Program: PMBA Business Core 2016/17

Class: Business Core Class 1&2

Syllabus for the module: Information Systems Management

Date: ECTS: Language:

Class 2: March 23-24, 2017 3 English
Class 1: March 25-26, 2017

Course Description

Information technologies (IT) are fast changing the business of business, and insightful
executives of leading companies across the world are increasingly leveraging IT to create
value and win competitive advantage. Three major trends are causing executives to rethink
the role of IT in their firms. Firstly, two decades of investments in enterprise systems have
digitized many key business processes. Secondly, consumers connecting and collaborating in
the online and mobile enabled social graph are leaving a rich data trail that has value for
business. Lastly, the Internet of Everything is now a $14 Trillion industry. The above trends
have made the strategic management of IT a complex, but potentially differentiating, core
business capability. Thus, as forward-thinking chief executives of tomorrows businesses, it
is essential that you develop an understanding of these trends and the ability to analyze the
strategic and economic aspects of leveraging IT for efficiency, innovation and corporate
transformation. The course topics will balance the two opposing forces of efficiency and
innovation in the context of a globalized environment for the production and consumption of
IT.

Objectives and Learning Outcomes

By the end of the module students will have learned:

Understanding the relationship between IT investments, productivity , business
value and industry disruption
Key decisions made by CIOs such as managing outsourcing of IT
Understanding platform models of competition
Leveraging big-data business analytics to make smarter and predictive decisions
Leveraging social media for business advantage

Knowledge and Understanding

After completing this module the students will have:

Knowledge of how to plan for and govern IT expenditures
Manage IT Outsourcing
Understand two-side markets and platform competition
Leverage big-data analytics
Leverage the online social media phenomenon

Cognitive and Subject Specific Skills

After completing this module the students will have:

A framework to place IT in the context of overall business strategy and tactics

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Key Skills

After completing this module the students will have:

Defining what a good IT strategy looks like
Negotiating IT outsourcing contracts
Making pricing decisions in platforms competition
Fundamentals of predictive analytics
Fundamentals of leveraging social media

Course Structure and Teaching Methods

The course is highly interactive involving case discussion and group exercises. Please come
prepared in advance by reading cases. Groups will be formed as per the program, and will be
used for in-class activities. Class participation as individuals and through in-class group
activity that is assigned is strongly encouraged and rewarded. It forms an important part of
the course pedagogy. Large portions of the class are case based. Please come prepared to
the class ready for class discussion. There are leading questions that are already posted in
advance for each session.

Participation is a direct function of your prior experiences and the level of mastery of the
materialthe reading and the cases. You are expected to enhance the overall learning
environment of the class by coming prepared, asking questions and bringing issues to life
based on your experience.

Reading Material

Required readings:

As outlined in the core module section

Additional readings:
None

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Pre-Module

Learning objectives

After the pre-module students should be familiar with the cases assigned for the course so as
to have better discussions in class

Reading assignments/material

1. CASE: Bombardier INC.: Successfully Navigating the Turbulent Skies of a Large-Scale

ERP Implementation. HEC035.

2. CASE: Procter and Gamble: Global Business Services, HBS Case 404124-PDF-ENG

3. CASE: Hulu: An Evil Plot to Destroy the World? by Anita Elberse, Sunil Gupta, Jun 29,
2010, Harvard Business School Case Number 510005

4. CASE: High Notes Freemium Conundrum, CASE # SOBACO-2014-01-2 by RAVI BAPNA &
LEE C.THOMAS, contact dsarppo@umn.edu for access.

Pre-module activities
Individual activity:

There are four questions, one for each major case in the course. Answer each question in no
more than 250 words.
Questions

1. Outline the key factors that led Bombardier to consider an ERP system.

2. P&G is considering using a single, large, third party vendor versus multiple
specialist third party vendors for outsourcing its GBS division. Discuss the pros
and cons of these two sourcing models.

3. Hulu has three different sets of constituents to satisfy. Who are they and how
does Hulu serve each of them? Do the needs of these customer groups
converge?

4. What strategies and tactics can HighNote use to increase the proportion of
premium users?

Deadline for pre-module assignment and process of delivery

The pre-modules fall due on March 15nd, 2017 at 11.55 pm (CET) and shall be uploaded to
Moodle.

Download Required Free Software: We will be using PowerBI and Rapid Miner. More
details and links for download will be provided beforehand.

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Core-Module

Learning objectives

After the core-module students should be able to know the efficiency innovation frontier of
managing IT, understand the disruptive force of IT, manage IT outsourcing, make smart
financial decisions about IT investments managing risk, deploy supervised and unsupervised
machine learning for data-analytics, learn how to create a social enterprise and learn how to
expand the boundary of the firm using open innovation.

Reading assignments/material

1. CASE: Bombardier INC.: Successfully Navigating the Turbulent Skies of a Large-Scale

ERP Implementation. HEC035.

2. CASE: Procter and Gamble: Global Business Services, HBS Case 404124-PDF-ENG.

3. Levy, Steven, "Secret of Googlenomics: Data-Fueled Recipe Brews Profitability",

Wired Magazine, 05.22.09,
http://www.wired.com/print/culture/culturereviews/magazine/17-
06/nep_googlenomics.

4. CASE: Air France Internet Marketing: Optimizing Google, Yahoo!, MSN, and Kayak
sponsored search, KEL319-PDF-ENG.

5. CASE: Hulu: An Evil Plot to Destroy the World? by Anita Elberse, Sunil Gupta, Jun
29, 2010, Harvard Business School Case Number 510005.

6. Eisenmann, T., Parker, G., Van Alsytne, "Strategies for Two-Sided Markets," HBR, Oct
2006.

7. Data Mining 101 - Chapters 1 and 2 from Shmueli et al, Data Mining for Business
Intelligence, 2nd Edition, Wiley Book, ISBN-10: ISBN: 978-0-470-52682-8.

8. CASE: The Ford Fiesta, by John Deighton, Leora Kornfeld, HBSP 511117-PDF-ENG.

9. CASE: High Note Case, Carlson School Case by Ravi Bapna and Lee Thomas (contact
dsarppo@umn.edu for copyright and case).

10. Turning Content Viewers Into Subscribers, Lior Zalmanson and Gal Oestreicher-
Singer, http://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/turning-content-viewers-into-subscribers.

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 Detailed Schedule
Day 1:

09:00 10:30 Managing IT - Bombardier case

10:30 10:45 Coffee break
P&G Case Efficiency, Innovation and Outsourcing
10:45 12:15
Managing IT Outsourcing, Outsourcing Contracting Game
12:15 13:15 Lunchtime
13:15 15:15 Distraptive technologies
15:15 15:30 Coffee break

15:30 17:00 Platform Competition, Pricing Game

17:00 18:00 Student Group Presentations on distraptive technologies

(20% of in-class grade)

Day 2:

09:00 10:30 Fundamentals of Big-Data Analytics

10:30 10:45 Coffee break
10:45 12:15 Fundamentals of Big-Data Analytics
12:15 13:15 Lunchtime
13:15 15:15 Creating a Social Enterprise and Leveraging Social Media - HightNote case
15:15 15:30 Coffee break
15:30 17:00 Working on group projects - applying big-data analytics

17:00 18:00 Student group presentations (20% of in-class grade)

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Post-Module

Learning objectives
After the post-module students should be able to propose a new IT based initiative that will
help their company meet a key business objective. Example include, but are not limited,
increasing efficiency in the supply chain, increasing engagement with customers using social
media, getting higher ROI on marketing initiatives using predictive analytics, etc.

Reading assignments/material
Refer to the reading list for the class.

Post-module activities
Individual activity (limited to 2 double spaced pages): Pick an article from a well-known
business newspaper (wall street journal, the economist, ect.) that discusses one of the
following topics: using big data analytics, a new platform based business, or a social media
strategy. Provide a critical discussion of the business move described. You may use the
questions below to structure you discussion (please include a link or a copy of the article):

1. For a news story describing a platform based company:

a. what is the platform discussed? Who are the involved sides?
b. What is the planed price/profit strategy?
c. Who would you recommend charging, based on what we learned in class?.
2. For a news story describing the use of predictive analytics specifically to benefit a
business goal (including in health care, energy, etc.):
a. Problem: Describe the business challenge the technology is used to address.
How has this challenged been addressed so far if at all?
b. Data: What data do you believe is being used? If this is not discussed, discuss
what data you believe is likely being used or what data it would be useful to
bring to bear.
c. Evaluation: How do you believe it would be meaningful to assess the benefits
of the technology in the business context it is being deployed?
For a news story describing a new social media strategy:
a. What are the business goals the company is aiming to achieve?
d. does the described strategy focus on who/what the do/ who they are
connected to? Why?
e. Evaluation: How do you believe it would be meaningful to assess the benefits
of the strategic move?

Deadline for post-module assignment and process of delivery

The post-modules fall due on April 9, 2017 at 11.55 pm (CET) shall be uploaded on the
eLearning platform.

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Assessment

Pre-module 20%
Core-module: Class 50%
participation (10%)
and group
presentation (40%)
Post-module: 30%
=100%

Students will be assessed on:

Innovativeness of ideas
Clarity and thoroughness
Backing up of ideas with grounding in theory or practice

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Instructor and Contact Information

Name and degree: Gal Oestreicher-Singer, PhD

Professor of Information Systems
Tel Aviv University
Contact:
Tel.: +972 50 9009 258
Email: gal.oestreicher@gmail.com
http://pages.stern.nyu.edu/~goestrei/

Short CV of Instructor

Dr. Gal Oestreicher-Singer is an associate professor and Chair of the Management of

Technology and Information Program at Tel Aviv Universitys Coller School of Managment.
Dr. Oestreicher Singer serves as an Associate Editor of Management Science and MIS
Quarterly, and Information Systems Research, all leading journals in IS. Her research and
teaching have won numerous awards and she has received funding for her research from
Google and Israeli Science Foundation among others.

Professor Oestreicher-Singer received her PhD from New York University. She also holds
two degrees in Law, an undergraduate degree in Electrical Engineering and Electronics, and
a Master's degree in Management Sciences. Her doctoral dissertation was awarded the
ACM SIGMIS Best Dissertation Award.

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