Using a Goal-Driven Approach in the Investigation of a Questioned Contract

Part 3: FORENSIC TECHNIQUESInternational audienceThis paper presents a systematic process for describing digital forensic investigations. It focuses on forensic goals and anti-forensic obstacles and their operationalization in terms of human and software actions. The paper also demonstrates how the process can be used to capture the various forensic and anti-forensic aspects of a real-world case involving document forgery

ERP implementation methodologies and frameworks: a literature review

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) implementation is a complex and vibrant process, one that involves a combination of technological and organizational interactions. Often an ERP implementation project is the single largest IT project that an organization has ever launched and requires a mutual fit of system and organization. Also the concept of an ERP implementation supporting business processes across many different departments is not a generic, rigid and uniform concept and depends on variety of factors. As a result, the issues addressing the ERP implementation process have been one of the major concerns in industry. Therefore ERP implementation receives attention from practitioners and scholars and both, business as well as academic literature is abundant and not always very conclusive or coherent. However, research on ERP systems so far has been mainly focused on diffusion, use and impact issues. Less attention has been given to the methods used during the configuration and the implementation of ERP systems, even though they are commonly used in practice, they still remain largely unexplored and undocumented in Information Systems research. So, the academic relevance of this research is the contribution to the existing body of scientific knowledge. An annotated brief literature review is done in order to evaluate the current state of the existing academic literature. The purpose is to present a systematic overview of relevant ERP implementation methodologies and frameworks as a desire for achieving a better taxonomy of ERP implementation methodologies. This paper is useful to researchers who are interested in ERP implementation methodologies and frameworks. Results will serve as an input for a classification of the existing ERP implementation methodologies and frameworks. Also, this paper aims also at the professional ERP community involved in the process of ERP implementation by promoting a better understanding of ERP implementation methodologies and frameworks, its variety and history

A Digital Forensic Readiness Approach for e-Supply Chain Systems

The internet has had a major impact on how information is shared within supply chains, and in commerce in general. This has resulted in the establishment of information systems such as esupply chains (eSCs) amongst others which integrate the internet and other information and communications technology (ICT) with traditional business processes for the swift transmission of information between trading partners. Many organisations have reaped the benefits that come from adopting the eSC model, but have also faced the challenges with which it comes. One such major challenge is information security. With the current state of cybercrime, system developers are challenged with the task of developing cutting-edge digital forensic readiness (DFR) systems that can keep up with current technological advancements, such as eSCs. Hence, the research highlights the lack of a well-formulated eSC-DFR approach that can assist system developers in the development of e-supply chain digital forensic readiness systems. The main objective of such a system is that it must be able to provide law enforcement/digital forensic investigators that operate on eSC platforms with forensically sound and readily available potential digital evidence that can expedite and support digital forensics incident-response processes. This approach, if implemented can also prepare trading partners for security incidents that might take place, if not prevent them from occurring. Therefore, the work presented in this research is aimed at providing a procedural approach that is based on digital forensic principles for eSC system architects and eSC network service providers to follow in the design of eSC-DFR tools. The author proposes an eSC-DFR process model and eSC-DFR system architectural design that was implemented as part of this research illustrating the concepts of evidence collection, evidence pre-analysis, evidence preservation, system usability alongside other digital forensic principles and techniques. It is the view of the authors that the conclusions drawn from this research can spearhead the development of cutting-edge eSC-DFR systems that are intelligent, effective, user friendly and compliant with international standards.Dissertation (MEng)--University of Pretoria, 2019.Computer ScienceMScUnrestricte

Business process modelling in ERP implementation literature review

Business processes are the backbone of any Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) implementation. Business process modelling (BPM) has become essential for modern, process driven enterprises due to the vibrant business environments. As a consequence enterprises are dealing with a substantial rate of organizational and business processes change. Business process modelling enables a common understanding and analysis of the business processes, which is the first step in every ERP implementation methodology (blueprint phase). In order to represent enterprise processes models in an accurate manner, it is paramount to choose a right business process modeling technique and tool. The problem of many ERP projects rated as unsuccessful is directly connected to a lack of use of business process models and notations during the blueprint phase. Also, blueprint implementation phase is crucial in order to fit planned processes in an organization with processes implemented in the solution. However, business analysts and ERP implementation professionals have substantial difficulties to navigate through a large number of theoretical models and representational notations that have been proposed for business process modeling (BPM). As the availability of different business process modeling references is huge, it is time consuming to make review and classification of all modeling techniques. Therefor, in reality majority of ERP implementations blueprint documents have no business process modeling included in generating blueprint documents. Choosing the right model comprise the purpose of the analysis and acquaintance of the available process modelling techniques and tools. The number of references on business modelling is quit large, so it is very hard to make a decision which modeling notation or technique to use. The main purpose of this paper is to make a review of business process modelling literature and describe the key process modelling techniques. The focus will be on all business process modeling that could be used in ERP implementations, specifically during the blueprint phase of the implementation process. Detailed review of BPM (Business process modeling) theoretical models and representational notations, should assist decision makers and ERP integrators in comparatively evaluating and selecting suitable modeling approaches

From strategy to operations and vice-versa: a bridge that needs an Island

The Information Systems support particularly for Tactical Management is not an explicit or distinct term. There are many concepts and artifacts that are providing contemporary foundations for Information systems in the companies, both in theory and in practice. We tried to analyze different approaches, in order to determine their support specifically for tactical management. Out of this attempt, the realization is that these seemingly overarching bridges from Operations to Strategy and vice-versa appear to be overshooting an important island - the tactical management level, particularly in recognizing its distinct characteristics to be served with adjusted concepts and solutions. We see tactical management as the managerial function that implements strategies, by deploying and utilizing specific resources from the operational level in order to gain that specific competitive advantage prescribed in the strategy. The diversity of approaches and tools is provided for the strategic and overwhelmingly for operational management issues. This theoretical research is analyzing the specifics of the Sense-and-Respond Framework on a tactical level towards perfecting the sensing part of it (in terms of sustaining "low latency" (instead of operational "no latency") and striving for tactical need for "right-time" (instead of the current and hot operational "real-time") information), and how it is being closed in theory and practice on a strategic, tactical and operational level with 'endings'. Also, the tactical management characteristic of working in unpredicted environment and needing high adaptability, requires involvement of concepts and approaches that provide adaptability such as, in our opinion, the Sense-and-Respond managerial concept and the SIDA loop. To some extent, tactical management is being assimilated either by strategy or by operations, as this research confirms. Hopefully, we will result with increased perceptiveness that tactical management needs special theoretical and practical focus and output propositions. The specific sensing and interpreting, deciding and acting, in the role of a tactical manager is neither only automatic, data-capturing process nor a person-independent or company-independent one. If, and after this viewpoint is shared, much more efforts will be streamlined in the tactical management "how" to do "what" is expected, on theoretical and on practical level

A conceptual framework for capability sourcing modeling

Companies need to acquire the right capabilities from the right source, and the right shore, at the right cost to improve their competitive position. Capability sourcing is an organizing process to gain access to best-in-class capabilities for all activities in a firm's value chain to ensure long-term competitive advantage. Capability sourcing modeling is a technique that helps investigating sourcing alternative solutions to facilitate strategic sourcing decision making. Our position is applying conceptual models as intermediate artifacts which are schematic descriptions of sourcing alternatives based on organization's capabilities. The contribution of this paper is introducing a conceptual framework in the form of five views (to organize all perspectives) and a conceptualisation (to formulate a language) for capability sourcing modelling

The creation of business architecture heat maps to support strategy-aligned organizational decisions

The realization of strategic alignment within the business architecture has become increasingly important for companies. Indeed, it facilitates business-IT alignment as a well-designed business architecture helps both to identify the appropriate requirements for IT systems and to discover new business opportunities that can be realized by IT. However, there is a lack of alignment techniques that support organizational (re) design decisions during the operation phase as the actual performance of business architecture elements is neglected. Capability heat maps provide a useful starting point in this respect as they focus on the creation of a hierarchy of prioritized capabilities, which are characterized by a performance measure. In this paper, these techniques will be extended to support strategy-aligned decisions within the business architecture. The identification of the relevant business architecture elements is based on state-of-the-art enterprise modelling languages, which enable the development of enterprise models on distinct layers of the business architecture. Strategic alignment between these elements will be realized by using prioritization according to the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), while performance measurement will enable the creation of a proper decision support system. Afterwards, the proposed heat map will be applied on a case example to illustrate its potential use. This results in the completion of a first build-and-evaluate loop within the Design Science methodology

Meeting point of strategy and operations: tactical management sense and response framework enhancement

We recognize a problem of work overload in every managerial position nowadays. This is complemented with data overload, and still somehow, information inadequacy. We recognize the problem of rather clear strategic or business plan expectations and inability to meet them. We also recognize the problem of complexity of issues every manager has to deal with in all of their diversity. All of these elements persisting in an uncertain and unpredictable environment of today's business, technology and economy, where planning is trading places with structuring, modularizing and preparing oneself in being adaptive to any given circumstances, especially in terms of tactics, denote longing for multidimensional support. There are various efforts and products to automatize and enrich the data in order to give basis for better decision-making and problem solving. Also, there are frameworks to formalize and verbalize the strategic or business plan expectations and targets with respective performance measurement in order to point out the direction where a business unit/company should be headed. And quite a lot is being done on a subject-specific areas such as: Alignment of IT and Strategy, Business Operations and Strategy,. But the perceived "boiling" zone of tactical management is somehow un-addressed, both in theory and with feasible artifacts. Tactical Management as the managerial function that implements strategies and deploys and utilizes specific resources from the operational level in order to gain that specific advantage prescribed in the strategy has both differentiating and uniting characteristics when compared to operations and strategy. Furthermore, if standing in the shoes of a tactical manager, what one will see as work description, will be overwhelming crossroads of unmatched information flows in structure, depths, sources, manners, complexity, timings, and expectations. How to perceive, organize, handle and utilize all that landscape with what is given, and be able to handle it dynamically, appropriately and with least expenditures, is what we are aiming for. It's neither straightforward, nor an easy, automated task. For anyone. It is both company-and person-dependent task. This research focuses on tactical management, from the perspective of the individual manager. We believe that by Enhancing the Sense-and-Respond Framework on a tactical level we will assist the individual tactical manager with increased adaptability and handling complexity

The development and validation of HRIS implementation scale

Computerized human resource information systems (HRIS) is an innovation in human resource management (HRM) that has been adopted by many organizations to increase HRM effectiveness and enhance organizational communication. However, in Pakistan, the adoption of HRIS is still rather limited. In order to understand the issue of HRIS adoption, the Diffusion of Innovation (DOI) theory explains the process of innovation adoption. Nevertheless, most of the previous studies conducted on HRIS adoption stopped at the decision stage (third stage) of the adoption process, whereby a dichotomous scale of ‘yes’ and ‘No’ was used. Organizations could not get the benefits of HRIS at the decision stage; hence HRIS adoption should be measured at the implementation stage (fourth stage). Unfortunately, previous studies have not studied HRIS adoption at the implementation stage and thus, a scale for measuring HRIS adoption at the implementation stage has to be developed. Using a qualitative research method, the first phase of this study developed a new scale of HRIS adoption at the implementation stage. The qualitative data were collected in July, August, and September of 2016. Data was collected through interviews from the experts of IS and HR in Pakistan. The new scale is unidimensional with ten items. The second phase applied a quantitative research method to test and validate the scale and at the same time, examine the research framework which was established based on the theory of DOI and technology-organization-environment (TOE) framework. Second phase mainly tested the relationship between technological (IT infrastructure, IT expertise), organizational (Top management support, HRM practices, financial readiness), environmental (competitive pressure) factors and HRIS implementation. The data were collected from listed organizations in Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX). A total of 250 questionnaires were distributed, to HR managers of the organizations, using a systematic random sampling technique and 173 were returned. This study used SPSS V23 and smart PLS 3 for data analysis. This study found IT infrastructure, IT expertise, financial readiness, and top management support (TMS) have a significant positive effect on HRIS adoption. On the other hand, HR practices and competitive pressure have no significant effect on HRIS implementation. The overall reliability of HRIS implementation as measured using Cronbach’s alpha was 0.92. This study provides a few theoretical and practical contributions. First, how to measure HRIS implementation in organizations. The main contribution of this study is the development of HRIS implementations scale. It can be used by researchers to examine relationships with other important factors, explained by TOE framework, that can affect the implementation of HRIS in the organizations. This scale will also provide the bases for researchers in other IS based studies at implementation stage