A TASTE of what it’s like to be consultants for a business company—that’s what the Management Information Systems Association (MISA) aims to give the participants of the 2008 Ateneo Business-IT Solutions Competition, called Ad Hoc.
“[Ad Hoc] is a case analysis competition where teams of three undergraduate students from any course and year-level in the Ateneo act as consultants for a company facing a real business problem,” said MISA President Mark Alvin Valdoria (IV BS MIS).
Valdoria said that representatives from companies like Accenture, Chevron, and Orange and Bronze will serve as panelists for the competition, while the Department of Information Systems and Computer Science (DISCS) will serve as the academic partner.
The competition is ongoing as of November and December. Twenty-three teams have applied for the competition as of press time.
Real problems
The competition has three rounds: preliminary, semi-finals, and finals. It officially began on November 24 with an information session about the first case study and the release of the first business case, said Ad Hoc Project Director Denise Mae Acedo (IV BS MIS).
Ateneo Java Wireless Competency Center (AJWCC) Director Hans Roxas-Chua conducted the first information session, which was about marketing and information technology.
The teams had 48 hours to come up with solutions to the first case study, which was released during the launch. The top ten teams with the best analyses advanced to the semi-finals. However, before the chosen teams were announced, all participating teams underwent another information session to prepare them for the semi-finals. There will be a second information session before the final round as well.
DISCS Assistant Professor and Management Information Systems Instructor Philip David Truscott conducted the second information session, which focused on creating effective presentations. The third information session, meanwhile, discussed business process outsourcing.
The final round was held on December 6, where finalists defended their analysis to a panel of judges coming from outside of the Ateneo. On the same day, the top three teams were chosen and awarded with cash prizes of P10,000, P15,000, and P20,000.
Branching out
Valdoria said that the competition was first launched by MISA last January.
“Initially, the plan was to make it an intercollegiate competition among the top universities and colleges in Metro Manila,” added Valdoria. “However the previous Executive Board deemed it more strategic to test it first in the Ateneo, build a brand over time then open it up to other schools in three to five years.”
Valdoria also said that with the competition on its second year, Acedo decided to invite students from other universities to attend the final round in order to increase awareness of the event to the other universities.
“The long term plan for this project is to gain support from other business and IT organizations from other universities,” said Valdoria.
A new perspective
MISA hopes that through the competition, the participants and the audience will “gain a wider perspective about the use of information technology, not simply in business, but more importantly in the society,” said Valdoria.
Competition applicant Maria Kriselda Evangelista (IV BS ME) said, “I hope that the competition will be a learning experience for all those who participate… It seems very well-planned and that much effort has been put into it.”
