BUSINESS INFORMATION SYSTEMS at Canterbury Christ Church University

Today’s businesses are facing huge technological challenges, transforming their everyday operations. This programme prepares you to tackle these challenges head on, enabling you to develop the knowledge and skills required for dealing with particular business needs using modern IT.

You will learn how to analyse the requirements for new or replacement systems at both operational and management levels, and then gain hands-on experience in designing and implementing cost-effective IT solutions. You will be equipped with both the theory and the practical skills you need to design and build software systems to solve real commercial problems. You will study legal requirements and ethical questions associated with the profession along with specialist topics such as usability and strategic management.

You will explore areas including:

• computer software development and project management
• business management
• databases and e-commerce systems

Why Business Information Systems

Almost every modern business is reliant on information technology to perform and succeed: from the Amazon-sized businesses to the smallest ebay-traders. Information Systems allow businesses to co-operate with their suppliers and customers to provide mutual benefit.

Business information Systems is the degree that helps you learn about how to understand both the business, the people and the technology to improve a business sustainability.

At Canterbury Christ Church University you will learn about all three areas and have the opportunity to put your knowledge into practice using a number projects that cover all the elements of an IT project from conception, through design, implementation to final operation and review – using elements from the CDIO model of learning. You will learn using IT software that is modern and commercially relevant, such as the Microsoft Office suite, including Project, web-based content management systems, database systems such as Oracle, rapid prototyping software like Balsamiq.

By the end of the degree you will be able to analyse business problems and know how to help businesses solve their own issues using both top-down and bottom-up techniques. You will be able to devise and document designs for solutions and implement elements of these. You will also have a good appreciation team working – how teams are formed to maximise capability, manage workload and schedules and resourcing and have strategies to solve issues. You will also have a good awareness of other roles in computing and the tasks they undertake – software engineers and developers, infrastructure developers and support technicians and computer security specialists, so you will be well placed to work and liaise with these other roles. 

What will i study?

The year one modules develop a strong background in Business Information Systems, underpinning more specialist studies in years two and three.

Work experience

You may opt to take a year placement, providing you meet the requirements. This allows you to put your learning into practice within a business setting. The School has also offered a number of paid student internships over the summer, open to students to apply to.

Students on this degree can expect to go on a small number of optional trips such as the National Computing Museum at Bletchley Park. We also have a number of guest lecturers each year.