Information and Process Management
Today’s world is information-intensive, requiring companies to continually pursue skilled business professionals who can use information effectively to stay ahead of competition. More than ever, these companies need professionals who can see, understand, and manage information across the length and breadth of the organization. This requires specific skills and hands-on training in “applied” Business-IT systems. Enrolling in the IPM minor helps students develop these skills.
The IPM minor at Bentley prepares students for successful careers by showing how to apply Business-IT systems effectively to improve real business processes in organizations. Students from any business major or background – accounting, finance, marketing, economics, computer information systems and management – will learn a high-level, holistic approach that breaks the “silo” mentality of these separate functions to support organizational change across the extended enterprise. Students learn how to model, analyze, improve, and transform business processes by applying IT across an enterprise to create a single smooth and agile operation.
IPM courses include three broad areas of study:
- Enterprise Systems. Enterprise systems (Example: SAP, Oracle/PeopleSoft) help coordinate work across functional boundaries such as accounting, finance, HR and others by eliminating the need for multiple IT systems, and by connecting the different functional areas using a common database. In simple terms: “One Software, One Database, Unified Interface.” This helps drive information visibility throughout the company, its partners and even its suppliers. IPM Minor offers courses such as IPM 450 — Enterprise Systems Configuration for Business — to help develop these skills.
- Information Management. Information management deals with ways and means of capturing, managing and protecting information to help companies develop deep insight into factors that influence customer demand, respond more quickly to changing market conditions, and secure information from external threats (like hacking). IPM Minor offers courses such as IPM 210 — Information Security and Computer Forensics — and IPM 320 — Decision Support and Business Intelligence — to help develop these skills.
- Process Management. Process management allows organizations to develop a more in-depth understanding of their business activities, to integrate and improve them across the organization and their respective value chain. The IPM minor offers courses such as IPM 310 — Business Processes and Systems — to help develop these skills.
Whether you have a general business background or a particular professional concentration, the IPM minor offers a unique advantage in the marketplace that can set you apart from other applicants, jump-start your job search, and put you on a path to a rewarding and fulfilling career.
Have questions about our IPM minor? We are here to help you. Please contact Dr. Catherine Usoff at cusoff@bentley.edu
Note: IPM 310, Business Processes and Systems, will become part of the mandatory core business curriculum in Fall 2011.
