Analysis of Cloud Security Controls in AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud

This research paper aims at solving the gap of information related to cloud security alliance top twenty critical controls. By reviewing the controls against the major cloud providers. Most organizations are adopting cloud for their business-critical applications. To make it secure, they need to understand the security controls they have access to and how they can perform cloud audits to assure the organization is secure in the cloud environment and complaint. To counter this predicament, Information technology professionals need to review the cloud security measures in AWS, Google Cloud, Azure against CIS top 20 controls, which will help security professionals identify the right cloud vendor for their business needs. This paper provides additional information to the reader who wants to understand the role of security controls in cloud environment and how they address the cloud security risk. Cloud users, cloud architects and cloud consumers will be able to understand how various cloud providers offer tools which assist in maintain the security controls. This research paper provides the base layer information and will help future research in cloud security controls

Enterprise 2.0 – Is The Market Ready?

Enterprise 2.0 family technologies have growing popularity, the cloud computing market is growing rapidly and, as a consequence, companies of all sizes start to evaluate the potential fit. The use of “Software as a Service”, “Platform as a Service” and “Infrastructure as a Service” has been evolving during the past years and has become increasingly popular. As its computing viability and benefits are legitimized, the adoption rate is rapidly increasing. The most popular business model in the abovementioned family is by far “Software as a Service” (also called SaaS), which is a software distribution model assuming the software applications are hosted and maintained by the vendor or the distributor, and user access is granted exclusively by means of the Internet. Based on both literature review and action research, the paper at hand is a synthesis for the results of an empirical study performed during the last two years among Romanian and foreign companies, in order to outline and provide an objective and unbiased answer to the question: “Is the market ready for these technologies or did they come too soon?”. The paper is a part of a larger research performed by the author in the field of Enterprise 2.0 technologies.Enterprise 2.0, Software as a Service, Platform as a Service, Infrastructure as a Service, Empirical study

Recombination in the Open-Ended Value Landscape of Digital Innovation

Digital innovation introduces a new open-ended value landscape to anyone seeking to generate or capture new value. To understand this landscape, we distinguish between design recombination and use recombination, explore how they play out together, and redirect the attention from products and services toward digital resources. Digital resources serve as building-blocks in digital innovation, and they hold the potential to simultaneously be part of multiple value paths, offered through design recombination and assembled through use recombination. Building on this perspective, we offer the value spaces framework as a tool for better understanding value creation and capture in digital innovation. We illustrate the framework and offer the early contours of a research agenda for information systems researchers

Changes and Challenges of ERP Implementation in the Context of Procurement and Supply Chain Processes - A Case Study at Maersk Drilling

Problem Discussion: The oil and gas sector is not very mature in terms of supply chain management. The chosen case company, Maersk Drilling (MD), has problems with a split IT-­landscape with poor data quality. It has caused problems with inefficient and complex processes with much communication required, parallel information and more. Within procurement it translates to problems in spend management and time wasted with tracing orders. The ERP system plays an important role in supporting information sharing, cross-­functional ways of working and a better overview. By introducing a new ERP system some major changes are expected within supply chain and processes will have to be changed. The ERP project is significant hence there are many stakeholders who may perceive the potential challenges differently. Purpose: The purpose of the study is to dig deeper into how the change with a new ERP system will affect the procurement and supply chain processes at Maersk Drilling. The changes bring challenges as well. The study gives a deep understanding of the perceptions of challenges from the different actors. It is important in order to see if everyone works towards the same goal. Methodology: This thesis is a qualitative single case study. The theory was gathered prior to a pre-­study that was made at the company in order to grasp the problem and come up with the research questions. Thirteen interviews were made and archival data from the company was collected. This provided several sources of data and triangulation was possible. The data collection was then matched with the theory in order to secure that the theory would cover the specific research questions. After that the analysis was conducted where empirical data was compared with the theory. Finally the conclusions from the whole study were drawn. Frame of Reference: The reasoning when setting the theoretical framework was that the ERP project is the start of a radical change in the way of working at MD. Many processes are redesigned or improved. The whole study is within the procurement and supply chain area and with this reasoning we then set up the structure for the theoretical framework containing the three areas; Procurement and SCM, Processes, and ERP. In the latter change management plays an important role since the new system means a major change in the way of working for many persons at the case company. Conclusions: ERP has been an enabler for the changes and the new processes will become more streamlined, standardized and cross-­functional. Increased information sharing will help MD to work more efficient and additional/improved data will give MD an enhanced overview in form of management reporting. The new ERP system was not affecting the level of centralization very much, since the structure of decisions in procurement was not changed. The challenges in implementing these changes have been communicated well between the stakeholders and the view of the challenges is overall unified. Master data was perceived as the biggest challenge, most likely since the project is in the establish phase and that MD has a starting point with very poor data. The data quality is of high importance when migrating data to the new system. MD furthermore needs to look closely at how the offshore personnel perceive the project and how they will meet the changes. The vision was also containing technical and management jargons, which makes it less understandable. Today they use good information and many channels but MD needs to make sure that the communication reaches the end users to achieve buy-­in.Problemdiskussion: Sektorn för olja och gas är inte särskilt mogen när det gäller kunskapen om försörjningskedjor. Det valda företaget för fallstudien, Maersk Drilling (MD), har problem med ett splittrat IT-­landskap och dålig datakvalitet. Det har orsakat problem med ineffektiva och komplexa processer där det krävs onödig kommunikation, parallell inmatning av data, etc. Inom upphandlingar och inköp leder det till problem med förståelsen för hur pengarna spenderas och tid slösas bort med att spåra order. Affärssystemet(ERP) spelar en viktig roll för att stödja informationsutbyte, tvärfunktionella arbetssätt och ge en bättre överblick. Genom att införa ett nytt affärssystem väntas stora förändringar inom leveranskedjan och processer kommer att behöva ändras. ERP-­projektet är så pass omfattande och de olika aktörerna kan därför uppfatta de potentiella utmaningarna på olika sätt. Syfte: Syftet med studien är att gräva djupare i hur förändringen med ett nytt ERP-­system kommer att påverka inköps-­ och logistikprocesser hos Maersk. Eftersom ERP-­projektet är stort med många personer inblandade, kommer det att innebära förändringar i organisationen och i de roller och ansvarsområden som finns. Det är viktigt att få en djup förståelse för de olika uppfattningarna i projektet när det gäller utmaningarna, för att se om alla arbetar mot samma mål och har samma uppfattning. Metod: Uppsatsen är en kvalitativ fallstudie. En del teori studerades inför en förstudie som gjordes på företaget för att förstå problemet och komma på de forskningsfrågor som uppsatsen skulle bygga på. 13 intervjuer gjordes och arkivdata från företaget samlades in. Detta gav forskarna flera datakällor och triangulering var möjligt. Datainsamlingen matchades sedan med teorin för att säkerställa att teorin skulle täcka de specifika forskningsfrågorna. I analysen jämfördes empirisk data med teorin och slutligen så drogs slutsatserna från hela studien. Referensram: Resonemanget när den teoretiska ramen framställdes var att ERP-­projektet är början på en radikal förändring i sättet att arbeta på MD. Många processer kommer göras om eller förbättras. Hela studien är inom inköps-­ och försörjningskedje-­ området och med detta resonemang skapades sedan en struktur för det teoretiska ramverk som innehåller de tre områdena; försörjningskedjor och inköp, processutveckling och affärssystem (ERP). I den sistnämna inkluderas även förändringsarbete vilket spelar en viktig roll då det nya systemet innebär en stor förändring i sättet att arbeta för många personer på fall företaget. Slutsats: Affärssystemet har varit en möjliggörare för förändringarna och de nya processerna kommer att bli mer effektiva, standardiserade och tvärfunktionella. Ökad informationsdelning kommer att hjälpa MD att arbeta mer effektivt och utökad/förbättrad data ger MD en överblick i form av ledningsrapportering. Det nya affärssystemet påverkar inte graden av centralisering nämnvärt eftersom strukturen av besluten i inköpsprocessen inte kommer förändras. Utmaningarna med att genomföra dessa förändringar har kommunicerats väl mellan de berörda parterna. Master data uppfattades som den största utmaningen, troligen eftersom projektet är i etableringsfasen och MD har en utgångspunkt med dålig data. Datakvaliteten är även av stor betydelse vid förflyttning av data till det nya systemet. MD behöver dessutom titta närmare på hur offshore personalen uppfattar projektet och hur de kommer att bemöta förändringarna. Visionen innehåller teknisk och administrativ jargong, vilket gör det mindre begripligt, och den behöver utvecklas. Idag använder många informationskanaler, men MD måste se till att kommunikationen når slutanvändarna för att få dem att anamma det nya systemet

A Dynamic Knowledge Management Framework for the High Value Manufacturing Industry

Dynamic Knowledge Management (KM) is a combination of cultural and technological factors, including the cultural factors of people and their motivations, technological factors of content and infrastructure and, where these both come together, interface factors. In this paper a Dynamic KM framework is described in the context of employees being motivated to create profit for their company through product development in high value manufacturing. It is reported how the framework was discussed during a meeting of the collaborating company’s (BAE Systems) project stakeholders. Participants agreed the framework would have most benefit at the start of the product lifecycle before key decisions were made. The framework has been designed to support organisational learning and to reward employees that improve the position of the company in the market place

Business Process Management Education in Academia: Status, challenges, and Recommendations

In response to the growing proliferation of Business Process Management (BPM) in industry and the demand this creates for BPM expertise, universities across the globe are at various stages of incorporating knowledge and skills in their teaching offerings. However, there are still only a handful of institutions that offer specialized education in BPM in a systematic and in-depth manner. This article is based on a global educators’ panel discussion held at the 2009 European Conference on Information Systems in Verona, Italy. The article presents the BPM programs of five universities from Australia, Europe, Africa, and North America, describing the BPM content covered, program and course structures, and challenges and lessons learned. The article also provides a comparative content analysis of BPM education programs illustrating a heterogeneous view of BPM. The examples presented demonstrate how different courses and programs can be developed to meet the educational goals of a university department, program, or school. This article contributes insights on how best to continuously sustain and reshape BPM education to ensure it remains dynamic, responsive, and sustainable in light of the evolving and ever-changing marketplace demands for BPM expertise

Semantic discovery and reuse of business process patterns

Patterns currently play an important role in modern information systems (IS) development and their use has mainly been restricted to the design and implementation phases of the development lifecycle. Given the increasing significance of business modelling in IS development, patterns have the potential of providing a viable solution for promoting reusability of recurrent generalized models in the very early stages of development. As a statement of research-in-progress this paper focuses on business process patterns and proposes an initial methodological framework for the discovery and reuse of business process patterns within the IS development lifecycle. The framework borrows ideas from the domain engineering literature and proposes the use of semantics to drive both the discovery of patterns as well as their reuse

Critical business intelligence practices to create meta-knowledge

In order to successfully implement strategies and respond to business variations in real-time, business intelligence (BI) systems have been deployed by organisations that assist in focused analytical assessments for execution of critical decisions. Although businesses have realised the significance of BI, few studies have explored their analytical decision-enabling capabilities linked to organisational practices. This study investigates the BI practices critical in creating meta-knowledge successfully for strategy-focused analytical decision-making. First, key BI suppliers are interviewed to develop an understanding of their BI capabilities and current deployment practices. Subsequently, two large BI implementation case studies are conducted to examine their practices in data transformation process. Findings reveal that BI practices are highly context-specific in mapping decisions with data assets. Complimentary static and dynamic evaluations provide holistic intelligence in predicting and prescribing a more complete picture of the enterprise. These practices vary across firms in their effectiveness reflecting numerous challenges and improvement opportunities.Publishe

Consulting project - Recidar

En cuanto al proyecto de consultoría que se ha llevado a cabo para Recidar, encierra un enfoque innovador para garantizar un futuro viable a su compromiso social de abogar por procesos de economía circular en Lima. La iniciativa recomendada se construye a través de la colaboración con diferentes actores clave que permitirán optimizar el alcance y la profundidad de la nueva Recidar. La asociación con actores locales clave es la clave para que Recidar desarrolle una mejor vía para su visión a largo plazo. Dado que Recidar está actualmente atascada con el alto nivel de actividad que se le exige a diario, el trabajo externo propuesto le dará una nueva visión para construir adecuadamente su negocio de modo que pueda resistir a las importantes fluctuaciones del entorno externo en el que opera.The following consultancy project analyzes the status of Recidar's strategic plan and recommends a greater emphasis on a long-term vision. The preliminary work has been based on the search for relevant academic articles covering the different dimensions of the circular economy. In addition, the literature review covers the different management practices that a social enterprise should foster to ensure a viable long-term vision for its operations. To successfully develop a comprehensive recommendation, an industry analysis (Porter's 5 forces), external analysis (PESTEL), internal analysis (AMOFHIT) and a detailed analysis of the problem at hand have been carried out. In terms of concrete recommendations, it highlights collaboration with universities, an engagement with a professional with inside knowledge of Gamarra, initiatives within the Gamarra ecosystem and the development of an e-commerce platform. These initiatives aim to improve brand recognition, promote a circular economy, create diverse revenue streams, and most importantly, respond to Recidar's request to build a long-term strategy for the future of its social mission