Merging an e-Business Solution Framework with CIS Curriculum

Journal of Information Systems Education, Spring 2005 by Mehta, Mayur R, Shah, Jaymeen R, Morgan, George W

ABSTRACT

Since corporations first started conducting business on the Internet in 1993, it has moved quickly from being a curious spectacle to a matter of survival for most businesses. To achieve successful results in this on-line business environment on a consistent basis, companies need to rely on two critical success factors. First, a robust framework to guide the design and implementation of e-Business strategy is crucial. Second, if companies are interested in e-Business applications that are robust, flexible, scalable, maintainable, and platform-independent then the development environment used to design, implement, and deploy such applications is more critical than ever before. These characteristics will gain importance as corporations begin migrating e-Business applications from the traditional Web-based environment to a wireless, mobile, hand-held, and pervasive computing paradigm. A consequence of such ongoing changes in the information technology field will require Computer Information Systems (CIS) departments to regularly update curriculum to ensure that students are imparted with the conceptual knowledge and technical skills expected by the IT industry. This paper describes an e-Business solution framework, and analyzes the impact of the technological and e-business evolution on an existing CIS curriculum in the College of Business at a university in the state of Texas. It discusses the new curriculum developed and implemented in response to these technology changes. Finally, the paper also describes some of the challenges of implementing the new model and the resultant impact.

Keywords: Computer Information Systems, Curriculum development, E-Business solution framework, J2EE

1. INTRODUCTION

Whereas fewer than 20 million consumers were connected to the Internet regularly in 1995, the numbers had more than doubled by end-1997. Today there are over 204 million Internet users in the U.S. and over 797 million Internet users around the world ("Home access to Web rises to nearly 75% in U.S.," 2004; InternetWorldStats.com, 2004). The Web is changing every aspect of our lives, but no area is undergoing as rapid and significant a change as the way businesses operate. The number of organizations conducting business using the Internet during the past several years has far exceeded most market projections and expectations (Murphy and Flemming, 1999, p.l). As businesses incorporate Internet technology into their core business processes they start to achieve real business value. Today, companies large and small are using the Web to communicate with their partners, to connect with their backend data-systems, and to transact commerce, with both consumers and their trading partners. The scale of e-business in 1999 was about $145 billion, and it is expected to grow to approximately $12.8 trillion in 2006 ("E-commerce statistics and sources," 2004; Suh and Han, 2003). With such a growth in e-business, companies are likely to focus more on implementing technologies that support and enhance their e-business capabilities. A survey by Line 56 Media and consulting firm A. T. Kearney of companies with more than $250 million in revenue showed that companies are spending about 20.3% of their information technology budgets on e-business initiatives ("E-business spending tops 20%," 2003).

1.1 What is e-Business?

E-Business is defined as the transformation of key business processes through the use of Internet technologies ("Ready for e-business: A CIO's guide to e-business applications," 1999). While this definition applies to both business-toconsumer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B) paradigms, the focus in this paper is on the B2B model. In e-Business, companies use the Web technologies (such as HTTP/HTTPS, Web clients and servers, and business objects) to communicate with their partners, to connect with their back-end data-systems, and to transact commerce in such a way that it leverages the strength and reliability of traditional information technology in the Internet environment (Harkey et al., 1999a; Harkey et al., 1999b). This new Web + IT paradigm merges the standards, simplicity and connectivity of the Internet with the core processes that are the foundation of business ("Ready for ebusiness: A CIO's guide to e-business applications," 1999).

Successful e-Business applications have the following desirable properties ("IBM application framework for ebusiness: Web application programming model," 1999, p. 12; "Ready for e-business: A CIO's guide to e-business applications," 1999, p. 2; Harkey et al., 1999a):

* Application simplicity and reusability,

* Leveraging current developer skills, data and information,

* Robust security with good performance,

* Applications and systems manageability,

* Deployment flexibility and scalability to migrate to a variety of computing platforms including wireless, mobile, and hand-held devices.

Therefore, successful e-Business applications are based on standards that span multiple platforms. They are servercentric. They extend existing applications. They are scalable, easy to use, and they are built to be managed. To get applications with these characteristics, it is imperative that developers have a clear understanding of a robust solution framework. Furthermore, developers need to acquire an appreciation for the available application development tooling that leads to robust, secure, reliable, and scalable e-Business applications within the guidelines of this framework.