The struggle of business is the struggle for
advantage. The one with more advantages wins; the
one with fewer advantages loses. The purpose of
strategy is the building and sustaining of advantage.
“Go forth where they don’t expect it, attack
where they are unprepared.”
Sun Tzu The Art of War
Course Title: Information Technology (IT) Management
Dr. A. Albadvi
Learning Objectives: The main objectives of this course for students are:
(a) To develop their knowledge about IT and IT adoption in organizations
(b) To increase their understanding of strategies in utilization and management of IT applications
(c) To review the lessons that can be learned from pitfalls and triumphs of Information Technology
(d) To provide the most significant concepts by cases which underpin the best practices in achieving
greater utilization and management of IT
Course Contents:

Systems Theory and IT
General Systems Theory and concepts defining systems properties
Man, Machine, System
Communication, Information Technology and Cybernetic
Cybernetics and concepts defining systems processes
Information and communication theory
Entropy and redundancy
Semiotic theory
Pragmatics, Semantics, Syntactics and Empirics
The primacy of socio-technical systems
The future of Systems theory

Business Process e-Engineering
Process-oriented organizations
 Case Study #1: CompuNet (1995)
The Web technology and e-Engineering
Web technology and general systems theory
The networking revolution
Web browsers as a universal client
The new communications model
The birth of Intranet
The Intranet in practice
On democracy, totalitarianism and administrative burdens
Managing the web explosion
Read:
Glance:

Thomas Thomas H. Davenport and James E. Short, "The New Industrial
Engineering: Information Technology and Business Process Redesign",
Sloan Management Review, Summer 1990, pages 11-27.

S. Hamm and M. Stepanek, "From Reengineering to E-Engineering",
Business Week e.biz, March 22, 1999.

Albrecht Enders and Tawfik Jelassi, "The Converging Business Models of
Internet and Bricks-and-Mortar Retailers", European Management Journal,
October 2000, pages 542- 550.

Innovative e-Strategy and the Internet
The grassroots of e-strategy
Formulating an e-strategy
 Case Study#2: Amazon.com vs. BOL.de (1999)
Implementing an e-strategy
The use of innovative e-strategy in creating the 21st century organization
 Case Study#3: Advance Bank (1999)
Internet application flagships, 16 different categories, e.g. e-learning, smart cards,
e-government, e-health…
Web manufacturing
Virtual organizations
 Project presentations by students
Read:



Michael E. Porter, "Strategy and the Internet", Harvard Business Review,
March 2001, pages 63-78.
N. Venkatramman and John C. Henderson, "Real Strategies for Virtual
Organizing", Sloan Management Review, Fall 1998, pages 33-47.
Hyper-Competition and IT Fighting
Sustainable competitive advantage (SCA)
Temporary competitive advantage (TCA)
The drivers of hyper-competition
Hyper-competitive theme
IT strategy and IT fighting
IT fighting advantage
IT fighting implications
The emergence of a clicks-and-mortar business strategy
 Case Study#4: Ducati (2000)
Read:
 N. Venkatraman, "Five Steps to a Dot-Com Strategy: How to find Your
Footing on the Web", Sloan Management Review, Spring 2000, pages 15-28.
 R. Gulati and J. Garino, "Get the Right Mix of Bricks & Clicks", Harvard
Business Review, May-June 2000, pages 107-114.
Glance:
 Armstrong, A. and Hagel, J., “The Real Value of On-line Communities”,
Harvard Business Review, May-June 1996, pages 134-141.
Course Materials:
1) Jonathan Liebenau and James Backhouse( 1990) Understanding Information: An
Introduction, Macmillan Education Ltd., London.
2) Lars Skyttner(1996) General Systems Theory: An Introduction, Macmillan Press Ltd.,
London.
3) Ryan Bernard (1996) The Corporate Intranet: Create and Manage an Internal Web for
your Organization, John Wiley & Sons. Inc., Canada.
4) Efraim Turban; Ephraim McLean and James Wetherbe (1999) Information Technology
for Management: Making Connections for Strategic Advantage, Second Edition, John
Wiley & Sons. Inc., New York.
5) Raymond Papp (2001) Strategic Information Technology: Opportunities for Competitive
Advantage, Idea Group Publishing, Hershey, PA.
6) Mehdi Khosrowpour (2001) Pitfalls and Triumphs of Information Technology
Management, Idea Group Publishing, Hershey, PA.
Assesment Scheme
---------------------The assessment scheme for this course will be based on the following items :
Contribution in class discussions 10%
Case analysis and presentation: 20%
Term project/Paper 50%
Final exam 20%
Case Assignments:
Case#1:
Prepare case: Business Process Redesign at CompuNet: Standardizing Top-Quality Service
through IT (1995)
Questions:
1. Is it justifiable for a company such as CompuNet to invest a lot of money and effort into the
service side of its business when service accounts for only 15% of its total revenues?
2. Is it advantageous or rather adventurous for CompuNet to design Lotus Notes applications
requiring an ISDN-based telecommunications infrastructure that is not yet available in
Germany?
3. How will the competitive environment change over time considering CompuNet’s shift towards
a multi-vendor service provider? More specifically, who are currently the main competitors
and who will they be in the near future?
4. To what degree does/will the management complexity of a multi-vendor service provider
require strategic partnerships? For what specific activities should CompuNet consider such
partnerships and who should it consider as potential partners?
Case#2:
Prepare case: Amazon.com versus BOL.de (1999)
Questions:
1. Is it justifiable for a company like Amazon.com to continue investing so much money and
effort in a business operation that not only has never made a profit but is incurring heavier
losses?
2. Will Bertelsmann benefit (or be hindered) by its physical organizational structure and
management processes in its attempt to strengthen its position as an electronic commerce
product/service provider? Defend your arguments.
3. In your opinion, what industries/companies would constitute a threat to Amazon.com and/or
Bertelsmann’s BOL over the next three to five years? Explain.
4. What success factors do you think are critical for online books (and mass-media) sales
and, more generally, for launching an electronic commerce business?
Case#3:
Prepare case: Advance Bank
Questions:
1. Is the innovative use of IT one of Advance Bank's core competencies? Explain.
2. What should Advance Bank do next in order to further attract new customers and build loyalty
among existing ones?
3. In your opinion, who will dominate the direct banking business in the long run?
Will it be:
. the large, branch-based banks,
. the relatively new direct banks which operate only in a branch-less way,
. other financial service providers such as insurance firms and credit card
processing companies,
. new entrants from outside the financial services industry such as large retail
chains and software houses, or other players in other industries?
Case#4:
Prepare case: Ducati (2000)
Questions:
1. Do you think that Ducati's decision to exclusively sell through the Internet its MH900e
motorbike model was a risky or a safe bet? Explain.
2. Since Italy is the main market for Ducati and the Internet penetration there is one of the
lowest in Western Europe, is it advantageous or adventurous for Ducati to embark on a bold
e-commerce strategy?
3. Following the successful online sale of the MH900e model, what do you recommend to
Ducati's top management to do next? In particular, do you think they should sell other
products through the Internet? If so, how soon should they do it and what specific products
should they offer?
4. “Success in the new economy will go to those who can execute clicks-andmortar strategies that bridge the physical and virtual worlds.”
Discuss the above statement and provide your views as to how companies can get the right
mix of bricks and clicks in order to win the distribution channel war. You may consider one
or more industries as a business context for your answer.
Description of the Term project/paper
The major requirement for the course is a group project or paper that can take one
of the forms listed below. The possibilities are to write:
1.
A case study on an IT (be it a success story or a failure case).
2.
A consulting report on an IT for a specific company.
3.
A research paper that investigates an IT issue in the field of any e- ? like: ecommerce/e-business Examples of research issues are: Business models in e-commerce, Business
process e-engineering, Internet-based customer relationship management (e-CRM), e-knowledge
management, managing Internet-induced organizational change, pricing strategies for web-based
goods and services, value creation in m-commerce, etc.
For options (1) and (2) the project work should focus on identifying, analyzing and assessing an
actual IT issue, which is either implemented (Option 1) or suggested (Option 2). The context of
this project could be a private or public sector organization, in Iran or elsewhere. More
specifically, the project report should cover the following items:
Organizational context
Introduction to the organization, size, structure, markets (products or services), financial results,
etc.
Industry analysis
Description of competitors, suppliers, customers, new entrants, and substitute products (if any).
Company analysis
Presentation of the corporate strategy ( in terms of the company’s strengths, weaknesses,
opportunities and threats).
IT case analysis
Detailed description of the specific IT case (in terms of its formulation process, content, and
organizational implementation)
Analysis of how this case helped (or is expected to help) the organization perform more
efficiently and/or compete more effectively in the market place (with reference back to the earlier
industry and company analyses).
IT case assessment
Critical analysis of the studied case in terms of the development and implementation approach
that were used, its benefits (achieved or expected) and pitfalls, as well as its future potential..
Presentation of your own recommendations to the company’s management with regard to further
leveraging the studied case and possibly refining it.
For Option 3, you are expected to clearly define the issue that you plan to investigate (in terms of
scope and boundaries), the research objectives, the research methodoloy, and the (expected)
findings of the research. Your research should be pitched at a suitable MBA. level; it should also
be original and contribute to the existing body of knowledge in the field.
Deliverables
1.
A project proposal: The proposal should provide a brief description (approximately
2 pages) of your project .It should contain the following information : (a) a title for your project,
(b) a list of your group members, (c) the project theme(s) you will be investigating, (d) the
methodology you will be using (such as interviewing managers, doing a survey, conducting a
library search, etc.), and (e) what you expect to learn from the project.
2.
The project report: The full project report should be approximately 15-20 pages (1.5
line spacing). It should contain a comprehensive treatment of the project theme, and also an
executive summary and a concluding section describing the actual learning experience resulting
from the project. You should also incorporate appropriate exhibits (charts, tales or graphs) into the
report as well as any references you may use. Your report will be graded on content, writing style
and presentaion.
YOU are to define your own project in consultation with Dr. Albadvi, keeping in mind that your
project should:
 Demonstrate your ability to analyze a-e-strategy and relate that to the topics
covered in class;
 Expand your understanding of how companies develop and implement IT that
leverage the Internet for business gain; and
 Expand your knowledge and not just rehash something you have learned before.
The submission deadlines for the project/paper proposal and final report will be announced
in class.