Using ERP as a basis for Enterprise application integration

Architecting and implementing e-Business supply chain solutions across and within the modern day enterprise, is now becoming a necessity in order to maintain competitive and be adaptable to market needs. As such, the integration of information and processes is a vital step, using technologies such as using Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Supply Chain Management (SCM) and enterprise portal platforms. The effective sharing of resource planning and other enterprise related data across and within the enterprise is typically seen as a facet of a business to business (B2B) platform. However, such infrastructures typically involve a tight integration across intra and inter-organisational systems. This paper examines an Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) initiative taken by a global manufacturer of industrial automation products, which attempted to utilise ERP as an integration tool across its internal B2B infrastructure, to achieve such an aim. This paper discusses those integration considerations and complexities, experienced by the case company upon embarking on an EAI integration programme through the adoption of a core ERP as a catalyst for organizational change. In doing so the authors present an analysis of the inherent risks and limitations of this approach in terms of previously published literature in the field, relating to technology-driven organizational change and EAI impact and adoption frameworks

Five challenges to the future of transboundary water governance

This repository item contains a single issue of Issues in Brief, a series of policy briefs that began publishing in 2008 by the Boston University Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future.Pardee 2013 Graduate Summer Fellow Leeann Sullivan uses the Okavango River in Southern Africa as a case study to discuss the key challenges of the future of transboundary water governance. She argues that while local-level management has been successful thus far, climate change and rapid socio-economic development pose basin-wide challenges that communities cannot address alone. By creating a regional framework to help communities tackle issues of communication, governance, financial stability, resource allocation, and data management, water managers may be able to strengthen political and environmental resilience in the basin. She concludes that lessons drawn from the integration of management systems in the Okavango could inform practices for sustainable water management in a more global context

Rising waters : integrating national datasets for the visualisation of diminishing spatial entities

Preparing for the potential changes wrought by climate change can be grounded in commonly integrated real data. Efforts by various countries to prepare for such potentialities have resulted in a stepped- approach to data management and integration. Small island states experience an added burden through data limitations, disparate datasets and data hoarding. This paper reviews the processes employed in Malta that target a spatio-temporal analysis of current and future climate change scenarios aimed at integrating environmental, spatial planning and social data in line with the transposition of the Aarhus Convention, the INSPIRE Directive (Infrastructure for Spatial Information in the European Community) and the SEIS (Shared Environmental Information System) initiative. The study analyses potential physical and social aspects that will be impacted by sea-level rise in the Maltese islands. Scenarios include the analysis of areas that will be inundated, the methodology employed to carry out the analysis, and the relative impacts on land use and environmental, infrastructural and population loss. Spatial information systems and 3D outputs illustrate outcome scenarios.peer-reviewe

Graduate IS Curriculum for the Millennium: Background, Process and Recommendation

The MSIS 2000 model curriculum, prepared by the Joint ACM/AIS Curriculum Committee, provides guidelines for colleges and universities offering Masters degrees in Information Systems. This paper summarizes both the program and the procedures used to create it. In brief, the minimum masters program involves 10 courses for students with adequate preparation. This minimum program consists of 6 core course (data management; analysis, modeling, and design; data communications and networking: project and change management, information systems policy and strategy, and systems integration) and a 4-course career track. The procedure used included face-to-face and computer meetings among committee members and extensive consultation with the worldwide IS community

Technology and quality management: a review of concepts and opportunities in the digital transformation

Purpose - The Digital Transformation brings change to organizations, their processes, and their production systems. Nevertheless, most efforts observed in its context tend to be technology-driven, and it is often argued that Quality Management is inadequately integrated into the discussion. Design/methodology/approach - Surveying the literature, this work reviews, list, and organizes the different technological concepts and integration opportunities that have been explored in the scope of Quality Management in the Digital Transformation. Findings - Findings include the expanded capacity of quality tools and methods for managerial purposes; the reinforced importance of Data Quality; the increased automation and augment resources for Quality control; and the increased process optimization and integration of systems and between organizational areas. Originality/value - It is demonstrated that although scattered in the literature, there are already a number of works exploring the impacts of technology in the management of Quality in the scope of the Digital Transformation. Three main areas for integration arise: (a) Digital Quality Management (application of industry 4.0 technologies to Quality Management itself, its tools, methods, and systems), (b) the management of the Quality of digital products and services, and (c) the management of the Quality of digital product development and production processes.(undefined

Participatory Geographic Information Systems as an Organizational Platform for the Integration of Traditional and Scientific Knowledge in Contemporary Fire and Fuels Management

Traditional knowledge about fire and its effects held by indigenous people, who are connected to specific landscapes, holds promise for informing contemporary fire and fuels management strategies and augmenting knowledge and information derived from western science. In practice, however, inadequate means to organize and communicate this traditional knowledge with scientists and managers can limit its consideration in decisions, requiring novel approaches to interdisciplinary and cross-cultural communication and collaboration. We propose that Participatory Geographic Information Systems (PGIS) is one platform for the assemblage and communication of traditional knowledge vital to fire and fuels management, while preserving linkages to broader cultural contexts. We provide summaries of four preliminary case studies in the Intermountain West of North America to illustrate different potential applications of a PGIS tool in this context and describe some remaining challenges. Management and Policy Implications: Participatory Geographic Information Systems (PGIS) can offer a powerful approach for enhancing current decisionmaking by allowing for the integration of traditional and scientific knowledge systems with spatial environmental data in an interactive participatory process. Integrated data sets can allow traditional and scientific knowledge experts to share, explore, manage, analyze, and interpret multidimensional data in a common spatial context to develop more informed management decisions. Such combined data sets could provide a more comprehensive assessment of fire-related ecological change than is currently used in decisionmaking and enhance inclusion of effects on local resource utility values and areas of cultural significance. The use of a PGIS interface creates opportunities for traditional knowledge holders to share information and potential prescriptions while maintaining confidentiality. Knowledge integration efforts using PGIS as an organizational tool would help to bridge the communication gap that commonly exists between scientists, managers, and traditional knowledge holders as ecosystems continue to be altered through processes of land management and climate change

An architecture for integrating distributed and cooperating knowledge-based Air Force decision aids

MITRE has been developing a Knowledge-Based Battle Management Testbed for evaluating the viability of integrating independently-developed knowledge-based decision aids in the Air Force tactical domain. The primary goal for the testbed architecture is to permit a new system to be added to a testbed with little change to the system's software. Each system that connects to the testbed network declares that it can provide a number of services to other systems. When a system wants to use another system's service, it does not address the server system by name, but instead transmits a request to the testbed network asking for a particular service to be performed. A key component of the testbed architecture is a common database which uses a relational database management system (RDBMS). The RDBMS provides a database update notification service to requesting systems. Normally, each system is expected to monitor data relations of interest to it. Alternatively, a system may broadcast an announcement message to inform other systems that an event of potential interest has occurred. Current research is aimed at dealing with issues resulting from integration efforts, such as dealing with potential mismatches of each system's assumptions about the common database, decentralizing network control, and coordinating multiple agents

Numbers, systems, people: how interactions influence integration. Insights from case studies of HIV and reproductive health services delivery in Kenya.

Drawing on rich data from the Integra evaluation of integrated HIV and reproductive-health services, we explored the interaction of systems hardware and software factors to explain why some facilities were able to implement and sustain integrated service delivery while others were not. This article draws on detailed mixed-methods data for four case-study facilities offering reproductive-health and HIV services between 2009 and 2013 in Kenya: (i) time-series client flow, tracking service uptake for 8841 clients; (ii) structured questionnaires with 24 providers; (iii) in-depth interviews with 17 providers; (iv) workload and facility data using a periodic activity review and cost-instruments; and (v) contextual data on external activities related to integration in study sites. Overall, our findings suggested that although structural factors like stock-outs, distribution of staffing and workload, rotation of staff can affect how integrated care is provided, all these factors can be influenced by staff themselves: both frontline and management. Facilities where staff displayed agency of decision making, worked as a team to share workload and had management that supported this, showed better integration delivery and staff were able to overcome some structural deficiencies to enable integrated care. Poor-performing facilities had good structural integration, but staff were unable to utilize this because they were poorly organized, unsupported or teams were dysfunctional. Conscientious objection and moralistic attitudes were also barriers.Integra has demonstrated that structural integration is not sufficient for integrated service delivery. Rather, our case studies show that in some cases excellent leadership and peer-teamwork enabled facilities to perform well despite resource shortages. The ability to provide support for staff to work flexibly to deliver integrated services and build resilient health systems to meet changing needs is particularly relevant as health systems face challenges of changing burdens of disease, climate change, epidemic outbreaks and more