GENERATING BUSINESS VALUE WITH IT

While investments in information technology (IT) are constantly on the rise, representing more than 50% of capital expenditure and more than $2.7 trillion annually, extracting value from such investments has been fraught with difficulties. Different justifications have been offered for the lack of demonstrating clear value including IT mismanagement issues, lack of attention to the business processes that are directly impacted by the IT, appropriation of profits by consumers, and the use of the wrong tools to assess value. Overall, research has shown that there is significant variance in return on IT investments, indicating that IT is a risky business. We need to better understand why two firms that have the same IT types of IT investments extract different value. They key to such understanding is to closely examine how IT initiatives are managed.
The course is comprised of two modules: (1) IT value creation, and (2) IT management. In the first module, we will discuss topics relating to the strategic role of IT and the business value of IT. In the second module, we will cover IT-based planning and business models, IT project management, outsourcing IT services, and IT innovation management. The course is concluded via a discussion of new IT challenges and the issue of big data.