3 Credit hours (3 h lectures). This course helps you to understand what IT components are available and how you can utilize appropriate IT applications for success. You will learn the terminology used in the field of IT and how IT principles can apply to your businesses. The course stresses the competitive advantage of using IT and the return on investment that you can see. It focuses on the basic principles of Information Technology: hardware and software components, database technology, telecommunications and networking, e-commerce and e-business, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Decision Support Systems (DSS), Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Expert Systems (ES), systems development and implementation. Finally, the students are introduced to the challenges associated with implementing a new information system, and how the risks of implementation failure could be mitigated.