Research on Public Procurement of Information Systems: The Need for a Process Approach

n this paper, I take stock of the current state of research on public procurement of information systems (IS). Based on a review of the extant literature, I identify several research gaps. A key finding is that little attention has been paid to the process of public procurement, and most of the papers focusing on the process are limited to one specific task, such as tendering and vendor selection. A substantial proportion of these studies are variance or snapshot types. I emphasize the need for more longitudinal research that covers the whole process, and suggest a research approach that focuses on issues such as stakeholder involvement and management, and the application of dialectics

The Making of Cloud Applications An Empirical Study on Software Development for the Cloud

Cloud computing is gaining more and more traction as a deployment and provisioning model for software. While a large body of research already covers how to optimally operate a cloud system, we still lack insights into how professional software engineers actually use clouds, and how the cloud impacts development practices. This paper reports on the first systematic study on how software developers build applications in the cloud. We conducted a mixed-method study, consisting of qualitative interviews of 25 professional developers and a quantitative survey with 294 responses. Our results show that adopting the cloud has a profound impact throughout the software development process, as well as on how developers utilize tools and data in their daily work. Among other things, we found that (1) developers need better means to anticipate runtime problems and rigorously define metrics for improved fault localization and (2) the cloud offers an abundance of operational data, however, developers still often rely on their experience and intuition rather than utilizing metrics. From our findings, we extracted a set of guidelines for cloud development and identified challenges for researchers and tool vendors

Business Model for Business Rules

Business rule models are widely applied, standalone and embedded in smart objects. They have become segregated from information technology and they are now a valuable asset in their own right. As more business rule models are becoming assets, business models to monetize these assets are designed. The goal of this work is to present a step towards business model classification for organizations for which its value position is characterized by business rule models. Based on a survey we propose a business model categorization that is aligned to different types of assets and business model archetypes. The results show five main categories of business models: The value adding business rule model, the ‘create me a business rule model’ business model, the KAAS business model, the bait and hook business model and the market place business model

Right Scaling for Right Pricing: A Case Study on Total Cost of Ownership Measurement for Cloud Migration

Cloud computing promises traditional enterprises and independent software vendors a myriad of advantages over on-premise installations including cost, operational and organizational efficiencies. The decision to migrate software configured for on-premise delivery to the cloud requires careful technical consideration and planning. In this chapter, we discuss the impact of right-scaling on the cost modelling for migration decision making and price setting of software for commercial resale. An integrated process is presented for measuring total cost of ownership, taking in to account IaaS/PaaS resource consumption based on forecast SaaS usage levels. The process is illustrated with a real world case study

Accelerating the deployment of Solid State Lighting (SSL) in Europe

Solid State Lighting, in particular the use of LEDs and OLEDs for general lighting, is a promising technology with high growth potential in Europe. The path for the development of SSL in Europe is sketched out in the Green Paper on SSL of the European Commission. The current study supports the direction taken in the green paper towards deployment of SSL. This paper sketches the lighting consumptions and various applications of SSL, from fully-mature applications till the general lighting sector when mass adoption is expected from 2015, first in the retrofit market then in the new lighting fixtures and luminaires. It focuses on the strengths and weaknesses of the European market for SSL. Distinction can be made between the outdoor lighting sector, where LEDs are more present, and indoor lighting, where the growth rate is still low. The LED industry is rather fragmented. It is usually divided into five segments: materials, equipment, finished lamps and components, luminaires and systems, and finally lighting services and solutions. One of the vulnerability areas is the fact Europe is dependent from China for a variety of semiconductor materials, including various rare earth elements (REE), that are used in the production of LEDs. The European manufacturing base is strong in the downstream segments of the value chain close to the application (40%) but it is weaker in the upstream segments (LED packaging, chips, wafers). Product design and marketing and sales are managed in Europe whereas product manufacturing takes place in Asia. R&D takes place mainly in Japan, the US and Europe. Through patent cross-licensing however the research base becomes broader, including China, Taiwan and South Korea. Europe is suffering from fragmented funding. Asian countries have a high budget for R&D. LED commercialisation channels might face a reshuffle, in particular when the industry will be moving to lighting services. For LEDs to penetrate the market more, end-user information and training, as well as training for installers, would be necessary. LED is still a costly product, in particular in the general lighting segment where alternatives remain cheaper. The price needed for mass adoption has not yet been reached. It is estimated that a price of $8 would allow a 25% market share for LEDs. In Europe, a price of €10 would allow to reach, after some time, a 50% market share for LEDs versus 50% for CFLs in the residential sector. It is to be noted that the price for LED bulbs differs from one country to another, e.g. LED bulbs are cheaper in Japan than they are in the US or Europe. Despite the potential of SSL for energy efficiency and also better lighting, many obstacles to its development remain. Cost and consequently payback time are not yet in the advantage of LED-based general illumination, compared to conventional lighting technologies. Quality is an issue, particularly in the absence of standards, both for testing and for final products. Luminous efficacy and lifetime can still be improved. Last but not least, educational barriers remain, that could be overcome by training of all players in the market, from the designer to the user. As far as the environment is concerned, LEDs do not contain mercury. Life cycle analysis seems to be quite favourable for SSL but further research into environment and health benefits will be required to confirm this. Some of the obstacles to mass adoption in the general lighting segment will disappear as technology evolves to cheaper products with better light quality. But price and energy efficiency might not be the only selling elements for LEDs. Innovation might be an important asset when designing new lighting products. Further legislation and policy initiatives addressing SSL will need to be designed in such a way to reinforce Europe's strategic strengths in the lighting sector, as proposed in the Green paper on SSL of the European Commission.JRC.F.7-Renewable Energ

Emerging Marketing Channels in Hospitality: A Global Study of Internet-Enabled Flash Sales and Private Sales

The potential uses of flash deals or daily deals have caught the attention of many restaurant and hotel firms, as well as third-party distributors, such as Expedia. A survey of nearly 200 international hospitality practitioners found that a remarkable 42 percent had tested a flash deal promotion, and some of those firms had offered numerous flash deals. At the same time, 46 percent of the responding hospitality firms had no intention of offering a flash deal, with some citing concerns about the potential damage of group discounts to brand integrity. Individual hotels that had offered flash deals tended to be on the large side, averaging more than 150 rooms. Discounts offered in the deals ranged widely, from 15 to over 75 percent off rack rates. Likewise, commissions paid to deal vendors saw a wide range, as the most typical commission was 15 to 20 percent, but some hotels paid as much as a 40-percent commission. Most of the deals reported in this survey had been offered through Groupon or LivingSocial, but Jetsetter unexpectedly appeared as the number-three flash-deal channel for these respondents. Deal structures also varied widely, although many deals were offered for mid-week. Although most offers involve a non-refundable purchase, deal vendors are increasingly offering their customers opportunities to obtain refunds in certain circumstances. Respondents’ general assessment of the deals’ success was moderate. They agreed that their deals brought in new customers, but repeat business was more tenuous. One favorable outcome was that the respondents saw little evidence of cannibalization of existing business, particularly when they packaged their deal carefully. On balance, hoteliers who were most pleased with the outcome of their deals were also the ones who managed the cost of the deal most assertively

Web services strategy

Thesis (S.M.M.O.T.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, Management of Technology Program, 2003.June 2003.Includes bibliographical references (p. 116-123).This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.Everything is connected to everything. El Aleph (1945), by Jorge Luis Borges[1] This thesis addresses the need to simplify and streamline web service network infrastructure and to identify business models that best leverage Web services technology and industry dynamics to generate positive business results. Web services have evolved from the simple page-display protocol of their origin and now reach beyond the links that simply updated web data dynamically from corporate databases, to where systems can automatically transact. These Web services represent a series of network business technology standards and capabilities that irrevocably change the way in which businesses will do business. In fact, every business today is a networked business and has opportunities to grow using Web services. This study focuses on the implementation challenges in the financial services market, specifically the On Line Transaction Processing (OLTP) sector where legacy mainframes interface with multiple tiers of distribution through proprietary EDI links. The OLTP industry operates under stringent regulatory requirements for availability and audit-ability of not only who performed what transaction, but who had access to the information about the information. In this environment organizational demands on network infrastructure including hardware, software and personnel are changing radically, while concurrently Information Technology (IT) budgets are under pressure. The strategic choices for deploying web services in this environment may contain lessons for other industries where cost effective large scale processing, high availability, security, manageability and Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) are paramount concerns. In this paper we use a systems dynamics model to simulate the impact of market changes on the adoption of innovative technologies and their commoditization on the industry value chain, with the aim of identifying business models and network topologies which best support the growth of an Open Systems network business. From the results of the simulation we will derive strategic recommendations for networked business models and web services integration strategies to meet Line Of Business (LOB) objectives.by Stephen B. Miles.S.M.M.O.T

Comparative Study Of Implementing The On-Premises and Cloud Business Intelligence On Business Problems In a Multi-National Software Development Company

Internship Report presented as the partial requirement for obtaining a Master's degree in Information Management, specialization in Knowledge Management and Business IntelligenceNowadays every enterprise wants to be competitive. In the last decade, the data volumes are increased dramatically. As each year data in the market increases, the ability to extract, analyze and manage the data become the backbone condition for the organization to be competitive. In this condition, organizations need to adapt their technologies to the new business reality in order to be competitive and provide new solutions that meet new requests. Business Intelligence by the main definition is the ability to extract analyze and manage the data through which an organization gain a competitive advantage. Before using this approach, it’s important to decide on which computing system it will base on, considering the volume of data, business context of the organization and technologies requirements of the market. In the last 10 years, the popularity of cloud computing increased and divided the computing Systems into On-Premises and cloud. The cloud benefits are based on providing scalability, availability and fewer costs. On another hand, traditional On-Premises provides independence of software configuration, control over data and high security. The final decision as to which computing paradigm to follow in the organization it’s not an easy task as well as depends on the business context of the organization, and the characteristics of the performance of the current On-Premises systems in business processes. In this case, Business Intelligence functions and requires in-depth analysis in order to understand if cloud computing technologies could better perform in those processes than traditional systems. The objective of this internship is to conduct a comparative study between 2 computing systems in Business Intelligence routine functions. The study will compare the On-Premises Business Intelligence Based on Oracle Architecture with Cloud Business Intelligence based on Google Cloud Services. A comparative study will be conducted through participation in activities and projects in the Business Intelligence department, of a company that develops software digital solutions to serve the telecommunications market for 12 months, as an internship student in the 2nd year of a master’s degree in Information Management, with a specialization in Knowledge Management and Business Intelligence at Nova Information Management School (NOVA IMS)