What's the point of I.T. anyway?

Nothing beats a blog post with a catchy title, right? What's the point of I.T. (information technology) may sound a bit vague for a blog, but let's discuss for a second.

 Now that you all have been thru the process of your first blog, I think it's important to take a step back and look at why we are doing this.

The point of the course overall, is that I.T. is everywhere, and touches every aspect of business. Hopefully, you are seeing that in the cases we have been reviewing, and the articles you have been blogging about. What I want everyone to think about as we get deeper into the semester, is how deep is the impact of IT. As you work on your group projects, you should start to begin to see trends, related to the types of systems being used, as well as why they are being used.

Let's think about it by industry for a second. Healthcare systems need IT for patient record keeping. Financial Institutions need IT to help you keep track of your money. Automotive companies need IT to help them sell and market more product.

In some ways all of the courses that you are taking build the backbone of everyday businesses. All the facets of the general business curriculum (Economics, Finance, Accounting, Marketing, etc) all rely on a common thread now....IT. IT has both a horizontal and vertical impact on corporations.

The title of this course is "Information Systems and Operations Management". So far weve been focusing on the Information Systems components. As the semester progresses, we'll be tying back more and more to how information systems impact operations management.

As you are contemplating your next blog topic, start by reading an article or a case study that you normally wouldn't. Buy a copy of the Wall Street Journal or CIO Magazine. Google some of the catch phrases we've covered in class. Research things like trends in IT. Why?

Let's look at the example of xobni.com that we covered in class. A practical advancement in IT that helps all facets of business. The same thing could be said with pieces like Google docs, and the other Google apps.

My intent with this course is not to have you regurgitate information back to me, or for you to all focus on the same topics. I want you all to walk away from this class at the end of the year with a handful of practical tools in your proverbial tool belt as related to IT.  And, at the end of the semester, to be able to truly answer the question, what is the point of IT?