Corporate Dashboard for Payphone Service: Case Study of Pernec PayPoint Requirement

With the commitment to provide extensive high quality payphone services, the major challenge for PayPoint, the leader in the payphone industry in Malaysia, is in making a good decision in its operation. With current practice, the process is very time consuming and the result may not be reliable. Therefore, a systematic and informative corporate dashboard need to be provided especially for managerial level in supporting their decision making process. This study propose a dashboard application design that provides a single-screen display of relevant and critical business metrics analytics to enable faster and more effective decision making. The methodology used in this research is divided into requirement, design and implementation phases. The implementation using samples data has demonstrated the potential use of the dashboard. The findings can be used by management as starting point to identify the root cause and to take the necessary actions to solve the problem

Operational research from Taylorism to Terabytes: a research agenda for the analytics age

The growing attention and prominence afforded to analytics presents a genuine challenge for the operational research community. Many in the community have recognised this growth and sought to align themselves with analytics. For instance, the US operational research society INFORMS now offers analytics related conferences, certification and a magazine. However, as shown in this research, the volume of analytics-orientated studies in journals associated with operational research is comparatively low. This paper seeks to address this paradox by seeking to better understand what analytics is, and how operational research is related to it. To do so literature from a range of academic disciplines is analysed, in what is conceived as concurrent histories in the shared tradition of a management paradigm spread over the last 100 years. The findings of this analysis reveal new insights as to how operational research exists within an ecosystem shared with several other disciplines, and how interactions and ripple effects diffuse knowledge and ideas between each. Whilst this ecosystem is developed and evolved through interdisciplinary collaborations, individual disciplines are cast into competition for the attention of the same business users. These findings are further explored by discussing the implication this has for operational research, as well as considering what directions future research may take to maximise the potential value of these relationships

Web Content Search and Adaptation for IDTV: One Step Forward in the Mediamorphosis Process toward Personal-TV

We are on the threshold of a mediamorphosis that will revolutionize the way we interact with our TV sets. The combination between interactive digital TV (IDTV) and the Web fosters the development of new interactive multimedia services enjoyable even through a TV screen and a remote control. Yet, several design constraints complicate the deployment of this new pattern of services. Prominent unresolved issues involve macro-problems such as collecting information on the Web based on users' preferences and appropriately presenting retrieved Web contents on the TV screen. To this aim, we propose a system able to dynamically convey contents from the Web to IDTV systems. Our system presents solutions both for personalized Web content search and automatic TV-format adaptation of retrieved documents. As we demonstrate through two case study applications, our system merges the best of IDTV and Web domains spinning the TV mediamorphosis toward the creation of the personal-TV concept

Making the Case for a Business Intelligence Framework

This research is intended to develop evidence for whether or not large organizations should spend a large amount of time and resources on building Business Intelligence Frameworks by examining Project Manager’s perceptions of complex information systems. Project Managers in a large organization provide a cross functional reporting role that requires them to delve into information technology systems in complex ways when querying for simple metrics related to projects they manage. Using an online survey, this study found that project manager’s perceptions changed more positively towards IT systems performing automatic queries, web based queries, IT systems, and business intelligence system dashboards if they did not already have a business intelligence framework in place, and if they were less experienced. More experienced project managers had lower perceptions of current IT systems, automatic queries, web-based queries, and dashboards. There is evidence to suggest that business intelligence frameworks will be positively perceived for project managers with lower experience, and where these systems have not already been introduced

Relatórios de gestão e indicadores financeiros e de gestão

A escolha deste tema para a concretização do relatório de estágio nasce, não só do interesse pessoal de querer aprofundar os conhecimentos nestas temáticas, mas também da necessidade demonstrada pela empresa de acolhimento para a execução de várias atividades relacionadas com o mesmo. A empresa acolhedora foi a 2ás – Contabilidade e Consultoria, prestadora de serviços, sediada em Coimbra. O estágio curricular teve lugar no primeiro semestre do ano de 2014 e teve como principal objectivo a troca de conhecimentos e a obtenção de experiência na elaboração relatórios de gestão. O estágio proporcionou uma grande aprendizagem a nível pessoal e a 2ás pôde complementar o trabalho já existente com o meu contributo. Este relatório de estágio tem como intuito não apenas demonstrar as atividades praticadas em regime de estágio curricular, parte integrante do Mestrado de Controlo de Gestão, mas também dotar o leitor de vários conceitos relativos a relatórios de gestão, indicadores financeiros e indicadores de gestão. É por isso um relatório de carácter teórico e elucidativo no que respeita a estes três grandes conceitos. Através do mesmo é fácil concluir que existe uma vantagem comprovada por parte das empresas que adoptam a elaboração correta de relatórios de gestão e seus indicadores, tanto financeiros como de gestão

Popular reporting: propostas e desafios para os municípios

Disponibilizar à população informação financeira e não financeira, de forma clara e objetiva, sobre a atuação governativa nos diversos níveis, tem vindo a ser objeto de algumas interrogações, ainda não ultrapassadas, uma vez que a maior parte dos relatórios produzidos e publicados tendem a conter informação de difícil compreensão e interpretação por uma grande parte dos cidadãos. Entender como, de acordo com as necessidades dos cidadãos, deve ser efetuada a apresentação da informação, pode indicar, de forma dinâmica, novas perspetivas de divulgação dessa informação, de modo a cativar o interesse dos mesmos, assim como a potencializar a evolução dos relatórios a realizar. Nessa senda, é constatado nesta investigação que o "Popular Reporting" (PR) é um instrumento de gestão criado para o perfil do cidadão comum, um relatório de dimensão pequena e com linguagem acessível. Para o efeito, é desenvolvido um PR para os Municípios portugueses, em três formatos diferentes (PDF, "website" e "dashboard"). Em face das avaliações obtidas, em termos de indicadores por parte dos Municípios da Região do Algarve e dos diversos formatos por parte da população, é dado a comprovar a importância e o reconhecimento que esta última tem por este novo tipo de relatório, o que pode significar um envolvimento mais ativo da mesma nas questões públicas. Por sua vez, o formato em "dashboard" pode melhorar a forma como a informação é apresentada e percebida, revelando a população um maior interesse em ferramentas de "report" "online", devido ao desenvolvimento das tecnologias de informação e comunicação (TIC).Providing the population with financial and non-financial information, in a clear and objective way, on government action at different levels, has been the subject of several questions, not yet overcome, since most of the reports developed and published tend to contain information difficult to understand and interpret by a large part of citizens. Understanding how, according to citizens' needs, the presentation of information should be carried out, can dynamically indicate new perspectives for the dissemination of that information, in order to captivate their interest, as well as to enhance the evolution of reports to be carried out. Along this path, it is noted in this dissertation that Popular Reporting (PR) is a management tool created for the profile of ordinary citizens, a small-scale report with accessible language. For this purpose, a PR is developed for Portuguese Municipalities in three different formats (PDF, website and dashboard). Regarding the evaluations that were obtained, in terms of indicators by the Municipalities of the Algarve region and the different formats by the population, it is given to prove the importance and recognition that the latter has for this new type of report, which can mean more active involvement in public affairs. Lastly, the dashboard format can improve the way information is presented and perceived, revealing to the population a greater interest in online reporting tools, due to the development of information and communication technologies (ICT)

Is operational research in UK universities fit-for-purpose for the growing field of analytics?

Over the last decade considerable interest has been generated into the use of analytical methods in organisations. Along with this, many have reported a significant gap between organisational demand for analytical-trained staff, and the number of potential recruits qualified for such roles. This interest is of high relevance to the operational research discipline, both in terms of raising the profile of the field, as well as in the teaching and training of graduates to fill these roles. However, what is less clear, is the extent to which operational research teaching in universities, or indeed teaching on the various courses labelled as analytics , are offering a curriculum that can prepare graduates for these roles. It is within this space that this research is positioned, specifically seeking to analyse the suitability of current provisions, limited to master s education in UK universities, and to make recommendations on how curricula may be developed. To do so, a mixed methods research design, in the pragmatic tradition, is presented. This includes a variety of research instruments. Firstly, a computational literature review is presented on analytics, assessing (amongst other things) the amount of research into analytics from a range of disciplines. Secondly, a historical analysis is performed of the literature regarding elements that can be seen as the pre-cursor of analytics, such as management information systems, decision support systems and business intelligence. Thirdly, an analysis of job adverts is included, utilising an online topic model and correlations analyses. Fourthly, online materials from UK universities concerning relevant degrees are analysed using a bagged support vector classifier and a bespoke module analysis algorithm. Finally, interviews with both potential employers of graduates, and also academics involved in analytics courses, are presented. The results of these separate analyses are synthesised and contrasted. The outcome of this is an assessment of the current state of the market, some reflections on the role operational research make have, and a framework for the development of analytics curricula. The principal contribution of this work is practical; providing tangible recommendations on curricula design and development, as well as to the operational research community in general in respect to how it may react to the growth of analytics. Additional contributions are made in respect to methodology, with a novel, mixed-method approach employed, and to theory, with insights as to the nature of how trends develop in both the jobs market and in academia. It is hoped that the insights here, may be of value to course designers seeking to react to similar trends in a wide range of disciplines and fields

A Method for Representing Contextualized Information (MeRCI) to Improve Situational Awareness Among Electronic Message Brokering System Dashboard Users

Electronic health information brokering systems are of interest to public health informatics because they emphasize how data can be effectively shared and utilized across healthcare institutions and among providers so as to improve the quality of care, increase efficiency, and reduce costs (Lumpkin, 2002). In the domain of public health (PH) specifically, where complete and timely reporting of data is critical for all epidemiological and disease surveillance activities (Langmuir, 1976), it is imperative to ensure proper functioning of the electronic information exchange infrastructure. Receiving multiple types of data, in various formats from numerous sources, and triaging them to the appropriate surveillance system is no easy task for a department of health, whether at state, local or federal level (Magnuson, 2005). The administrators of the electronic message brokering system, and the coordinators of surveillance systems in each public health jurisdiction, are responsible for ensuring that the data is received, archived, validated and triaged appropriately in a timely and complete fashion. This requires continuous monitoring of trends in messaging and system performance and active responses to aberrations. To achieve this, administrators depend heavily on dashboards to provide awareness of exchange system status and its reporting at any point of time. Unfortunately, current dashboards do not offer the context or cognitive support needed for interpreting the information presented. As research has demonstrated in other domains, in order to make sense of the data and react, dashboard users are required to draw upon domain knowledge, higher level association between domains, operational rules, organizational missions, personal objectives, tasks at hand, priorities, past experiences, historic events, recent events, psychosocial and political constructs, and more (Resnick, 2005; Mirhaji, Srinivasan, Casscells, & Arafat, 2004). The burden of ‘interpretation’ always falls on the cognitive system of the human operator, which is prone to error and malfunctioning when risk and emergency overwhelm psychological factors (Parsa, Richesson, Smith, Zhang, & Srinivasan, 2004; Parsa, Zhang, Smith, Majid, Casscells, & Lillibridge, 2003). On the basis of the surveillance literature it can be seen that meaningful and holistic interpretation of data requires the generation of higher-level explanations based on knowledge and expertise from numerous principles (Parsa, Richesson, & Srinivasan, 2004; Parsa, Richesson, Smith, Zhang, & Srinivasan, 2004), while context is essential to illustrate the ‘big picture’ view of dynamic and complex problems (Parsa, Zhang, Smith, Majid, Casscells, & Lillibridge, 2003). These reservations imply that the process for building health information dashboards should consider not only user functions, tasks and goals but also the user’s situational awareness (SA) requirements. This vision adds a new layer to information representation that needs to be accounted for when conceptualizing the implementation of health information dashboards. A review of the literature reveals a lack of methods to design for situational awareness in dashboard systems in complex domains (Resnick, 2005; Li, 2007). This research introduces a new method to present contextualized information that can improve user SA. I present the design rationale, method, and results of an evaluation study that measures the situational awareness generated by adopting this new context-driven representation model