Offering the best of IT and Business
If you are someone with a business background who wants to know more about the information technology field, or vice versa, the Master of Business Information Systems is just the program for you.
The course, offered at Monash University Malaysia, brings two spheres together – business and information technology.
Master of Business Information Systems Course Director, Dr Anushia Inthiran shared that the program is suitable for candidates with previous qualifications in any discipline, as students would be able to get “the best of both the IT and business worlds.”
“The course prepares someone with no IT background or with a business background to work in the IT field,” she explained.
Instead of teaching students how to use the computer or do programming, the course teaches students the skills to help businesses using information technology.
“These days IT and business can no longer be segregated, as they are both interdependent”.
“You must know how businesses work before you can use any information technology to help them. Similarly, you can’t be in a business without knowing about IT, and what it can and cannot do for you,” she said.
In the past, IT professionals used to be known as programmers and are the go-to person to fix computer problems.
“These days, IT professionals are expected to be able to understand the needs of businesses and provide them with IT solutions.
“It is no longer just about coming up with fantastic systems, applications, and programs if businesses do not see the need for them, or understand how information technology can bring positive changes to them,” she said.
Hence, there was a need to break down the barrier by having both parties understand each other’s functions.
“This program will prepare its graduates to play this very important role,” she added.
What makes the Monash MBIS program unique is that not many other universities offered a program that combines both business and IT at a postgraduate level.
“The course is structured in a way where there are some mandatory components that need to be completed, and up to four elective units that can be selected based on a student’s liking and interest.
“We also offer students the option of either completing a minor research project or an industry project in the last semester, depending on what they want to pursue after the program,” she said.
She recommends the former for those interested in pursuing a PhD, and the latter for those planning to go directly into the industry.
On the subjects that are taught in this program, Dr Anushia said: “One of them is IT for management decision-making, which focuses on the IT needs of managers, how they think, how they go about with their work, and the applications and systems suitable for them.”
This subject also explores operations management concepts, which looks at how an organisation works, and the psychology and biases that affect how a manager makes decisions and decides on strategies.
The other subject is enterprise systems, which give students practical experience using SAP - the software which allows the tracking of customer and business interactions.
Career options for graduates, among others, are in the fields of project consultancy, business analytics, information management specialist, application specialist and IT management and governance roles.
The duration for this program is two years for full-time students and four years for those who do part-time.
For more information on the Monash Malaysia Master’s in Business Information Systems program, please visit www.infotech.monash.edu.my.