California State University, Long Beach
College of Business Administration
Department of Information Systems

Management Information Systems
IS 300 Section 09 (9944), Spring 2015
Course Syllabus
Instructor:
Office:
Email:
Classroom:
Class Hours:
Office Hours:

Yu-Ming Wang, Ph.D.
CBA 432 yu-ming.wang@csulb.edu CBA 112
MW 9:30-10:45AM
M 1-4:00PM & W 3-4:00PM

Course Description
Most organizations today rely heavily on the use of Information Technology (IT) and
Information System (IS) to run various aspects of their businesses, from sales and marketing, order taking, order fulfillment, billing, shipping goods, customer service and support, to conducting other business functions, such as procurement, accounting and financial planning. In addition to enabling companies to perform efficiently and effectively, IT/IS allows an organization to remain competitive in today’s fast-paced world; organizations that fail to take advantage of IT/IS run the risk of falling behind others. As such, using and managing IT/IS has become a task for all levels of managers and all functional areas.
This course is designed for all business majors who are or who will soon become business professionals in the fast changing business world of today. As a business professional, you need to become an informed and effective customer of information technology products and services.
In particular, to master your current or future jobs, you need to be able to ask pertinent questions, and you need to be able to have the knowledge to make wise decisions and to manage effectively. To that end, both technical and managerial aspects of information systems will be addressed.
Students will be exposed to major building blocks of information systems (e.g., databases, electronic commerce and networking), contemporary organizational applications, business strategies and processes, techniques for IT/IS development and management, and the state-ofthe-art in business driven IT/IS.

IS 300 Management Information Systems

1

Course Objectives
Successful organizations do not utilize IT simply for the sake of technology itself. There must be a solid business reason for adopting and implementing IT. Although sometimes awareness of an emerging technology can lead to new strategic directions, business strategies and processes should drive technology choices.
The goal of this course is to help business students understand various business initiatives and how IT supports those business initiatives. Students are expected to learn how to use and manage information technologies to revitalize business processes, improve business decision making, and gain competitive advantage.
At the successful completion of the course, students are expected to be able to:
 Learn the fundamentals of IT, such as database, Internet, and electronic commerce that will help firms meet the challenges and opportunities;
 Understand how IT fits into business strategies, supports business processes, and help undertake organizational activities;
 Appreciate the role and impact of IT/IS in a variety of functional areas and in organizations;  Understand business process improvement, business process re-engineering, and the role of IT;
 Know how information systems can be developed, implemented, and used successfully in a business environment; and
 Work in a team environment on an information systems project.

Required Text and Materials
Rainer, K., B. Prince & C. Cegielski, Introduction to Information Systems: Supporting and
Transforming Business, 5th Edition, Wiley.
Most course materials (e.g., syllabus, lecture notes, and projects) will be available online. You will need to register for the course to have access to course materials. Additional handouts may be distributed in class during the semester.

Exams
There are three in-class, noncumulative exams (including the final). Questions will be taken from lecture notes, the assigned chapter readings, projects, as well as computer lab activities.
Students who