MGMT 240: Intro to Information Systems
Locating an Organization

Last updated: November 2, 2004

 

Getting Started: Locating an Organization:

The first step, of course, is getting access to a company or organization. Places you could consider include: In your effort to make the first contact with a company for your project, I recommend that your entire group physically travel to the company and knock on their door. Introduce yourselfs as Bucknell students who are enrolled in an Introduction to Information Systems course and explain that you are trying to learn about how organizations use information systems to support a particular business function. You will have more initial success in locating a company if you travel and visit in person rather than calling on the telephone. On the telephone, it is far to easy for the company representative to say that they are simply too busy and hang up on you. In person, you will have more success. Be repsectful and understand that the people you are talking with are often very busy and right now might not be an ideal time for them to talk with you. This is fine, but make sure you try to arrange a more convenient time to return before leaving!

Who do you want to talk to?

The ideal contact is a system or process owner, the person who is a mid- to upper-level manager, who occasionally requests -- and pays for -- information system and technology. Typically, titles vary widely according to the type of business. If you're cold-calling (i.e., calling on someone who doesn't know you and didn't ask to talk with you), ask for a manager or executive of a particular business function (say, marketing or finance or operations). Another way is to find the main Information Systems person, often called a Chief Information Officer or Information Systems Director in big companies, project leader/manager or even systems analyst in medium companies, and "the computer guru" in small companies.

If you haven't found an organization by the first Milestone, then turn in your Milestone 1 with your team information, and make an appointment with me to solve the problem. I will want to see, then, that you've made several sincere attempts to make contacts with companies (e.g., each team member has contacted at least 2 organizations).

Some additional advice

I highly recommend that each person in your group make a serious effort to contact an organization for your project. The reason is that, from time to time, organizations will begin a project with student groups, only to stop responding to telephone calls and e-mails a few days or weeks later. I have seen this happen to several groups in the past. People and organizations are very busy and often find themselves travelling unexpectedly or often have their responsibilities increased to the point where they no longer have time for interviews and site tours. Therefore, I encourage you to make contact with several organizations and choose the one which seems most open/receptive and that has an interesting project for you.

Additionally, you might consider sharing some of your "extra" contacts with other groups who are still having trouble finding their first organizational contact.