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2013/2014  KAN-CIEB2002U  Enterprise Strategy, Business and Technology

English Title
Enterprise Strategy, Business and Technology

Course information
Language English
Exam ECTS 7.5 ECTS
Type Elective
Level Full Degree Master
Duration One Semester
Course period Spring
Changes in course schedule may occur
Wednesday 11.40-15.10, week 6-17
Time Table Please see course schedule at e-Campus
Study board
Study Board for BSc/MSc in Business Administration and Information Systems, MSc
Course coordinator
  • Till Winkler - Department of IT Mangement (ITM)
External lecturer: John Gøtze
Main academic disciplines
  • Information Systems
  • Management
  • Organization
  • Corporate and Business Strategy
  • Methodology
Last updated on 25-10-2013
Learning objectives
After completing the course, the student should be able to
  • explain the strategic role of IT in the enterprise
  • analyze different IT initiatives for their costs and benefits
  • identify methods to lead IT initiatives to success in various business contexts
  • characterize different IT organization and governance structures
  • leverage best-practice frameworks for managing IT processes
  • critically assess recent technology trends such as Cloud computing
Examination
Oral exam based on written product:
Examination form Oral exam based on written product

In order to participate in the oral exam, the written product must be handed in before the oral exam; by the set deadline. The grade is based on an overall assessment of the written product and the individual oral performance.
Individual or group exam Individual
Hand-ins (reports) from groups of up to three students can be agreed upon request
Size of written product Max. 10 pages
For groups, 5 pages would be required for each additional team member, i.e., max. 15 pages for groups of two, max. 20 pages for groups of three.
Assignment type Report
Duration
Written product to be submitted on specified date and time.
20 min. per student, including examiners' discussion of grade, and informing plus explaining the grade
Preparation time No preparation
Grading scale 7-step scale
Examiner(s) Internal examiner and second internal examiner
Exam period May/June
Make-up exam/re-exam
Same examination form as the ordinary exam
Course content and structure
“From the back room to the board room” – over the past 10 years, information technology (IT) has turned from a commodity, which was mostly regarded as a cost factor, to a strategic asset. Business and IT anagers today need to have a fundamental understanding of IT’s strategic role in the enterprise in order to maximize its contribution to the bottom line.

The course aims to develop the participants' understanding of the crucial links between enterprise strategy, business needs and IT-driven innovation across diverse enterprise settings, i.e. in maturing companies in both the private and public sectors. Key questions include, but are not limited to:
  • the alignment of the IT strategy with the enterprise strategy, 
  • the ROI assessment and prioritization of IT investments, 
  • the management of IT-driven business transformations, 
  • the design of IT organization and IT governance structures, 
  • the efficient and effective provision of IT services, 
  • and the management of IT supply in times of Cloud computing. 
Teaching methods
The course is taught as an integrated course consisting of lectures and exercises.

The focus of the lectures is to present and discuss some of the most prevalent theoretical models and concepts related to the different themes of the course. Students are required to read and prepare 1-2 papers that will be provided online before each session.

The focus of the exercises is to apply the concepts from class in international case studies from different industries, which includes group work, discussions and mini-presentations. Excercises will be complemented by talks from selected guest speakers from the industry.

At about half of the course, the participants will pick a topic for their group project, work on a practical case and prepare their project presentation to be held in class. The hand-in report should be based on the analysis of this case and demonstrate a link of the specific case problem to academic theory.

Feedback and guidance will be provided for both the project presentation and the writing of the report.
Student workload
Lectures and Exercises 60 hours
Preparation of lectures (incl. reading) 30 hours
Preparation of project presentation 45 hours
Writing of report 72 hours
Expected literature
(Selection)
  • Aral, S., E. Brynjolfsson, and D. J. Wu (2006, November). Which came first, it or productivity? virtuous cycle of investment and use in enterprise systems. SSRNS
  • Brynjolfsson, The IT Productivity Gap, "Optimize" magazine, July 2003, Issue 21 http://ebusiness.mit.edu/erik/Optimize/pr_roi.html (3 pp.)
  • Carr, “IT Doesn’t Matter”, Harvard Business Review (HBR), vol. 81, no. 5, pp. 41-49, May 2003
  • Chan, Y. E. and B. H. Reich (2007). IT alignment: what have we learned? Journal of Information technology 22 (4), 297-315.
  • Lacity, M. C., S. A. Khan, and L. P. Willcocks (2009, September). A review of the IT outsourcing literature: Insights for practice. The Journal of Strategic Information Systems 18 (3), 130-146.
  • Loebbecke, C., B. Thomas, and T. Ullrich, “Assessing Cloud Readiness at Continental AG,” MIS Quarterly Executive, vol. 11, no. 1, 2012
  • Paul, A. D. (2009). Itil Heroes' Handbook: Itil For Those Who Don'T Have The Time. CreateSpace, Paramount, CA. (pages 3-23)
  • Rettig, C. “The Trouble With Enterprise Software”, MIT Sloan Management Review, vol. 49, no. 1, pp. 21-27, Fall 2007.
  • Ross, J., and P. Weill, “Six IT Decisions Your IT People Shouldn't Make”, HBR, vol. 80, no. 11, pp. 84-91, Nov. 2002
  • Weill, P., 2004. Don’t just lead, govern: How top-performing firms govern IT. MIS Quarterly Executive 3 (1), 1–17.
  • Winkler, T. J. and C. V. Brown (2013). Organizing and configuring the IT function. In H. Topi and A. Tucker (Eds.), Computer Science Handbook, Third Edition - Information Systems and Information Technology - Volume 2, pp. Chapter 8+. Taylor & Francis.
Last updated on 25-10-2013