Joint Force to be Reckoned with (left to right): SoC Assistant Professor Pan Shan Ling, MComp student Sujit Mathew, MBA students Reha Gupta and Richard Ruben Que

The real-life case study, with which the trio flexed their creative technopreneurial muscle, was the HHS-Connect project – the ambitious project of New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg to link more than a dozen NYC agencies so that caseworkers could share client information without compromising confidentiality.

HHS, which stands for Health and Human Services, is a wider effort that is aimed at addressing the problems of the poor in NYC. HHS-Connect is the information portal supporting that wider effort.

In the case study competition, participating teams were given a general description of the HHS-Connect project before they headed for the competition venue. On arrival, they were given an added twist to the problem: that the NYC mayoral term was up in 2009.

The teams needed to size up the problem within the next 24 hours or so, craft a plausible solution with the strategic use of IT, and pitch it to a panel of judges which included senior industry personnel, and to Kamal Bherwani, HHS Chief Information Officer and Executive Director of HHS-Connect. Mr Bherwani was on hand to brief and de-brief competition contestants about the case.

Working under the pressure of time, the trio from NUS needed to survey the environment and analyse the problem. Being from different backgrounds, they had first to forge a common language and terms of reference. This was a hurdle that the other teams did not have to clear, most of them being squarely in the field of Management of Information Systems.
 

In contrast, the NUS team members either leaned more towards business or technology: Sujit worked as an IT professional with Motorola in India before coming to Singapore to pursue a Master in Computing degree as a full-time student with NUS School of Computing. Richard is a marketing professional from the Philippines pursuing his MBA with NUS Business School as a part-time student. Neha, also a part-time MBA student with NUS Business School, is with an international consultancy firm, and her background is in finance.

Yet it was precisely their diverse background that gave the team the well-rounded perspective that they needed in crafting their solution. “After much brain-storming, we decided to take a step back from analysing the three areas that HHS-Connect covers: crime and justice, social justice, and health services,” said Richard.

“We opted for a 360-degree view of the different types of services that the poor in NYC might need, and proposed improvements to the HHS-Connect portal to take in these requirements,” he added.

“We also have to consider environmental factors – such as the fact the current NYC mayor’s term of office ends in 2009. Our solution needs to be palatable to both the current mayor and future candidates,” Sujit elaborated.

As the only computing student in the team, Sujit provided the technological 

perspective to the solution. Still, the unassuming aspiring technopreneur was quick to pay credit where it was due: “From the technical perspective, we can see the various system details that should be addressed. But we need to express that in terms of what the top management in HHS-Connect could understand. Translating IT problems, such as security issues, into what top corporate managers could understand is what I have learned from my team mates.”

Neha, the rose among the thorns, gave her take on the winning factor: “Our team had a perfect blend of IT knowledge, marketing tactics and financial and strategic approaches which rescued us in taking the strategic approach for solving the case. Everyone had to go through fire, and I remember we slept for a total of four hours in the last 48 hours before the semi final round,” she added.

So what prevented the NUS team from clinching the top spot, which eventually went to Indiana University?
Great presentation, impressive colour-coordinated charts, and probably days of preparation ahead of the contest were the guesses put forward by the team.

After all, the NUS team did not have the luxury of all that – the contest came at a time when they should be preparing for their examinations rather than a competition, and an overseas one no less. In fact, they had examination papers scheduled for the next day or two after their return from the US.

Nevertheless, the contest was one big experience which the team would not miss, gruelling preparation and impending examinations notwithstanding. Neha summed up the common sentiment of the team: “The competition was one of the most memorable experiences we had. Interacting with students from the best universities across the world was a great learning experience. We were delighted to be personally appreciated by the top notch leadership of sponsoring company CA and other CIOs.”

Turning the spotlight on their coach, the team attributed the benefit of their experience to SoC Assistant Professor Pan Shan Ling.

“Entering the competition was Dr Pan’s idea from the start. During orientation week, he told us (incoming MComp students) that an exciting competition in Las Vegas was coming up. He called for participations from MComp students,” said Sujit.

“…and MBA students also,” Richard added.

Echoing the sentiments of her team-mates, Neha said: “Above all, I would say we had a right coach who had been our much needed moral support at all times.”

Asked about his catalytic role in getting graduate students from both Computing and Business to take part in the competition, Dr Pan said: “My fellow Information Systems professors and I believe that case studies are a valuable vehicle to demonstrate and impress on our students the industry relevance of what they learn in NUS School of Computing.”

Dr Pan added: “In fact, we have put together a series of case studies called the Asian IT Case Series for the benefits of students and academics in the Information Systems. These multi-media course materials are available online and free of charge. We are also working out alternative arrangements to make the material more easily accessible to students and academics where high-speed downloading of data from the Internet may not be ubiquitous.”

Participation in the competition was by invitation only, and students from leading Master of Information Systems and Master of Business Administration programmes from around the world were the targets. The competition attracted the participation of 10 universities, all big names in the fields of management and information systems, including Carnegie Mellon University, George Washington University, Helsinki School of Economics, Indiana University and University of Michigan. National University of Singapore (NUS) was the only one from Asia. The top team went home with US$10,000 and the first runner-up US$5,000.

The competition was jointly organised by the Association for Information Systems (AIS) and Oakland University's School of Business Administration, with the sponsorship of CA, an international independent IT management software company. It was held on the sides of CA World 08, which brought together former General Electric CEO Jack Welch, CA EVP and CTO Al Nugent, CIOs and IT directors.

Competition participants attended both CA World 08 and the competition on full sponsorship by CA.

More about the competition may be found at: http://www.sba.oakland.edu/cacase/

Read the related article from Business Times here

The Asian IT Case Series may be accessed at: http://aitcs.comp.nus.edu.sg/