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Spring 2020 MIS Advisory Board Meeting Minutes

Spring 2020 MIS Advisory Board Meeting Minutes in Athens

Discussions of Emerging Trends

Introduction– Hugh Watson and Lauren Stone 

  • Stone: MIS Advisory Board Student Representatives Introductions
  • Watson: Explanation of the process of selecting student representatives
  • Company representatives & faculty members introduce themselves around the room

Terry College of Business Update – Dean Ben Ayers 

  • Terry’s New Ranking
    • 6 of 7 majors nationally ranked by U.S. News & World Report
    • #12 among public business schools
  • Facilities
    • BLC now completed
    • Half supported by the state, half provided by donors (companies and alumni)
    • Completed expansion and renovation of 2nd floor of Terry Executive Education Center in Atlanta
      • 1st floor renovation (Summer 2020), 3rd floor renovation (Summer 2021)
  • New and Expanded Programs
    • Business minor 
      • Ability to impact more students across campus 
      • Terry wants to grow throughout the University
    • Fintech Certificate
    • 2nd FTMBA Cohort/STEM MBA
  • Hiring and Appointments 
    • New Senior Directors for Development/ Alumni Relations, Marketing/ Communications, Finance/Administration
    • New Associate Dean for Research /Graduate Programs
    • Hired for 15 faculty positions 
  • Executive Programs
    • Out of Atlanta with leading companies 
    • Strategic Plan Development
    • Finalized - Summer/Fall 2020
  • Mission Statement of UGA’s Terry College of Business
    • Overview of mission statement (what is important to Terry College of Business)
    • Detailed Explanation of First Segment: Promoting Excellence in Teaching & Learning 
      • Key Themes: Leadership, Data & Communication skills, Sustainability, Change Management, etc. 
  • Development & Alumni Relations
    • Continued growth for Ten for Terry and Planned Giving Initiative
    • $12.8M raised to date
    • Thankful for more than just financial support

 MIS Department Update– Maric Boudreau 

  • New faculty: 
    • Assistant Professors: Dr. Terence Saldanah, Dr. Mariana Andrade
    • Lecturer: Dr. Karim Jetha
    • Hiring in progress for one more position
    • Part-Time Instructor in FinTech: Mr. Balaram Tidhi 
  • The MBT in the News 
    • Ranked No. 4 among all U.S. business schools (No. 17 last year!) 
  • More about FinTech Certificate 
    • Open to all UGA undergrads with GPA above 3.0 
    • Classes: Principles of Fintech, Fintech and Financial Services Law, Financial Technologies, Internship in Fintech
    • 64 Applicants, 61 from Terry
  • MALC 2020
    • April 2nd-4th 2020 in Athens, GA 
    • MIS department chairs from over 50 universities will be attending
    • Panels, sessions, keynote speakers, debate, tailgate event
    • Mainly focused on the topic of AI 
    • MALC 2020 Sponsors: Terry College of Business, Gartner 
  • 50 for 50 Campaign - 50th Anniversary of the MIS Program
    • New fundraising initiative email sent to 4,923 MIS Alumni:
      • $50 suggested to alumni who recently graduated
      • $5,000 suggested to alumni with “high capacity”
      • 500 suggested from remaining alumni
    • Every donor giving a minimum of $50 will be mailed a special collectable MIS coin
  • Undergraduate MIS Admissions 
    • Total Applied: 236, Total Accepted: 181
    • Acceptance percentage is 77%, which makes MIS the most difficulty major to be admitted in Terry

Student Organizations– Lauren Stone

  • MIS Student Organizations
    • Society for Management Information Systems
      • Holds company information sessions 
    • Women in Technology
    • Society for Cyber Security
    • Society of Business Intelligence
    • Terry Student Consulting
    • MIS Student Advisory Board
  • Organization Spotlight: Society for Cyber Security– Jackson Reid and Malan Anderson 
    • 60+ MIS and CS+ members 
    • Connect members with Cyber jobs 
    • Educate on digital self-defense
    • Attend hacking competitions
    • Contact: ugascs.com / ugascs@gmail.com
  • One pager in booklet about each student organizations 

MBT Program Update– Craig Piercy

  • Online Master of Business and Technology Program
  • 100% Online delivery since 2015
  • Part-Time program reaching working adults all over GA and the US
  • In two years, enrollment has doubled 
  • Improved Rankings 
    • #4 in Best Online Master’s in Business Programs
    • Overall Score 96/100
  • MBT Current Projects
    • Nephrology Decision Support System, Terry College Sponsored Project Portal, UGA CTL, Benson, Inc, SRCUS 
    • Take projects all the way from planning to implementation
  • New course - MIST7516e: Advanced Topics of Business and Technology 
    • Current topics: Overview of FinTech, Blockchain, Machine Learning
    • Capstone Project Cycle - February (2nd semester) to December (4th semester)
    • Incorporating Cloud within curriculum
  • Keep us in mind for:
    • Student project opportunities 
    • MBT Class of 2020 Graduating this May
    • cpiercy@uga.edu for any possible recruits

Discussion about Extending Offer Deadlines– Hugh Watson

  • Discuss the rushed recruiting process from both the student and employer’s perspective
  • Student’s Perspective - Malan Andersen (Student Representative)
    • Completing an internship usually results in a full-time job opportunity  
    • The timeline can be very stressful to students being limited the opportunity to meet other companies 
  • Company’s Perspective - Jennifer Rice (KPMG)
    • Difficult to recruit for full-time positions without knowing which interns will accept for full-time
    • Companies expect students to decide what they are looking for during their summer internship
    • Offer deadline for KPMG is around September 15
  • What is a company’s take on one of their interns networking with other companies who are completing their internship? - Brandon Kim (Student Representative)
    • Jennifer Rice (KPMG) response: they try to convert students to their company, but realistically won’t always be 100% 
    • James Murrell (Anthem): gives perspective from a non-Big 4 company
      • Try not to give a deadline to their interns to accept full-time
      • Reserve positions for students who show interest and keep in close contact with them
    • Sandeep Davalbhakta (State Farm):
      • Reiterating what Murrell said - try to stay involved with the students on campus
    • Bob Trotter (Garner): 
      • Garner’s perspective: If a student turns down an internship position, they’re not eliminated for a full-time position. They will just be in a broader, competitive pool, rather than a narrow internship-converted pool
      • Perspective supported/ reiterated by John Holm (CGI) and Jarod Culbertson (EY
    • Mark Huber (MIS Faculty): 
      • Suggested deadlines towards October 15 (after Career Fair)
      • Students don’t necessarily want to change, they just want the opportunity to see what’s out there 
      • It would do companies a favor as well because they would be getting students who are certain of their choice
      • The students do really want to work for your company, but they would like to discuss with people in their life (parents, friends, etc.) before making a decision
    • Lauren Stone (Student Representative):
      • Suggesting one date for all of companies to implement for students to reduce stress/anxiety with overlapping timelines
      • Specifically for internships, since the process does start junior year
      • Rob Goldberg (Deloitte):
        • From a practitioner’s point of view, a single deadline is not realistic for companies because it shifts a lot for the company 
      • Greg Daniel (Johnson Lambert):
        • Believe that students who accept an internship should see themselves there full-time

Overview of the MIS Curriculum– Maric Boudreau

  • Six required courses
    • Technical-heavy, business-heavy, and a mix of both
    • Recommended to complete the major in 4 semesters 
  • Area of Emphasis in Data Analytics
    • Required: MIST 4610 - Data Management
    • Additional required (3 of the following): 
    • MIST 5730- Advanced Data Management
    • MIST 5620 - Business Intelligence
    • MIST 4800 - Internship in Data Analytics
    • MIST 4550 - Energy Informatics
  • Area of Emphasis in Information Security
    • Required: MIST 5640- IT Infrastructure 
    • Additional 3 required courses 
  • Mohamad Hadi (NCR): “Is there any discussion about considering one of the electives as a required class?” 
    • Maric Boudreau: There has been discussion about the IT Infrastructure (a popular elective). However, that may add to the timeline too much. There’s also an idea of merging two courses into one.
  • David Merry (IBM)
    • Need more focus on cyber knowledge in courses
  • Juliana Rafla (Student Representative)
    • Information Security Management (MIST 5770) implements concepts from Business Process Management and Project Management
    • The case studies of different companies help get exposure to emerging technologies and real business issues
  • Lisa Favors (EY)
    • EY is recruiting for more product managers, rather than project management
  • John Holm (CGI)
    • Although technical skills are important, problem-solving skills need to be kept in the program because it incorporates into many areas of a business
  • Malan Anderson (Student Representative) 
    • Even though we have a course solely based on emerging technologies, they are discussed in 2-3 of our courses 

Importance of Certifications–Hugh Watson

  • Eric Rivard (Cerulium Corporation) & David Merry (IBM)
    • Certifications are great, but don’t speak louder than actual experience like an internship
    • Believe that a certification should be pursued after a couple of years of working experience
  • Sandeep Davalbhakta (State Farm)
    • Reiterated the previous point, but especially with Cyber and Product Management certificates
  • Jaime Davenport (Salesforce)
    • Showing initiative by achieving a certification proves commitment, especially from someone with limited experience 
  • Mohamad Hadi (NCR)
    • Recommend certificates, or at least give the option to in courses
  • Annie Jiang (KPMG)
    • Good idea to start studying for these certificate exams early on in courses before getting work experience

Trends That Will Impact MIS Education– Nominal Group Exercise

  • Topic: What are some of the top technologies that we should incorporate into our courses? 
  • Each table discusses amongst themselves and vote the three top ideas 
  • Student representative at each table shares the top voted issue of the table
  • Trends brought up
    • Collaboration control tech
    • Data: fusion, mobile, geo → regulations and privacy
    • Product Management
    • Design thinking: problem solving & strategy
    • Cloud computing/ offerings
    • Connect business value to IT - avoid silos 
    • Document writing requirements
    • Compliance, security, ethics
    • Analytics and automation
    • Cyber security frameworks
    • Blockchain applications and use cases
    • IT assurance and auditing 
  • Total Results: 
    • Top 5 Technology Trends:
    1. Cloud Computing/ offerings
    2. Compliance, security, and ethics- GDPR, CCPA
    3. Analytics and automation/ use practical tools - RPA
    4. Connect business value to IT - avoid silos
    5. Design Thinking: Problem Solving and Strategy

Scholarship Awarding– Dr. Piercy and Hugh Watson

  • Each donor is announced with the student receiving their scholarship
  • A picture is taken of the donor representative and scholarship recipient(s)
  • Corporation/ Organization Donors: 
    • Aflac, Brambles, CGI, Deloitte, EY, ISACA, KPMG, Moore Colson, NCR, Protiviti, PwC, State Farm, Verizon Foundation, Hugh Watson Endowment 
  • Individual Donors:
    • Mark Bryson, Terry Chase, Dennis and Nancy Cobb, Jay Ferro, Craig Fleisher, Steve Follin, Patrick Gresham, Mark Mahoney, Bill Rajczak, Eric Rivard, Hugh Watson, Philip Miles 
  • Pictures will be posted online

 

Minutes prepared by Esther Kim and Hugh Watson