I am really uncertain what is supposed to be in this blog. The syllabus states "Your blog must talk about the course material. This means that the subjects discussed in your articles should be direly related to what we talked about in class." Does this mean my blog is supposed to regurgitate what was said in class? Should I be discussing the merits of what is being taught or just express my opinions on what the course is teaching? Well I am just going to take a stab at it and hopefully with a little feedback from my peers and prof and an opportunity to peruse some other blogs I can get it right.
I was unsure exactly what was going to be covered in ADSI6601 since when I last took MIS for my bachelor's degree there wasn't even an internet in existence. Obviously a lot has changed since then and as the professor stated "if your business isn't on the web it doesn't exist". I, like many others, did my best to resist change and managed to not become "connected" until about the year 2000. It became clear to me at that point that technology was not going to fade away (the Y2K bug didn't pan out as I had hoped) and this idea of a global market was becoming more and more prevalent. I realized I needed to get hooked in with the computing world if I was going to be able to successfully market myself in the new business landscape. After an IT course, 2 years as an ISP tech and 3 years working in the
IT department I have become much more savvy with computers and their uses. I am by no means a techno geek (never owned a Mac, never used UNIX, never played EverQuest or World of Warcraft, still don't own a cell phone....) but am now very capable with working with computer systems.Perhaps my new found computer background has given me a little more info than most but I really didn't feel that I got very much from the first chapter of the book. (I was unable to attend the first class so may have missed some exciting conversations) I was already well aware of the fact that IT has created efficiencies, opportunities and added value in almost every aspect of business today. Using the internet to advertise and sell products and application software to run the business internally (among other things), I think, would be common knowledge to most people. There were some interesting leadins to other chapters on how managers should use IT to create a competitive advantage and the UPS vignette (it really started with just 2 people?) was pretty interesting but overall I found the chapter to be unenlightening. I guess like most first chapters they didn't want to overwhelm their readers.
The second chapter started to get a little more interesting. Having worked for the ExxonMobil helpdesk I got a chance to troubleshoot dozens of computing systems that did everything from print labels to run entire departments. (marketing, sales, accounting, etc.) The ERP of choice in the multiple business lines of Exxon is currently SAP. An extremely slick piece of software that has uses far beyond the scope of most of the people using it. This harkens back to a point made in the 1st chapter of the book about companies that spend the big bucks on the systems but don't spend the time and money required to educate the users. It's like buying a Ferrari for someone that can't drive. We are certainly using the software effectively ($349 billion in profit last year) but like a lot of other companies the lack of "complementary assets" means this robust software is being underutilized.
It was also rather interesting to see the delineation the book created between the types of applications used within the different levels of an organization. I have used several Transactional Processing Systems as a front line tech and some Management Information Systems in my role as a team lead but never really thought to break them down into these categories. I would like to note though that a lot of software applications link MIS and TPS together. Remedy, for example, (a trouble ticket based technology) is used as an interface to log tickets by front line staff but also used by managers to create reports, track trends in issues, etc.
Well that about wraps up my first post. I hope it contains the information required for this course. I was a little reluctant to start blogging because I personally don't see the benefits but like anything else you sometimes need a little push to start something new. Who knows maybe I will be swearing by the blog before the course is over.... :D
