CSP 1-8

Course Description

This course is designed to assist students in developing the knowledge and skills needed to work with systems integration vendors and processes globally.  It focuses on the concepts and methods associated with designing, planning, contracting for, and overseeing information technology infrastructure and applications in a global business environment.  The course familiarizes students with the legal issues related to preparing, distributing, and evaluating requests for proposal (RFP) and subsequent integration contracting matters.  Students will prepare and evaluate systems proposals for various sourcing and managing third party relations.

Sourcing concepts are based on the assumption that organizations creating the most effective information technology capabilities generally capitalize on a combination of resources within and external to the firm.  Similarly, IT capabilities incorporate a variety of technology components which must be integrated in a proficient manner.  Global systems projects are thus an essential aspect of creating, delivering, and utilizing information technology in business.

The most effective tools and techniques for managing systems sourcing and organization development projects are introduced.  Special exercises and cases also focus on ways to meet challenges. 

Learning Objectives:

Upon successful completion of this course, the student will be able to:

• Define and describe the various meanings of the terms "sourcing." 
• Classify and describe three approaches to deploying new systems and services in organizations
• Describe the various organizational roles IS managers play with regard to creating and maintaining the IT infrastructure as well as assessing the strategic value this infrastructure creates
• Assess the strategic value of particular computer applications or information services to an organization
• Reason about the theory of organizational asset and services sourcing; including the advisability of insourcing v. outsourcing for particular situations
• Recognize and be able to create the elements of an effective request for proposal (RFP)
• Evaluate proposals from information technology providers/systems integrators (Comparative Bid Analysis or Level III Business Decision)
• Describe how to formulate a systems integration plan, identify critical decision points, determine project resources and tasks and duration of tasks, and schedule the necessary tasks for the integration plan.
• Describe measurement techniques, benchmarking, tools, and instruments useful in the planning, monitoring, and post-implementation reviewing of systems integration projects
• Identify the key legal and managerial issues to be addressed in contracting for outsourcing and other forms of systems integration
• Negotiate and prepare a contract in a client-vendor scenario

Course Resources:

Resource #1: Your Classmates

All course assignments and lab exercises will be team-executed in groups of five (no more than this number; no less than this number, unless team members withdraw from the course). Your groups should function as a self-managed team and adopt the rules and practices of this organizational work structure. Participation in the course assignments/lab exercises should be relatively equal among the group members, with each member monitoring both one's own level and quality of participation and that of the other members of the group. Self-managed teams are free to make decisions about their own processes, including matters such as who will serve on the team. If the majority of the team decides, for whatever reason, to alter the membership of the group, this change will go into effect immediately. (Please inform the instructor, in writing, about this decision and include this document in the project documentation for your team). Individuals who are no longer with that team will need to join another group, and assume the consequences of being assessed accordingly by their original group, or else, for the current assignment and the current assignment only, proceed on their own.

Consonant with the concepts and principles of self-managed teams, peer appraisals will be part of the overall grading/evaluation of individual performance. In the best managed teams, consensus on the relative contributions of each of the team members will be derived through assessment of documented facts and records, evaluation of team output, and evaluation of team processes. Unless team members inform the instructor in writing to the contrary, the assumption will be that each team member contributed equally to the deliverables.

Resource #2: Courseware

Resource #3: Other Useful Materials and Links

There are resources that will allow you, as a serious student, to learn as much as you can about systems integration and outsourcing. The hyperlinks are below:

Grading :

No final exam is needed to fulfill the learning objectives of this course. The exams cover the intellectual material of the course and the course assignments and class participation evaluate both context and other student capabilities. Your grade will be determined by your performance on the following:

Note: The group assignment grade will incorporate an equally weighted oral presentation score for assignments #1 and #3.

Student Homework:

Assignments and case briefs are described in more detail in the links below. Everything you need to know to do the labs is included below.

Assignments

·         Assignment #1: Business Case for Insource/Outsource Choice
Your team will study the Hypercase scenario of Maple Ridge Engineering Company (MRE) and write up a business case for senior management. The basic issue is whether to insource or outsource the new Web development project for the Webster Design division. Deliverables: 1 written case plus Appendices; 1 oral presentation to senior management (i.e., your classmates and the instructor). [Schedule]

·         Assignment #2: RFP
Your team will write a Request for Proposal (RFP) for a new Web development project for the MRE Webster Design division. The fuller setting for the need for this project is found in the Hypercase Addendum Materials. Deliverables: 1 written RFP. [Schedule]

·         Assignment #3: Bid
Your team will bid on a selected RFP for the new MRE Web development project. Deliverables: 1 written bid; 1 oral presentation to senior management (i.e., your classmates and the instructor). [Schedule]

·         Assignment #4: Contract Negotiation
Your team will negotitate a contract, using a selected bid for the new MRE Web development project as well as the selected RFP you downloaded for Assignment #3. Deliverables: 1 written contract; 1 journal of your negotiation goals and description of interaction between client and vendor. [Schedule]

Labs

·         Lab #1: Hypercase Exploration
Answer the following questions about Maple Ridge Engineering: (1) What does the survey of user response to the current Project Management System suggest? And (2)What does the menu for the first screen of the Project Management System show? [Schedule]

·         Lab #2: Cost-Benefit Model
Capture and print out a screen demonstrating that you are able to alter inputs to the costs or benefits associated with the Maple Ridge Engineering system and to improve the financial returns on adding this system to the IT portfolio. Write a short paragraph describing how you were able to improve the financial returns. [Schedule]

·         Lab #3: Scoring Model
Capture and print out a screen demonstrating that you can create a simple scoring model using spreadsheet software to evaluate Timberjack bids. Briefly discuss the logic you used in creating your scoring model categories and their weights.[Schedule]

Case Briefs

·         Directions

·         Questions to Address

·         Sample Case Brief

 Schedule: