Final report of work-with-IT: the JISC study into evolution of working practices

Technology is increasingly being used to underpin business processes across teaching and learning, research, knowledge exchange and business support activities in both HE and FE. The introduction of technology has a significant impact on the working practices of staff, often requiring them to work in a radically different way. Change in any situation can be unsettling and problematic and, where not effectively managed, can lead to poor service or functionality and disenfranchised staff. These issues can have a direct impact on institutional effectiveness, reputation and the resulting student experience. The Work-with-IT project, based at the University of Strathclyde, sought to examine changes to working practices across HE and FE, the impact on staff roles and relationships and the new skills sets that are required to meet these changes

Enterprise Architecture Enhanced with Responsibility to Manage Access Right - Case Study in an EU Institution

Part 4: Enterprise Architecture and Enterprise ModelingInternational audienceAn innovative approach is proposed for aligning the different layers of the enterprise architecture of a European institution. The main objective of the alignment targets the definition and the assignment of the access rights needed by the employees according to business specifications. This alignment is realized by considering the responsibility and the accountabilities (doing, deciding and advising) of these employees regarding business tasks. Therefore, the responsibility (modeled in a responsibility metamodel) is integrated with the enterprise architecture metamodel using a structured method. The approach is illustrated and validated with a dedicated case study dealing with the definition of access rights assigned to employees involved in the user account provisioning and management processes

Power, Responsibility, and Accountability: Re-Thinking the Legitimacy of Institutions for Climate Finance

Offers lessons from current mechanisms to finance climate mitigation and adaptation and considerations for legitimacy in new ones: the capacity to determine outcomes, the exercise of power as intended, and standards and systems to ensure accountability

Can the European Community Afford to Neglect the Need for More Accountable Safety-Net Management?

As financial institutions and markets transact more and more cross-border business, gaps and flaws in national safety nets become more consequential. Because citizens of host (home) countries may be made to pay for mistakes made in the home (host) country, Basel's lead-regulator paradigm violates the principle of democratic accountability. Because important differences exist in policymaking authority, instruments, and goals, banking supervisors need to improve their ability to monitor and mitigate the consequences of defects in one another's performance. A straightforward way to enhance both capacities would be to establish opportunities for public trading in debt obligations and reinsurance derivatives issued by country-level deposit-insurance entities.

An Open Source Based Data Warehouse Architecture to Support Decision Making in the Tourism Sector

In this paper an alternative Tourism oriented Data Warehousing architecture is proposed which makes use of the most recent free and open source technologies like Java, Postgresql and XML. Such architecture's aim will be to support the decision making process and giving an integrated view of the whole Tourism reality in an established context (local, regional, national, etc.) without requesting big investments for getting the necessary software.Tourism, Data warehousing architecture

Regulatory Reflorm in Germany: Enhancing Market Openness through Regulatory Reform

This report assesses the impact of regulations and the regulatory process in Germany on trade and investment, as well as the extent to which market openness considerations are incorporated into the general policy framework for regulations. The assessment is based on six efficient regulation principles developed by the OECD, namely: transparency, non-discrimination; avoidance of unnecessary trade restrictiveness; use of internationally harmonized standards; streamlining conformity assessment; and integration of competition principles into the regulatory framework. Through broad application of the six efficient regulation principles Germany has been very successful in establishing a regulatory framework that has competently underpinned German participation international competition and the global economy. International stakeholders trading with or investing in Germany are confronted with an extensively elaborated regulatory framework of high quality. Particular mention may be made of the important steps taken to facilitate customs procedures, with a positive impact on trade flows. Equally, the country has taken a leading role in contributing to the spread of internationally harmonized standards and the recognition of foreign measures. The reduction of barriers to trade and investment worldwide has enabled Germany to take advantage of the expanding global market. At the same time a gradually more open market in Germany has provided benefits to consumers and contributed to economic growth and innovation. The progressive liberalisation of the German market has been driven not only by domestic forces, but even more so by regulations that follow from agreements at the regional and international level. Despite Germany's success in establishing a regulatory system that strongly supports market openness, there remains room for improvement in some areas. The general accessibility of regulatory information permits high levels of transparency; however, the extreme complexity of the legal architecture represents a significant challenge to new market entrants, particularly foreigners. Non-domestic stakeholders may need a substantial amount of time and resources to understand various and occasionally duplicative regulations and institutions applying them. This circumstance is rendered more acute by the exactness with which the regulatory framework is implemented. In addition, there is room for progress in the area of public procurement, where the country is not profiting from the opportunity of taking a forefront position within the EU which would reflect its economic capacity. Among EU countries Germany has the lowest level of public procurement tenders openly advertised at the European level and does not provide adequate legal protection for bidders competing for tenders below the EU threshold. In Germany, like in other EU countries, the regulatory processes in areas directly or indirectly affecting trade and investment are initiated at the EU level or directed by decisions of the EU with implementation often taking place at the national level. Reflecting this distribution of responsibilities, there is a tendency at the national level not to consider the full extent of international implications. At the national level the advantages of adopting an international perspective are not yet taken to their full extent. To give an example, regulatory impact assessments do not explicitly address trade and investment related aspects. The German administration is aware of the need to further change the regulatory framework in order to enhance economic growth. Several promising ongoing reform initiatives address many, if not most, areas covered in this report. The impact and pace of these reforms remains to be seen and evaluated.Regulatory reform, trade, market access, non-tariff measures