Investigating the use of native language calls in a multi-channel business process

BackgroundMaking system functionality available via multi-channel access (MCA) can be achieved through exposing functions and business processes as software services. When offering MCA to a business process, system performance is an important consideration due to network limitations and verbose messaging in service-oriented technologies.AimsThe first aim of this study is to investigate the potential impact on system performance and agility that may occur when an underlying business process is exposed for MCA. The second aim is to investigate if reengineering a system as a service-oriented architecture (SOA) improves agility. The work also aims to create an MCA reengineering method to transform systems from single-channel into multi-channel.MethodsA case study was used, along with an experiment, to compare the performance and agility of native language calls (NLC) and protocol based messaging (PBM) for service messaging in a business process. The case study also investigated if reengineering a system as an SOA improves agility by comparing system and code metrics. A multi-channel access reengineering method (McARM) was created and evaluated. ResultsNo significant difference was found between the performance of the PBM and NLC binding technologies. However, NLC bindings were found to be less agile than PBM. Reengineering a system as an SOA was found to improve the agility of a system. A method was created which was used to reengineer a system for MCA.ConclusionsBased on the results, the recommendation is that NLC should not be used instead of PBM for messaging between the services and business processes in a system reengineered for MCA. Measures should be taken to ensure that the reengineering of a system for MCA does not affect performance. Finally, an SOA can be used to improve system agility

Exploring strategic leadership challenges in achieving an ICT enabled transformational government

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel UniversityThis empirical research focuses on exploring the role of strategic leadership in the shift from Electronic Government (eGovernment) to Transformational Government (tGovernment). Despite the fact that many countries have implemented eGovernment, the literature reports a number of themhave failed to reach the promised seamless transformation. Moreover, there is a dearth of research into the domain of tGovernment; the research which exists is limited in extent thus leaving scope for timely and novel research contributions. This thesis reveals that a valuable contribution to knowledge could be derived from exploring the domain of transformational government. The leadership motivationand incentives to conduct a radical government organisational change have become an area of great importance. There is limited research on the strategic role of leadership in achieving transformational government domain; hence, the implications of seamless integration for transformational government have yet to be explored. This research discusses transformational government by using a qualitative, multiple case study research strategy. Data is triangulated and analysed according to its explanatory properties and underlying structural context. This researchextends established norms in literature for tGovernment implementation by incorporating established theories in organisational change from other related disciplines. This is to explain the significance of the underlying philosophical nature of the emerging themes, thus enabling government leaders to create robust strategic proposals for tGovernment. This empirical research is conducted in a Middle Eastern cultural context based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The research arrives at several key findings and themesthat contribute to the body of knowledge. A primary finding is the need for a radical change and an innovative managerial approach in using ICT to enable radical change in government organisations. A related finding of this research is that many assumptions underlying the various tGovernment models for transformation fall short to empirically explain the transformational government domain.The government visionary leadership has been proven to be a powerful driver for change in terms of initiating and leading the process for transformational government

Towards a network government? A critical analysis of current assessment methods for e-government

Contemporary public administrations have become increasingly more complex, having to cordinate actions with emerging actors in the public and the private spheres. In this scenario the modern ICTs have begun to be seen as an ideal vehicle to resolve some of the problems of public administration. We argue that there is a clear need to explore the extent to which public administrations are undergoing a process of transformation towards a netowork government linked to the systematic incorporation of ICTs in their basic activities. Through critically analysing a selection of e-government evaluation reports, we conclude that research should be carried out if we are to build a solid government assessment framework based on network-like organisation characteristics

A framework for business process integration to achieve fulfillment excellence

Thesis (M. Eng. in Logistics)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, 2004."June 2004."Includes bibliographical references (leaves 71-72).Process integration has become more and more important in today's world where companies' supply chains have become more complex. Companies around the world are beginning to realize the importance of integrating their supply chain business processes to achieve fulfillment excellence. Unfortunately, process integration is still somewhat a novel concept and relatively little research has been conducted in examining how companies can effectively implement successful process integration across their supply chains. To complicate matters further, many companies still confuse the concept of business process integration with that of mere data integration. The primary motivation for this research study is to provide a framework on how best to implement process integration to achieve fulfillment excellence. The methodology employed in this particular study comprises the use of two case studies with real-life companies, which provide real-world examples of how companies try to "integrate" their complex supply chain processes. A deep and thorough analysis is then conducted to identify the challenges presented by the firm's current practices from a business process integration perspective. Further analysis then provides an overall view of what is done right and what could have been improved. Last but not least, a generalized framework of best practices and a prescription of how best to implement successful process integration to achieve fulfillment excellence are presented.co-authored by Marcos Buelvas [and] Sonita Lontoh.M.Eng.in Logistic

Towards Customer Knowledge Management: Integrating Customer Relationship Management and Knowledge Management Concepts

The concepts of customer relationship management (CRM) and knowledge management (KM) have been recently gaining wide attention in business and academia. Both approaches focus on allocating resources to supportive business activities in order to gain competitive advantages. CRM focus on managing the relationship between a company an its current and prospective customer base as a key to success. A good relationship with the customer leads to higher customer satisfaction. Content customers are loyal and therefore more valuable customers. This directly affects the revenue stream. KM sees the knowledge available to a company as a major success factor. Through superior knowledge companies can accomplish their results faster, cheaper and with higher quality than their competition. Knowledge about customers, markets and other relevant factors of influence allows faster utilization of opportunities and more flexible reaction to threats. From the perspective of a process owner both CRM and KM approaches promise positive impact on the cost structure and revenue streams for a company in return for allocating resources from the core business into supportive functions. This investment is not without risk as many failed projects in the areas of CRM and KM demonstrate. In this paper we show that the benefit of using CRM and KM can be enhanced and the risk of failure reduced by integrating both approaches into a customer knowledge management (CKM) model. Managing relationships requires managing knowledge for the customer, knowledge about the customer and knowledge from the customer. KM takes the role of a service provider for CRM, managing the four knowledge aspects content, competence, collaboration and composition to satisfy customer requests within stated budget restrictions. The findings are based on literature analysis and six years of action research, supplemented by case studies and surveys

Electronic information sharing in local government authorities: Factors influencing the decision-making process

This is the post-print version of the final paper published in International Journal of Information Management. The published article is available from the link below. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. Copyright @ 2013 Elsevier B.V.Local Government Authorities (LGAs) are mainly characterised as information-intensive organisations. To satisfy their information requirements, effective information sharing within and among LGAs is necessary. Nevertheless, the dilemma of Inter-Organisational Information Sharing (IOIS) has been regarded as an inevitable issue for the public sector. Despite a decade of active research and practice, the field lacks a comprehensive framework to examine the factors influencing Electronic Information Sharing (EIS) among LGAs. The research presented in this paper contributes towards resolving this problem by developing a conceptual framework of factors influencing EIS in Government-to-Government (G2G) collaboration. By presenting this model, we attempt to clarify that EIS in LGAs is affected by a combination of environmental, organisational, business process, and technological factors and that it should not be scrutinised merely from a technical perspective. To validate the conceptual rationale, multiple case study based research strategy was selected. From an analysis of the empirical data from two case organisations, this paper exemplifies the importance (i.e. prioritisation) of these factors in influencing EIS by utilising the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) technique. The intent herein is to offer LGA decision-makers with a systematic decision-making process in realising the importance (i.e. from most important to least important) of EIS influential factors. This systematic process will also assist LGA decision-makers in better interpreting EIS and its underlying problems. The research reported herein should be of interest to both academics and practitioners who are involved in IOIS, in general, and collaborative e-Government, in particular

Knowledge and best practice management through benchmarking: A global survey

Developing best practice through benchmarking features as a critical activity in the business world as it is a vital approach for sharing and transferring knowledge.Companies across the globe have embraced these concepts but have done so with a varied level of success.Some have managed to create huge market place advantages whilst others have fared less favourably.The purpose of this research is to establish the level of benchmarking activity and application globally.The information gathered included both the hard and soft issues associated with benchmarking and following analysis,attempted to evaluate the level of benchmarking maturity reached across different industry fields and size of operation.This global survey helps understand what leads to effective benchmarking and development of best practices