Student Learns While Wrestling With Big Data and Rulon Gardner

By Mike Tolman

What’s the big deal about big data? Many companies feel like I did when Rulon Gardner put me in a headlock at Allegiance’s Voice of the Customer Fusion Conference in May. Going head to head with terabytes of information can be just as daunting as standing on the other side of the mat from this Olympian! Organizations are scrambling to find “diamonds in the data mine,” but it is becoming increasingly difficult to find analysts who can not only manage databases and develop code, but who can also ask the right questions to find insights that will have a significant impact the margins of an enterprise.

As a graduate student at the Huntsman School of Business, I’ve been able to learn how to do just that. With a background in English literature, I came to the Master of Management Information Systems and Master of Business Administration programs at the Huntsman School after working in retail and sales management for several years. After joining these programs, I immersed himself in MIS and became heavily involved in the various student groups at the school, including the Association for Information Systems (or AIS) and the Business Intelligence Group.

Mike Tolman, left, met Rulon Gardner at a conference
and found himself in an uncomfortable pose
with the former Olympic wrestler.

After only a few short months, I was able to rise to the position of lead student researcher for the Business Intelligence Group, and have since lead the team as a project manager in a variety of business intelligence, data mining, database management, and web development projects in partnerships with local business and Huntsman School alumni. My work in database management and business intelligence helped to open the doors for a unique internship opportunity with the customer experience team at Oracle.

As a result, I have been able to go through millions upon millions of rows of data and have performed complex analyses to enable Oracle to better understand the “voice of the customer,” or VoC. The ability to store and analyze unstructured and structured massive amounts of data has led to a growing trend of companies being able to finally understand a customer’s behavior. While surveys provide a good snapshot of a customer’s impression or values, big data allows companies to track buying patterns and how they correlate with each other. This leads to insights that might seem contradictory, but are supported by hard evidence. Listening to the customer’s voice has a big impact on sales and profitability and data analysts, like me and other MIS graduates, are high in demand.

This internship and experience allowed me to attend a conference in Las Vegas, where I was able to meet with industry professionals and see a direct correlation between what is going on in companies today and what I am learning at the Huntsman School. I really feel like the world is in my hands. By having dual master’s degrees in business administration and in management information systems, I feel like I have placed myself in a unique position to provide a lot of value to my future employers. I feel like my education at the Huntsman School has not only been enlightening, but also that the knowledge and skills I have gained and developed have been an investment that will pay huge dividends for the rest of my life.

MS MIS Program Spotlight

Did you know the Huntsman School's Master's of Science in Management Information Systems (MS MIS) program is the fastest growing graduate program in the Huntsman School of Business? In fact, the program has seen a 70 percent increase in its admission within the last year and a 100 percent increase in MS MIS graduates over 2009.

To learn more about the MS MIS program, please visit the program's website, here.

Meet Associates of the Master's of Science in Management Information System Program



Faculty Highlights

• The Business Intelligence (BI) Group headed by David Olsen has five working papers and three accepted and/or forthcoming conference papers, one of which was awarded the "Business Intelligence Congress Innovation in Pedagogy Award" at the second Business Intelligence Congress.
• Yong Seog Kim was invited as an editorial board member of Journal of Emerging Trends in Computing and Information Sciences.
• John D. Johnson led a group of students to the Microsoft Imagine Cup US finals where they finished in second place. The team developed a Facebook App that people can use to lend directly to entrepreneurs.
• Pam Dupin-Bryant authored studies on ethical behavior in cybersquatting and softlifting as resources for educators.
• Kelly Fadel co-authored a paper entitled "Knowledge Exploration and Exploitation: The Impacts of Psychological Climate and Knowledge Management System Access," Which appeared in the Information Systems Research journal, a Financial Times top 40 journal.
• Robert Hayden joined the department as the associate director of the MSMIS program. Dr. Hayden's career included steps as department head and dean of the School of Computing, BYU-Hawaii, and vice president of instruction at Otero Junior College. Dr. Hayden was also cast as a stunt double for Larry Wilcox on the popular television series "CHiPs".

MIS-Understood??

Have you heard of MIS? Do you know what it stands for or what opportunities are available for MIS students? Let's understand what MIS is all about!

Management Information Systems(MIS): "A social science that primarily focuses on the role that computers play in human settings, either individual or organizational."(1)

MIS takes the internal controls used by management (application of people, documents, technologies, and procedures) to solve problems such as costing a product, service, or a business-wide strategy. This is different than regular information systems because MIS gets to analyze other information systems applied in operational activities in the organization. (2)

The University of St. Louis describes what MIS is and the "job description" of an MIS professional: "MIS professionals utilize their business-based backgrounds in working with managers and users to specify technology needs that benefit the organization.
They analyze, design, develop, codify, implement, and manage state-of-the-art telecommunications, business, web-based, and other computer based information systems. Besides maintaining traditional transaction processing systems, today’s MIS professionals are involved in exciting growth technologies such as decision support, e-business, database development and data warehousing, development and use of client server systems, development of web-based technologies for electronic commerce and other business applications, and the design and management of telecommunications systems."(3)

Now that we know what your future career looks like, what opportunities do you have as an MIS student here at the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business?

"The Department of MIS has created a hands-on learning environment to allow students access to the latest hardware and software tools which provide them with a state of the art education."(1)

The MIS department has a willing faculty and staff filled with the expertise needed to guide you through your college experience. There are a variety of courses offered to give you the knowledge required to excel in your chosen profession.

Not only do we have a great faculty, a wide range of classes, a broad-range of career paths, but we have a club to get you connected with other professionals. The Association of Information Systems(AIS) Club is just taking off in the Huntsman School. The AIS Club is a student chapter of a global organization. This organization enables us to network and get connected with professionals, get hands-on experience with software and other computer programs, gain important knowledge about information systems, and participate in other events such as HackFest, where we learn about different web applications and technologies that some may not be familiar with.

With all of these great opportunities, why wouldn't we be MIS students? For more information check out http://huntsman.usu.edu/mis or http://huntsman.usu.edu/ais by clicking on the links.

1. http://huntsman.usu.edu/mis
2. http://www.occ.treas.gov/handbook/mis.pdf
3. University of St. Louis

-Cydnee Haws

MIS Open House Party

I'm at the MIS Open House party and really enjoy the new renovations the MIS department has experienced over the summer. When you walk in the lobby, you see a brand new Samsung flat screen TV broadcasting the latest Huntsman School twitter feeds, national news, weather, and traffic cameras. The floor's lighting fixtures have been updated, the walls have been updated, and the MIS department has added great artwork to the walls. The floor now has a very modern feel to it.

Here's Department Head, John Johnson, telling you to come up and get some pizza:

The open house began at 11:30 a.m. today and will go until 3 p.m. so come up, grab some pizza, a cool beverage, and learn about some of the great MIS programs the department has to offer!

- Sterling Morris