Introducing the transport impacts of E-business project

E-Business is expected to dramatically change the way business is conducted internationally, nationally, within states and at the local area level. Moreover, these changes are very likely to happen well within the planning time frames required for provision of transport infrastructure and services. This paper introduces a study to investigate: how will the transport task change; what will be affected; and how can the transport system respond? The work, a joint initiative of the National Transport Secretariat [NTS], and the CSIRO/QUT Built Environment Research Alliance, in collaboration with Queensland Department of Public Works, is intended to assist Australian business and government pro-actively address the transport issues arising from e-business. E-commerce is growing exponentially: worldwide e-commerce revenues are estimated to reach $US1300 billion by 2003. Growth in electronic communications within companies which, together with e-commerce between companies, B2B, or between business and consumers, B2C, make up e-business, is even more significant. The magnitude and speed of both these changes increase the urgency of planning, for their impacts provide forecasting challenges. A study approach is described to consider direct impacts from e-business on Australian transport, derived demand for travel or delivery as other businesses prosper and transport related constraints to e-business in the next five to ten years. Base line information collection: includes a review of literature and information about trends in e-business then transport and e-Business; interviews with stakeholder/experts in planning agencies, e-business companies and transport/logistics firms across Australia; appraisal of data available for on-going assessment; and contact with international experts. Trends and impact assessment: National trends will be estimated and very important impacts or very urgent impacts selected via a ranking and rating process. Transport related productivity gains will be assessed; trends in regional Australia and international trends and experience will be reported with a final assessment of opportunities and threats for Australia. Outputs: A series of working papers and final reports; a user friendly database of contacts, publications and data availability information for update; a research framework for identification of policy and planning levers to maximise benefits to Australia from national and global e-business activity

Process-based Organization Design Model: Theoretical Review and Model Conceptualization

The complexity of today's business world is translated into complexity of the company's organization design (Galbraith, 2002). Organizations are forced to quickly adapt to emerging complexity if they want to survive. The change is addressing all areas of business, especially questioning organizational effectiveness and trying to find optimal solutions for doing business. In accordance with requirements, competitive trends are pushing executives to rethink traditional design configurations. Factors such as increased competition in cost, quality and service, and technical change have forced companies not only to seek out new ways of doing old tasks, but also new ways of organizing either old or new tasks (Cross, 1990). Such focus on the flow of work within organizations, but as well as between them, is emphasizing process orientation as a new management paradigm. Inefficiencies of the two most commonly present structures – functional and divisional, in addition to emerging business trends, place the emphasis on a process-based organization as one of the possible solutions. The process-based organization is lead by the process paradigm, which is focused on the horizontal view of business activities and alignment of organizational systems towards business processes. Regardless of a large interest on business processes, existing organization design theory offers only general guidelines for process-based organizations or more precisely, a process-based organization design model. Consequently, the purpose of the paper is to demystify process-based organization design model. By clearly distinguishing between different levels of process orientation, and by addressing characteristics of the chosen model the paper will lead to better understanding of this way of organizing. Eventually, an operationalized model of process-based organization is developed. Furthermore, the paper elaborates on differences between process-based and other organizational structures and philosophies (e.g. functional, product, matrix, project, team-based). Besides structural elements, which will be in the primary focus, the paper will discuss the alignment of all other important organization design elements for process environment (e.g., management style, reward systems, performance metrics, people practices, organizational culture, etc.). There would be proposed necessary adjustments of organizational elements which should be aligned with the process-based structural solution. In such way, some of the blind spots of process-based organization design model would be revealed, providing practical implications for its implementation and ultimately, offering solution for rising business complexity.organization design, process-based organization, process-based organization design model, business processes

Mapping service components to EJB business objects

The emerging trends for e-business engineering revolve around specialisation and cooperation. Successful companies focus on their core competencies and rely on a network of business partners for the support services required to compose a comprehensive offer for their customers. Modularity is crucial for a flexible e-business infrastructure, but related requirements seldom reflect on the design and operational models of business information systems. Software components are widely used for the implementation of e-business applications, with proven benefits in terms of system development and maintenance. We propose a service-oriented componentisation of e-business systems as a way to close the gap with the business models they support. Blurring the distinction between external services and internal capabilities, we propose a homogeneous model for the definition of e-business applications components and present a process-based technique for component modelling. We finally present an Enterprise Java Beans extension that implements the model

Architecture alignment in a large government organization : a case study

In this paper we view IT architecture as the structures present in the entire information technology support used by an organization. Research into IT architecture either is of a strategic nature, yielding no operational guidelines for the practicing IT-architect, or it is part of software engineering, yielding no guidelines that related software architecture to the business environment. In this paper we report on a detailed case study of an operational IT architecture process, in which we investigated the relationship between IT architecture and business context. We analyze this process in terms of a conceptual framework for IT architecture presented earlier. The major findings are that in this case study there is a close relationship between IT architecture and the structure of the IT department, which makes IT architecture design also a problem of organizational design; that application architecture is designed by aligning applications to the business process structure; and that IT infrastructure architecture is designed by aligning it to technological trends rather than to business goals and problems. This paper reports about a single case study done in a series of case studies. We discuss the generalizability of the findings from this case study, and discuss topics for further research

The digital transformation of business models in the creative industries: A holistic framework and emerging trends

This paper examines how digital technologies facilitate business model innovations in the creative industries. Through a systematic literature review, a holistic business model framework is developed, which is then used to analyse the empirical evidence from the creative industries. The research found that digital technologies have facilitated pervasive changes in business models, and some significant trends have emerged. However, the reconfigured business models are often not ‘new’ in the unprecedented sense. Business model innovations are primarily reflected in using digital technologies to enable the deployment of a wider range of business models than previously available to a firm. A significant emerging trend is the increasing adoption of multiple business models as a portfolio within one firm. This is happening in firms of all sizes, when one firm uses multiple business models to servedifferent markets segments, sell different products, or engage with multi-sided markets, or to use different business models over time. The holistic business model framework is refined and extended through a recursive learning process, which can serve both as a cognitive instrument for understanding business models and a planning tool for business model innovations. The paper contributes to our understanding of the theory of business models and how digital technologies facilitate business model innovations in the creative industries. Three new themes for future research are highlighted