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Published: 
July 2010
Page Count: 
338
ISBN: 
978-1-9361262-1-7

Information Systems: A Manager's Guide to Harnessing Technology

Version 1.1 By: John Gallaugher

Key Features:

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



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 Manager's 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 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.

  • About the Author
  • Acknowledgments
  • Dedication
  • Preface

    • Chapter 1: Setting the Stage: Technology and the Modern Enterprise

  • 1.1 Tech’s Tectonic Shift: Radically Changing Business Landscapes
  • 1.2 It’s Your Revolution
  • 1.3 Geek Up—Tech Is Everywhere And You’ll Need It To Thrive
  • 1.4 The Pages Ahead

    • Chapter 2: Strategy and Technology: Concepts and Frameworks for Understanding What Separates Winners from Losers

  • 2.1 Introduction
  • 2.2 Powerful Resources
  • 2.3 Barriers To Entry, Technology, And Timing
  • 2.4 Key Framework: The Five Forces Of Industry Competitive Advantage

    • Chapter 3: Zara: Fast Fashion from Savvy Systems

  • 3.1 Introduction
  • 3.2 Don’t Guess, Gather Data
  • 3.3 Moving Forward

    • Chapter 4: Netflix: The Making of an E-commerce Giant and the Uncertain Future of Atoms to Bits

  • 4.1 Introduction
  • 4.2 Tech And Timing: Creating Killer Assets
  • 4.3 From Atoms To Bits: Opportunity Or Threat?

    • Chapter 5: Moore’s Law: Fast, Cheap Computing and What It Means for the Manager

  • 5.1 Introduction
  • 5.2 The Death Of Moore’s Law?
  • 5.3 Bringing Brains Together: Supercomputing And Grid Computing
  • 5.4 E Waste: The Dark Side Of Moore’s Law

    • Chapter 6: Understanding Network Effects

  • 6.1 Introduction
  • 6.2 Where’s All That Value Come From?
  • 6.3 One Sided Or Two Sided Markets?
  • 6.4 How Are These Markets Different?
  • 6.5 Competing When Network Effects Matter

    • Chapter 7: Peer Production, Social Media, and Web 2.0

  • 7.1 Introduction
  • 7.2 Blogs
  • 7.3 Wikis
  • 7.4 Electronic Social Networks
  • 7.5 Twitter And The Rise Of Microblogging
  • 7.6 Other Key Web 2.0 Terms And Concepts
  • 7.7 Prediction Markets And The Wisdom Of Crowds
  • 7.8 Crowdsourcing
  • 7.9 Get Smart: The Social Media Awareness And Response Team

    • Chapter 8: Facebook: Building a Business from the Social Graph

  • 8.1 Introduction
  • 8.2 What’s The Big Deal?
  • 8.3 The Social Graph
  • 8.4 Facebook Feeds—Ebola For Data Flows
  • 8.5 Facebook As A Platform
  • 8.6 Advertising And Social Networks: A Work In Progress
  • 8.7 Privacy Peril: Beacon And The Tos Debacle
  • 8.8 Predators And Privacy
  • 8.9 One Graph To Rule Them All: Facebook Takes Over The Web
  • 8.10 Is Facebook Worth It?

    • Chapter 9: Understanding Software: A Primer for Managers

  • 9.1 Introduction
  • 9.2 Operating Systems
  • 9.3 Application Software
  • 9.4 Distributed Computing
  • 9.5 Writing Software
  • 9.6 Total Cost Of Ownership (Tco): Tech Costs Go Way Beyond The Price Tag

    • Chapter 10: Software in Flux: Partly Cloudy and Sometimes Free

  • 10.1 Introduction
  • 10.2 Open Source
  • 10.3 Why Open Source?
  • 10.4 Examples Of Open Source Software
  • 10.5 Why Give It Away? The Business Of Open Source
  • 10.6 Cloud Computing: Hype Or Hope?
  • 10.7 The Software Cloud: Why Buy When You Can Rent?
  • 10.8 Saa S: Not Without Risks
  • 10.9 The Hardware Cloud: Utility Computing And Its Cousins
  • 10.10 Clouds And Tech Industry Impact
  • 10.11 Virtualization: Software That Makes One Computer Act Like Many
  • 10.12 Make, Buy, Or Rent

    • Chapter 11: The Data Asset: Databases, Business Intelligence, and Competitive Advantage

  • 11.1 Introduction
  • 11.2 Data, Information, And Knowledge
  • 11.3 Where Does Data Come From?
  • 11.4 Data Rich, Information Poor
  • 11.5 Data Warehouses And Data Marts
  • 11.6 The Business Intelligence Toolkit
  • 11.7 Data Asset In Action: Technology And The Rise Of Wal Mart
  • 11.8 Data Asset In Action: Harrah’s Solid Gold Crm For The Service Sector

    • Chapter 12: A Manager’s Guide to the Internet and Telecommunications

  • 12.1 Introduction
  • 12.2 Internet 101: Understanding How The Internet Works
  • 12.3 Getting Where You’re Going
  • 12.4 Last Mile: Faster Speed, Broader Access

    • Chapter 13: Information Security: Barbarians at the Gateway (and Just About Everywhere Else)

  • 13.1 Introduction
  • 13.2 Why Is This Happening? Who Is Doing It? And What’s Their Motivation?
  • 13.3 Where Are Vulnerabilities? Understanding The Weaknesses
  • 13.4 Taking Action

    • Chapter 14: Google: Search, Online Advertising, and Beyond

  • 14.1 Introduction
  • 14.2 Understanding Search
  • 14.3 Understanding The Increase In Online Ad Spending
  • 14.4 Search Advertising
  • 14.5 Ad Networks—Distribution Beyond Search
  • 14.6 More Ad Formats And Payment Schemes
  • 14.7 Customer Profiling And Behavioral Targeting
  • 14.8 Profiling And Privacy
  • 14.9 Search Engines, Ad Networks, And Fraud
  • 14.10 The Battle Unfolds

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    Instructor Manual

    Instructor Manual

    The Instructor Manual guides you through the main concepts of each chapter and important elements such as learning objectives, key terms, and key takeaways. Can include answers to chapter exercises, group activity suggestions, and discussion questions.

    Instructor Manual

    PowerPoint Lecture Notes

    PowerPoint Lecture Notes

    A PowerPoint presentation highlighting key learning objectives and the main concepts for each chapter are available for you to use in your classroom. You can either cut and paste sections or use the presentation as a whole.

    PowerPoint Lecture Notes

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    Test Bank Files for Import to Learning Management Systems

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    John gallaugher

    John Gallaugher Boston College

    John Gallaugher is an associate professor of information systems (IS) at Boston College’s Carroll School of Management. As founding faculty for the Boston College TechTrek programs, and the former colead of the school’s graduate field studies in Europe and Asia, Professor Gallaugher has had remarkable access studying technology growth and impact worldwide. Professor Gallaugher and his students spend several weeks each year visiting with technology executives, entrepreneurs, and venture capitalists in San Francisco, Silicon Valley, Seattle, Boston, New York, and Ghana. Gallaugher and his students were present at the launch of the iPhone, were at Sequoia Capital the day LinkedIn went public, and are regularly hosted in master-class sessions at firms from Amazon to Zynga. This unique opportunity helps provide his teaching and writing with a broad, deep, and continually refreshed perspective on key industry trends and developments. Gallaugher also works closely with collegiate entrepreneurs and is coadvisor to the Boston College Venture Competition, an organization whose affiliated businesses have gone on to gain admittance to elite accelerator programs (Y-Combinator, TechStars, MassChallenge, Summer@Highland), launch multiple products, and raise millions in capital. A dedicated teacher and active researcher, Professor Gallaugher has been recognized for excellence and innovation in teaching by several organizations, including Boston College, BusinessWeek, Entrepreneur Magazine, and the Decision Sciences Institute. Professor Gallaugher’s research has been published in the Harvard Business Review, MIS Quarterly, and other leading IS journals. Professor Gallaugher has been a featured speaker at Apple Inc’s AcademiX educator conference, and was the international keynote speaker at AIBUMA (the African International Business and Management Conference) in Nairobi Kenya. He has consulted for and taught executive seminars for several organizations, including Accenture, Alcoa, Duke Corporate Education, ING, Partners Healthcare, Staples, State Street, the University of Ulster, and the U.S. Information Agency. His comments on business and technology have appeared in the New York Times, National Public Radio, BusinessWeek, the Boston Globe, Wired, the Associated Press, Chronicle (WCVB-TV), The Daily Yomiuri (Japan), and the Nation (Thailand), among others. Professor Gallaugher publishes additional content related to his teaching and research at http://gallaugher.com. He is also active on Twitter at @gallaugher.
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