According to a U.S. government 2011 report: Information Technology fields (Computer Science, Software Engineering and Information System Management) have become the most popular fields of study at U.S. Universities. The enrollment is increasing more than 28% mostly due to the better opportunities in a tight job market.
Unlike other fields, graduates in these fields can command high-paying jobs with just an undergraduate degree. The average student with a bachelor degree can earn between $87,000 to $125,000 a year. Graduates from the top schools (Stanford, MIT, Carnegie Mellon, and Berkeley) often receive three to six job offers before they graduate. The report found that in the past ten years, Business Administration, Banking and Finance were the most favorite among students but it changed quickly in 2009 and now dropping fast with fewer enrollment as there are lesser jobs available.
However there is a new trend among top technology schools. Many are redesigning their training programs to meet new industry demands. For example, Stanford’s computer program is now linked into studio art graphics and biology (Support games and biotechnology industry). Carnegie Mellon’s program is integrated with engineering and computation biology (Support robotics, nanotechnology and biotechnology industry). These top schools are focusing on making their technical programs “interdisciplinary” with other fields to prepare for the new technology industry. Rather than stay purely in traditional computing (Hardware and software) these new programs are redesigned to meet future demand as industry is moving toward the next frontier of Nanotechnology and Biotechnology.
Unlike other changes in the past, the development of these new technologies are happening at much faster pace and there is a constant demand for new training programs as well as new demand for graduates with the latest skills. In the next few years, students will not go to college to learn computer programming or system design because these skills are now taught in high school. (Most high schools in the U.S already teach computer programming in 10th grade). College students will be taught mostly on how to apply technology to solve problems in areas such as Medicine, Pharmaceutical, Manufacturing, and Business. They will learn about the interaction of several fields to prepare for the next trend in industry. Many future jobs will be in the integration of multiple areas to advance the technology to the next level.”
For example, one of the interdisciplinary programs is the Information System Management (ISM) where students learn how to apply information technology to solve problem in the business area by enabling speedy analyses of business data to create valuable information for managers to make decision.
Businesses managers need information to identify and solving problems so they can manage all aspects of company operations effectively. Before the existing of computer, these tasks were mainly based on observation and prepare report by hand which take longer time and full of errors. Today by applying information system and software such as Business Intelligence (BI) the company can collect and generate detailed reports in matter of minutes instead of weeks.
Today information systems can process company data, collect business transactions, analyzes them and generates meaningful information into reports. In global companies, these computers and telecommunication systems always collect and process data from all over the world. For example, data is captured on business transactions taking place in Asia which is a night in the U.S. These data are analyzed and created reports available next morning for managers in the U.S. when they arrive in their offices. In a highly competitive world, decision must be made quickly or the opportunity may be lost. The application of information technology in the business world is no longer a luxury but a necessity.
In the past, everything is collected manually. Transactions had to be entered, processed and reports prepared by people in the field so it usually took several weeks to generate a report. Many reports were full of errors and sometime modified as they moved upward in company throught several levels of management. By the time they reached the top or company owners, they might not have the correct information that they needed to make the right decision. This bureaucracy was a major downfall of many large companies as they did not make decision on time and missed the opportunity.
Information systems process data as directed by software programs written by software developers. Such software can tell the computer to analyze data in many ways and produce different kinds of reports. Different functional managers can get the data analyzed in different ways to suit their requirements and get reports that meet their objectives. For example, manufacturing managers will receive report on productivity, issues and operation. Sale and marketing managers will receive report on sales, market trends, advertising and competitor’s data. Finance managers will receive report on revenues, costs, profits and tax etc.
Today Information System Management students are trained to understand how information technology can be applied in business. They learn to build IT strategy to support business goals, they learn how to analyze business requirements and collect data. They learn how to place them into databases and structure them in ways that can generate different kinds of reports to meet varying requirements. They learn how to generate reports in certain pre-designed formats as demanded by the users. They are taught on how data warehouses and data mining make it possible to do varied types of analyses and generate reports to answer specific queries. They learn that certain analysis methods can also be used to detect unexpected patterns or forecast direction for business operation. They learn about decision support system such as Business Intelligence (BI) and Executive Dashboard that summarize internal and external data in easily understood graphic formats. They organize data to present a total overall business picture and allow top managers to go deeper and look at underlying specifics to understand emerging market trends.
By integrate and apply information technology into business, technology can transform the management of information into Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems that help manager make decision quickly, efficiency and effective.
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Prof. Vu
Carnegie Mellon University
source: http://www.segvn.org/forum/mvnforum/viewthread_thread,2032
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