Questions and Topics We Can Help to Answer
Paper Instructions;

Assignment: Discussion Activity 

Each student is to critically assess the 1) mission, 2) goals, and 3) importance of information systems and their management (ISM) in the firm, 4) using Oracle Corporation as an example.

Clarification:

The single most important point made in these materials is that information systems, and their supporting information technology plus included telecommunications technology, are not drivers in well-managed organizations; instead, they are when properly used, supporters of the business mission and strategy.

That is true of UMUC, where the mission is educate with the major marketing strategy to be online.  It is also true of Amazon.com, where the mission is to make a profit selling a wide number of products, and the major marketing strategy  is  again, online.

The second most important point, stressed by Professor McFarlan and epitomized by Amazon.com, Apple and Google, is that properly-designed and -implemented information systems can convey a strategic competitive advantage to their enterprises.

Example: Here is a start on contributing to this week's discussions, with an example using UMUC as the firm.  

The  mission of information systems management at University of Maryland University College is to support the teaching and administrative processes of the university in an efficient and effective (!, recall operations management) way
The goals of UMUC ISM include:

Being at the state of the art in course delivery at a distance. That's why we have used Webex, google- and pdf format and audio/video materials 
Providing 24x7 reliability in the Learning environment, in  PeopleSoft and other essential information systems.  360 Support is on call via message and telephone at all hours, for instance. 
Conserving State and student (ie, tuition) resources in accomplishing the foregoing, which Maryland taxpayers and the state legislature expect.
The importance  of ISM at UMUC is extremely high, given

First, that the University has strategically decided to be the open university of Maryland and the United States, providing learning services to a growing student body mostly* at a distance, thus using information systems heavily. 
Second, there are a plethora of state and federal regulations, plus community standards, that govern the management of information at UMUC and thus provide continuing, importance-raising challenges.**


*Currently, about 82% of UMUC Adelphi students study exclusively online, and another 10% learn through a "hybrid" online/F2F program.

**One example is the accommodation requirements of the federal ADA - Americans with Disabilities - Act. These require that information be delivered at UMUC in ways that accommodate, for instance, visually- and hearing-impaired students. This means, for one example, that we must prepare - and pay for - transcripts of audio materials for hearing-impaired students (and some professors too).