Officials in the College of Business see strong rankings as a guidepost.
Better yet, a lighthouse.
"It's a signal to us that we're on the right track," said Ashley Bush, chair of the Department of Business Analytics, Information Systems and Supply Chain, or BAISSC. "It's a signal to students that there's value in the degree, and it's a signal to potential employers that we have a high-quality program."
The department’s online master’s degree in management information systems ranks No. 16 among public schools nationwide by U.S. News & World Report. The department also boasts a No. 9 ranking for its MBA specialization in business analytics, and its faculty ranks No. 7 for 2020-2023 research contributions among university faculties worldwide publishing in the prestigious Journal of Operations Management.
Officials say such rankings reflect faculty members’ efforts to give students the business and technical knowledge for success in an ever-changing digital society and global economy.
Bush, the Sprint Professor of MIS and director of the master's in MIS and business analytics programs, noted MIS faculty members' emphasis on teaching students how to manage the design and development of systems-related solutions for companies and organizations. They prepare students for careers in, for example, systems or database design, analysis and development and – more increasingly in an era of cybercrime – security.
"We're almost a translator at times," Bush said. "Our expertise is in understanding technology and how technology can be used to achieve businesses' goals."
In its MBA specialization in business analytics, Bush's department strives to give students a broad understanding of analytics tools and techniques that businesses use to derive insights from data. Faculty members emphasize when to use those tools and techniques and how to analyze results.
BAISSC offers various other undergraduate and upper-level degrees, including MBA specializations in MIS and supply chain management.
Bush and other faculty members attribute success to world-class faculty members who are experts in their fields, leaders in research and launchers of rewarding and fulfilling careers. They cite academic assistance and other support from the college, university and alumni, including the hosting of career fairs, industry conferences and networking events. They also attribute success to a highly engaged industry advisory board.
In addition, they point to an undergraduate curriculum that continues to evolve and reflect business trends and employee demand.
And they profess passion for what they do.
"It gives me great satisfaction to teach the business analytics-oriented courses in our curriculum and to see my students land business analyst jobs upon completing their studies," said Noyan Ilk, the department’s Synovus Associate Professor of Business Administration.
The department boasts professors including Deborah Armstrong, program co-chair for the 2024 Americas Conference on Information Systems -- one of the premier conferences in the information systems field – and Michael Brusco, the Haywood & Betty Taylor Eminent Scholar in Business Administration. Brusco’s paper “Teaching Spreadsheet-Based Analysis of Multisource Continuous Facility Location Problems” was selected by the Decision Sciences Journal of Innovative Education as the Best Teaching Brief Published in 2022.
Bush saluted all faculty members, saying, "We have people from different backgrounds and disciplines, and I love how we've been able to work together to build our programs and make them better."
-- Pete Reinwald
