Strategic Information Technology

• Senior financial executives, managers and professionals, who need to understand the impact and opportunities provided by advances in IT, the internet, social media, cloud and open standards, in order to inform the board of emerging IT risks and opportunities.
• Financial executives, managers and professionals, responsible for budgets and projects.
• Senior company executives who are in charge of change management, ERP, CRM and IT projects

Course objectives

• To understand the advantages and risks of corporate and internet-led computing, in achieving financial, efficiency and other objectives
• To understand the costs, economics and opportunities provided by the corporate computing systems, the internet, cloud computing, open standards and social media
• To plan how to introduce efficient enterprise computing systems, cloud computing and Software as a Service (SaaS)
• To plan how to apply and manage ERP, CRM and IT projects using agile project management to achieve efficient and reliable and effective performance

Course content

IT Strategy

• Advances in IT and developments in corporate computing
• IT applications, security, and architecture
• Issues in formulating IT strategy to meet organisational needs
• Current themes and trends – open standards and the new digital environment
• The IT strategy framework
• Where and how to start
• Common mistakes and SWOT

Cloud Computing

• The economic case for cloud computing
• The opportunities from cloud computing: SaaS, IaaS, PaaS etc.
• Cloud issues: security, confidentiality, performance, limitations (big data and content)
• Purchasing and procurement of cloud
• Cloud as an opportunity to upgrade and to rethink data and processes
• What is SOA and should I care?

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)

• ERP and workflow – history and economics
• Functionality and vendor analysis
• ERP pitfalls
• ERP and open standards
• Common mistakes and SWOT

Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

• Second generation CRM and functionality
• Selecting and specifying your CRM – on-premise v cloud
• Marketing analysis and campaigns, 360° relationships and social media
• The application of CRM in public and private sector (sales v. citizen interactions)
• Common mistakes and SWOT

Management Information and Financial Systems

• Selecting and specifying your financial system, including appraisal against IFRS
• Managing a large organisation – meeting board, management and regulatory needs
• The impact of cloud and big data issues
• Data efficiency, utilisation and control, avoiding data silos
• Business Intelligence and an integrated view of the organisation