1,796 research outputs found
AN INITIAL EMPIRICAL EVALUATION OF THE INFLUENCE OF ERP POST-IMPLEMENTATION MODIFICATIONS ON BUSINESS PROCESS OPTIMISATION
In this research in progress paper, we present and discuss an initial empirical evaluation of a model on ERP post-implementation modifications. The theoretical foundation and derivation of a set of propositions from the model were reported recently (citation withheld); it categorises post-implementation modifications to ERP systems and relates it to business process optimisation. While ERP systems can improve the efficiency, effectiveness and flexibility of business processes, the relationship between these measures of business process optimisation and post-implementation modifications is not adequately understood. By drawing on the post-implementation experience of a large Australian manufacturing company, we report several post-implementation modifications, and empirically classify them in light of our model. The model and empirical evidence together provide a convincing theoretical foundation for research into the impact of post-implementation modifications on business process optimisation, an important area for achieving competitive advantage. With empirical evidence (though initial), we are able to support the utility of our model as a useful managerial tool for clarifying differences amongst various modifications and guiding modifications and its implications to deliver business process optimisation
OPTIMISING BUSINESS PROCESSES THROUGH ERP POST-IMPLEMENTATION MODIFICATIONS: AN EXPLORATORY CASE STUDY
While ERP systems can improve the efficiency, effectiveness and flexibility of business processes, there exists a relationship between post-implementation modifications and the optimisation of business processes. This relationship has not been adequately researched. By drawing on the post-implementation experience of an Australian oil company, we report a series of modifications that were conducted on their ERP system, and empirically classify them via propositions according to our proposed theory-driven model: ERP PIM. The model and empirical evidence together provide a theoretical foundation for research into the impact of ERP post-implementation modifications and their influence on business process optimisation. This is considered important for achieving competitive advantage. The applicability of our model as a useful managerial tool for analysing various modifications and understanding their impact on business process optimisation is offered
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Investigating enterprise resource planning adoption and implementation in service sector organisations
This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel UniversityThis thesis investigates Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) adoption and implementation in Service Sector Organisations (SSOs). ERP is a business management system that has emerged to support organisations to use a system of integrated applications to enhance their Information Technology (IT) infrastructures, enhance business processes and deliver high quality of services. Regardless of the fact that several other sector organisations have adopted and implemented ERP systems, its application in SSOs is rather inadequate. Among other reasons, two core rationales can be attributed to the latter fact – firstly, SSOs lack the sufficient knowledge, expertise and training to implement such sophisticated integrated systems and secondly, the top management lacks the ability to take appropriate decisions for ERP adoption and implementation. However, merely focusing on a number of factors influencing ERP adoption and implementation may not be suffice, as there is a need for a systematic decision-making process for adopting and implementing ERP systems in SSOs. The limited number of ERP systems’ applications in SSOs has resulted in inadequate research in this area with many issues, like its adoption and implementation requiring further exploration. Despite, the implications of ERP systems have yet to be assessed in SSOs, leaving ample scope for relevance and producing a unique piece of research work. Thus, the author demonstrates that it is of high importance to investigate this area within SSOs and contribute towards successful ERP adoption and implementation.
This thesis makes a step forward and contributes to the body of knowledge as it: investigates factors influencing the decision-making process for ERP adoption and implementation in SSOs, prioritises the importance of factors influencing ERP adoption and implementation, evaluates ERP lifecycle phases and stages, maps the ERP factors on different phases and stages of the ERP lifecycle, and in doing so, to propose a model for ERP adoption and implementation in SSOs. The author claims that such an ERP adoption and implementation process in SSOs is significant and novel as: it extends established norms for ERP adoption
and implementation, by including Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) technique for prioritising the importance of factors, thus, facilitating SSOs to produce more robust proposals for ERP adoption and implementation. The author further assess the proposed ERP adoption and implementation model by using a qualitative, interpretive, multiple case study research strategy. Findings from two case studies demonstrate that such a systematic approach contributes towards more robust decisions for ERP adoption and implementation and indicates that it is acceptable by the case study organisations. The thesis proposes, assesses and presents a novel model for ERP adoption and implementation in SSOs and contributes to the body of knowledge by extending the literature.King Abdulaziz University and Saudi Arabia Cultural Burea
Exploring ERP post-implementation modifications and their influence on business process outcomes: a theory driven model
The objective of this research in progress paper is to develop a theory-driven model to categorise post-implementation modifications to ERP systems and to understand the relationship between the identified categories and business process outcomes that are generated as a result of the modifications. While ERP systems can improve the efficiency, effectiveness and flexibility of business processes, the relationship between these outcomes and post-implementation modifications is not understood adequately. The model proposed here provides a theoretical foundation for research into the impact of modifications on business process performance, and brings clarity to the definition of an ERP modification by developing a typology of modifications
UNDERSTANDING E-PROCUREMENT SYSTEM BENEFITS USING ORGANISATIONAL ADOPTION MOTIVATION LENS: A CASE STUDY
E-commerce, e-procurement, adoption, motivation, benefits, municipality, case study, Australi
A Taxonomy of Motives for Cloud ERP Adoption
Much of the existing literature focuses on critical factors for successfully introducing cloud ERP systems. However, researchers have paid relatively scant attention to identifying the underlying motives that persuade organisations to consider adopting cloud ERP systems successfully. Understanding organisational motives are essential because: a) they can affect the extent of cloud ERP deployment and b) changes that organisations are willing to incorporate for achieving the expected business values. Based on a content analysis of 40 online Australian case stories, this research reports an empirically derived taxonomy of organisational motives for adopting cloud ERP. The 2-dimensional taxonomy consists of types and locus of motive. The strategic motives were found to be the most significant type of motive for cloud ERP adoption, whereas the internal motives indicated a stronger influence on the adoption decision. The proposed taxonomy provides a springboard for further studies to investigate motivations for the adoption of cloud ERP
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Implementation Issues: An Empirical Study in Commercial Banking Industry of Pakistan
In this modern era of digital technology and continuous changing global business environment, firms have no other choice rather persistently improve their capabilities and enhance their competitive advantages. To get this objective, many organizations are now focusing towards adoption of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) frameworks. An ERP system uses different sorts of data preparing abilities and place the accumulated information into a solitary database. Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems are very complex integrated systems. ERP implementation is a tough, lengthy and expensive procedure for an organization who adopt it and most of time it leads to failure. In developing countries, the success rate of implementing ERP systems is extremely lower than that in western world. Thus, ERP implementation success is treated as dependent variable in this study, it used explanatory and predictive orientations. First, it identified the critical factor from past studies then explain the impact on the ERP implementation success in Pakistan banking sector context. Collected data was analyzed using SPSS. Finally, results and discussions were presented. Keywords: Enterprise resource planning (ERP), Manufacturing requirement planning, (MRP), centralized database, Information System, Management commitment
Metaheuristic models for decision support in the software construction process
En la actualidad, los ingenieros software no solo tienen la responsabilidad de construir
sistemas que desempe~nen una determinada funcionalidad, sino que cada vez
es más importante que dichos sistemas también cumplan con requisitos no funcionales
como alta disponibilidad, efciencia o seguridad, entre otros. Para lograrlo,
los ingenieros se enfrentan a un proceso continuo de decisión, pues deben estudiar
las necesidades del sistema a desarrollar y las alternativas tecnológicas existentes
para implementarlo. Todo este proceso debe estar encaminado a la obtención de
sistemas software de gran calidad, reutilizables y que faciliten su mantenimiento y
modificación en un escenario tan exigente y competitivo.
La ingenierÃa del software, como método sistemático para la construcción de software,
ha aportado una serie de pautas y tareas que, realizadas de forma disciplinada
y adaptadas al contexto de desarrollo, posibilitan la obtención de software de calidad.
En concreto, el proceso de análisis y diseño del software ha adquirido una gran
importancia, pues en ella se concibe la estructura del sistema, en términos de sus bloques
funcionales y las interacciones entre ellos. Es en este momento cuando se toman
las decisiones acerca de la arquitectura, incluyendo los componentes que la conforman,
que mejor se adapta a los requisitos, tanto funcionales como no funcionales,
que presenta el sistema y que claramente repercuten en su posterior desarrollo. Por
tanto, es necesario que el ingeniero analice rigurosamente las alternativas existentes,
sus implicaciones en los criterios de calidad impuestos y la necesidad de establecer
compromisos entre ellos. En este contexto, los ingenieros se guÃan principalmente
por sus habilidades y experiencia, por lo que dotarles de métodos de apoyo a la
decisión representarÃa un avance significativo en el área.
La aplicación de técnicas de inteligencia artificial en este ámbito ha despertado un
gran interés en los últimos años. En particular, la inteligencia artificial ha encontrado
en la ingenierÃa del software un ámbito de aplicación complejo, donde diferentes
técnicas pueden ayudar a conseguir la semi-automatización de tareas tradicionalmente
realizadas de forma manual. De la unión de ambas áreas surge la denominada
ingenierÃa del software basada en búsqueda, que propone la reformulación de las
actividades propias de la ingenierÃa del software como problemas de optimización.
A continuación, estos problemas podrÃan ser resueltos mediante técnicas de búsqueda
como las metaheurÃsticas. Este tipo de técnicas se caracterizan por explorar el
espacio de posibles soluciones de una manera \inteligente", a menudo simulando
procesos naturales como es el caso de los algoritmos evolutivos.
A pesar de ser un campo de investigación muy reciente, es posible encontrar propuestas
para automatizar una gran variedad de tareas dentro del ciclo de vida del software, como son la priorización de requisitos, la planifcación de recursos, la refactorización del código fuente o la generación de casos de prueba. En el ámbito del
análisis y diseño de software, cuyas tareas requieren de creatividad y experiencia,
conseguir una automatización completa resulta poco realista. Es por ello por lo que
la resolución de sus tareas mediante enfoques de búsqueda debe ser tratada desde la
perspectiva del ingeniero, promoviendo incluso la interacción con ellos. Además, el
alto grado de abstracción de algunas de sus tareas y la dificultad de evaluar cuantitativamente
la calidad de un diseño software, suponen grandes retos en la aplicación
de técnicas de búsqueda durante las fases tempranas del proceso de construcción de
software.
Esta tesis doctoral busca realizar aportaciones significativas al campo de la ingenierÃa
del software basada en búsqueda y, más concretamente, al área de la optimización
de arquitecturas software. Aunque se están realizando importantes avances en este
área, la mayorÃa de propuestas se centran en la obtención de arquitecturas de bajo
nivel o en la selección y despliegue de artefactos software ya desarrollados. Por tanto,
no existen propuestas que aborden el modelado arquitectónico a un nivel de abstracción elevado, donde aún no existe un conocimiento profundo sobre cómo será el
sistema y, por tanto, es más difÃcil asistir al ingeniero. Como problema de estudio,
se ha abordado principalmente la tarea del descubrimiento de arquitecturas software
basadas en componentes. El objetivo de este problema consiste en abstraer los bloques
arquitectónicos que mejor definen la estructura actual del software, asà como
sus interacciones, con el fin de facilitar al ingeniero su posterior análisis y mejora.
Durante el desarrollo de esta tesis doctoral se ha explorado el uso de una gran variedad
de técnicas de búsqueda, estudiando su idoneidad y realizando las adaptaciones
necesarias para hacer frente a los retos mencionados anteriormente. La primera propuesta
se ha centrado en la formulación del descubrimiento de arquitecturas como
problema de optimización, abordando la representación computacional de los artefactos
software que deben ser modelados y definiendo medidas software para evaluar
su calidad durante el proceso de búsqueda. Además, se ha desarrollado un primer
modelo basado en algoritmos evolutivos mono-objetivo para su resolución, el cual ha
sido validado experimentalmente con sistemas software reales. Dicho modelo se caracteriza
por ser comprensible y
exible, pues sus componentes han sido diseñados
considerando estándares y herramientas del ámbito de la ingenierÃa del software,
siendo además configurable en función de las necesidades del ingeniero.
A continuación, el descubrimiento de arquitecturas ha sido tratado desde una perspectiva
multiobjetivo, donde varias medidas software, a menudo en con
icto, deben
ser simultáneamente optimizadas. En este caso, la resolución del problema se ha
llevado a cabo mediante ocho algoritmos del estado del arte, incluyendo propuestas recientes del ámbito de la optimización de muchos objetivos. Tras ser adaptados al
problema, estos algoritmos han sido comparados mediante un extenso estudio experimental
con el objetivo de analizar la ifnuencia que tiene el número y la elección
de las métricas a la hora de guiar el proceso de búsqueda. Además de realizar una
validación del rendimiento de estos algoritmos siguiendo las prácticas habituales
del área, este estudio aporta un análisis detallado de las implicaciones que supone
la optimización de múltiples objetivos en la obtención de modelos de soporte a la
decisión.
La última propuesta en el contexto del descubrimiento de arquitecturas software
se centra en la incorporación de la opinión del ingeniero al proceso de búsqueda.
Para ello se ha diseñado un mecanismo de interacción que permite al ingeniero indicar
tanto las caracterÃsticas deseables en las soluciones arquitectónicas (preferencias
positivas) como aquellos aspectos que deben evitarse (preferencias negativas). Esta
información es combinada con las medidas software utilizadas hasta el momento,
permitiendo al algoritmo evolutivo adaptar la búsqueda conforme el ingeniero interactúe. Dadas las caracterÃsticas del modelo, su validación se ha realizado con la
participación de ingenieros con distinta experiencia en desarrollo software, a fin de
demostrar la idoneidad y utilidad de la propuesta.
En el transcurso de la tesis doctoral, los conocimientos adquiridos y las técnicas
desarrolladas también han sido extrapolados a otros ámbitos de la ingenierÃa del
software basada en búsqueda mediante colaboraciones con investigadores del área.
Cabe destacar especialmente la formalización de una nueva disciplina transversal,
denominada ingenierÃa del software basada en búsqueda interactiva, cuyo fin es promover
la participación activa del ingeniero durante el proceso de búsqueda. Además,
se ha explorado la aplicación de algoritmos de muchos objetivos a un problema clásico
de la computación orientada a servicios, como es la composición de servicios web.Nowadays, software engineers have not only the responsibility of building systems that provide a particular functionality, but they also have to guarantee that these systems ful l demanding non-functional requirements like high availability, e ciency or security. To achieve this, software engineers face a continuous decision process, as they have to evaluate system needs and existing technological alternatives to implement it. All this process should be oriented towards obtaining high-quality and reusable systems, also making future modi cations and maintenance easier in such a competitive scenario. Software engineering, as a systematic method to build software, has provided a number of guidelines and tasks that, when done in a disciplinarily manner and properly adapted to the development context, allow the creation of high-quality software. More speci cally, software analysis and design has acquired great relevance, being the phase in which the software structure is conceived in terms of its functional blocks and their interactions. In this phase, engineers have to make decisions about the most suitable architecture, including its constituent components. Such decisions are made according to the system requirements, either functional or non-functional, and will have a great impact on its future development. Therefore, the engineer has to rigorously analyse existing alternatives, their implications on the imposed quality criteria and the need of establishing trade-o s among them. In this context, engineers are mostly guided by their own capabilities and experience, so providing them with decision support methods would represent a signi cant contribution. The application of arti cial intelligent techniques in this area has experienced a growing interest in the last years. Particularly, software engineering represents a complex application domain to arti cial intelligence, whose diverse techniques can help in the semi-automation of tasks traditionally performed manually. The union of both elds has led to the appearance of search-based software engineering, which proposes reformulating software engineering activities as optimisation problems. For their resolution, search techniques like metaheuristics can be then applied. This type of technique performs an \intelligent" exploration of the space of candidate solutions, often inspired by natural processes as happens with evolutionary algorithms. Despite the novelty of this research eld, there are proposals to automate a great variety of tasks within the software lifecycle, such as requirement prioritisation, resource planning, code refactoring or test case generation. Focusing on analysis and design, whose tasks require creativity and experience, trying to achieve full automation is not realistic. Therefore, solving design tasks by means of search approaches should be oriented towards the engineer's perspective, even promoting their interaction. Furthermore, design tasks are also characterised by a high level of abstraction and the di culty of quantitatively evaluating design quality. All these aspects represent key challenges for the application of search techniques in early phases of the software construction process. The aim of this Ph.D. Thesis is to make signi cant contributions in search-based software engineering and, specially, in the area of software architecture optimisation. Although it is an area in which signi cant progress is being done, most of the current proposals are focused on generating low-level architectures or selecting and deploying already developed artefacts. Therefore, there is a lack of proposals dealing with architectural modelling at a high level of abstraction. At this level, engineers do not have a deep understanding of the system yet, meaning that assisting them is even more di cult. As case study, the discovery of component-based software architectures has been primary addressed. The objective for this problem consists in the abstraction of the architectural blocks, and their interactions, that best de ne the current structure of a software system. This can be viewed as the rst step an engineer would perform in order to further analyse and improve the system architecture. In this Ph.D. Thesis, the use of a great variety of search techniques has been explored. The suitability of these techniques has been studied, also making the necessary adaptations to cope with the aforementioned challenges. A rst proposal has been focused on the formulation of software architecture discovery as an optimisation problem, which consists in the computational representation of its software artefacts and the de nition of software metrics to evaluate their quality during the search process. Moreover, a single-objective evolutionary algorithm has been designed for its resolution, which has been validated using real software systems. The resulting model is comprehensible and exible, since its components have been designed under software engineering standards and tools and are also con gurable according to engineer's needs. Next, the discovery of software architectures has been tackled from a multi-objective perspective, in which several software metrics, often in con ict, have to be simultaneously optimised. In this case, the problem is solved by applying eight state-of-theart algorithms, including some recent many-objective approaches. These algorithms have been adapted to the problem and compared in an extensive experimental study, whose purpose is to analyse the in uence of the number and combination of metrics when guiding the search process. Apart from the performance validation following usual practices within the eld, this study provides a detailed analysis of the practical
implications behind the optimisation of multiple objectives in the context of
decision support.
The last proposal is focused on interactively including the engineer's opinion in the
search-based architecture discovery process. To do this, an interaction mechanism
has been designed, which allows the engineer to express desired characteristics for
the solutions (positive preferences), as well as those aspects that should be avoided
(negative preferences). The gathered information is combined with the software
metrics used until the moment, thus making possible to adapt the search as the
engineer interacts. Due to the characteristics of the proposed model, engineers of
di erent expertise in software development have participated in its validation with
the aim of showing the suitability and utility of the approach.
The knowledge acquired along the development of the Thesis, as well as the proposed
approaches, have also been transferred to other search-based software engineering
areas as a result of research collaborations. In this sense, it is worth noting the
formalisation of interactive search-based software engineering as a cross-cutting discipline,
which aims at promoting the active participation of the engineer during the
search process. Furthermore, the use of many-objective algorithms has been explored
in the context of service-oriented computing to address the so-called web service
composition problem
Organisational learning with SaaS CRM – A case study of higher education
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) generally has a reputation as a technology that does not live up to its over-inflated expectations. Yet, implementations in higher education remain on the rise. Higher Education institutions (HEIs) are embracing cloud-based CRM systems to upsurge performance, encourage better management practices, and enhance their relationship with staff and students. CRM success however relies heavily on an adaptive organisational learning (OL) process upon which proactive decisions can be made. This paper emphasises that committed learning in post-implementation use is paramount to attaining further understanding of the capabilities, features and functionality of the CRM. Investigating how SaaS CRM usage reflect an organisation’s learning in a Higher Education context, the paper presents theoretical and practical contributions in a framework for effective SaaS CRM utilisation, and recommends a continuous cycle of exploration-exploitation-exploration. Yet the reality is that organisations explore, exploit, and then stop exploring
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