Information systems
To attend this course students should have already acquired some basic notions on data management (for instance by attending the “Database” course)
The evaluation will be based on an oral test (of approximately 30 minutes) aimed at ascertaining the students' knowledge on the topics of the course and their capability of establishing appropriate links between them. Students will be required to answer to at least two questions concerning topics from each of the two parts described in the section “Course Content”.
The result of the evaluation will be determined by the correctness and accuracy of the answers (70%); the capability of motivating appropriately the analysis and the claims (20%); and the communication capability (10%).
The final grade will be determined by the weighted evaluation of the students’ answers to the questions.
It will also be possible to consider with the students attending the course the possibility of a final multiple-choice test. In this case the test will contain 30 questions covering all the topics listed in the section “Course Content” and the final grade will be determined by the number of the correct answers (one point for each correct answer).
The aim of this course is to provide an introduction to information systems for business and management and, more generally, to the use of ICTs to innovate and improve the competitiveness of organizations. The students will be provided with conceptual tools allowing the evaluation, from both a theoretical and a managerial point of view, of different strategies for the implementation of information systems and of the impacts that different ICT systems can have on organizational systems.
1. Knowledge and understanding capabilities.
• Knowledge of the most common organizational models
• Knowledge of the role of information systems to support business processes
• Knowledge of the typology and the classification of different information systems
• Knowledge of the different architectures for information systems
• Knowledge of the costs for the implementation and management of information systems
2. Capability of applying the acquired knowledge
• Capability of identifying and describing the components of organizational systems
• Capability of identifying the most appropriate organizational systems to implement in specific business contexts
• Capability of designing and managing innovation processes based on ICT
• Capability of identifying the most appropriate technological tools to support business processes
• Capability of evaluating the impacts of the adoption of different ICT systems on the organization.
3. Judgement autonomy
• Capability of comparing and evaluating different solutions for complex problems, such as the management of the information assets of organizations and the definition strategies for innovation.
4. Communication skills
• Capability of communicating effectively, both in written and spoken form, and capability of explaining ICT based solutions to possible clients.
5. Learning capability
• Capability of understanding, classifying and elaborating on what has been learned during the course.
The lectures of the course concern the following two groups of topics:
PART 1
1. Organizations as open systems (12 h; objectives: 1a, 2a, 2b, 3, 4, 5)
• organizations as open systems
• stakeholder theory
• efficiency, effectiveness, adequacy
2. Organizations as decision-making systems, transactions and market as governance models (12 h; objectives: 1a, 2a, 2b, 3, 4, 5)
• Bounded rationality
• Hierarchical organizations
• Organizational charts
• Transaction costs approach (market)
• Contracts theory
3. The problem of coordination (4 h; objectives: 1a, 1b, 2a, 2b, 3,4, 5)
• Definition of coordination
• Coordination mechanisms
• Coordination and access to resources
PART 2
4. Business processes (4 h; objectives: 1c, 1d, 2b, 2d, 3, 4, 5)
• Process-oriented organizations
• Porter’s value chain
5. Information systems (8 h; objectives: 1b, 1c, 1d, 1e, 2c, 2d, 3, 4, 5)
• IT infrastructure and its evolution
• cloud computing models
6. ICT and organizational performances (4 h; objectives: 2c, 2d, 2e,3, 4, 5)
• Technological and organizational innovation
7. The productivity paradox ICT (4 h; objectives: 2e, 2d,3, 4, 5)
On site lectures (48 h) devoted to the illustration of the course topics, integrating the presentation of the concepts with examples and case studies. Due to the course conceptual nature, during the classes the students’ active participation will be encouraged to foster the critical appraisal of the delivered contents. To this end, papers from scientific journals will be suggested to the students to deepen the knowledge of some particularly relevant topics.
Course hours: 48
Office hours: Upon appointment