IBM designs MSU services management degree

On Sept. 19, the school announced a partnership with IBM to begin offering a bachelor’s degree in information technology service management. The program designed by executives at IBM – a first for the Armonk, N.Y.-based computer company – has in mind the increasing demand for service jobs.

Paul Kontogiorgis, IBM’s information technology services curriculum program director, said the MSU program responds to a changing work force.

“When I first came to IBM, I was trained in computer science,” Kontogiorgis said. “But a lot of the skills and training I received – in fields like programming languages and computer architecture – wasn’t applicable to our business.”

Kontogiorgis has spent the last four years developing the information technology service manager program, which trains students on how to use computer technology to address customer issues and solve business problems.

While some of the classes and training in the program are being taught at nearly 40 schools around the world, MSU will be the first to offer the full degree program, Kontogiorgis said. The school began offering a few classes this fall, but the major will not be officially introduced until fall 2008.

“We met with them last year, and they were very intrigued,” Kontogiorgis said of MSU, which began its relationship with IBM two years ago through the corporation’s Academic Initiative. “A year later and they have the first information technology service degree in the world in an undergraduate business school. They’ve identified the need in the industry – local, national and global.”

That need is growing. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics says that 83 percent of U.S. employees in 2005 worked in service-providing jobs, and that number should pass 90 percent by 2012.

Ron Bottin, dean of MSU’s College of Business Administration, said several companies already have contacted the school about the program.

“We’re getting calls from companies all over the country saying, ‘How can we partner with you and talk to you about some of those students?’” Bottin said. “It’s created quite a buzz.”

Springfield-based American National Property and Casualty Co. is one of those interested companies. Neil Anderson, ANPAC’s manager of application development, said the new program should help change the thinking of many computer science students.

“Most students talking about information technology careers come up with Web development, programming or customer service. They rarely think about project management,” Anderson said. “That’s something we’re feeling the stress of here at ANPAC, finding people who want to lead projects and do project management. This major will (give) them some of the ideas they need to be successful as analysts and project managers.”

Anderson added that while many of the most recognizable computer science jobs – such as programming and customer service – at larger companies have been outsourced to other countries, those companies have a strong need for project managers stateside.

Kontogiorgis said MSU program graduates would be highly recruited by IBM and other large companies. But he noted that the program is not intended to be a direct pipeline to Big Blue.

“We’re very interested in hiring these kids – we hope to get them,” he said. “But the courses are developed in a way that we don’t promote IBM products or methodologies. We want to develop the skills necessary in information technology services from an industry perspective. ... If we were just developing an IBM shop, it would be pointless.”

Bottin expects a lot of interest from students; about 350 are currently enrolled as computer information systems majors, and Bottin thinks many of them will switch once the information technology service management major is officially offered in next fall’s catalog.

“These corporations can’t find enough people. There’s a lot of opportunity there,” he said.