Strategic Management of IT – Fall 2016

MIS 3534 – Prof. Min-Seok Pang

In-class discussion questions – Week 7 (Oct 17)

  • Which government spending do you want to cut – military, education, highway?
  • Is there a reason not to cut military spending? Is there a reason not to cut education?
  • Who controls the IT budget at IVK?
  • On what basis do the business units at IVK pay for IT?
  • Why had Mr. Davies, the former CIO, had to set up “slush funds”? How did he secure the slash funds?
  • The slush fund is technically what? from accounting standpoint?
  • Why is Mr. John Cho requesting an immediate funding on IT security?
  • Why has the request for IT security funding kept being denied?
  • What’s the consideration and decision of Mr. Barton in terms of IT budget funding and controls? What’s his rationale?
  • If he controls the entire budget, will all the problems go away?
  • What does Maggie, Mr. Barton’s girlfriend/consultant, mean by “one neck in the noose”?
  • Suppose that you pay income tax and can live in any house you want for free! (Your government provides housing for you.) What would happen?

Online discussion questions – Oct 10

  • On Page 58, it reads “we’ve run closer to 5 to 6 percent of sales on IT spending. Which, by the way, Davies thought wasn’t enough to keep IT assets from degrading over time..” Why does Mr. Davies mean by degrading?
  • What are the examples of IT systems that have high strategic impacts but not operational dependency?
  • What are the examples of IT systems that have high operational dependence but not strategic impacts (other than flight scheduling systems)?

Week 6 – Cost of IT (I) – class slides and videos

Week 06 – Cost of IT (I) (color).pdf

Week 06 – Cost of IT (I) (bw).pdf

Sandy’s Impact on DC Travel – NBC Washington (http://www.nbcwashington.com/video/#!/weather/Sandys-Impact-on-D-C–Area-Travel/176499231)

Computer Failures Bring Southwest Airlines to a Halt – NBC News (http://www.nbcnews.com/nightly-news/video/computer-failures-bring-southwest-airlines-to-a-halt-543189571733)

Week 6 – IT Adventures Ch. 4 and 5 – Brief Guideline

Read IT Adventures Chapter 4 and 5 and write ONE reading brief (NOT two) up to 200 words that includes both chapters.

  • What is the funding mechanism for IT at IVK? What is a chargeback? (Ch. 4)
  • How have IT portfolio and spending at IVK evolved for the last several years? (Ch. 4)
  • Describe the concepts of “Competes vs. Qualifiers” and IT Strategic Grid (Ch. 5)

In-class discussion questions – Week 7 (Oct 10)

  • Why does an IT system need maintenance? It does not become rusty!
  • On Page 58 of the textbook, it reads “we’ve run closer to 5 to 6 percent of sales on IT spending. Which, by the way, Davies thought wasn’t enough to keep IT assets from degrading over time..” Why does Mr. Davies mean by degrading?
  • If it needs to spend money in maintaining IT systems, how much does a company need to spend on it?
  • What happens with too little spending in maintenance? What happens with too much?
  • Spending in IT maintenance should depend on what?

Week 5 – Business Value of IT – class slides and videos (UPDATE)

Week 05 – Business Value of IT (color).pdf

Week 05 – Business Value of IT (bw).pdf

Man Arrested After Major Security Breach – ABC San Diego (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBtTa0WN0J8)

Hundreds of ID Badges Missing from Airport – NBC News (http://www.nbcnews.com/nightly-news/video/hundreds-of-id-badges-have-gone-missing-from-atlanta-airport-411284547700)

Need to a volunteer to explain the ROI concepts (a waiver for one brief)

I am looking for a volunteer who can explain the concepts of return-on-investments (ROI) for Oct 3rd. She/he will explain how to calculate net present value (NPV), internal rate of returns (IRR), and a backpack period.

The volunteer will be given participation points and a waiver for one reading brief. Please email me (minspang@temple.edu) to come forward!

In-class discussion questions – Week 5 (Oct 3)

  • How can we justify a large amount of investments in e*Logistics or Common Digital Platform?
  • Why is security a concern at an airport?
  • Which individuals should an airport manage for security?
  • Which information does a security system have to maintain? Which process does the security system have to handle?
  • What are the risks from the current manual, inefficient processes in managing airport employee credentials?
  • What could be the WORST-CASE scenarios from a security failure at SFO?
  • What is your recommendation for SAFE Project at SFO? Go or no go? How certain are you? Are you certain that everything will pan out as predicted?
  • Which assumption or prediction is most sensitive (critical)?
  • What are the problems with the ROI analysis we just did? What does this fail to account for?

Online discussion questions – Sep 26

  • What are other examples of M&A between hospitals or between insurance companies. What are the reasons for these M&As?
  • What are the other examples of standard we’re enjoying in our everyday life (other than language, currency, railroad, power outlet)?
  • What should be changed if the U.S. adopts the Metric System as in other countries?
  • Why does a standard stifle innovation and creativity?
  • Other examples of a standard payment system such as E-Zpass or SmarTrip?
  • What would be a valid business/technical reason for a business unit to use Oracle database while everyone else uses My SQL?
  • By adopting one standard technology for all employees/units (e.g. Microsoft Windows, Oracle database, SAP ERP), what would be the risks?

In-class discussion questions – Week 4 (Sep 26)

  • What is a Unified Service Organizations (USO) (Trinity case p. 3)?
  • Why does Trinity implement a “Common Digital Platform”?
  • Why is IT important in hospitals?
  • What kind of standards do we enjoy in our daily life?
  • Why do many European nations use Euro as a common currency?
  • Why do the U.K. and some others refuse to adopt Euro?
  • What are the benefits from a standard?
  • What would be the costs in having a standard? By having a standard, we are losing what?
  • Why does the U.S. refuse to adopt the Metric System?
  • Why do states adopt E-Zpass for a common standard payment system?
  • Why have IT systems at IVK gotten so complex?
  • When there is freedom, employees and business units are using different kinds of ITs, whatever they want. What are the problems in this case?
  • What does it mean by coupling in IT systems?
  • Can the collections system at IVK be up-and-running without communicating with the loan operation system or the financial/accounting system?