Practices that organizations employ to enhance business intelligence agility

In today's rapidly changing business environment, organizations strive to be agile in order to accommodate changes and seize opportunities. Since organizations use information system as a tool to serve their needs, it is important for these systems also to be agile. One prominent type of such systems is business intelligence, which provides organizations with information to gain and retain competitive advantage. This thesis focuses on business intelligence agility, which is widely discussed in practice however not extensively covered in information systems literature. Therefore, this thesis seeks to identify the practices employed by organizations to enhance business intelligence agility. To find the answer to the research question this thesis first compiles a theoretical framework on business intelligence, information systems agility in general and business intelligence agility in specific using academic literature and market white papers. This compiled framework is comprised of four enabling factors 1) sensing business changes, 2) development approach, 3) IT governance, and 4) technical factors. This thesis conducts a qualitative research based on semi-structured interviews with business intelligence experts. Based on analysis of the empirical data this thesis identified a set of practices organized in terms of the enabling factors. The practices in sensing business changes are enabling business staff to sense changes and incorporating business staff feedback into data requirements. Regarding development approach, this thesis identifies the practices as applying an iterative development approach, building collaborative team of skilled members, enabling a centric role of business staff, reducing use of approval documents and learning from each project. In IT governance, applying a centralized or decentralized development were the two practices. Regarding practices in technical factors, this thesis identifies integrating data through either building an enterprise-wide data warehouse or applying an appropriate modeling approach while managing multiple data warehouses, using multiple front-end applications, and adopting cloud business intelligence. The findings of this thesis provide organizations with a pool of practices that can be used to enhance business intelligence agility

Service-based strategy in the air express industry : executive summary

The air express industry has a set of characteristics very different from other logistics or transportation fields in terms of market competition, operational set up, and service strategy. There is a distinct competitive advantage if the service strategy can lead the air express company toward higher agility and customisation. Developed along the concept of Porter’s generic value chain, a new Service Strategy Implementation Model was developed for providing an integrated solution for acquiring competitiveness in the air express business. It contains two main components, namely: an ‘Agility & Customisation Tool’ and a ‘Customer Front-end Action Tool’. The Model shows clearly all the important functions and major activities under the air express scenario that should be studied in order to arrive at the most appropriate service strategy solutions for the company. This model can be used as a map to guide the company management to plan strategically for the air express business requirements. Two major projects have been studied in considerable detail, namely (i) Strategic Service Network Planning & Design’, and (ii) Service Quality and Customer Service’ to address the agility and customisation concerns respectively in the market competition. In both projects, new approaches in tackling genuine business problems were used. In the first, there was a simultaneous use of mixed 0-1 Linear Programming and computer simulation to arrive at a compromise solution. While for the latter, the derivation of a new Customer Value Model for the industry referencing PZB’s* service quality concept, resulted in a successful transformation of customer feedback into action priorities. There are also studies and discussion on the areas of technology management, service productivity and service product development that are important components of the Service Strategy Implementation Model. * PZB la the abbrlevatlon for Paraauraman, Zelthaml & Berry who have Jointly published a series of papers on service quality topic

A P2P middleware design for digital access nodes in marginalised rural areas

This thesis addresses software design within the field of Information and Communications Technology for Development (ICTD). Specifically, it makes a case for the design and development of software which is custom-made for the context of marginalised rural areas (MRAs). One of the main aims of any ICTD project is sustainability and such sustainability is particularly difficult in MRAs because of the high costs of projects located there. Most literature on ICTD projects focuses on other factors, such as management, regulations, social and community issues when discussing this issue. Technical matters are often down-played or ignored entirely. This thesis argues that MRAs exhibit unique technical characteristics and that by understanding these characteristics, one can possibly design more cost-effective software. One specific characteristic is described and addressed in this thesis – a characteristic we describe here for the first time and call a network island. Further analysis of the literature generates a picture of a distributed network of access nodes (DANs) within such network islands, which are connected by high speed networks and are able to share resources and stimulate usage of technology by offering a wide range of services. This thesis attempts to design a fitting middleware platform for such a context, which would achieve the following aims: i) allow software developers to create solutions for the context more efficiently (correctly, rapidly); ii) stimulate product managers and business owners to create innovative software products more easily (cost-effectively). A given in the context of this thesis is that the software should use free/libre open source software (FLOSS) – good arguments do also exist for the use of FLOSS. A review of useful FLOSS frameworks is undertaken and several of these are examined in an applied part of the thesis, to see how useful they may be. They form the basis for a walking skeleton implementation of the proposed middleware. The Spring framework is the basis for experiments, along with Spring-Webservices, JMX and PHP 5’s web service capabilities. This thesis builds on three years of work at the Siyakhula Living Lab (SLL), an experimental testbed in a MRA in the Mbashe district of the Eastern Cape of South Africa. Several existing products are deployed at the SLL in the fields of eCommerce, eGovernment and eLearning. Requirements specifications are engineered from a variety of sources, including interviews, mailing lists, the author’s experience as a supervisor at the SLL, and a review of the existing SLL products. Future products are also investigated, as the thesis considers current trends in ICTD. Use cases are also derived and listed. Most of the use cases are concerned with management functions of DANs that can be automated, so that operators of DANs can focus on their core business and not on technology. Using the UML Components methodology, the thesis then proceeds to design a middleware component architecture that is derived from the requirements specification. The process proceeds step-by-step, so that the reader can follow how business rules, operations and interfaces are derived from the use cases. Ultimately, the business rules, interfaces and operations are related to business logic, system interfaces and operations that are situated in specific components. The components in turn are derived from the business information model, that is derived from the business concepts that were initially used to describe the context for the requirements engineering. In this way, a logical method for software design is applied to the problem domain to methodically derive a software design for a middleware solution. The thesis tests the design by considering possible weaknesses in the design. The network aspect is tested by interpolating from formal assumptions about the nature of the context. The data access layer is also identified as a possible bottleneck. We suggest the use of fast indexing methods instead of relational databases to maintain flexibility and efficiency of the data layer. Lessons learned from the exercise are discussed, within the context of the author’s experience in software development teams, as well as in ICTD projects. This synthesis of information leads to warnings about the psychology of middleware development. We note that the ICTD domain is a particularly difficult one with regards to software development as business requirements are not usually clearly formulated and developers do not have the requisite domain knowledge. In conclusion, the core arguments of the thesis are recounted in a bullet form, to lay bare the reasoning behind this work. Novel aspects of the work are also highlighted. They include the description of a network island, and aspects of the DAN middleware requirements engineering and design. Future steps for work based on this thesis are mapped out and open problems relating to this research are touched upon

Exploring the factors influencing the success of UK service sector SMEs: an owner/manager perspective

Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) are an important part of any economy consistently contributing over 90% of businesses, 60% of employment and over 50% of GDP. They are regarded as a key source of innovation and business growth, and so governments globally attempt to support SMEs. Given the SME sector is very diverse, covering almost all industrial sectors, the focus of this research is on the service sector. Whilst there has been considerable research on ‘success’, this has been driven by external views, while in this research the focus will be on how SMEs view success. The research explores SMEs’ definitions of success from the SMEs’ viewpoint using qualitative research methods based on interviews and a survey. Using SMEs’ opinions, this research determines the attributes that SMEs believe create success. This approach takes a broad perspective and includes the ecological context in which SMEs exist. Firms define themselves as SMEs in relation to their own industrial sector. They view themselves as successful if they are financially sustainable and often attach importance to achieving non-financial goals. They widely interact with their environment to acquire knowledge, skills, employees and customers. Start-ups in particular attempt to gain visibility. Their interaction with others includes competitors when there is mutual benefit, primarily through referrals. The contribution of the thesis is an enhanced understanding of SMEs’ views of success and how they see themselves as achieving success. This is based on their stage of development and their self-identification within the market place. At an early stage of development, they seek visibility and market penetration through personality. In later stages, they either develop their business further or maintain a stable position. This research makes some theoretical contributions in terms of developing the perception of SMEs, giving definition to success, modifying the 5 stages of development model, enriching the factors influencing SMEs in achieving success, and extending the scope of competitive advantages. This research also develops an adaptive framework by combining the discussion of SMEs’ stage development, dynamic capability and adaptive capability in terms of resource-based theory and competitive advantage theory. The methodological contribution is that, rather than previewing SME within the 5 stage development model, the findings suggest that potentially SMEs form into two groups: young and mature. The practical contribution is that it offers insight into SMEs’ views of success and how to achieve it

Kuinka soveltaa teknologiaan, tietoon ja tuotantoon liittyvän päätöksenteon malleja strategisesti kestävään resurssien allokointiin?

Technology is a primary source of competitive advantage that can help a firm to outperform its competitors if the firm’s technology strategy is aligned with its overall business strategy. Because firms’ resources are limited and technology is usually a resource-intensive investment, finding suitable technology in which to invest is of paramount concern to strategists. This doctoral thesis focuses on tackling this prioritization problem. This dissertation is the combination of four publications that examine the topic above. The outcome of this dissertation is the proposal of a technique that facilitates the technology and knowledge decision-making process in operations management, with consideration given to the notion of competitive advantage. The proposed technique considers both external factors (e.g., product life cycle) and internal factors (e.g., firms’ resources) that affect technology decisions. The research considers three types of technology in firms based on different phases of the product life cycle: basic, core and spearhead. This research applies the sand cone approach to technology development and investment. This dissertation extends existing knowledge of the resource-based view, competitive advantage and the sand cone model, all of which serve as the foundation of the studies featured in the dissertation. The findings of this dissertation help managers in the following areas: (1) to find the right choice of technology in which to invest, (2) to outsource the technology and knowledge requirement, (3) to detect the potential development areas regarding their firms’ competitive priorities and (4) to evaluate the potential of advanced technology in bringing competitive advantage and in changing the rules of competition.Teknologia tuo kilpailuetua, joka voi auttaa yritystä menestymään kilpailijoitaan paremmin, jos yrityksen teknologiastrategia on yhdenmukainen sen yleisen liiketoimintastrategian kanssa. Koska yritysten resurssit ovat rajalliset ja teknologia on yleensä resursseja vaativa investointi, on sopivan teknologian löytäminen ensisijaista strategisessa päätöksenteossa. Väitöskirja keskittyykin tämän priorisointiongelman ratkaisemiseen. Väitöstutkimus on yhdistelmä neljästä edellä aihetta tarkastelevasta julkaisusta. Väitöskirjan tuloksena on ehdotus tekniikasta, joka helpottaa teknologiaan ja osaamiseen liittyvää päätöksentekoprosessia toiminnan johtamisessa ottaen huomioon myös kilpailuedun. Ehdotetussa tekniikassa otetaan huomioon sekä ulkoiset tekijät (kuten tuotteen elinkaari) että sisäiset tekijät (esimerkiksi yritysten resurssit), jotka vaikuttavat teknologiapäätöksiin. Tutkimuksessa tarkastellaan kolmea erityyppistä teknologiaa yrityksissä. Ne perustuvat tuotteen elinkaaren eri vaiheisiin: perusteknologia, ydinteknologia ja keihäänkärkiteknologia. Tämä tutkimus soveltaa hiekkakakun nimellä tunnettua pyramidimallia teknologian kehittämiseen ja investointeihin. Väitöskirja laajentaa aiempaa tietämystä resurssipohjaisesta tarkastelusta, kilpailuedusta ja hiekkakakkumallista, jotka luovat perustan kaikille väitöskirjan tutkimuksille. Väitöskirjan tulokset auttavat johtajia seuraavilla alueilla: (1) investoitavan teknologian löytäminen (2) teknologian ja vaadittavan osaamisen ostopäätös (3) yritysten kilpailuetuihin liittyvien mahdollisten kehitysalueiden löytäminen (4) sen arvioiminen, millaisia mahdollisuuksia edistyneellä teknologialla on tuottaa kilpailuetua ja muuttaa kilpailun sääntöjä.fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

HOW CRM- SYSTEM AFFECT PERFOR- MANCE OF B2B SALES STAFF OF ENTER- PRISE X

The impact of CRM on organizational performance has been widely researched within various contexts and industries. Such researches have aimed at finding out a truth con- cerning connection of such multiple organizational metrics as efficiency, received amount of customer complaints, level of satisfaction, customer loyalty, perceived value, with power of CRM (Yaghoubi, Asgari, Javadi; 2017). However, there have been only fewer number of researches targeting to identify clear connection between especially perfor- mance of sales staff and presence of CRM- system. As sales is considered to be one of the most important functions in any organization with its ability to generate cash flows, it is natural to investigate ways to improve its efficiency. Additionally, there are barely organizations without CRM nowadays and, according to author’s perceptions, CRM and sales usually go hand in hand. Rodriguez and Honeycutt (2011) have also found out that there exists a strong and obvious link between performance of sales and utilization of CRM within organization. Therefore, one can conclude that those two are tightly related to each other. As there are typically people in charge of carrying out sales tasks, it is sensible to make an assumption that CRM affects sales staff and their performance. But in what kind of way? In this research the main target is to identify impact of CRM- systems on perfor- mance of sales staff such account managers, sales trainees and senior sales professionals. The subject was shed light on in previous researches of Rodriguez and Honeycutt (2011) as well as in one by Rodriguez and Yim (2015), but this particular one will provide readers with more details by moving deeper from abstract level to slicing a typical sales process into 5 stages. Impact of CRM on each stage’s staff performance will be examinated through conducting series of interviews with sales staff of each stage. The aim of this research is to collect sales staff- based experiences and generate insights on impact of CRM on staff of each of 5 stages of sales process. The described sales process originates from Enterprise X, a firm where the author has been working for certain amount of time. The research will, therefore, introduce a case study of impact of CRM on sales process staff within one pre- selected enterprise. The best way to gather answers was to select such persons for interviews who were in charge of different tasks within sales pipeline: Sales Assistants, Account Managers and Team Managers. Those people had the best insights available on CRM’s and sale func- tions’ collaboration as their daily jobs included dealing with both. The most of them were author’s teammates and colleagues and this impacted choice too: easily approachable and experienced sales professionals have been chosen to fuel the research with relevant data. All the persons asked for interviews accepted the call and interview questions, so this didn’t require deeper moderation. More of this will be discussed in Chapter 5

A framework for the implementation of drones in German automotive OEM logistics operations

Intralogistics operations in automotive OEMs increasingly confront problems of overcomplexity caused by a customer-centred production that requires customisation and, thus, high product variability, short-notice changes in orders and the handling of an overwhelming number of parts. To alleviate the pressure on intralogistics without sacrificing performance objectives, the speed and flexibility of logistical operations have to be increased. One approach to this is to utilise three-dimensional space through drone technology. This doctoral thesis aims at establishing a framework for implementing aerial drones in automotive OEM logistic operations. As of yet, there is no research on implementing drones in automotive OEM logistic operations. To contribute to filling this gap, this thesis develops a framework for Drone Implementation in Automotive Logistics Operations (DIALOOP) that allows for a close interaction between the strategic and the operative level and can lead automotive companies through a decision and selection process regarding drone technology. A preliminary version of the framework was developed on a theoretical basis and was then revised using qualitative-empirical data from semi-structured interviews with two groups of experts, i.e. drone experts and automotive experts. The drone expert interviews contributed a current overview of drone capabilities. The automotive experts interview were used to identify intralogistics operations in which drones can be implemented along with the performance measures that can be improved by drone usage. Furthermore, all interviews explored developments and changes with a foreseeable influence on drone implementation. The revised framework was then validated using participant validation interviews with automotive experts. The finalised framework defines a step-by-step process leading from strategic decisions and considerations over the identification of logistics processes suitable for drone implementation and the relevant performance measures to the choice of appropriate drone types based on a drone classification specifically developed in this thesis for an automotive context

AI augmented Edge and Fog computing: trends and challenges

In recent years, the landscape of computing paradigms has witnessed a gradual yet remarkable shift from monolithic computing to distributed and decentralized paradigms such as Internet of Things (IoT), Edge, Fog, Cloud, and Serverless. The frontiers of these computing technologies have been boosted by shift from manually encoded algorithms to Artificial Intelligence (AI)-driven autonomous systems for optimum and reliable management of distributed computing resources. Prior work focuses on improving existing systems using AI across a wide range of domains, such as efficient resource provisioning, application deployment, task placement, and service management. This survey reviews the evolution of data-driven AI-augmented technologies and their impact on computing systems. We demystify new techniques and draw key insights in Edge, Fog and Cloud resource management-related uses of AI methods and also look at how AI can innovate traditional applications for enhanced Quality of Service (QoS) in the presence of a continuum of resources. We present the latest trends and impact areas such as optimizing AI models that are deployed on or for computing systems. We layout a roadmap for future research directions in areas such as resource management for QoS optimization and service reliability. Finally, we discuss blue-sky ideas and envision this work as an anchor point for future research on AI-driven computing systems