Applied Business Technology

I. Course Overview

“At this point in history, technology and business are inexorably linked, and

those not trained to evaluate and make decisions in this ever-shifting space risk irrelevance, marginalization, and failure.” – John Gallaugher

The Applied Business Technology course will train students in strategic methodologies as they relate to technology consulting for small to medium sized firms. Students will be taught how to recognize, evaluate and integrate business technologies in order to help small firms create value, solve contemporary issues, and gain competitive advantage in what has become a tech-driven business environment.

II. Course Objectives

This course aims to:

define the importance and competitive role that business technology plays in small to medium sized firms
explain how business technology can be applied and leveraged in all functional departments – marketing, accounting, management, and finance
distinguish between what is meant by eCommerce and eBusiness
compare and contrast various CRM systems for small to medium sized firms
prescribe the appropriate social networking platform for a firm’s business given the industry in which they operate
analyze the relationship between business technology and contemporary ethical issues
evaluate and prescribe the appropriate HRIS solution for small to medium sized firms
demonstrate the following Excel proficiencies: VLOOKUP & Pivot Tables
analyze, evaluate, and implement a business technology solution for a small to medium sized firm

III. Course & Lecture Format

This course will follow a flipped classroom approach. Students will be expected to spend approx. 4-6 hours of individual prep and team time every week in order to prepare for our face-to-face meetings. Approximately 98% of the course material will be delivered via Canvas. The course content will include open source content such as: .pdf files, podcasts, website articles, Ted Talks, YouTube videos, business periodicals, eBook chapters and other relevant content. The course structure is simple and clear – in order to be successful, every student must come to class fully prepared. That means completing all course work for that week via Canvas. There will be LITTLE to NO lecturing during our weekly face-to-face meetings – instead, each student will be expected to apply the content from the module for that week through team based case studies and present their team’s findings to the class.

IV. Class Assignments

Class assignments for this course will include (but are not limited too) presentations, case studies, written reports, and various software/tool usage. Some of your assignments will be completed in class but most will require outside of class preparation and planning. Please allocate a designated team meeting time and place OUTSIDE of our regularly scheduled classes in order to meet (and exceed) the expectations of the course by filling out the Team Contract at the beginning of the semester.

Team Peer Evaluation

Everyone must take part in team assignments and a final group project. All members of a group will receive the same score for those assignments; however, there are exceptions. The peer evaluation process will allow every person in the group to provide the faculty member with a suggested contribution score for every other member of the group, and the instructor will assign a grade that is informed by those suggestions. Every student begins with a peer evaluation score of 100 points (already embedded in their grade). To this end, students can only lose points if they fail to meet the expectations of the team and the instructor.

If a team member’s ongoing lack of contribution is hurting the team’s progress, the team should carefully document relevant issues, and meet with their instructor. Note: The faculty member has the authority to assign a failing grade for any assignment towards any team member(s) who are unresponsive and or act/behave in an unprofessional manner.

Course coverage will include:

The Pilot Episode

NETiquette, Communications & Presentations

Episode 1:

Defining Business Technology

Episode 2: Researching 101

External research

Episode 3: POS for SMBs

Finding the right POS & using SimplyAnalytics

Episode 4

Social Networking for SMBs

Episode 4.5