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Content


The information society influences many aspects of our daily lives. Online purchases are a matter of course, streaming services are used for music consumption and companies use so-called ‘social networks’ to address customers and recruit employees. It is impossible to imagine many areas of work and life without information technology (IT) and therefore also business informatics. So-called ‘digitalisation’ is changing our business and private lives, and new products and services are also emerging. As a result, it is becoming increasingly necessary to teach the basics of business informatics in training programmes at different levels of the education system.


This course covers the fundamentals of internal data and information processing. Basic technical principles of information processing, a selection of information and communication systems used in industry and services, as well as selected aspects of the management of information processing will be discussed.


During the practical course, students will learn how to use Microsoft-Office (Version 2021). This includes the preparation of well-formatted documents (e.g. bachelor thesis), the preparation of presentations (e.g. in the Bachelor's Seminar), the creation of a data-consistent Excel-sheet, as well as using simple databases.

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Learning targets


This course has both theoretical (lectures) and practical (practical course) goals. The main theoretical goal is for students to understand the functionality, potentials and limits of applying information and communication systems (IKS) in economic processes, in order to train them to become competent expert users. Students should:

• know and be able to explain the basic functioning of PCs, computer networks and network architectures, such as the internet, also in the context of the security of networked systems,


• know and be able to explain the fundamentals of data management (databases and data warehouse solutions) as well as application areas of Big Data. The strategies of knowledge transfer as well as the basics of knowledge management systems and how to apply them in practice,


• know ways of supporting operational functions with information and communication systems, in industrial, service and media companies. Be able to explain system functions, how they work and to assess the potentials and limitations of system use,


• be able to explain types and distribution models of application software (standard, individual and component software), and to apply the findings in practical problems. In addition, procedural models for the system development and introduction of standard and individual software are characterized and applied to practical problems,


• be able to explain procedures to plan, implement and introduce application systems,


• know the basics of internal information management, and management of IT sourcing,


• know the scope of the digital transformation, and their effects on business models,


• be able to solve given problems on the basis of entity relationship models, event-driven process chains as well as data flow plans and to critically evaluate respective models, and


• be able to use the software applications Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft PowerPoint and Microsoft Access in everyday business or student life.

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Learning material


The following material will be made available on StudIP:

• Slides for lecture and practical course


• Past exams


• Practical course exercises


• Course reader

Please note that there are separate courses for the lecture and the practical course on StudIP!

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