Welcome Message

Dean, School of Information Systems

Dear BSc (ISM) Students,

Congratulations on your acceptance to the School of Information Systems (SIS). Before you realise it, you will graduate with a Bachelor of Science (Information Systems Management). You will be part of a new breed of professional with an in-depth foundation in both business and information technology. You will apply your new skills, capabilities and knowledge in ways that will make an important difference in the world.

By entering SMU's School of Information Systems , you will prepare yourself to become an elite breed of Business Change Catalyst – a person with the technical skills, business acumen and project management capability to drive innovation and value creation in business settings by leveraging the power of Information Systems.

You are indeed fortunate . The students' response to our programme has again exceeded our expectations, resulting in an increase of applicants compared to last year. Your acceptance into the limited number of seats is recognition of your accomplishments, motivation and potential. You should feel proud to be part of an exclusive group.

SMU's School of Information Systems is a very special place. We are deeply connected to local and global business leaders and to companies in nearly every sector of the economy. You benefit from these connections by having frequent exposures to these leaders and companies throughout your career as an SMU student. As a result, you get exposed to best practices and emerging trends per how IT is used to transform the way business does business. These connections also lead to a dazzling range of internship and employment opportunities. No wonder our graduates are getting hired into really good jobs and career opportunities.

We are constantly innovating. We are the first university in Singapore to establish a “flagship” Bachelors – Masters fast-track programme under IDA's National Infocomm Scholarship. Our SIS Bachelors – Carnegie Mellon Masters fast-track programme is a great success and an incredible opportunity.

We are the first school within SMU to establish the PhD programme, as well as the first to initiate all three levels of degrees: Bachelors, Masters and PhD. Speaking of our new masters, we are the first university in Asia to offer a Masters programme specifically tailored for the needs of Technology & Operations Managers in the Banking and Financial Services Industry. This programme is being designed and delivered jointly with the industry. Undergraduates will also benefit since the working professionals attending this masters programme can contribute to our undergraduate curriculum. And a few outstanding undergraduates can also fast-track into this masters programme as well.

We have introduced yet another second major option in Advanced Business Solutions within the optional concentration tracks in Business Intelligence, Banking & Trading Systems and Service Science & Systems.

To support our new concentration in Business Intelligence, we have partnered with SAS, the world's leader in Business Intelligence applications, to establish the SAS Enterprise Intelligence Lab at SMU. We are one of the selected universities in Asia to partner with SAP to give students access to SAP's newest generation of enterprise business solutions, the SAP Discovery Systems.

SIS' BSc (ISM) is the first university programme in Asia to participate in the Oracle Academy 's innovative shared software offering that gives students the opportunity to learn about complex enterprise business applications and processes utilising the Oracle E-Business Suite. We also work closely with Oracle in the areas of Data Management and Business Intelligence.

The CIOs of both the new Integrated Resorts in Singapore are serving on the SIS Board of Advisors, and working with us to get our students involved.

We have made major improvements to our curriculum to meet the needs of those students from Junior Colleges or high schools who have no previous experience with designing or creating software applications. We know how to introduce you to software technology and applications in a way that is fun, motivating, relevant and highly supportive. Don't worry if you do not have previous IT experience! We will take care of you and help you. All we require is that you have a genuine and deep curiosity and passion for learning how IT can be harnessed to improve business, and even to create new ways of doing business.

We have expanded our offering of electives related to IS Management and to IS Technology & Applications . This gives you more opportunities to customise what you want to learn. We have also strengthened our offerings for advanced undergraduate students who want to explore business-relevant and cutting-edge technology & applications topics in greater depth. Across the university, SMU has also expanded its range of undergraduate programme offerings, giving you even more options for combining your BSc (ISM) degree with second majors or double degrees from the other SMU schools.

In the very first term of your freshman year at SMU, you take our “Seminar for ISM Majors”, where you learn about the “big picture” of how IT is interwoven into essentially every aspect of a business enterprise . Through this course, you will understand how IT can be used as an enabler for innovation, value creation and competitive advantage. Through an interactive approach to learning including debates, team projects, research papers and presentations, you will really “learn-how-to-learn.”

By the way, “learning-how-to-learn” is one of the eight core learning outcomes that guides the design and delivery of the BSc (ISM) programme. We are one of the few Information Systems programmes in the world that has a clearly articulated set of learning outcomes, and that uses these outcomes systematically to communicate to both students and faculty about the intent and content of each course. Also, our new Learning Outcomes Management Systems (LOMS), another SIS innovation, gives our students the ability to do self-assessments of their skill development as they progress through the degree programme.

Our students have won a number of major competitions, including the Citibank Case Challenge 2007 in a head-to-head competition with business students from all three of the local universities, proving that SIS students go “Beyond IT”. Our SIS student society is incredibly active. They organise a special orientation for all incoming SIS freshmen, sponsor special interests groups, publish useful information for students, and look after SIS student welfare in all sorts of ways. Incidentally, through the leadership of the SIS student society, our students won the first and second SMU Inter-School Athletic Competition in 2007 and 2008.

You can get involved in serious academic research with our SIS faculty, or with faculty from the other SMU schools. In the past academic year, some of our undergraduate students served as research assistants or contributed to original research papers with our faculty members. For those of you who might want to continue with advanced graduate study after your bachelors, or later on in life, this research experience can be especially helpful.

We now have 32 full-time faculty members, making us one of the largest Information Systems groups in the world. Our global search for outstanding world-class faculty members is an ongoing process for our school. We are fortunate that we can keep expanding the size of our SIS faculty, since our student size continues to grow due to the popularity of our programme and the strong industry demand for our students.

We, the family of SIS faculty, staff and students welcome you into our community. We have high expectations of your ability and desire to contribute to SIS, to the greater SMU community, and to the real-world.

Join us and transform yourself!

 

Practice Professor Steven Miller
Dean, School of Information Systems
Singapore Management University