Managing communications systems is a challenging job. The telecommunications manager must balance the interests of business, technical, regulatory and applications aspects of connectivity, as well as maintain network security. The challenge has intensified as recent growth in wide area networks, e.g. the Internet, has revolutionized the conduct of business.

National studies conducted by the United States Department of Labor, professional associations as well as recent employer surveys conducted by the St. Louis Regional Commerce and Growth Association, identify telecommunications technology and information management as a critical field where educational resources are severely lacking.

Students study telecommunications from both technical and manageial perspectives, and hence will take courses offered in both the Information Systems Area of the College of Business Administration, and the Mathematics and Computer Science Department of the College of Arts and Sciences to fulfill the requirements of the certificate.

To be admitted to a graduate certificate program, students must have: (1) completed an accredited undergraduate degree program (in any subject) with a grade point average of 3.0 or higher, (2) submitted a balanced Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) score of 500 or higher, and (3) provided two letters of recommendation. Occasionally, students may be admitted on "restricted status" if they meet either the undergraduate GPA or the GMAT requirement but fall short on the other. In order to successfully complete a certificate program students must have earned a 3.0 cumulative GPA in certificate classes and, unless otherwise specified, the certificate programs must be completed within six years.

Students must complete 6 courses as described below.

IS 6800 (formerly MSIS 480): Information Systems

IS 6806 (formerly MSIS 423b): Managerial Applications of Object-Oriented Programming

CSc (formerly CSc 377): Operating Systems

IS 6836 (formerly MSIS 496): Telecommunications Design and Management

IS 6837 (formerly MSIS 426): Management of Client/Server Computing

CSc (formerly CSc 427):Systems Administration

In the competitive marketplace that Missouri now faces, it is necessary for organizations to take advantage of every opportunity to reduce cost and improve the quality of their products and services. One strategy being adopted is to replace middle management, which has traditionally served as the conduit for business communication and coordination, with Information Technology. Specifically, telecommunications technology is being leveraged to enable cross-functional integration of organizations.

Three trends are driving this change in the business environment. First, as the cost of hardware decreases and the power of computing increases, computing is becoming ubiquitous in the business world. Second, organizations are increasingly using distributed computing systems. Centralized computing is being complemented by processing power distributed through the organization allowing the best of both capabilities to be used to their fullest. Computers are interconnected in a network to enable information sharing and cooperative computing. Finally, organizations have a wider range of options for developing its information infrastructure. This allows improved organization-wide information flow and unlimited options for the organizational structure. Furthermore, the constant evolution in technology has led to a wide array of overlapping options for long distance communications, thereby facilitating global organizational structures.

As a consequence of these trends, the field of telecommunications (which is fundamentally concerned with the above three technologies) has become very popular. It is necessary for business and computer information systems professionals to be knowledgeable about the telecommunications technologies and their capabilities and limitations. This certificate will provide students with exposure to all of the facets of telecommunications, beginning with the basic concepts and ending with the management, administration and design of distributed systems.