The applicability of expert systems technology to insurgent identification in a tactical military environment

As the threat of large-scale, conventional warfare diminishes, the United States will increasingly find itself, and its military forces, involved in low intensity, insurgency, revolutionary, and guerrilla warfare as an intervening power. One especially critical aspect of counterinsurgency operations is the rapid and accurate identification of insurgents and cause- sympathetic individuals. This task is normally accomplished by an experienced and knowledgeable expert in insurgent identifications, but appears to be particularly well suited for the application of expert system technology. This thesis is concerned with examining the applicability and feasibility of using expert systems technology for the development of a computerized screening system capable of assisting in the identification of insurgent and cause-sympathetic individuals in a tactical military environment.http://archive.org/details/thepplicabilityo1094534909Captain, United States Marine CorpsApproved for public release; distribution is unlimited

The untapped potential of IT chargeback

Cover title. "May 1997."Includes bibliographical references (p. 24-25).Jeanne W. Ross, Michael R. Vitale, Cynthia M. Beath

CGIAR Cost Allocation Guidelines: Financial Guidelines Series, no. 5

Financial guideline no. 5, published by the CGIAR Secretariat in December 2008 as part of the Financial Guidelines Series

Case study

"September 1997."Includes bibliographical references.Jeanne W. Ross

Cost Driver Based Internal IT Cost Allocation: A Case of a Medium-Sized Austrian Financial Service Provider

IT has a high share of the total costs at information processing companies. Though not only minimal IT costs are relevant, but also effective use of IT from the long term business perspective. Decisions on IT investments are made based on information about costs and benefits commonly provided by controlling in-struments. To identify direct and indirect costs of IT services, an internal IT cost allocation (IT activity allocation or IT chargeback) is being used by the vast ma-jority of companies, especially in IT-related industries. The allocation of shared IT infrastructures and overhead costs to IT services, as well as of IT services to service recipients, is based on simplified allocation keys. Allocation keys are commonly built use-based, per revenue share or per employee. For example allo-cation per CPU or RAM for servers and per Gigabyte of disk space for central storage systems is commonly being used. Nowadays those rarely are relevant cost drivers, except for extreme increases in usage intensity, which raise jump-fixed costs to a higher level. As a consequence service recipients lack the possi-bility and incentive to control the real costs and to optimize the cost/benefit ratio. Furthermore allocated costs, especially for shared services, do not represent cor-rectly the real cost situation and product pricing and business cases based on those costs are not accurate. As a constraint information cost to gain data to build allocation keys have be reasonable. The question is, how to build allocation keys as accurate as possible to apportion ‘real’ IT costs with reasonable effort. The pa-per at hand describes the internal IT cost allocation and its allocation keys based on main actual cost drivers by means of a case study at a typical medium-sized Austrian financial service provider. This approach yields a more accurate alloca-tion of actual IT costs

DEVELOPMENT OF A FAIR CHARGING MODEL FOR A PUBLIC DATA CENTER

The purpose of the study was to explore how a public, IT services transferor, organization, comprised of autonomous entities, can effectively develop and organize its data center cost recovery mechanisms in a fair manner. The lack of a well-defined model for charges and a cost recovery scheme could cause various problems. For example one entity may be subsidizing the costs of another entity(s). Transfer pricing is in the best interest of each autonomous entity in a CCA. While transfer pricing plays a pivotal role in the price settings of services and intangible assets, TCE focuses on the arrangement at the boundary between entities. TCE is concerned with the costs, autonomy, and cooperation issues of an organization. The theory is concern with the factors that influence intra-firm transaction costs and attempting to manifest the problems involved in the determination of the charges or prices of the transactions. This study was carried out, as a single case study, in a public organization. The organization intended to transfer the IT services of its own affiliated public entities and was in the process of establishing a municipal-joint data center. Nine semi-structured interviews, including two pilot interviews, were conducted with the experts and managers of the case company and its affiliating entities. The purpose of these interviews was to explore the charging and pricing issues of the intra-firm transactions. In order to process and summarize the findings, this study employed qualitative techniques with the multiple methods of data collection. The study, by reviewing the TCE theory and a sample of transfer pricing literature, created an IT services pricing framework as a conceptual tool for illustrating the structure of transferring costs. Antecedents and consequences of the transfer price based on TCE were developed. An explanatory fair charging model was eventually developed and suggested. The findings of the study suggested that the Chargeback system was inappropriate scheme for an organization with affiliated autonomous entities. The main contribution of the study was the application of TP methodologies in the public sphere with no tax issues consideration.siirretty Doriast

Sistemática para o controle gerencial dos custos de Tecnologia da Informação

Information Technology (IT) has become a key element for most organizations. For this reason and because of the lack of more structured methodologies for implementing IT chargeback, the objective of this article is to propose a cost management system for IT. The focus is on the company’s business units and/or products as the cost objects. The main contribution is to establish an interface between cost management modern techniques and IT with the proposition of a structured method. The results of some implementations are also presented as a case study. Keywords: IT, costs, IT chargeback, cost management system, control.A Tecnologia da Informação (TI) se tornou um elemento chave para as organizações. Por essa razão, e devido à falta de uma metodologia estruturada para a implementação do chargeback de TI, o objetivo deste artigo é propor uma sistemática de custeio para a TI. Os objetos de custos são as unidades/produtos das empresas. A maior contribuição deste artigo está no estabelecimento de uma interface entre o ambiente de TI e as modernas técnicas de gestão de custos por meio da proposição de uma sistemática estruturada para o custeio dessa área. Os resultados de implementações são combinados e apresentados na forma de estudo de caso.Palavras-chave: TI, custos, chargeback de TI, sistema de gestão de custos, controle

CHARGEBACK SYSTEMS AND USER INVOLVEMENT IN INFORMATION SYSTEMS

Computer chargeback systems are installed to meet various data processing objectives. One objective is to increase user involvement in decisions regarding information systems development and use. Presumably, increasing user involvement will result in more effective information systems. In a field study we examine the relationship between various characteristics of a computer chargeback system, the quality of the chargeback system's user interface, user involvement and user attitudes about information systems services. Suggestions are given both for the practicing information systems manager and for future information systems researchers.Information Systems Working Papers Serie

Semi-Annual Report to Congress for the Period of October 1, 1984 to March 31, 1985

[Excerpt] The core element of OIG\u27s audit and investigative work is and will continue to be the prevention and detection of problems and deficiencies. This is demonstrated by our statistical accomplishments on page 105, detailing results obtained. During this semiannual reporting period, as in the recent past, We have continued to focus resources on efforts designed to improve program management and operations within the Department of Labor. We believe that this approach can have a major impact on the prevention of future losses by directing attention to the identification and correction of vulnerabilities and system weaknesses