Bentley University
McCallum Graduate School of Business Administration

GS601-100
Strategic Information Fundamentals
Spring 2012 Syllabus & Schedule as of January 3, 2012

Professor: Dennis Anderson
Office: Smith 402
Email: danderson@bentley.edu

Office Phone: 781 891 2238

Class Times: Section 100: Monday, 7:30 - 9:50 pm Office Hours: For quick/easy questions, send me an email. For tough questions, career advice and other matters, face to face is better, and I’m happy to meet with you by appointment.

Description:
GS601 provides an enterprise-wide perspective on the management of information technologies (IT), software applications and the operational processes they support, and the data and knowledge that inform business processes and decisions. The course focuses on how IT professionals and non-technical managers work together to ensure that applications and data are aligned with organizational strategy and business processes. The cases and readings examine how companies in various industries use IT to serve customers well, manage operations efficiently, coordinate with business partners, and make better business decisions. A key theme -- IT as a double-edged sword -- reflects a central challenge: how to maximize the strategic benefits of investments in hardware and software, while minimizing accompanying technical and business risks. The course places equal weight on technical and managerial skills. Our primary objective is to help students prepare to be effective contributors to IT initiatives in partnership with IT professionals, including external service providers here and abroad.

Course Learning Objectives:
· Understand how information systems – comprised of hardware, software, databases and knowledge repositories, networks and people -- support intra- and inter-organizational transaction processing,