Welcome to our MIS Myth Busters Event! MIS@Terry: Enhancing Organizational Performance through Information Systems

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Terry College of BusinessDepartment of
Management Information Systems

• Welcome to our MIS Myth Busters
  Event!MIS_at_Terry Enhancing Organizational
  Performance through Information Systems

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Plan for the evening

• What is MIS? What is the MIS Major?
• Dr. Mark Huber, Faculty in the MIS Department
• Panel Debunking MIS myths
• Alumni and current students
• QA

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What is MIS

• Finance Finances
• Accounting - Counts
• Marketing Markets
• MIS - ?
• MIS is not computer science
• MIS is businesspeople creating value for
  organizations using information and technology

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Management Information Systems (MIS)

• MIS -- Enhancing organizational performance
  through information systems
• MIS Magical, Interesting, Stuff (done to create
  business value for organizations)

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MIS Curriculum
Systems MIST 4600 MIST 4620 MIST 4630 MIST
5640 MIST 5730 MIST 5990
Management MIST 2090 MIST 4700 MIST 5600 MIST
5670 MIST 5740 MIST 5780 MIST 5990
Information MIST 4610 MIST 5620 MIST 5650 MIST
5730 MIST 5760 MIST 5990
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• Few who lived through the dot-com bust in 2001
  would have predicted that the technology sector
  could come back in four short years. But that's
  what is happening. The United States Department
  of Labor says technology is one of the country's
  fastest-growing industries, with an average
  salary of 67,900 and some 600,000 new jobs
  expected by 2012.
• Much has changed, however. The major
  qualification in the frenzied 90's was ''the
  ability to fog a mirror,'' says Harris Miller,
  president of the Information Technology
  Association of America. Today, with the industry
  growing in complexity and scope, employers are
  scrutinizing applicants' educational bona fides.
  Among the ingredients for success? A solid
  grounding in information system basics and a
  teaming of past workplace experience -- in areas
  like management, graphic design, health care, law
  enforcement -- with newly learned technology
  skills. Experts also recommend zeroing in on
  high-demand jobs like network security and
  project management.
• Where Career Changers Go Five Top
  ChoicesCECILIA CAPUZZI SIMON, November 6, 2005

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• The most sought-after corporate IT workers in
  2010 may be those with no deep-seated technical
  skills at all. The nuts-and-bolts programming and
  easy-to-document support jobs will have all gone
  to third-party providers in the U.S. or abroad.
  Instead, IT departments will be populated with
  "versatilists" -- those with a technology
  background who also know the business sector
  inside and out, can architect and carry out IT
  plans that will add business value, and can
  cultivate relationships both inside and outside
  the company.
• Hot Skills, Cold SkillsThe IT worker of 2010
  won't be a technology guru but rather a
  'versatilist.'Stacy Collett, July 17, 2006

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Panel

• Participants
• Alumni
• Ms. Huong Pham (Vascent, Inc.)
• Mr. Chris Kirk (Deloitte Touche LLP)
• Mr. Robert Alln (PricewaterhouseCoopers, LLP)
• Current MIS undergraduate students
• Ms. Angela Guhl
• Mr. Daniel Lanford

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Panel

• First, tell us why you opted for a career in MIS?

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Panel

• MIS Myth 1
• Given the outsourcing trend and the Internet
  bust, there are fewer and fewer jobs in MIS

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From an alumnus

• I will say there is a huge need for MIS
  graduates with business backgrounds.  I can hire
  programmers and outsource all I want to India
  however, if they do not have both the business
  background as well as the computer skills with an
  American English idiom knowledge, they do not
  make good implementers.
• Alumnus
• BBA 1986

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Panel

• MIS Myth 2
• A major in MIS means working in a cubicle as a
  coder for the rest of my life, with little chance
  of advancement

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From an alumnus

• There is an absolute trend to have the CIO/CTO
  positions report directly to the CEO and not the
  more traditional CFO role extrapolated this
  indicates that corporations are no longer
  treating information systems and management as an
  expense to be managed by finance but a true
  business drivers in the business relationship
  capable of providing real competitive advantage
  and business process design.
• Mike Easley
• Chief Information Officer
• Home Quality Management, Inc.BBA 1994

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QA

• What other questions do you have for our
  panelists or for the MIS alumni / students in the
  room?

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Dont Forget!

• MIS is exciting
• MIS is in high demand
• MIS leads to interesting high paying jobs
• The market craves MIS majors
• See Anna Elder for a brochure on the MIS program

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A few more quotes

• I felt like the MIS degree has served me very
  well as a good balance between programming and
  business acumen. 
• Alumnus
• BBA 1987
• It has been an amazing 12 years and I owe my
  success, in large part, to the foundation and
  education I received while at UGA
• Mike Easley
• Chief Information Officer
• Home Quality Management, Inc.BBA 1994