On-line analytical processing

On-line analytical processing (OLAP) describes an approach to decision support, which aims to extract knowledge from a data warehouse, or more specifically, from data marts. Its main idea is providing navigation through data to non-expert users, so that they are able to interactively generate ad hoc queries without the intervention of IT professionals. This name was introduced in contrast to on-line transactional processing (OLTP), so that it reflected the different requirements and characteristics between these classes of uses. The concept falls in the area of business intelligence.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Some philosophical enquiries on E-learning: preparing the tomorrow business school

Emerging digital technologies and increasing interest in the computerized delivery of higher education have led to e-learning through electronic mail, the Internet, the World Wide Web (WWW), and multimedia. The major objective of this research outlet is to examine the e-learning evolution in business schools. Our research intentions are to investigate: 1. if universities understand the market dynamics (regarding to segmentation and crossing the chasm); 2. mapping the s-curve to student needs and 3. how business schools will change the value map. From the analysis of existing empirical evidence and our research results from 140 business students of the University of Ioannina (Greece) and 50 business students of the University of Winchester (UK), we can summarize that: a. value is created when new technology is matched to student need; b. but student needs change: as the technology evolves existing students develop new needs and in addition the technology may appeal to new kinds of students, with new kinds of needs and c. understanding the structure of student needs may be particularly important at times of potential discontinuity, when existing students may reject new technologies (for excellent reasons!).  The authors suggest that business schools interested in being productive should invest in implementing performance tools for all educational methods in order to accomplish the educational objectives. Further research in this crucial field of the evolution of e-learning in business schools is the examination of anticipated benefits and the experiences by early e-learning adopters, return on investment and expectations for the future

DATA WAREHOUSE AND BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE STRATEGIES AND TRENDS

In recent decades following the evolution of information technology, decision support systems have played an important role by presenting the necessary information resulted from the operational systems processes. By continuing improvement of the methods as well as the contribution of technological advance the applicability of decision support systems is now generalized and has reached the status of complex systems of business intelligence. Business Intelligence is about creating intelligence about a business based on a cyclic flow which consists of capturing, analyzing, planning and implementation resulting in streamlining the organization.Decisions, DSS, Data Driven, Business Intelligence, Data Warehouse

DESIGN AND DELIVERY OF ELECTRONIC SERVICES: IMPLICATIONS FOR CUSTOMER VALUE IN ELECTRONIC FOOD RETAILING

Electronic food retailers can satisfy their customers more effectively if they understand how this particular market works. As in other service segments, the emergence of electronic business-to-customer services in the retail food industry poses questions for managers about the design of new food retailing services and the redesign of existing services for delivery through electronic channels. Important topics include characteristics of electronic service offerings, the typical operational configurations used to deliver electronic services, and the ways in which they relate to the effectiveness of electronic service delivery. We address this issue by developing a product-process matrix for understanding and analyzing electronic retailing services in general. We tailor the matrix to food retailing in particular. The product-process matrix allows electronic food retailers to determine in advance what features they need in a web site to serve their chosen market effectively.Consumer/Household Economics, Marketing, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

Dynamic real-time risk analytics of uncontrollable states in complex internet of things systems, cyber risk at the edge

The Internet of Things (IoT) triggers new types of cyber risks. Therefore, the integration of new IoT devices and services requires a self-assessment of IoT cyber security posture. By security posture this article refers to the cybersecurity strength of an organisation to predict, prevent and respond to cyberthreats. At present, there is a gap in the state of the art, because there are no self-assessment methods for quantifying IoT cyber risk posture. To address this gap, an empirical analysis is performed of 12 cyber risk assessment approaches. The results and the main findings from the analysis is presented as the current and a target risk state for IoT systems, followed by conclusions and recommendations on a transformation roadmap, describing how IoT systems can achieve the target state with a new goal-oriented dependency model. By target state, we refer to the cyber security target that matches the generic security requirements of an organisation. The research paper studies and adapts four alternatives for IoT risk assessment and identifies the goal-oriented dependency modelling as a dominant approach among the risk assessment models studied. The new goal-oriented dependency model in this article enables the assessment of uncontrollable risk states in complex IoT systems and can be used for a quantitative self-assessment of IoT cyber risk posture

A Vision for ARES in the Twenty-First Century: The Virtual Community of Real Estate Thought Leaders

In the twenty-first century the American Real Estate Society (ARES) is a virtual community of real estate thought leaders, electronically interconnected and linked through the International Real Estate Society to counterpart organizations on all major continents as well as numerous country-specific societies. ARES growth is attributable to its emphasis on rigorous applied microeconomic decisionmaking and an inclusive, open style. The initiatives of the Strategic Planning Task Force, whose report was enthusiastically endorsed and implemented at the 1996 Lake Tahoe meetings, have led to an expansion of activities and services. Further, the "Great Water" location strategy continues to attract strong meeting participation, which meetings emphasize special tracks for the corporate space user, global portfolio investing, micro property strategies and transactions, property analytic advances, improving cognitive skills to overcome bounded rationality, and learning innovations as well as ethical and aesthetic issues, property rights and quality of life topics. As valuable as the electronic access to critical real estate research resources is, the ARES Annual Meeting continues to be the one must attend gathering for real estate thought leaders throughout the world.

Database Systems - Present and Future

The database systems have nowadays an increasingly important role in the knowledge-based society, in which computers have penetrated all fields of activity and the Internet tends to develop worldwide. In the current informatics context, the development of the applications with databases is the work of the specialists. Using databases, reach a database from various applications, and also some of related concepts, have become accessible to all categories of IT users. This paper aims to summarize the curricular area regarding the fundamental database systems issues, which are necessary in order to train specialists in economic informatics higher education. The database systems integrate and interfere with several informatics technologies and therefore are more difficult to understand and use. Thus, students should know already a set of minimum, mandatory concepts and their practical implementation: computer systems, programming techniques, programming languages, data structures. The article also presents the actual trends in the evolution of the database systems, in the context of economic informatics.database systems - DBS, database management systems – DBMS, database – DB, programming languages, data models, database design, relational database, object-oriented systems, distributed systems, advanced database systems