E-Business Strategy (COMP6201)

This course exposes students to the problems and methods of strategic management of large scale e-business systems. These are systems whose continuing operation and evolution is vital for the business or organisation that they serve. 

IT managers and CIOs must ensure that systems are effective and cost-effective, that new projects give a good return, and that emerging technologies are evaluated and, where appropriate, adopted in an orderly manner. Similarly, emerging risks such as security threats must be evaluated and addressed using appropriate and cost-effective techniques.

About half of the course is devoted to directed reading, presentations and reports on significant technologies. The other half concerns case-studies in enterprise and e-business systems.

Knowledge and Understanding
Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:

• Describe the principles of strategic management
• Describe systems architecture and technologies for systems integration

Subject Specific Intellectual
Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to:

• Define and quantify the benefits, costs, risks and time-scales associated with new strategic e-business or IT initiatives.
• Compare and evaluate alternative e-business strategies and technologies
• Justify and promote strategic initiatives, such as adopting a new e-business system or technology

Transferable and Generic
Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to:

• Prepare and deliver senior management reports and presentations

Syllabus

• Technology-enabled business transformation, alignment of business and IT
• Approaches to strategy creation, SWOT analysis, senior management presentations
•  IT governance, risk management, reporting structure
• Software economics, cost management, ROI, time to pay back, outsourcing, utility computing, business and IT metrics, dashboards and balanced scorecards
• Enterprise computing, middleware, business applications (ERP, SCM, CRM, CMS)
• The role of CIOs and consultants
• Advanced presentation and report writing skills for business
• Case studies based on use of e-business techniques and technology in a range of organisations