government.

	Learning Objectives

	Course Resources

Resource #1: Your Classmates Labs and projects will be team-executed in groups of: Three (3) persons Your groups should function as a self-managed team and adopt the rules and practices of this organizational work and task structure.  Participation should be relatively equal among the group members, with each member both monitoring one's own level of participation and that of the other members of the group.  Constant, frequent, and open communications among the group members will ensure that the group members feel that all are participating equally, each utilizing his/her own strengths to the fullest.   Self-managed teams are free to make decisions about group processes, including who will continue to be members of the team.  If the majority of the team decides, for whatever reason, to reconstitute the group makeup, then this change will go into effect immediately.  Please inform the instructor, in writing, that this decision has been made and the reasons for it.  Include this document as well in the deliverables for the assignment/project. All participants bear the responsibility for their performance in self-managed teams.  If a team member has been asked to withdraw from a team, this person may, with the instructor's permission and that of another team, join the efforts of the other team.  If it is too late to do so, then for this assignment/project and only this assignment/project, the participant may complete it on his/her own. Consistent with the principles and operations of self-managed teams, peer appraisals are, presumably, ongoing.  These appraisals will become formal in one, and only one circumstance.  If the group members feel that participation has not been even, but that this uneven participation was not sufficiently disruptive to change the constitution of the team, then please send, under separate cover and under your own signature, your evaluation of the percentage participation of each group member.  Such personalized peer appraisals will become part of the evaluation of the individual class participation score.  Also, to be above board about this with your team, indicate to them that you have turned in this peer appraisal.  You are not required to reveal your individual assessments; only that your have turned in such an appraisal. If there is no communication to the contrary to the instructor, the assumption will be that all members contributed equally. Resource #2: Software You will need to download the latest shareware version of Winzip in order to decompress some of the files that are located on the Web page server located at the Georgia State University CIS Department. Readings and topic/discussion/lecture overheads are located on the server and downloadable via the schedule and/or readings or cases citation link below. Note: If zipped, the readings are in *.rtf (Rich Text Format) or .doc (Word) format for Windows '95.  Topic/discussion/lecture notes overheads are in *.pdf (Portable Document Format) format, again for Windows '95. All modern word processors can read *.rtf files. You will need Adobe's Acrobat Reader to view and print the Adobe *.pdfs [portable document files]. If you do not have this reader, download it here.  In the download.com search box, type the word "Acrobat."  Find the 32 bit version of the latest Acrobat.  It should be compatible with the operating system of PC you are working on (e.g., Windows '95). Please take note especially:  Typically, exam material is drawn from the topic/discussion/lecture overheads.  These are in a "4-up" format.  There should be room for you to take notes on these pages.  Since exam material is based to a small extent on the textbook (15% or so), but to a much greater extent on these overheads and your notes, you will be well served to spend your time on studying this part of the course.  If you have questions later about anything we cover in the topic/discussion/lectures, please ask the instructors, either in person, via phone, or via email. You may also need to download the Lotus Screen Cam player here.  We may be using this player to examine Websites off-line. If used, these will be listed as examples in the syllabus schedule and will serve to demonstrate certain concepts.  These could be part of your learning in this course, so be sure to do this as part of your class preparation. Resource #3: Other Materials and Links There are other resources that will allow you, as a serious student, to learn as much as you can about e-Commerce strategies and implementations.  The hyperlinks are below.  [Schedule]

Sample Exams for Downloading		Full Bibliographic Citations for Readings
For Planning Purposes: GSU Semester Schedules		Full Bibliographic Citations for Cases
Large Endnote Database of Articles & Books on Virtual Organizations		Links to Other Useful Web sites

---

 

	Grading

Grading Component	Type	Score
Labs (2% each)	Group	8%
Exam	Individual	32%
Course Project         (Written 11% & oral 11%)	Group	22%
Case Briefs	Individual	9%
Data Mining-OLAP Assignment	Group	9%
Class Participation	Individual	15%
Class Attendance	Individual	5%
Total	-	100%

Grading Correction Symbols

Symbol	Meaning
OK or good	This is the idea; you are on point.
vague	The writing is too general or ambiguous. It begins and ends with phrases like "higher productivity" and "achieved cost savings" without providing the case details to back up this assertion.
irr	Irrelevant. This issue is not germane to the question or the answer you are developing.
???	The passage marked is not easy to interpret. Your meaning is not clear.
proof	In order to be accepted and believed by the reader/manager, the marked passage needs further evidence or proof. In the context of this course, proof is considered to be details from Topic #s, readings, cases, and other authoritative sources that can be cited. Lifting simple narrative from the case and reinserting it in your case brief, for example, is not considered to be proof. Interpretive use of facts, figures, quotations from the case is considered to be proof.
logic	There is a flaw in logic in the marked passage. There is a lack of clear flow between the thesis or main assertion in the paragraph and the details that are provided by the author to prove the point.
sp	Spelling error
X	Careless error; often a typographical error, but, in any case, it should not have occurred with careful proofreading.
k	Awkward phrasing. The sentence or phrase needs to be rephrased for greater clarity.
ww	Wrong word. Choose another word. This one is not meaningful in this context or means something different than you want to convey.
lc	Calls for lower case, not upper case (i.e., no capitalizing).
uc	Calls for upper case, not lower case (i.e., needs to be capitalized).
/	Delete this section, word, phrase, sentence or punctuation mark.
^	Insert the word or phrase that appears into this place in the text
run-on	Run-on sentence. Sentences that run-on do not have proper punctuation at the end of the sentence they continue into the next subject and verb without properly pausing via a punctuation mark like a period or colon.
subj-verb	The subject and verb do not agree in number.
grammar	There is a serious grammatical problem with the sentence and, as it stands, it cannot be understood as an English sentence.
para	There needs to be a new indented paragraph at this point.

---

 

	Student Homework

 

Course Project

Due at beginning of period indicated. Assignments handed in late will be LOWERed 20%!

Materials created for all assignments may be used for pedagogical purposes in future versions of this course or in other management educational sessions.

 

• Course Project on e-Commerce or Innovative Use of IT
  
  [Schedule]
  

Course Assignment

Due at beginning of period indicated. Assignments handed in late will be LOWERed 20%!

Materials created for all assignments may be used for pedagogical purposes in future versions of this course or in other management educational sessions.

 

• Course Assignment on Data Mining

[Schedule]

Labs

 

Lab #1: Scenario of Airport Vehicle Rental Firm [Click here to download] Lab #2: The Competitiveness of a Market Leader With your group members, go to www.dell.com. Explore the site. Then choose one of the following scenarios and debate the issues with your group, formulating a response for oral presentation by one spokesperson for the group. Scenario 1: In your team's opinion, how quickly can Dell's competitors imitate Dell's new Web features? [Make an assumption about which features on the site are new or newer.]  Invent new directions they might take and show if and why competitors can imitate it quickly. Is the Web site itself a competitive advantage, in your opinion? Scenario 2: Dell computers, with USD$24 million/day in Internet sales is now a highly virtual company. They currently have no physical sales channels, for instance. Dell's competitors begin to make inroads into Dell sales by a "clicks and bricks" approach of using their web sites to funnel certain customers to their traditional, physical dealers and their own franchised outlets. In short, Dell's market share is beginning to suffer a bit.  What should Dell do? Adopt a "clicks and bricks" approach or not? Scenario 3: A firm that gives away computers starts to erode Dell's sales.  Should Dell begin to give away appliance-type computers (inexpensive, so-called "thin clients," that only connect to the Internet and usually contain built-in advertising links, which is how the giveaway is funded) to anyone who wants them and compete in this market through advertising and payable click-links? If not, what should they do? Deliverable: Oral report to class. [Schedule] Lab #3: Data Modeling With your group members, model the following scenario. You have been asked to create a database for a small consulting company.  The company wants to keep track of which employees are assigned to which projects. Each project usually requires a set of skills so you need to need to know which skills an employee has.  If you make any assumptions, such as whether in this organization, employees can never work on more than one project at a time, be sure to tell us that first in your oral report. Step 1. Draw an entity-relationship diagram for this application.   Step 2. Create the corresponding relational model. Clearly show the steps involved in making the translation from the entity relationship model to the relational model. Step 3. Be sure you can run the following SQL queries (conceptually) and display the results. On what dates did T. Adams start and finish working on project #33? What skills are required for the project called Virtual Courtyard" and who has them? What is the hourly rate of J. Perry? On what date was the project "Venus" completed? What is the name of the project whose project# is "771"? List the projects scheduled to start on 1 January 2001. When did G. Anthony acquire the skill Visual Basic? Deliverable: Oral report to class. [Schedule] Lab #4: Powerplay With your group members, work with the Powerplay software and the mutual funds multi-dimensional database (cube).   Choose a single category or type of mutual funds (example: equity or balance) in the Powerplay multi-dimensional database.  Then choose a single mutual fund in that category.  Create one or more Powerplay reports.  The report should contrast the selected fund's best measure(s) of performance with that of other mutual funds in that category.  Your oral report to manager of this particular mutual fund (and the rest of the class, including the instructors) will present OLAP-data mining results and speculate on how this mutual fund manager could improve performance, based on your analysis, with respect to the other funds.   Deliverable: Oral report to class. [Schedule]

 

Case Briefs

Directions or How to Write Your Brief Questions to Address in Your Briefs Sample Case Brief Full Citations for Cases

---

Schedule

Session	Date	Topic	Resource Materials/ .............Due dates/Comments.............
1	Jan 25 Sat	Introduction to course & review of online syllabus  Topic discussion #1: "IT Strategy and Control of the IT Resource" (450K pdf)	In-class exercise: Lab #1 [Scenario of Airport Rentals] Oral reports on Lab #1 due Required Reading: Turban, Chs. 1; 3 Session agenda
2	Jan 27 Mon	Topic discussion #2: "E-Commerce Technologies"  (1,217K pdf) Topic discussion: "Organizational Technological Infrastructure" (756K pdf) [Not covered during class; to supplement your readings in the Turban textbook]	Required reading: Straub, Chapter 1, 2002; Rose et al., 1999 Required Reading: Turban, Chs. 2.7; 4, 5 & 6 In-class reading: Bronson, 1999; Boo.com Optional Reading: Definitions of EC, its technologies and descriptions of their uses can be found at the ISWorld Electronic Commerce Course site; Westland and Clark, 1999, pages 221-233 and 275-278 Session agenda
3	Feb  1 Sat	Topic discussion #3: "e-Commerce as a Transformational Strategy" (1,904K pdf)	Case brief on SAP R/3 Implementation at Geneva Pharmaceuticals due In-class exercise: Lab #2 Oral reports: Lab #2 Required Reading: Turban, Chs. 2, T1, T2, T4, and T5 Session agenda
4	Feb  3 Mon	Topic discussion #4: "System Development Life Cycle and Prototyping"  (232K pdf)	Required Reading: Turban, Ch. 14 Session agenda
5	Feb  5 Wed	Continue with Topic discussion #5: "Data Modeling" (240K pdf)	Case brief on International Multifoods due In-class exercise: Lab #3 Oral Report: Lab #3 Required Reading: Turban, Ch. T3 Session agenda
6	Feb  8 Sat	Topic Discussion #6: "Data Mining, OLAP, MDDs, & Data Warehouses" (288K pdf)	Required Reading: Turban, Ch. T3; "Mutual Funds Tutorial" entire pdf document (large!!); "Mutual Funds Terms" [Please bring to class with you] In-class exercise: Lab # 4 Oral report: Lab # 4 Session agenda
	Feb 9-17	No class-Holiday
7	Feb 18 Tues	Topic discussion #7: "Virtual Organizational Designs and Outsourcing of e-Commerce Systems" (1,478K pdf) Topic discussion #8: "Decision Support Systems" (144K pdf)	Case brief on Mannheim Auctions due Required Reading: Turban, Chs. 8.9 - 8.10; 10; 13; Mowshowitz, 1997; Anonymous, 1997; Spielman & Dias, 1999 Optional Reading: Westland & Clark, 1999, pp. 557-572 Session agenda
8	Feb 22 Sat	Topic discussion #9: "From IT and Web Strategy to Implementation" (229K pdf) Topic discussion #10: "Systems Implementation"  (251K pdf) Topic discussion #11: "Online Investing"  (222K doc)	OLAP-Data Mining Assignment due Liberty Case discussion Session agenda
9	Feb 25 Tues	Topic discussion #12: "Sustainable Competitive Advantage and Atomic Business Models for e-Commerce"  (878K pdf)	Case brief on NIBCO due Required Reading: Straub and Klein, 2001 Buchanan, 1998; Zelnick, 2000 Session agenda
10	Mar  1 Sat	Project Oral Presentations Exam

---

Updates

This section will be for those lightning-fast changes that occur as to meetings, assignments, cases, and other ongoing events in the course.

The number of hits for this page since January 1, 2003: