Enlightened IT

A central idea behind the center is that it’s never too early to get IT students thinking about how their work serves the broader business goals of an organization—and why it’s important for IT departments to adopt the same bottom-line mindset that governs other business units. To that end, the changes in teaching strategies target students in two-year degree programs along with those in bachelor’s programs within the center’s three partner schools.

For example, if students are learning about configuring or integrating call-center technology, a link is made to how it can increase the efficiency of customer-service agents or reduce costs; if it’s new wireless telecommunications implementation, the tie might be to boosting the productivity of a field sales force. Likewise, the trend toward server consolidation—single computer servers performing work once done by multiple servers—would be couched in terms of its long-term cost savings to the company.

“What we are trying to do in every course is to help students make the connection between IT and business goals,” Lindberg says. “Tech people often get so enamored with the capabilities of the technology that they forget to take the next step and ask, ‘How could this help the company make or save money, improve product quality or customer service?’”

The center is creating nine new courses across the three schools in Internet protocol telephony, the increasingly popular convergence of voice, data, and video traffic onto single networks. While six of those courses will focus on the technical aspects of replacing traditional phone networks with voice-over-Internet-protocol systems, Lindberg says the other three will address the technology from a management perspective, or how converged networks can be implemented and managed for biggest payoff on the bottom line. 3KeyLogic, a Minneapolis consulting firm specializing in IP telephony, helped craft the new curriculum.

To add more of a real-world flavor to their classes, IT instructors at the schools now use an online teaching resource called WatchIT. WatchIT is an education company that produces interactive, case-based learning programs featuring companies that have successfully implemented technology to fulfill business objectives. “It’s an overt way of helping faculty demonstrate the tie between IT and business strategy to students,” Lindberg says.

At MCTC, there’s a greater focus in IT education on understanding how applications or networks can help companies create a competitive advantage. “We are stressing the importance of aligning IT with business goals rather than simply solving technology problems,” says Firasat Khan, a faculty member at the school and director of its Institute for Computer Security and Forensics.