SBA Supports Case Competition: Strategic Value of IT Management

LAS VEGAS, NV, November 24, 2008 – CA, Inc., the Association for Information Systems (AIS) and Oakland University's School of Business Administration are pleased to announce the winners of the first International Case Competition on Strategic Value of IT Management. The winners were chosen and announced at CA World 2008, which hosted the competition at The Venetian Resort Hotel Casino in Las Vegas.

“We were incredibly pleased with the quality of work and dedication demonstrated by the winning students from Indiana University and by all of the participants,” said Connie Smallwood, senior director of University Relations at CA. “As the need for skilled IT professionals continues to rise and IT systems become increasingly more complex, the outstanding efforts exhibited by the students will be well received in today’s business environment.”

• First Place: Indiana University, team members Scott Albin, Joseph Powell, and Nanditha Ram were awarded First Place and $10,000.
• Second Place: National University of Singapore, team members Neha Gupta, Sujit Mathew, and Richard Que were awarded Second Place and $5,000.
• Third Place: Bentley University, team members Chris Chesebro, Henry Cipriano, and Kristin Wicks were awarded Third Place and $2,500.ea
• Honorable Mention: University of Michigan/Stanford University, team members Nissan Dar, Isaac Katzav, and Ilya Perepelitsky.

“This was an incredible contest, made even more impressive by the caliber of the students and by the presentations they put forth to a challenging set of problems presented in a case study format,” said Kamal Bherwani, the Chief Information Officer of Health and Human Services, City of New York. “It is fundamentally critical to the technology industry that we engage students early on with these types of competitions that bring together real-world problems in the context of an integrated set of business and IT challenges.”

The competition brought together students from leading Master of Business Administration (MBA) and Master of Information Systems (MIS) programs from around the world. Prior to arriving at CA World, the student teams were provided with a case study of an organization that is in the throes of innovation and change, evaluated its challenges and risks and gave recommendations on how to measure risks and returns on its IT initiatives in order to ensure success. The case study was the HHS-Connect project belonging to the City of New York.

Each team was comprised of three graduate students with at least one student pursuing a graduate degree in information technology (IT) or information systems (IS), and a faculty coach.

For additional information on the International Case Competition on Strategic Value of IT Management please visit http://www.sba.oakland.edu/cacase.

About AIS

The Association for Information Systems (AIS) founded in 1994, is a professional organization whose purpose is to serve as the premier global organization for academics specializing in Information Systems. The need for such an organization was first spelled out in an editorial authored by five past Editor's-in-Chief of the Management Information Systems Quarterly in March of 1993. Bill King, of the University of Pittsburgh, was first among many to play key leadership roles in bringing the association into existence. He served as the first president. For more information, visit aisnet.org .

About Oakland University and the SBA

Oakland University, which celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2007, is recognized by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching as one of the nation’s 83 doctoral/research universities. The university offers 129 bachelor’s degree programs and 99 graduate degree and certificate programs. Dedicated to delivering a distinctive undergraduate experience complemented by the strength of its graduate offerings and research accomplishments, Oakland University is organized into the College of Arts and Sciences and the Schools of Business Administration, Education and Human Services, Engineering and Computer Science, Health Sciences, Nursing, and The Honors College. Visit Oakland University on the Web at www.oakland.edu.

Oakland University’s School of Business Administration sustains its 40 years of educational excellence by remaining relevant to the ever-changing global business environment and providing students a distinctive educational experience that integrates classroom learning with real-world business experience and research. Its accredited business school offers undergraduate and graduate degrees as well.