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| A joint educational project
between Symmes Township-based telecommunications company
Spectrum Inc. and Northern Kentucky University will
provide students with real-life business experience and
could also give valuable feedback to Spectrum as
students compete to find viable marketing solutions for
one of Spectrum's key products. The first Business Informatics Technology Scenario (BITS) competition was conceived by Spectrum principals and brothers Trent and Troy McCracken and Frank Caccamo, former chief information officer at Procter & Gamble and now senior adviser to the office of the dean of the College of Informatics at NKU.. |
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The class was launched this semester. |
Troy (left) and Trent McCracken, have partnered with NKU's Business Informatics Department to meld theory with the real world. | ||
| "Not enough young people are
pursuing IT careers," said Caccamo. "This is a big
problem for all of us. Local companies can't hire enough
people to fill the jobs they have open. We're trying to
promote a better flow of kids who go to college here,
then stay here to work.Robust growth in the industry, combined with their diligent management
philosophy and attentive customer service, has brought their company great
success, they said. "One of the things kids need is contact with the real world," he added. "They need to learn how businesses use IT to be successful." To gain real-world experience, students in the BITS competition will work in teams of up to five individuals to analyze Spectrum's TrueVue software product, understand its market and then prepare a report to Spectrum about their recommendations for marketing the product on a national scale. |
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TrueVue allows businesses to manage their telecommunications networks and equipment more efficiently using TEM, or telecommunications expense management methodology, said Trent McCracken, president of Spectrum. While TrueVue has been marketed to Spectrum's existing clients, the company would like to continue to market the program throughout the U.S. Trent McCracken said he thinks Spectrum, which has roughly 300 clients and 26 employees, will get as much from the competition as the students do because of the new ideas they will bring to light while working on the project. Students will present their ongoing project at several times throughout the semester to the McCracken's, who will evaluate how well the students are meeting the challenge. |
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| Trent McCracken, President of Spectrum, Inc., shows a presentation slide to the students involved in the venture at NKU. | |||
| "One of the big things we'll get out of
this is different perspectives," he said. "These kids
have grown up with technology, and they may see a better
way to do things." CEO Troy McCracken, who founded Spectrum in 1999, said the company also expects to find new employees from among the students who enter the competition. Besides sponsoring the competition and providing $10,000 in total scholarship prizes to the top three winning teams, Spectrum will also hire a summer intern from among the students enrolled in the class. "We're helping them and they're helping us," said Troy McCracken. "We're very excited to see how this is going to work out." Benjamin Martz, Jr., chair of the Department of Business Informatics at NKU, said the class replicates real life by bringing together students from varying disciplines to work together. For instance, a business student, an accounting student and a technology student can all work on the same team, which gives them experience working in strategic groups just as they would in a real job. "Businesses need students who understand more than one functional area," said Martz. "This new format gives students more experiential learning opportunities before they are exposed to it in professional life. Bill Fisher, a senior at NKU majoring in art history and entrepreneurship, said he relished the "opportunity to interact with a prospering company such as Spectrum. "I am interested in challenging myself and applying what I have learned so far at NKU to a real-world problem," he said. "I hope that at the completion of this class I have developed personally and professionally and have a better understanding of my strengths and weaknesses outside of the classroom." |
