Centralized vs. decentralized computing : organizational considerations and management options

The long-standing debate over whether to centralize or decentralize computing is examined in terms of the fundamental organizational and economic factors at stake. The traditional debate is examined and found to focus predominantly on issues of efficiency vs. effectiveness, with solutions based on a rationalistic strategy of optimizing in this tradeoff. A more behavioralistic assessment suggests that the driving issues in the debate are the politics of organization and resources, centering on the issue of control. The economics of computing deployment decisions is presented as an important issue, but one that often serves as a field of argument that is based on more political concerns. The current situation facing managers of computing, given the advent of small and comparatively inexpensive computers, is examined in detail, and a set of management options for dealing with this persistent issue is presented

The Country-specific Organizational and Information Architecture of ERP Systems at Globalised Enterprises

The competition on the market forces companies to adapt to the changing environment. Most recently, the economic and financial crisis has been accelerating the alteration of both business and IT models of enterprises. The forces of globalization and internationalization motivate the restructuring of business processes and consequently IT processes. To depict the changes in a unified framework, we need the concept of Enterprise Architecture as a theoretical approach that deals with various tiers, aspects and views of business processes and different layers of application, software and hardware systems. The paper outlines a wide-range theoretical background for analyzing the re-engineering and re-organization of ERP systems at international or transnational companies in the middle-sized EU member states. The research carried out up to now has unravelled the typical structural changes, the models for internal business networks and their modification that reflect the centralization, decentralization and hybrid approaches. Based on the results obtained recently, a future research program has been drawn up to deepen our understanding of the trends within the world of ERP systems.Information System; ERP; Enterprise Resource Planning; Enterprise Architecture; Globalization; Centralization; Decentralization; Hybrid

A one-way ANOVA test for functional data with graphical interpretation

A new functional ANOVA test, with a graphical interpretation of the result, is presented. The test is an extension of the global envelope test introduced by Myllymaki et al. (2017, Global envelope tests for spatial processes, J. R. Statist. Soc. B 79, 381--404, doi: 10.1111/rssb.12172). The graphical interpretation is realized by a global envelope which is drawn jointly for all samples of functions. If a mean function computed from the empirical data is out of the given envelope, the null hypothesis is rejected with the predetermined significance level $\alpha$. The advantages of the proposed one-way functional ANOVA are that it identifies the domains of the functions which are responsible for the potential rejection. We introduce two versions of this test: the first gives a graphical interpretation of the test results in the original space of the functions and the second immediately offers a post-hoc test by identifying the significant pair-wise differences between groups. The proposed tests rely on discretization of the functions, therefore the tests are also applicable in the multidimensional ANOVA problem. In the empirical part of the article, we demonstrate the use of the method by analyzing fiscal decentralization in European countries. The aim of the empirical analysis is to capture differences between the levels of government expenditure decentralization ratio among different groups of European countries. The idea behind, based on the existing literature, is straightforward: countries with a longer European integration history are supposed to decentralize more of their government expenditure. We use the government expenditure centralization ratios of 29 European Union and EFTA countries in period from 1995 to 2016 sorted into three groups according to the presumed level of European economic and political integration.Comment: arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1506.0164

Centralization vs decentralization of information systems : a critical survey of current literature

Includes bibliographical references.by John Fralick Rockart and Joav Steve Leventer

A Moral Hazard Perspective on Environmental Uncertainty and IT Governance

Using a moral hazard model, this study examines the relationship between environmental uncertainty and the adoption of decentralized IT governance. We show that this relationship is determined by a trade-off between the need for processing local information and the concern on moral hazard. The trade-off results in an inverted-U-shaped relationship between environmental uncertainty and decentralization in IT governance. The increase in environmental uncertainty first increases and then decreases the likelihood of adopting decentralized IT governance, and thus decentralized IT governance is less likely to be adopted when the external environment is either highly stable or highly turbulent. We validate our analytical result using a sample of 455 business sites of Fortune 1000 companies. The empirical analysis provides evidence consistent with an inverted-U-shaped relationship between environmental uncertainty and decentralization in IT governance

Diversification Across Mining Pools: Optimal Mining Strategies under PoW

Mining is a central operation of all proof-of-work (PoW) based cryptocurrencies. The vast majority of miners today participate in "mining pools" instead of "solo mining" in order to lower risk and achieve a more steady income. However, this rise of participation in mining pools negatively affects the decentralization levels of most cryptocurrencies. In this work, we look into mining pools from the point of view of a miner: We present an analytical model and implement a computational tool that allows miners to optimally distribute their computational power over multiple pools and PoW cryptocurrencies (i.e. build a mining portfolio), taking into account their risk aversion levels. Our tool allows miners to maximize their risk-adjusted earnings by diversifying across multiple mining pools which enhances PoW decentralization. Finally, we run an experiment in Bitcoin historical data and demonstrate that a miner diversifying over multiple pools, as instructed by our model/tool, receives a higher overall Sharpe ratio (i.e. average excess reward over its standard deviation/volatility).Comment: 13 pages, 16 figures. Presented at WEIS 201

ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF CENTRALIZED VERSUS DECENTRALIZED INFORMATION SYSTEMS AND SERVICES FROM A PROJECT MANAGEMENT PERSPECTIVE

After an extensive review of the available literature, it is evident that within the Information Systems and Technology (IT) field, project managers are still debating whether to centralize or decentralize IT systems and services personnel. This decision can have a major impact on the effectiveness of the project management process with both organizational structures having advantages and disadvantages. The study examines two real-world examples of projects in the aerospace and defense technology industry that were performed from either a centralized or decentralized organizational structure. Using an industry standard project management methodology (i.e., Agile and Scrum), the study clearly identified the advantages and disadvantages of each organizational structure. A centralized organizational structure can reduce costs at the expense of meeting all the customer’s needs, while a decentralized organizational structure meets all the customer’s needs, it risks significant time delays and cost overruns. Based on the study’s findings, a hybrid approach to organizational structure is proposed incorporating the advantages of both centralized and decentralized organizational structures while lessening their noted disadvantages. Future research should also explore the viability of applying a hybrid approach to organizational structure across different industries

Key concerns of executives making IS decisions

Bibliography: p. 20.Stuart E. Madnick, Y. Richard Wang