BUS206 introduced you to the subject of Management Information Systems (MIS). The focus of that course was on the nuts and bolts of information systems: how they work, how you create them, how to secure them, and so on. This course is developed to help you understand how information technology can be used as part of an organisation’s overall strategy.

In this course, we will focus on the allocation and use of technology resources across an entire firm as part of the larger organisational strategy. Because firms do not have an unlimited supply of capital, they must decide when and where to deploy new information technology. Firms must not only focus on when to deploy IT, but also if they should deploy IT at all! This brings up the bigger question about technology: Can the use of IT bring a sustainable competitive advantage to an organization? There are those who say “no”, and others who say “of course!”. You will explore these differing opinions in Unit 1.

In Unit 2, you will delve into how IT might manage business processes and take a look at Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems, Business Process Management (BPM) systems, and business process re engineering. You will then move on to how technology can inform decision making in Unit 3 by studying business intelligence, data warehousing, and data mining. Unit 4 introduces you to the world of e-commerce and examines such important topics as intellectual property and online marketing. In Unit 5 you will explore major trends in technology today like cloud computing, Web 2.0, and mobile technologies. Units 1 through 5 lay the groundwork for understanding how IT can be used in business strategy, which you will put to practical use in Unit 6 and actually write a strategy.