BENCHMARKING EVALUATION OF SME SUPPORT PROGRAM:CASE OF CONSULTING SUBSIDIARY GRANTS IN SLOVENIA AND FYROM

SMEs need external business support, in particular during the early development stage. Government agencies have developed a number of initiatives and voucher system is targeted at counselling combined with information and training. A pilot program started in two small regions and the program is scheduled to cover the whole territory, relying on the network of local enterprise centres. In 2006 the know-how for the system was transferred into Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. This paper presents the fundamental concept of the voucher system and the rules for a comprehensive approach, discusses the organizational structure and functions of different stakeholders. The assumptions for an effective system are analyzed and comments from evaluations are discussed. The potentials for further development of the system in FYROM on the basis of the know-how from Slovenia are assessed. An innovative outcome of the study is development of the framework for bench-marking based policy measure evaluation.Support to SMEs, policy measures, government, transition economy, market failure, counselling, consultants, local enterprise centre, small and medium-sized businesses, performance, voucher system, satisfaction level.

Towards a Business Process Quality Culture: From High-Level Guidelines to Grassroots Actions

We present an information systems development (ISD) approach to integrate quality culture in business processes. Action research is our mode of inquiry and a company from the food industry provides the setting. Food production involves auditing throughout the supply chain and a demanding information system, with numerous goals and rules grounded on the organizational policies and values. However, there is a lack of holistic process-oriented approaches to leverage a quality culture. This paper provides a contribution, with the ISO2 approach, offering a set of artifacts to support the ISD lifecycle. An audit from a food retail group confirmed the positive outcome of its use, internalizing quality principles while developing the IS, and it is planning to suggest its adoption by their network of food suppliers

E-Mineral Rights Market in China: Some Recommendations

This study investigates the E-mineral rights trade market in China. This market could improve information disclosure, transparency and efficiency of mineral rights. In China, all mineral resources belong to the country, so this Electronic trade market is both E-business and E-government. Their subjects include departments of land and resources administration, government departments, State-owned geological prospecting units, commercial geological prospecting units, social investors, and financial institutions and intermediaries. This paper introduces the mineral rights market and e-mineral rights market. Then, this paper turns to the approach used by the E-mineral rights trade market, which includes formation of the information network, construction of the database, application of the information system, and choice of key technologies. Finally, this paper recommends promoting the healthy development of the E-mineral rights trade market in China, including non-information source of information, transaction rules, transaction system, and process monitoring

A Model-Driven Architecture based Evolution Method and Its Application in An Electronic Learning System

Software products have been racing against aging problem for most of their lifecycles, and evolution is the most effective and efficient solution to this problem. Model-Driven Architecture (MDA) is a new technique for software product for evolving development and reengineering methods. The main steps for MDA are to establish models in different levels and phases, therefore to solve the challenges of requirement and technology change. However, there is only a standard established by Object Management Group (OMG) but without a formal method and approach. Presently, MDA is widely researched in both industrial and research areas, however, there is still without a smooth approach to realise it especially in electronic learning (e-learning) system due to the following reasons: (1) models’ transformations are hard to realise because of lack of tools, (2) most of existing mature research results are working for business and government services but not education area, and (3) most of existing model-driven researches are based on Model-Driven Development (MDD) but not MDA because of OMG standard’s preciseness. Hence, it is worth to investigate an MDA-based method and approach to improve the existing software development approach for e-learning system. Due to the features of MDA actuality, a MDA-based evolution method and approach is proposed in this thesis. The fundamental theories of this research are OMG’s MDA standard and education pedagogical knowledge. Unified Modelling Language (UML) and Unified Modelling Language Profile are hired to represent the information of software system from different aspects. This study can be divided into three main parts: MDA-based evolution method and approach research, Platform-Independent Model (PIM) to Platform-Specific Model (PSM) transformation development, and MDA-based electronic learning system evolution. Top-down approach is explored to develop models for e-learning system. A transformation approach is developed to generate Computation Independent Model (CIM), Platform-Independent Model (PIM), and Platform-Specific Model (PSM); while a set of transformation rules are defined following MDA standard to support PSM’ s generation. In addition, proposed method is applied in an e-learning system as a case study with the prototype rules support. In the end, conclusions are drawn based on analysis and further research directions are discussed as well. The kernel contributions are the proposed transformation rules and its application in electronic learning system

Mining Customer Knowledge for a Recommendation System in Convenience Stores

[[abstract]]Taiwan's rapid economic growth with increasing personal income leads increasing numbers of young unmarried people to eat out, and shopping at convenience stores for food is indispensable to the lives of these people. Thus, it is an essential issue for convenience store owners to know how to accurately market appropriate products and to choose effective endorsers for brands or products in order to attract target consumers. Data mining is a business intelligence analysis approach with great potential to help businesses focus on the most important business information contained in a database. Therefore, this study uses the Apriori algorithm as an association rules approach, and clustering analysis for data mining. The authors divide consumers into three groups by their consumer profiles and then find each group's product preference mixes, product endorsers, and product/brand line extensions for new product development. These are developed as a recommendation system for 7-11 convenience stores in Taiwan.[[notice]]補正完畢[[incitationindex]]SCI[[booktype]]紙

SBVR to OWL 2 Mappings - An Automatable and Structural-Rooted Aproach

La amplia aplicabilidad del mapeo de reglas de negocio en sentencias ontológicas ha sido recientemente reconocida. Algunas de las aplicaciones más importantes son: (1) la utilización de razonadores ontológicos para probar la consistencia de la información del dominio del negocio, (2) la generación de una ontología destinada a ser utilizada en la etapa de análisis del proceso de desarrollo de software, y (3) la posibilidad de encapsular la especificación declarativa del conocimiento del negocio en un sistema de información mediante la implementación de una ontología. El lenguaje denominado Semantics of Business Vocabulary and Business Rules (SBVR) brinda soporte a tal enfoque al proveer al experto del negocio una forma lingüistica de describir semánticamente los conceptos y especificar las reglas de negocio, en forma independiente al diseño del sistema de información. Aunque trabajos previos han presentado algunas propuestas, resta definir un enfoque exhaustivo y automatizable de tales mapeos. Este trabajo presenta un conjunto amplio y detallado de transformaciones que permiten la generación automatizable de una ontología implementada en OWL 2, partiendo de la especificación SBVR del dominio del negocio. Tales transformaciones están basadas en la especificación estructural de ambos estándars, y son descriptas mediante un caso de estudio. Se ha realizado un ejemplo real de validación, abordando la factibilidad de los mapeos mediante la evalución de la calidad de la ontología resultante.Wide applicability of mapping business rules expressions to ontology statements have already been recognized. Some of the most important applications are: (1) using of ontology reasoners to prove the consistency of business domain information, (2) generation of an ontology intended to be used in the analysis stage of a software development process, and (3) the possibility of encapsulate the declarative specication of business knowledge into information software systems by means of an implemented ontology. The Semantics of Business Vocabulary and Business Rules (SBVR) supports that approach by providing business people with a linguistic way to semantically describe business concepts and specify business rules in an independent way of any information system design. Previous work have presented some proposals but an exhaustive and automatable approach for them still is lacking. This work presents a broad and detailed set of transformations that allows the automatable generation of an OWL 2 ontology from the SBVR specications of a business domain. Such transformations are rooted on the structural specication of both standards and are depicted through a case study. A real case validation example was performed, approaching the feasibility of the mappings by the quality assessment of the developed ontology.Fil: Reynares, Emiliano. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad Tecnologica Nacional. Facultad Regional Santa Fe. Centro de Investigacion y Desarrollo de Ingenieria en Sistemas de Informacion; ArgentinaFil: Caliusco, Maria Laura. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad Tecnologica Nacional. Facultad Regional Santa Fe. Centro de Investigacion y Desarrollo de Ingenieria en Sistemas de Informacion; ArgentinaFil: Galli, Maria Rosa. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Santa Fe. Instituto de Desarrollo y Diseño (i); Argentin

Sistema de informação baseado em regras de negócio utulizando a ferramenta Genexus: estudo de caso no setor têxtil

Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro Tecnológico. Programa de Pós-Graduação em Engenharia de Produção.Neste trabalho, aborda-se a aplicac a o de Regras de Negocio de forma declarativa no desenvolvimento de Sistemas de Informacao. Descrevem-se os principais conceitos relacionados com o assunto, mais especificamente aqueles que despontam como modernas tecnologias para o tratamento do problema, como Negocios, Sistemas, Informac a o, Regras de Negocio, entre outros. O principal assunto se refere é abordagem no desenvolvimento de um Sistema de Informacao com Regras de Negocio, utilizando a ferramenta de desenvolvimento Genexus. Estabelecem-se critÍrios de comparac a o baseados em qualidade de software. Compara-se, utilizando estes critÍrios, um Sistema de Informac a o desenvolvido com a ferramenta GeneXus, com outro desenvolvido de maneira procedural em ambiente. Delphi. Aplica-se o sistema no setor textil de Blumenau. In this work, the application of Business Rules in a declarative way is approached in the development of Information Systems. It is described the main concepts related with the subject, more specifically those than they blunt as modern technologies for the treatment of the problem, as Businesses, Systems, Information, Business Rules, among others. The main subject refers to the approach in the development of a Information System with Business Rules, using the development tool GeneXus. It settles down comparison criteria, based on software quality. It is compared, using these criteria, a Information System developed with the tool GeneXus with developed of way procedural in Delphi environment. The system is applied in the textile sector of Blumenau

Robustness Diagram: a bridge between business modelling and system design

Use case driven development has proven being a good approach for capturing problem semantics in an orderly, structured description. However, it specifies an abstraction beyond practicity to guide system design process. Robustness diagrams are a simple solution for drafting a more formal description for business modelling. This very simplicity may, however, detract its value, falling short of capturing the rich business semantics. Stereotyping is the essence behind its robustness diagram mechanics. Symbols convey the abstraction necessary to catch the model semantics. Increasing the number of stereotypes we can achieve a closer match from model to design. Rules carefully stated for robustness diagram can help to translate highleveI information into well-behaved and predictable symbolic descriptions. This enhancement to robustness diagram helps to patch the gap between abstract model and project into a paved continuum. It has been used to train programmers to extract working and consistent systems out of use case specifications