Design Thinking and Participation: Lessons Learned from Three Case Studies

This paper examines how design thinking and serious games approaches can be used to support participation through the analysis of three case studies. Indeed we will analyze these approaches in three different contexts: (i) a state-owned multi-utilities company; (ii) a political party; (iii) an information system strategic committee. Our analysis framework relies on the concepts of "perceived usefulness" and "perceived ease of use" and we will use it to discuss the lessons learned. Our main finding is that these approaches really contributing in making complex and abstract matters more "tangible" and thus understandable.participation; design thinking; serious games; case study; perceived usefulness

MILO: Models of innovation in learning online at Key Stage 3 and 14-19: Final report

The report presents and analyses eight case studies, which reflect a wide range of models of online learning, each of which has been developed for specific reasons, largely in relation to visions of how technology can transform learning, but also to solve practical problems such as re-engaging disaffected learners and coping with rising pupil numbers

How can business transformation be driven by a new ERP implementation: the Nice case study

openIn the last years, Nice has carried out several Mergers and Acquisitions operations. For the most part, acquired companies are still operating with their own industrial methods, tools and operating processes, configuring a situation of overall fragmentation in terms of Application Landscape within the Group, and generating various issues like timeliness and granularity of data availability and difficulties in processes integration across companies. Given such context, Nice Management would like to evolve its current Application Landscape, in order to enable the transformation into an integrated “One Company”, operating on the new Microsoft D365F&SCM as the common ERP platform. Furthermore, with the aim to reduce infrastructural complexity and rationalize related costs, such evolution will include switching from an On-Cloud “private” ERP setup to an On-Cloud totally outsourced ERP. This ERP implementation project starts from the revision, optimization and formalization of the business processes as fundamental requirement to then reproduce them on the Microsoft platform and this thesis will focus on the analyzed processes during the project. Taking into account the context and the needs, with the aim to perform a digital transformation of his business, Nice requested support to Deloitte in order to: • Define a Global Template to be applied to all Group’s countries standardizing the ways of working and adopting processes based on best practices as first step to prepare the ERP implementation. • Upgrade the Group’s Application Landscape to the new Microsoft D365F&SCM release. • Rationalize the overall IT architecture, to reduce the related cost and to improve the efficiency of it. This project is being followed by three Deloitte teams: • A supply chain team, which has in charge the Global Template definition and so the study and revision of all company’s processes. • A Microsoft team for the implementation of the ERP after the definition of formalized processes. This one is the team of which I am part and in the first part of the project will support the supply chain team for the definition of feasible processes for the implementation inside the ERP and in a second moment will actively implement the system for the company. In particular, for the ERP side I will be in charge of the definition of the production processes, from the planning based on forecast to the production lines. • A Finance team that study and revise financial processes. Considering the focus that I had during the project and the objectives defined, the Global Template will be characterized in this thesis with reference to following end to end processes. These processes are part of one of the frameworks, based on best practices, used by Deloitte for the analysis and improvement of the processes of a company: • Forecast to inventory (FTI): is intended the process of forecast and demand management and in particular the main phases considered are statistical forecast generation, sales plan generation, demand plan generation and management of demand signals. For Nice company the two critical processes analyzed were demand planning and replenishment planning. • Plan to schedule (PTS): is intended the process of planning based on forecast and in particular the main phases are supply and capacity planning, production planning, master planning (MPS and MRP) and production scheduling. In Nice case the main processes studied were the production plan definition and the raw material procurement planning, due to the criticality of these processes in their context. • Make to deploy (MTD): we intend the set of process that, starting from the planning and purchasing processes, aim to manage the flow of material throughout the whole production and distribution process to cover the demand of the Customers and/or Subsidiaries. In particular the main processes that has been analyzed are production and logistic.In the last years, Nice has carried out several Mergers and Acquisitions operations. For the most part, acquired companies are still operating with their own industrial methods, tools and operating processes, configuring a situation of overall fragmentation in terms of Application Landscape within the Group, and generating various issues like timeliness and granularity of data availability and difficulties in processes integration across companies. Given such context, Nice Management would like to evolve its current Application Landscape, in order to enable the transformation into an integrated “One Company”, operating on the new Microsoft D365F&SCM as the common ERP platform. Furthermore, with the aim to reduce infrastructural complexity and rationalize related costs, such evolution will include switching from an On-Cloud “private” ERP setup to an On-Cloud totally outsourced ERP. This ERP implementation project starts from the revision, optimization and formalization of the business processes as fundamental requirement to then reproduce them on the Microsoft platform and this thesis will focus on the analyzed processes during the project. Taking into account the context and the needs, with the aim to perform a digital transformation of his business, Nice requested support to Deloitte in order to: • Define a Global Template to be applied to all Group’s countries standardizing the ways of working and adopting processes based on best practices as first step to prepare the ERP implementation. • Upgrade the Group’s Application Landscape to the new Microsoft D365F&SCM release. • Rationalize the overall IT architecture, to reduce the related cost and to improve the efficiency of it. This project is being followed by three Deloitte teams: • A supply chain team, which has in charge the Global Template definition and so the study and revision of all company’s processes. • A Microsoft team for the implementation of the ERP after the definition of formalized processes. This one is the team of which I am part and in the first part of the project will support the supply chain team for the definition of feasible processes for the implementation inside the ERP and in a second moment will actively implement the system for the company. In particular, for the ERP side I will be in charge of the definition of the production processes, from the planning based on forecast to the production lines. • A Finance team that study and revise financial processes. Considering the focus that I had during the project and the objectives defined, the Global Template will be characterized in this thesis with reference to following end to end processes. These processes are part of one of the frameworks, based on best practices, used by Deloitte for the analysis and improvement of the processes of a company: • Forecast to inventory (FTI): is intended the process of forecast and demand management and in particular the main phases considered are statistical forecast generation, sales plan generation, demand plan generation and management of demand signals. For Nice company the two critical processes analyzed were demand planning and replenishment planning. • Plan to schedule (PTS): is intended the process of planning based on forecast and in particular the main phases are supply and capacity planning, production planning, master planning (MPS and MRP) and production scheduling. In Nice case the main processes studied were the production plan definition and the raw material procurement planning, due to the criticality of these processes in their context. • Make to deploy (MTD): we intend the set of process that, starting from the planning and purchasing processes, aim to manage the flow of material throughout the whole production and distribution process to cover the demand of the Customers and/or Subsidiaries. In particular the main processes that has been analyzed are production and logistic

Political Economy of International Climate Finance: Navigating Decisions in PPCR and SREP

This working paper explores how countries can build their own 'climate finance readiness' by understanding their internal political economy and use that understanding to steer consensus-based decisions on climate finance investments. For climate finance to be effective, national leaders must build shared commitments. This involves considering the arguments, incentives and power dynamics at play to ensure priorities are more equitable and representative of a broader group of stakeholders. Doing so will also help to reduce the risk of implementation delays. This paper uses case studies from Bangladesh, Ethiopia and Nepal to explore how narratives and incentives within the political economy drive climate investment outcomes under the Pilot Programme for Climate Resilience (PPCR) and the Scaling up Renewable Energy Programme (SREP). It draws from broader analysis of the discourses around these investments, including 80 interviews with government; multilateral development banks (MDBs) and other stakeholders

Outsourcing information systems: Drawing lessons from a banking case study

Financial and costs benefits are often put forward as the reasons why organisations decide to outsource. Emerging patterns and trends indicate that today’s outsourcing decisions are often motivated by factors other than cost. Thus, the decision-making process is more complex than it may at first appear. This paper presents findings from a case study from an organisation in the UK banking sector that was motivated to outsource aspects of its information technology/information system (IT/IS). The underlying motives and decision-making process that influenced the bank outsource its IT/IS are presented and discussed. Findings from the case study suggest political perspectives, as well as human and organisational issues influenced the bank’s strategic decision-making to outsource certain aspects of its business. An examination of the case study findings suggests that cost alone is not always responsible for decisions to outsource, as it was found the bank’s outsourcing decision was driven by a series of complex, interrelated motives in a bid to reduce the risks and uncertainties of managing its own technology. Considering the complex nature of the outsourcing process a frame of reference that can be used to assist managers with their decision to outsource IT/IS is propagated. The case study is used to present an organisation’s experiences as to how and why it decided to outsource its IS and thus offers a learning opportunity for other organisations facing similar difficulties. In addition, the case study findings highlight the need to focus greater attention on discriminating between the short and long-term consequences of IT/IS decision-makin

Using bricolage to facilitate emergent collectives in SMEs

Starting a new business is often done in a realm of improvisation if resources are scarce and the business horizon is far from clear. Strategic improvisation occurs when the design of novel activities unite. We conducted an investigation of so called ‘emergent collectives’ in the context of a small and medium-sized enterprise (SME). Emergent collectives are networks of information nodes with minimal central control and largely controlled by a protocol specification where people can add nodes to the network and have a social incentive to do so. We considered here emergent collectives around an enterprise resources planning (ERP) software and a customer relation management (CRM) software in two open source software (OSS) communities. We investigated how the use of bricolage in the context of a start-up microenterprise can facilitate the adoption of an information system (IS) based on emergent collectives. Bricolage is an improvisational approach that allows learning form concrete experience. In our case study we followed the inception of a new business initiative up to the implementation of an IS, during a period of two years. The case study covers both the usefulness of bricolage for strategic improvisation and for entrepreneurial activity in a knowledge-intensive new business. We adopted an interpretative research strategy and used participatory action research to conduct our inquiry. Our findings lead to the suggestion that emergent collectives can be moulded into a usable set of IS resources applicable in a microenterprise. However the success depends heavily on the ICT managerial and technological capabilities of the CEO and his individual commitment to the process of bricolage. Our findings also show that open ERP and CRM software are not passing delusions. These emergent collectives will not take over proprietary ERP and CRM software all of a sudden, but clearly the rules of the game are slowly changing due to the introduction of new business models. The study contributes to the research of OSS as emergent collectives, bricolage and IS adoption in SMEs

UK Research Information Shared Service (UKRISS) Final Report, July 2014

The reporting of research information is a complex and expensive activity for research organisations (ROs). There is little alignment between funders of the reporting requests made to institutions and requests made to individual researchers about their research outputs and outcomes. This inevitably results in duplication and increased costs across the sector, whilst limiting the potential sharing and reuse of the information. The UK Research Information Shared Service (UKRISS) project conducted a feasibility and scoping study for the reporting of research information at a national level based on CERIF (Common European Research Information Format), with the objective of increasing efficiency, productivity and quality across the sector. The aim was to define and prototype solutions which are compelling, easy to use, have a low entry barrier, and support innovative information sharing and benchmarking. CERIF has emerged as the preferred format for expressing research information across Europe. To date, CERIF has been piloted for specific applications, but not as a format for reporting requirements across all UK ROs. The final report presents the work carried out by the UKRISS project, including requirements gathering, modelling and prototyping, as well as recommendation for sustainability. UKRISS was divided into two phases. Phase 1, mapping the reporting landscape, ran from March 2012 to December 2012. Phase 2, exploring delivery of potential solutions, began in February 2013 and ended in December 2013

Impact in networks and ecosystems: building case studies that make a difference

open accessThis toolkit aims to support the building up of case studies that show the impact of project activities aiming to promote innovation and entrepreneurship. The case studies respond to the challenge of understanding what kinds of interventions work in the Southern African region, where, and why. The toolkit has a specific focus on entrepreneurial ecosystems and proposes a method of mapping out the actors and their relationships over time. The aim is to understand the changes that take place in the ecosystems. These changes are seen to be indicators of impact as increased connectivity and activity in ecosystems are key enablers of innovation. Innovations usually happen together with matching social and institutional adjustments, facilitating the translation of inventions into new or improved products and services. Similarly, the processes supporting entrepreneurship are guided by policies implemented in the common framework provided by innovation systems. Overall, policies related to systems of innovation are by nature networking policies applied throughout the socioeconomic framework of society to pool scarce resources and make various sectors work in coordination with each other. Most participating SAIS countries already have some kinds of identifiable systems of innovation in place both on national and regional levels, but the lack of appropriate institutions, policies, financial instruments, human resources, and support systems, together with underdeveloped markets, create inefficiencies and gaps in systemic cooperation and collaboration. In other words, we do not always know what works and what does not. On another level, engaging users and intermediaries at the local level and driving the development of local innovation ecosystems within which local culture, especially in urban settings, has evident impact on how collaboration and competition is both seen and done. In this complex environment, organisations supporting entrepreneurship and innovation often find it difficult to create or apply relevant knowledge and appropriate networking tools, approaches, and methods needed to put their processes to work for broader developmental goals. To further enable these organisations’ work, it is necessary to understand what works and why in a given environment. Enhanced local and regional cooperation promoted by SAIS Innovation Fund projects can generate new data on this little-explored area in Southern Africa. Data-driven knowledge on entrepreneurship and innovation support best practices as well as effective and efficient management of entrepreneurial ecosystems can support replication and inform policymaking, leading thus to a wider impact than just that of the immediate reported projects and initiatives

Incorporating Social Media into the Classroom: A Case Study on How TikTok can be Immersed into Classroom Pedagogy

My research project focuses on the use of TikTok embedded within classroom pedagogy and how it can be used as a tool to support academic and social emotional wellbeing. There is a lack of research investigating how social media can be incorporated into the classroom to make up for potential academic losses, including the inevitable social/emotional needs of adolescents that need to be addressed due to the ramifications of COVID-19. In my research, I question ways in which students see this tool as supporting their wellbeing, in what ways parents see this tool as supporting their child\u27s wellbeing, and why TikTok is unique to successfully building a community. This project offers valuable insights into Generation Z on a deeper social-emotional level through fieldwork observation notes, surveys, and interviews with students and parents. My findings show that social media and classroom curriculum can work in tandem as a tool to increase engagement and support social emotional wellbeing and academic success. The TikTok application requires demonstrating 21st century skills, enhances social relationships, and builds a connected classroom community. Finally, this project’s findings demonstrate how educators can support the whole child through using tools such as TikTok to help provide social emotional support for highly anxious students. In the words of one participant, TikTok “makes everyone feel like they belong.