The Information Systems (IS) degree program offers knowledge and skills to students who aspire to become a professional in enterprise systems or business analytics, or a combination of both.
Skills in enterprise systems, which include enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, have long been in high demand by corporations that seek to integrate their functional systems and business processes both within the organization and with their suppliers, customers, and other business partners.
Business analytics is an important domain that focuses on the applications of predictive analytics and machine learning to help address complex issues in business.
A combination of enterprise systems and business analytics skills allows our graduates to not only manage enterprise business processes and information, but also compile and analyze data generated by the enterprise systems. Students may select one of the following two areas of emphasis.
Enterprise Systems Emphasis
The Enterprise Systems emphasis focuses on large, complex information systems that integrate business processes across an entire organization. Because the number of IS professionals with these skills is low, this is a high-demand area. Students pursuing this emphasis will be prepared to assist companies in the selection, implementation, and support of such systems. Potential employers include consulting companies, ERP developers, as well as thousands of companies that adopt or wish to adopt ERP systems.
Business Analytics Emphasis
The Business Analytics emphasis offers students the opportunity to make sound, integrated business decisions in marketing and sales, production, manufacturing, logistics and human resources, among others, using predictive analytics, machine learning, and big data tools and techniques. Major companies use business analytics in their day-to-day operations and strategic planning, where company leaders can access the right data points quickly to assess key business performance indicators and help them monitor and analyze operational and financial performances, perform sales forecast, etc.
Enterprise Security Emphasis
The enterprise security emphasis offers student the opportunity to lean how to protect data, networks and applications to ensure safety of customer information and proprietary data. This is a critical aspect of today's online business. Using advanced techniques of risk analysis and security hardware and software, this emphasis prepares students to work in major companies as well as smaller firms to ensure the safety of data.