Information Systems: A Manager's Guide to Harnessing Technology

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Information Systems: A Manager’s Guide to Harnessing Technology V 1.3 is intended for use in undergraduate and/or graduate courses in Management Information Systems and Information Technology.

Version 1.3 of John's book retains the same structure and theory of version 1.1 and V 1.2, but refreshes key statistics, examples, and brings case material up to date (vital when covering firms that move as fast as Facebook, Google, and Netflix).

For example; the Netflix chapter - Updates address the major changes impacting Netflix in 2011, including the response to the firm's pricing changes, the failed Qwikster service split, recent developments impacting the streaming and DVD-by-mail businesses, a comparison table detailing the stark differences between the firm's two offerings (DVD & streaming), updated statistics, learning objectives, and additional exercises and updates to the Google chapter - Updated text/images for currency, additional sub-sections on the firm's Google+ launch and the acquisition of Motorola Mobility.

Adopting version 1.3 guarantees your students will have the most current text on the market, drawing real and applicable lessons from material that will keep your class offerings current and accessible.

One of BusinessWeek’s "Professors of the Year", John Gallaugher of Boston College, brings you a brand new Management Information Systems textbook that teaches students how he or she will experience IS from a Managers perspective first hand through interesting coverage and bleeding-edge cases.

Get involved with John's community by visiting and subscribing to his blog, The Week In Geek, where courseware, technology and strategy intersect and joining his Ning IT Community site where you can get more resources to teach Information Systems.

Shockingly, at a time when technology regularly appears on the cover of every major business publication, students find IS among the least appealing of management disciplines.

The teaching approach in Information Systems: A Manager’s Guide to Harnessing Technology V 1.3 can change this. The text offers a proven approach that has garnered student praise, increased IS enrollment, and engaged students to think deeper and more practically about the space where business and technology meet. Every topic is related to specific business examples, so students gain an immediate appreciation of its importance. Rather than lead with technical topics, the book starts with strategic thinking, focusing on big-picture issues that have confounded experts but will engage students. And while chapters introduce concepts, cases on approachable, exciting firms across industries further challenge students to apply what they've learned, asking questions like:

Why was NetFlix able to repel Blockbuster and WalMart? How did Harrah's Casino's become twice as profitable as comparably-sized Caesar's, enabling the former to acquire the latter? How does Spain's fashion giant Zara, a firm that shuns the sort of offshore manufacturing used by every other popular clothing chain, offer cheap fashions that fly off the shelves, all while achieving growth rates and profit margins that put Gap to shame? Why do technology markets often evolve into winner-take-all or winner take-most scenarios? And how can managers compete when these dynamics are present? Why is Google more profitable than Disney? How much is Facebook really worth

The Information Systems course and discipline have never seemed more relevant, more interesting, and more exciting. Gallaugher's textbook can help teachers make students understand why.

• Chapter 1: Setting the Stage: Technology and the Modern Enterprise
• Chapter 2: Strategy and Technology: Concepts and Frameworks for Understanding What Separates Winners from Losers
• Chapter 3: Zara: Fast Fashion from Savvy Systems
• Chapter 4: Netflix in Two Acts: The Making of an E-commerce Giant and the Uncertain Future of Atoms to Bits
• Chapter 5: Moore’s Law: Fast, Cheap Computing and What It Means for the Manager
• Chapter 6: Understanding Network Effects
• Chapter 7: Social Media, Peer Production, and Web 2.0
• Chapter 8: Facebook: Building a Business from the Social Graph
• Chapter 9: Understanding Software: A Primer for Managers
• Chapter 10: Software in Flux: Partly Cloudy and Sometimes Free
• Chapter 11: The Data Asset: Databases, Business Intelligence, and Competitive Advantage
• Chapter 12: A Manager’s Guide to the Internet and Telecommunications
• Chapter 13: Information Security: Barbarians at the Gateway (and Just About Everywhere Else)
• Chapter 14: Google in Three Parts: Search, Online Advertising, and Beyond