NJIT School of Management

MGMT-676-612

Managing the Digital Firm

Semester: Spring 2006

Location: Stryker & Online at http://webct.njit.edu

Instructor: Stephane Gagnon

Office Hours: Monday & Wednesday 10:30am-12:00pm, and Thursday 4-5pm

Office: Central Avenue Building, Room 4013

Telephone: 973-596-8569, Fax: 973-596-3074

Email: gagnon@njit.edu

Web: http://elab.njit.edu

Description

(Taken from the NJIT Course Catalog: http://catalog.njit.edu/courses/mgmt.php#mgmt676)

Sweeping technological change coupled with globalization has led to the development of new organizational forms which fall into the general category of digital firms. This course is focused on the digital processes that are transforming organizations and on managing all aspects of the digital firm. Topics include managing a virtual workforce, managing digital technologies, and protecting and leveraging digital assets.

Prerequisites

None.

Outline

A digital firm is one that extensively uses e-business (or web-enabled) processes and systems, integrating all operations for superior flexibility and performance. We will review the architecture of several applications, analyze their processes and functionality, and discuss key implementation and management issues. Among others, we will consider such applications as:

1.      E-Commerce and its Role in E-Business

2.      Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)

3.      Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

4.      Selling Chain Management (SeCM)

5.      Supply Chain Management (SCM)

6.      E-Procurement and B2B E-Marketplaces

7.      Business Intelligence (BI)

In addition, we will discuss and point to further readings on their underlying technologies and development methods, such as:

1.      Enterprise Architecture (EA)

2.      Service Oriented Architecture (SOA)

3.      Business Process Management (BPM)

4.      Model Driven Architecture (MDA)

5.      Web Application and Portal Servers

6.      Enterprise Application Integration (EAI)

7.      Enterprise Information Integration (EII)

Learning Outcomes

After this course, you should be able to:

  1. Describe the architecture and functionality of core e-business applications.
  2. Identify the role of these e-business applications within various business strategies.
  3. Pinpoint the key management and organizational issues in e-business implementation.
  4. Understand the basic functioning of underlying technologies supporting these applications.
  5. Navigate the offerings of various technology vendors to identify potential solutions.

Required Books

Ravi Kalakota and Marcia Robinson, 2001, e-Business 2.0: Roadmap for Success, 2nd Edition, Addison Wesley Professional, ISBN: 0-201-72165-1, 544 pages, Publisher Price: $40.49, Book: http://www.awprofessional.com/title/0201721651, Authors: http://www.ebstrategy.com/books/e-business2.0. Available at the NJIT Bookstore.

David S. Linthicum, 2004, Next Generation Application Integration: From Simple Information to Web Services, Addison-Wesley Professional, ISBN: 0-201-84456-7, 512 pages, Publisher Price: $35.99, Book: http://www.awprofessional.com/title/0201844567, Author: http://www.grandcentral.com/view/dev.page.basic/thought-leaders. Available at the NJIT Bookstore.

Grading

The final grade (on 100%) is the sum of the 4 following grades. Please see further below for instructions on each activity. Cut-off points for numeric-to-alpha grades are: A = 100-90, B+ = 80-89, B = 70-79, C+ = 60-69, C = 50-59, F = 0-49.

Activity

Type

Grade

Due Date

Online Discussions

Individual

20

Weeks 1-15

First Case

Individual

20

Week 6

Second Case

Individual

20

Week 11

Research Deliverables

Team

4 X 10 = 40

Weeks 3, 5, 10, 16

Schedule and Downloads

For readings, please take note of the codes for Kalakota chapters (K) and Linthicum chapters (L). Please click on the hyperlinks to download each slides (S#) and audios (A#). Please click on the column heading to download all files under that category in a ZIP archive, or to get them in ZIP archives, please visit the downloads page, http://web.njit.edu/~gagnon/downloads, using the username/password sent by email.

W

Date

Topics and Deliverables

Readings

Slides

Videos

Audios

1

01/19

Course Introduction

 

 

 

Intro

2

01/26

e-commerce, e-business, and Competitive Advantage

K1-2

S1, S2

 

A1

3

02/02

e-business Models and Framework

Deliverable 1 - Form a Team and Choose a Topic

K3-4

S3, S4

 

A2

4

02/09

Enterprise Applications

 

K5

S5

 

A3

5

02/16

CRM and SeCM

Deliverable 2 - Find 20 Case Studies from 10+ Vendors

K6-7

S6, S7

V1, V2

A4

6

02/23

First Case

 

 

 

 

7

03/02

ERP

K8

S8

V3, V4, V5

A5

8

03/09

SCM and e-procurement

K9-10

S9, S10

V6, V7

A6

9

03/16

Spring Recess – No Activity

 

 

 

 

10

03/23

BI

Deliverable 3 - Fill Out All Tables for All Cases

K11

S11

V8, V9, V10

A7

11

03/30

Second Case

 

 

 

 

12

04/06

EII, EAI, and BPM

L1-2-3

S12, S13, S14

V11, V12, V13, V14

A9

13

04/13

Web Services and SOA

L4-15-13

S15, S16

V15

A10

14

04/20

Portals, Middleware, and Transaction Management

L5-6-7

S17, S18

V16

A11

15

04/27

XML Standards, Processes, and MDA

L11-12-14

S19, S20

V17

A12

16

05/04

Deliverable 4 - Final Report, Tables and Cases

 

 

 

 

17

05/11

Instructor Sends Grades to Registrar

 

 

 

 

Discussion Instructions

  1. The goal of online discussions is to demonstrate your understanding of the various e-business applications and their underlying technologies.
  2. We have created a separate section for each week (1-16) on our course WebCT Bulletin Board. Weeks 6, 11, and 16 are to upload your other deliverables (see further below for Cases and Report Instructions).
  3. For the 13 other weeks, the instructor has posted a message with an initial question for discussion, providing links to web sites and cases to discuss.
  4. The question will generally relate to the material discussed that week, but could also deal with a major event happening in the world of business and information technology.
  5. Each student in the course is requested to post a message in reply to each question each week. Students are free to post several messages in each week and/or to post several of their messages ahead of time for upcoming weeks. If they wish to reply on another angle beside the instructor question, students can also choose to post another question of interest (in a separate thread that same week), making sure to provide links to web sites and cases to discuss.
  6. One good way to contribute is to find similar, distinct, or even contradictory cases or examples relative to the first question posted by the instructor, or to other questions and/or points made by others in the discussion threads. Taking an opposite view to a message, using the proper arguments, is also a valuable contribution.
  7. Messages posted must be around 1-2 paragraphs, and add original thoughts to the discussion. You cannot simply say “I agree with the previous point.”, but instead must explain why, and especially provide references to back your ideas.
  8. Point-form contributions are welcomed as long as each keyword is accompanied with a full sentence. Copying-pasting citations from support material is also welcomed, with clear identification of the reference. The citation being copied must be further analyzed and/or discussed by the student posting it, making sure your message builds upon it and adds value.
  9. Each message should always have at least 1 link to a relevant web-based and/or attached article, news, or case item to support the point made.
  10. Each week, the instructor will read each message in the thread, with evaluation criteria focusing on originality of the point being made, the substence of each argument, and the inclusion of relevant supporting material.

Case Instructions

  1. The goal of case analyses is to help you develop an ability to pinpoint management, implementation, and technology issues in e-business.
  2. On the Friday of the week prior to which each case is scheduled, the instructor will post a message on our course WebCT Bulletin Board under the section of the relevant week (6 or 11). The message will contain a link to the case study to be analyzed individually. The instructor will also send an email alert to all students that the case has been posted on WebCT.
  3. By the due date on the week the case is scheduled, each student must have produced a 3-page case analysis/response. It must be uploaded as a Word attachment to a message posted on our course WebCT Bulletin Board under the section of the relevant week (6 or 11).
  4. The cases will deal with major e-business models and systems integration implementations. The 3 questions to be answered will be fairly open and require some undirected research.
  5. Answers to case questions must follow the same rules as online discussions, i.e., address strategic issues, provide substential analysis, and elaborate and support arguments with relevant references. Each question must be answered separately, without any introduction or conclusion. However, all references can be compiled at the end of the case report.
  6. The format of the case report is 3-5 pages of text in Word, including tables, figures. It must be in Times New Roman 12 points, single spaced, with 1-inch margins. Cover page, table of contents, references, and appendices are additional pages (not counted in required pages). Citations and references must follow the Harvard Business School Citations Guide, http://www.library.hbs.edu/guides/citationguide.pdf.
  7. If students have questions, they are welcomed to post them after the case has been uploaded by the instructor, properly replying to the case message that same week. The instructor will answer with some clarifications on the deliverables expected, without providing hints to the answers. An email will also be sent a few days later compiling a set of clarifications based on student questions.

Research Instructions

  1. The goals of the team research report are to learn about the functionality of some emerging e-business technologies, to comparatively assess the impacts of their implementation across various industries and case studies, and learn how to find and analyze vendors, products, and success factors.
  2. By week 3 (Deliverable 1), teams of 2-3 students each should be formed, and each team should have made a choice of 1 research topic among a list of 5 given by the instructor. Each team must have a different topic. If a team wishes to propose an alternative topic, please consult the instructor before the end of week 2.
  3. Before choosing their research topic, teams should read some of the material provided in our research guidelines available from our download area (http://web.njit.edu/~gagnon/downloads/research-guidelines.zip, username/password available on our first page of WebCT and as indicated in the first email sent by the instructor).
  4. Once a choice has been made, the team leader is requested to post a message under the relevant topic section of their choice on our course WebCT Bulletin Board. This will become the exclusive and private working directory/section for their team. Once all teams are formed after week 3, the instructor will lock the access to this section of WebCT to the team members and the instructor only.
  5. By week 5 (Deliverable 2), each team should have identified 20 case studies for further analysis, taking at most 1-2 cases per vendor chosen (i.e., find information from about 10+ vendors). All cases should be zipped into a single folder called “cases” and contain the digital copies of all your cases, with names “##.xyz” where ## goes from 01 to 20 in the same sequence appearing in your tables, and .xyz can be either .pdf, .html, or .doc extensions. The team should upload the ZIP file under their topic/team section. The instructor will download the ZIP file and reply within 1-2 weeks with comments.
  6. By week 10 (Deliverable 3), on their WebCT team section, teams are requested to upload the single document called “tables.xls” with all the 5 tables of the instructor tables template properly filled out. The instructor will download the document and reply within 1-2 weeks with comments.
  7. By week 16 (Deliverable 4), on their respective WebCT Bulletin Board team section, each team must upload all the materials of their final research report in a single ZIP containing 3 folders: The first folder should be called “report” containing a brief sketch of your presentation slides as “slides.ppt”, research report as “report.doc” with sections 1 and 2 completed, and the file “tables.xls” with tables 1, 2 and 3 completed. The second folder should be called “cases” and contain the digital copies of all your cases, with names “##.xyz” where ## goes from 01 to 20 in the same sequence appearing in your tables, and .xyz can be either .pdf, .html, or .doc extensions. The third folder should be called “references” and contain the digital copies of any additional material you wish to submit such as articles you used as references, appendices, and/or large figures/tables.
  8. Each team must use the report, slides and tables templates (i.e., the DOC, PPT, and XLS templates) as provided in the “research guidelines” ZIP file under the folder “report”. The format of the research report should be 20-25 pages of text in Word, including figures and other tables (i.e., additional to the 5 tables in the single XLS file). The whole report, as per the template, must be in Times New Roman 12 points, single spaced, with 1-inch margins. Cover page, table of contents, references, notes, and appendices are additional pages (not counted in 20). Notes should all be at the end of the document and use the Word formating feature. Citations and references must follow the Harvard Business School Citations Guide, http://www.library.hbs.edu/guides/citationguide.pdf.

Course Rules

  1. The NJIT Honor Code will be upheld, and any violations will be brought to the immediate attention of the Dean of Students. Please carefully read the honor code at http://www.njit.edu/academics/honorcode.php.
  2. Students will be consulted with by the instructor to reach an agreement on any modifications or deviations from the syllabus throughout the course of the semester. Consultations will take place first by email, as well as through messages posted on our course WebCT Bulletin Board under the “Main” section.
  3. Before visiting the instructor during office hours, it is always appreciated if students arrange for an appointment by sending an email. Students with an appointment will always have priority.
  4. Students wishing to make a phone appointment with the instructor should formulate their questions in an email first as it may be possible to resolve it with an email reply. If they wish they can provide some times of availability with the proper telephone numbers to call them. The instructor will call them at their convenience, from Monday to Friday 10:30am-5pm. It is preferable not to leave a voice mail as email is fastest and keeps a clear record/thread of the request. All emails are treated in full confidentiality. It is best to use the WebCT email system to keep emails in the same record/thread.
  5. The normal turn-around time for cases and reports to be graded and returned is two weeks after submission.
  6. The first case analysis will is scheduled on week 6 in order to ensure students get their grade before the last date of withdrawal (Monday, March 6, 2006, or week 8). The second case will is scheduled on week 11. There is no final exam, as the rest of the semester focuses on delivering the research report.

Academic Calendar

Downloaded from the NJIT Registrar website at http://www.njit.edu/v2/Registrar/Calendar/2006sp.html on 01/12/06, which was updated on 12/05/05.

Sunday

January 15

First Day of Sunday Classes

Monday

January 16

Martin Luther King's Birthday - No Classes Scheduled

Tuesday

January 17

First Day of Classes

Monday