Week 2 Discussion Comments

You made some very good points this week. I also appreciate the examples you included from work environments. My comments on each discussion follow.

W2D3 Domincan IT

Several of you wondered if Dominican had a Strategic IT Plan. You can find a copy here.

You had a number of questions about Dominican IT. Jill-Albin Hill, Dominican's Chief Information Officer is willing to answer our questions. I will add a bonus Discussion in Week 4 to facilitate this.

There was very good faculty training last summer in Canvas. Also, the Dominican Center for Teaching and Learning Excellence conducts workshops for faculty each term.

There was discussion about the Technology Fee. You may want to raise questions about this in the Week 4 Discussion.

 

W2D1 Does IT Matter article

Google and Dominican are different: There is a distinction between IT companies and other companies. In these companies, there is the "normal IT" (back office systems, accounting systems, internal email etc.). The same rules that apply to "normal" companies apply to these systems. IT companies also produce systems for direct delivery to customers such as the Apple iOS operating system in the iPhone, Google apps and Google search for direct use by customers, and Microsoft Azure (Cloud services). Most of these are or were strategic investments in new product development and not just "IT".

Training for new systems: Some postings talked about IT investments being wasted. Employees must be trained in new systems in order for the investment in the system to be most effective. I agree. When you are in a management role, you will need to deal with the tradeoff of temporarily reducing capacity and output in your department in order to provide your team with training. When faced with this tradeoff, you can remember this Discussion.

Is the IT Buildout finished? I think we are just at the beginning of "The Internet of Things" where snow plows, refrigerators, and cars will be loaded with digital technology and commuincating with the Internet. This will give rise to significant new applications for businesses.

Was Y2K real? Some investments had to be made in application systems such as airline reservations systems, power plant control systems, life insurance processing systems, and banking systems and others in order to avoid system shutdowns in January of 2000. Some projects such as replacing late model PCs done in the name of "Y2K" were not necessary to keep systems running in January of 2000. Some of this investment might have been necessary just as part of routine operations but did not have to be made just for Y2K.

W2D2 - Netflix and iTunes

Data is no longer unlimited: When you think about watching Netflix "anyplace" on your cell phone, Consider that Verizon LTE allows you to download about 5 movies in about 90 minutes over your 4G cell phone. Unfortunately, this will exhaust a 5GB monthly limit and future downloads will cost around $10 per GB.

Not everything is about IT: Both Netflix and iTunes license content from others and the licensors can impose restrictions as to what countries and what devices are covered by the license. An interesting question that I think will be answered in the next five years is "Who has the power -- the content provider or the content distributor?"

IT Investment is an issue in any business: Why Discuss Apple and Netflix when they were not mentioned in Carr's article? As a graduate business student, you should be able to determine how what you have learned in text books and readings apply to any given company. You can learn about any public company through public sources like Yahoo Finance and the Wall Street Journal.

Monthly subscriptions: A number of businesses get revenue through a subscription model. Cable Companies, Internet Service Providers, Netflix, and some web sites charge monthly fees. Some of you mentioned not having dropping a cable subscription. Controlling monthly subscription costs can be important to your financial health over the long term.

 

W2D3 - Domincan and IT.

Trade offs: Many of you recognized that setting a level of investment in IT involves trade offs and limits. Over investment in storgage, bandwidth, and computer hardware will cause tuition to rise and make Domincan less competitive. Under investment can also make Dominican less competitive.