by Kenneth C. Laudon, Jane P. Laudon
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| List Price: | $135.33 |
| Average Rating: |  |
| Lowest New Price: | $22.00 |
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0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 A new appreciation for bad., 2008-08-28
First, some background. I recently had to use this text for an introductory MIS class that was a pre-requisite - I am studying for a Bachelors in Finance. I already have a degree in Electrical Engineering, and have taken several post-graduate level classes in insurance and risk management. I have worked as a business analyst and an IT Project Manager.
I have in the past had several classes with texts which are `Not Good.' However, it really takes a tome like Laudon to make you appreciate just how far even `Not Good' is from `Bad'. The closest analogy I can make is that reading this book is like watching, for the first time, a movie with such a ludicrous plot, with such wooden acting, with such terrible direction, that for the first time you realize that all other movies you have seen that you would previously have characterized as terrible were in fact, `Not Bad'.
I haven't smoked marijuana in several years now, but upon starting chapter one I immediately felt that sense of randomly wandering thought, jumping from topic to topic without any sense of direction or connection. The book just seems to be a big collection of non-sequitur following non-sequitur. Although there is some attempt made to organize the material, consider this. The first three chapters deal with `Managing The Digital Firm', `IS in the Enterprise', and `IS, Organizations, Management, and Strategy'. There really is no pedagogical distinction there. Chapters four and five continue with `The Digital Firm: e-business and e-commerce', and `Ethical and Social Issues in the Digital Firm'. Were I to sit down and write a book called `IT and Companies That Use IT and Kinda How They Use It' by simply spilling any random thought I might have on the topic onto paper, I believe I could come up with a better organized and more relevant text.
I want to agree with the prior reviewer who noted that the book is long on management speak and short on useful information. `Leverage' seems to be the feel good word for folks spewing BS at the moment, and there is no shortage of such usage in this text.
Unfortunately, if you're buying this book you likely need it for a class, and this review will not sway you. In closing, the only positive thing I can say for this book is that it reminded me of how stupid I used to get when I smoked grass. It's a shame one cannot give zero stars.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 Poorly organized, boring, decent content, 2008-03-21
I'm an IT professor and have used this book to teach a previous class a year or so ago. While the contents provide a sufficient overview of the IT function and case studies for grad-level students, it is unfortunately very dry stuff for most students. It is also poorly organized.
Having used other textbooks for undergrads, this book fails in comparison. What my (and presumably all) business students are looking for are more immediately actionable knowledge, practical skills, and a much more compelling presentation. (The Technology in Action series is outstanding in all these respects!)
Hopefully, the Laudons will 'sexify' their new textbooks with more flash and interesting content. If Apple, Nokia, Sony, Google, and other firms can make tech ultra-cool, I don't see why we can't have IT textbooks to match them.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 good for beginning textbook for students in software engineering and information systems, 2008-01-25
I tried to use this book as a textbook for an introductory course in Information systems I taught this semester. At our University this course is just the first one in a series that leads towards an BSc in Informatics -- Information Systems.
Before taking this course in the 3rd year, students are already rich with programming experience in at least 3 other courses, have already learnt object-oriented programming, algorithms, architecture, networks, databases, web technologies etc.
So, in my point of view this book is pretty good for students that are already learning programming and software engineering in other courses and from other books and when they don't have a clue in what ways the big enterprises can get a value from their programming efforts. It is especially good when you are trying to explain that information systems strategy and politics is just as and even more important for the success than the perfect piece of software they created.
The book is full with real-world examples of both success and failure of information systems practice in companies like Daimler-Chrysler, Procter and Gamble, MNG, Coca-cola, etc ... The students found that the examples were rather interesting and maybe the best part of this book.
It is rather easy to read ... it took me in total 4-5 hours of reading per chapter until fully understanding all of it.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 a great overview, 2007-09-21
This book gives a wide range of information in different area in information system.
the good thing is that it include example from life where the person can understand the topic.
may some time include extra information that the begginner doesn't need, but overall the book is great.
I recommend it for people who do'n't have any backgroud in IT
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
Gotta agree with the first reviewer, 2007-03-20
This book leaves me hanging. The book repeatedly talks about leaders needing to be transformational and devise a IS strategy for their organizations -- okay that's great; how about providing some insight. It's one thing to say MIS is a strategic discipline (which this books does) and it's another thing to go out and do it (which this book doesn't describe and hasn't a clue).
The books if full of manager's jargon but and is light on the details. After reading, you'll be able to sound like a manager and probably be able to do little else.
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