Distinguishing Knowledge from Information. A Prerequisite for Elaborating KM Initiative Strategy.

Although the technological approach of Knowledge Management (KM) is greatly shared, without awareness, when elaborating KM initiative’s strategy, we can confuse the notions of information and knowledge, and disregard the importance of individual’s tacit knowledge used in action. Therefore, to avoid misunderstanding during the strategic orientation phase of a general KM initiative development, it is fundamental to clearly distinguish the notion of information from the notion of knowledge. Further, we insist on the importance to integrate the individual as a component of the Enterprise’s Information and Knowledge System (EIKS). In this paper, we argue that Knowledge cannot be considered as an object such as data are in digital information systems. Consequently, we propose an empirical model enabling to distinguish the notions of information and knowledge. This model shows the role of individual’s interpretative frameworks and tacit knowledge, establishing a discontinuity between information and knowledge. This pragmatic vision needs thinking about the architecture of an Enterprise’s Information and Knowledge System (EIKS), which must be a basis of discussion during the strategic orientation phase of a KM initiative.Information; Enterprise’s Information and Knowledge System (EIKS); KM initiative strategy; Commensurability of Individual’s Interpretative Frameworks; Individual’s tacit knowledge; Knowledge; Knowledge Management (KM);

Improving alignment between Business and IT departments: towards an effective Enterprise Architecture and its role within the corporate organisation

While it is widely acknowledged that alignment between Business and IT is important to remain competitive and for improving business performance, achieving, and maintaining alignment between IT and Business divisions is not always easy. While there are many ways to improve Business IT Alignment, a mature Enterprise Architecture has been proven as a contributor to Business and IT Alignment due to its holistic approach to considering all aspects from a technical and organisational perspective (Kurnia et.al, 2020). Other factors which are believed to improve Business IT Alignment culture, structure, communication, and strategy, to name a few. To the researcher's knowledge, not many studies have considered how these four factors, together with Enterprise Architecture fit together harmoniously to create, contribute to, and maintain strategic alignment between Business and IT divisions in a single organisation. This dissertation seeks to fill this gap by establishing which of these four variables contribute to improving alignment between Business and IT and if Enterprise Architecture has a role to play in achieving it. A conceptual model derived from the literature review guides this research through applying a moderation approach to determine if a balance in alignment can be achieved. This research is an empirical study conducted by an insider of Company A which followed a single organisation survey approach with 40 respondents at a South African Oil and Gas Company. It follows an objectivism ontology, with a positivist philosophical approach as an epistemology. A mixed method approach was followed for data collection, and data analyses was done using quantitative methods. Six hypotheses are presented of which two of the six hypotheses are rejected based on Regression Analysis testing. The key findings present that even though Enterprise Architecture and its' benefits appear to be largely understood at Company A, both maturity levels of business-IT alignment and Enterprise Architecture is relatively low so there are indeed opportunities for improving both maturity levels. While literature often indicates that Culture, Communication, Structure and Strategy have been identified as key enablers of BITA, the researcher only proved that two variables, Communication and Strategy has a significant effect of BITA. After establishing BITA and EA Maturity levels, provides recommendations for improving EA maturity and motivates how these improvements, if implemented, can strengthen alignment between business and IT so that EA can enable better alignment between Business and IT at Company A. These findings can support the existing EA and BITA body of knowledge in two ways: 1. As a case which proved that not all 4 common variables necessarily have a significant effect on BITA, 2, provides practical and implementable opportunities for improving EA at an organisation where its benefits is already understood

Planning strategically, designing architecturally : a framework for digital library services

In an era of unprecedented technological innovation and evolving user expectations and information seeking behaviour, we are arguably now an online society, with digital services increasingly common and increasingly preferred. As a trusted information provider, libraries are in an advantageous position to respond, but this requires integrated strategic and enterprise architecture planning, for information technology (IT) has evolved from a support role to a strategic role, providing the core management systems, communication networks, and delivery channels of the modern library. Further, IT components do not function in isolation from one another, but are interdependent elements of distributed and multidimensional systems encompassing people, processes, and technologies, which must consider social, economic, legal, organisational, and ergonomic requirements and relationships, as well as being logically sound from a technical perspective. Strategic planning provides direction, while enterprise architecture strategically aligns and holistically integrates business and information system architectures. While challenging, such integrated planning should be regarded as an opportunity for the library to evolve as an enterprise in the digital age, or at minimum, to simply keep pace with societal change and alternative service providers. Without strategy, a library risks being directed by outside forces with independent motivations and inadequate understanding of its broader societal role. Without enterprise architecture, it risks technological disparity, redundancy, and obsolescence. Adopting an interdisciplinary approach, this conceptual paper provides an integrated framework for strategic and architectural planning of digital library services. The concept of the library as an enterprise is also introduced

City Centers as Urban Growth Cores

The urban growth is a continuous challenge for any city. It requires continuous development strategies to meet the new economic and social requirements. Historical evidences show that architecture and urban design can be important tools to stimulate the urban growth by establishing urban cores to contain, facilitate and stimulate economic and social activities. The city’s history shows that the city center is an important area in any city for its dominating role in creating the city’s architectural characteristics and supporting its economic and social functions. The cities have developed different patterns of city centers in order to achieve the urban growth. This study shows how can architecture and urban design be used as a strategy to create livable city centers and how can this livability be an important source for urban growth? The paper is using three models of city centers Brasilia, Oslo and Dubai where all have attempted using the city center to generate urban growth but by applying different strategies. Brasilia has applied functionalism to build one city center which cannot be changed, Oslo has applied new multi city centers in its central area, Dubai has developed multi city centers spread in the whole city. Keywords: City Center, urban core, Urban Design, Architecture, urban growth, economic growth, Street, Livability, Sustainability, Dubai, Oslo, Brasilia

Aligning enterprise risk management with business strategy and information systems

Business leaders recognise effective risk management as one of the main success drivers for enterprises. Even though the Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) concept has evolved significantly in the past years, in the aftermath of recent economic crises it became evident some of its critical challenges still need to be addressed. The review of subject literature led to a conclusion that current ERM approaches failed to protect enterprise value in turbulent and risky market conditions. Therefore, this paper aims to provide a conceptual analysis of the most common ERM practices and frameworks, in order to identify their shortcomings and areas requiring development. It is further aimed to provide guidance to business practitioners in implementing more integrated and effective Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) solutions. This research recognises the importance of aligning ERM programmes with business strategies, and with consolidated Information Systems. A “New Approach ERM Model” is developed as guidance for a successful alignment of ERM with enterprise business strategy, and for an effective adaption of Information Systems to requirements of ERM programmes. The “New Approach ERM Model” steers risk management initiatives and strategies in the same direction, and consequently allows enterprises to improve organisational effectiveness, increase shareholders value, and gain competitive advantage in the market

The key performance indicators of the BIM implementation process

Contemporarily some firms in the construction industry are attempting to adopt a BIM method of working. Each of these attempts reflects a varying BIM adoption philosophy and inevitably different BIM technologies, implementation strategies and roadmaps. On the other hand, all these attempts are often motivated to attain competitive advantages for product delivery in the market place. The question of what the best method of adopting BIM has not been answered yet. That is to say, it is required to identify a standard method that will benchmark the different BIM adoption cases by comparing the efficiency gains in these cases: a standard benchmarking method can help the stakeholders to decide on the most appropriate strategies for themselves. This paper explains the live experience of BIM adoption in a KTP (Knowledge Transfer Partnership) project, undertaken between the University of Salford and John McCall Architects practicing in the housing and regeneration fields, with a particular focus on a set of KPIs that have been developed and tested through the action research strategy in the project. Weighting of these KPI’s has been developed from an architectural business perspectiv

An Approach to Transform Public Administration into SOA-based Organizations

Nowadays, Service-Oriented Architectures (SOA) is widely spread in private organizations. However, when transferring this knowledge to Public Administration, it is realized that it has not been transformed in terms of its legal nature into organizations capable to operate under the SOA paradigm. This fact prevents public administration bodies from offering the efficient services they have been provided by different boards of governments. A high-level framework to perform this transformation is proposed. Taking it as starting point, an instance of a SOA Target Meta-Model can be obtained by means of an iterative and incremental process based on the analysis of imperatives and focused on the particular business context of each local public administration. This paper briefly presents a practical experience consisting in applying this process to a Spanish regional public administration.Junta de Andalucía TIC-578

Detection and resolution of normative conflicts in multi-agent systems : a literature survey

Peer reviewedPostprin