Strategic Financial Information Systems

Code 2158 (7.5 ECTS credits) Spring 2003

Aim and structure

This course continues the learning process from 2156 Advanced Financial Information Systems. It focuses on three fields and technologies that are, and will be, of fundamental importance in the design and utilization of next-generation financial information systems – data warehousing, data mining, and XML-based interaction between financial information systems. Consequently, the course is structured in three corresponding parts, with appropriate literature, lectures and computer workshops. The first one, comprising lectures 2-5 and workshop I, deals with data warehousing in financial information systems. The second part, comprising lectures 6-11 and workshop II, introduces data mining tools and techniques. The third part, comprising lectures 12-21 and workshops III and IV, deals with XML and XML-based standards for electronic commerce.

Prerequisites

This course in effect continues the Advanced Financial Information Systems course that was given in the autumn, and consequently only students who have taken that course are admitted as participants to this course.

Lectures

The aim of the lectures is not to review the material in the textbooks, it is to tell you stuff that you need to know that isn't in the textbooks. Attendance is voluntary, but do bear in mind that the exams will draw on both the literature and the lectures, and that, really, as far as possible the lectures aim to complement and extend, not overlap, the material in the books.

Guest lectures may be added – watch your mail!

Workshops

The four computer workshops are intended to provide hands-on experince, complementing the textbooks and lectures.

The workshops are all structured in a similar manner. The topic, the assignment and support material, and the technical issues will be introduced during the second of that week's Monday afternoon lectures. On Wednesday afternoons you will be assisted in getting started with the topic in the computer lab. You will do the main part of the work according to your own schedule, and submit your deliverable, as directed, in the form of web pages on the server. It is permitted and strongly recommended that you do the workshops in groups of two people.

Attendance in class is nominally voluntary. This means we do not keep track, but you will find it difficult bordering on impossible to complete the deliverables unless you show up when we explain how to do it, and assist you with getting started.

Programming lectures

For those who are interested in continuing on from the PHP programming that you learned in the autumn, a series of totally voluntary and extraneous lectures and exercises that introduce the Java programming language will be provided. No points for these, nothing mandatory - but if you do attend this series I will expect that you try to learn by doing a series of exercises. It doesn't work otherwise. And if too few people show up this extra service will be discontinued. The combined lectures and computer exercises will be held on Wednesdays at 16:30 in 409.

Schedule

Sa 3.5 Exam opportunity
We 21.5 Exam opportunity
Sa 23.8 Exam opportunity

Please note that the schedule is subject to changes and extensions.

The part exam opportunity April 7th does not require any registration. Just show up!

The three examinations after the lectures have passed are standard exam dates, supervised by the study office for a lot of courses on the same day. You need to register in advance for these, using the school's web-based system.

Literature

• TODMAN: Designing A Data Warehouse: Supporting Customer Relationship Management (Prentice Hall 2001)

• HAN & KAMBER: Data Mining: Concepts and Techniques (Morgan Kaufmann / Academic Press 2001)

• BRADLEY: The XML Companion, 3rd ed. (Addison-Wesley 2002) - certain chapters

• Readings package & assigned material.

Examination

The course will be graded based on a written examination and computer workshops. The examination comprises the course literature and the contents of the lectures, and is worth 60 points. You need a minimum of 30 points to pass. The examination can be taken at any of the three exam opportunities after the lecture period. If you choose, you can take the data warehousing and data mining part of the exam on April 7th; the questions for these parts will be worth a maximum of 35 points.

The four computer workshops are worth 10 points each, for a total of 40, and you need to collect at least 20 points to pass. The workshops may (preferably!) be completed and submitted in groups of two people

In order to pass the course you need to get at least 30 points in the exam and 20 points from the computer workshops. Your grade on a scale of 1 (satisfactory) to 5 (excellent), will be based on your total points (between 50 and 100) on the standard scale.

Staying in touch

Please refer to the web pages for current contact information for the faculty. Oana Velcu handles the computer workshops and most things of an administrative nature. Anders Tallberg does the lectures and is responsible for the course as the official examiner.

The web pages of the students attending the course are, of course, on the PAFIS web server. There is also an email list, sfis03@pafis.shh.fi , which forwards mail to all the students attending this particular course, and of course to the faculty. Please feel free to use this one to communicate with fellow students regarding matters specific to this course. However, please also think twice before using it. Make sure that what you are mailing is both related to this course, and relevant to all participants. Questions regarding the exams, lectures, exercises and so on are perfectly all right; so are, for instance, tip-offs about useful and relevant web pages you've found. It should be obvious that off-topic stuff like advertisments, forwarded jokes, politics, or anything resembling spam is not okay at all. Abuse will be dealt with in a brutal and efficient manner.

Because this email list is also used to communicate possible changes in the schedule and other possibly urgent or important (or both) stuff, and because it works by sending mail to your @pafis.shh.fi email address, please make sure that you either read your mail on the pafis.shh.fi server regularly, or have it set up to forward your mail to a mailbox that you do read regularly.

All changes, instructions, updates, announcements and so on will of course be posted on the course pages on the PAFIS web site. Please note that this particular page – the main course page on the web – and in particular the schedule section is where you will find the links to workshop assignments, exam results and everything related to this course.