Message from the Operations Management and Information Systems Chair

Welcome to the website of the Department of Operations Management and Information Systems (OM&IS) at Northern Illinois University. I hope that you will find this site both informative and interesting.

Both our undergraduate program in operations and information management and our graduate program in management information systems are extremely successful in terms of student interest, job placement and graduate starting salaries. Business organizations appreciate the manner in which we have effectively integrated business operations with information technology.

In 2012, Businessweek ranked the Information Systems programs No. 23 and Operations Management No. 62 nationwide. The College of Business overall has ranked among the nation's best for each year of the Businessweek annual ranking, initiated in 2006.

OM&IS faculty are an outstanding group of teacher-scholars who have selected Northern for our culture which focuses primarily on the student and the importance of collaboration with business in the solution of "real" problems. I am very proud to be an affiliated with such an impressive group of individuals.

Our students are dedicated, hard-working and enjoyable to be around. They are diverse in their backgrounds and experiences. There is a great deal of camaraderie and mutual respect among students, faculty, advisors and staff. I believe that our students genuinely enjoy their professors and classes and this makes their learning experiences more gratifying and rewarding.

OM&IS graduates are in high demand. We have students being hired by some of the largest and most prominent companies in the world and they want to hire more. Abbott, Allstate, Caterpillar, Deloitte, Discover, FBI, IBM, KPMG, Lowe's Distribution, McDonald's Corporate, McKesson, Pella, Sears, TransUnion, United Airlines, Target, True Value, Walgreens and Walmart Corporate are examples of current employers hiring OM&IS graduates. Some positions obtained by OM&IS majors include: business analyst, process analyst, systems analyst, project manager, business ontelligence analyst, consultant, operations supervisor, inventory controller, distribution manager, logistics manager, database administrator, network administrator, programmer and web designer to name a few. This major provides a background that enables a graduate to have a wide choice of careers.

The department has worked with SAS, the leader in data analytics application software, to offer a joint Business Analytics Certification Program for all NIU undergraduate students and a joint Data Analytics Certification Program for all NIU graduate students. This comes shortly after the department announced a new Business Analytics Minor in its undergraduate OM&IS program in Fall 2016 and a new Business Analytics Specialization in the MIS graduate program in Fall 2017.

Indeed, the department and business organizations work closely together in innovative ways to create mutual value. For example, we have successfully implemented SAP in both undergraduate and graduate curriculum. SAP is the market leader in enterprise systems application software. Both SAS and SAP fit nicely with the department theme - run business better by analyzing and improving processes and using technology. By integrating SAS and SAP into our curriculum, we offer better job opportunities for our students and provide companies with those talents who know how to analyze data and use technology to improve business processes.

Please browse through our website and learn more about our department and activities. If you would like any further information about our programs, I encourage you to contact associate director and program advisor, Russ Devereaux, at rdevereaux2@niu.edu or 815-753-6372.

Sincerely, 
Chang Liu, Ph.D.
Professor and Department Chair