Multi-service management in a multi-provider environment

As the spread of digital networks makes access to data communications globally available, the interest of communication service providers is switching away from the provision of these bearer networks and towards the provision of the value added services that will operate over them. At the same time the liberalisation of telecommunication markets is precipitating a dramatic change in the profile of communication service providers. In this complex telecommunications markets the open management, not only of the networks, but of the services themselves will become increasingly important. The large number and diversity of roles of the market players makes the management of inter-organisational relationships fundamentally important to the management of services. The ITU's series of recommendations on the telecommunication management network (TMN) provides a basis for inter-domain management, however, this and other standards have so far concentrated on the management of individual network components and of networks operated by single organisations. This paper provides an initial example of how the management of multiple services in a complex multi-player market can be modelled using TMN techniques for implementation on existing management platforms. The paper begins by briefly outlining current work in this field before describing aspects of this multi-player multi-service management problem and how they can be modelled and implemented in a real system

Analysis of socio-ecohydrological factors affecting water security, liveability and sustainability : a case study of the Cirebon metropolitan region, West Java, Indonesia

Water security, liveability, and sustainability are important concepts in development. These concepts can help planners and managers to construct and achieve an equilibrium of socio-ecohydrological systems over a long period. This study, in the context of balanced urban development, seeks to better understand socioe-cohydrological issues, challenges, options, and strategies for achieving water security, liveability, and sustainability concerning urbanisation and climate change. This includes assessments of the urban and peri-urban environment and communities, and multi-level government institutions. Water security in this study is defined in the context of a water insecure region as “insufficient accessibility and capability of water sources and services to satisfy the household needs for health, livelihood, ecosystem, and production, coupled with inadequate acceptability and adaptive capacity of households to deal with the ecohydrological changes that impact liveability and sustainability”. Liveability is defined in this study as “dynamic interactions between water, people, and the environment as a function of biophysical and socio-economic subsystems in one urban system”, while sustainability is defined as “long-term liveability that is ensured via planning approaches and environmental management interventions”. Water security was assessed in the context of socio-ecohydrological change based on (i) the experiences of communities in the access to water and sanitation infrastructures; (ii) the acceptability of water risks from ecohydrological change; (iii) the capability of ecosystem and institutional services to satisfy the needs for health, livelihood, ecosystem, and production; and (iv) adaptive capacity in dealing with the impacts resulting from socio- ecohydrological change. Liveability was assessed based on the communities’ perceptions of the most important aspects for liveability, liveability aspects that they are most satisfied with, and liveability aspects that they are least satisfied with, in the urban and peri-urban areas. The results were categorised within four themes: ecosystem, urban, peri-urban, and human services. Sustainability was assessed by combining observed landuse/ hydrological/ climate data and the perceptions of climate change vis-à-vis ecohydrological changes and coping strategies. The study combined place and human-based approaches to assess these three thematic areas combining qualitative and quantitative data for finding interconnection and trade-off for achieving balanced urban development (BUD). Based on the in-depth case study of Cirebon Metropolitan Region (CMR) in Indonesia, this study explored (i) socio-economic and physical environments of the region including watersheds within the Cimanuk-Cisanggarung River Basin; (ii) community perspectives at different urbanisation levels; and (iii) multi-level government perspectives. This study presents seven analytical frameworks related to different aspects of work reported in this thesis: (i) delineate peri-urban areas; (ii) quantify rural-urban interface ecohydrology; (iii) understand urbanisation impacts on urban and peri-urban ecohydrological based liveability; (iv) identify perceived liveability of urban and peri-urban communities in the context of socio-ecohydrology; (v) classify issues and factors impacting household water insecurity in the context of socio-ecohydrological change; (vi) understand sustainability challenges concerning climate change and urbanisation in the urban system, and identify appropriate adaptation supports for sustaining water security and liveability; (vii) identify the complexity and uncertainty involved in assessing water security, liveability, and sustainability, and to find the linkages between urban and perixvii urban communities, urban and peri-urban ecosystems, and cross-scale institutions for achieving BUD

Factors Affecting Uptake of Agency Banking Services Among Customers in Rural Kenya: A Case of Narok County

The objective of this study was to analyze factors affecting uptake of agency banking services among customers in rural Kenya. Specifically, the study sought; to examine the effect of fraud on uptake of agency banking services among customers in Kenya; to determine the extent to which skills of agents affect uptake of agency banking services among customers in Kenya; To establish the effect of location on uptake of agency banking services among customers in Kenya and to find out how confidentiality affect agency banking services uptake among rural customers in Kenya. A multivariate regression model was applied to determine the relative importance of each of the four variables. The findings indicated that bank agent skills, location and confidentiality were found to be statistically significant in explaining uptake of agency banking services. Banks should create awareness to the public that the bank agent’s premises adheres to standard security measures and should also hire security services from security firms to transport cash to and from the agents where necessary. Banks should also train the agency banking agents on how to detect fake money and fraud. The study revealed that agents’ skills affected uptake of agency banking services by rural community in Narok County. The study recommends banks to offer training to agents before they start providing specific services on behalf of the banks to improve their customer handling skills and increase the uptake of the agency banking services

Quality of experience in affective pervasive environments

The confluence of miniaturised powerful devices, widespread communication networks and mass remote storage has caused a fundamental shift in the user interaction design paradigm. The distinction between system and user in pervasive environments is evolving into an increasingly integrated loop of interaction, raising a number of opportunities to provide enhanced and personalised experiences. We propose a platform, based on a smart architecture, to address the identified opportunities in pervasive computing. Smart systems aim at acting upon an environment for improving quality of experience: a subjective measure that has been defined as an emotional reaction to products or services. The inclusion of an emotional dimension allows us to measure individual user responses and deliver personalised services with the potential to influence experiences positively. The platform, Cloud2Bubble, leverages pervasive systems to aggregate user and environment data with the goal of addressing personal preferences and supra-functional requirements. This, combined with its societal implications, results in a set of design principles as a concrete fruition of design contractualism. In particular, this thesis describes: - a review of intelligent ubiquitous environments and relevant technologies, including a definition of user experience as a dynamic affective construct; - a specification of main components for personal data aggregation and service personalisation, without compromising privacy, security or usability; - the implementation of a software platform and a methodological procedure for its instantiation; - an evaluation of the developed platform and its benefits for urban mobility and public transport information systems; - a set of design principles for the design of ubiquitous systems, with an impact on individual experience and collective awareness. Cloud2Bubble contributes towards the development of affective intelligent ubiquitous systems with the potential to enhance user experience in pervasive environments. In addition, the platform aims at minimising the risk of user digital exposure while supporting collective action.Open Acces

BUILDING EMPLOYEE LOYALTY IN THE DIGITAL ERA AND PANDEMIC (STUDY AT THE TECHNICAL IMPLEMENTATION UNIT OF THE SOUTH SULAWESI PROVINCE FOOD CROPS AND HORTICULTURE PROTECTION AGENCY)

Organizational phenomena that are still being faced are coordination and consolidation, different qualifications of human resources, large work areas, and the lack of facilities (technology) and assistance facilities for the community. The purpose of this study was conducted to develop variables that influence Loyalty in the Digital Age and the COVID-19 Pandemic, in the Observers of Plant Pest Organisms (POPT) in South Sulawesi Province. The research method uses the Mix Method to determine the relationships and influences between variables, with 200 respondents. Selection of the sample using judgment sampling and data collection using a questionnaire. Data is processed using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) using LISREL and SPSS. The results showed that the Human Resource Management variable had the most influence on building loyalty. Overall the variables of Human Resource Management Practices, Motivation, Communication, have a positive and significant effect on Job Satisfaction, but the variable that has the greatest influence on job satisfaction is the communication variable. Meanwhile, the stress variable has a negative effect on job satisfactio

Analyzing the Effects of Transit Network Change on Agency Performance and Riders in a Decentralized, Small-to-Mid-sized US Metropolitan Area: A Case Study of Tallahassee, Florida, MTI Report 12-04

On July 11, 2011, StarMetro, the local public transit agency in Tallahassee, Florida, restructured its entire bus network from a downtown-focused radial system to a decentralized, grid-like system that local officials and agency leaders believed would better serve the dispersed local pattern of population and employment. The new, decentralized network is based on radial routes serving the major arterial roads and new crosstown routes linking the outer parts of the city, where population and employment is growing. Local officials and agency staff hoped the change would increase transit’s attractiveness and usefulness to the community. One year after the service restructuring, overall performance results are similar to those experienced in other cities that have implemented major service changes. Overall ridership and productivity are lower than before the service restructuring, due to the short time frame for rider adjustments and longer-than-anticipated headways, but new ridership has appeared in previously un-served or under-served corridors and neighborhoods. The service restructuring resulted in longer walks to bus stops, due to the removal of stops from many neighborhoods and their relocation to major roads, but overall transit travel times are shorter due to more direct routing. No particular neighborhoods or community groups disproportionately benefited from or were harmed by the change. The service restructuring was supported by some segments of the community who viewed the older system as ill-suited to the increasingly decentralized community, while it was opposed by other community stakeholders who worried about the loss of service in some neighborhoods and issues of access and safety, particularly affecting elderly and disabled riders, at new stop locations. StarMetro’s extensive public outreach efforts and ongoing service adjustments have reduced the intensity of the opposition to the service restructuring over time, although some segments of the community continue to voice their concerns about the effects of the change on transit-dependent, disabled, and elderly riders

TERMINAL MANAGEMENT POLICY AND PASSENGER ACCESSIBILITY AT CICAHEUM BUS TERMINAL BANDUNG, WEST JAVA

This research is based on the main problem, namely: accessibility of the Bandung Cicaheum terminal is not optimal. This is thought to be caused by terminal management not yet being implemented. The approach used in this research is terminal management to the accessibility of case study passengers at the Cicaheum terminal. The research method used in this study uses qualitative methods with a case study. On this study, the researcher emphasizes more on investigations to understand social problems, based on respondents' detailed views of the problem. The results showed that the dimension of terminal management had not been carried out especially the planning dimension. The change of authority mandates that type A terminals that serve between cities and provinces become the authority of the central government. It has been three years since the mandate of the Law has been carried out over the function of authority, especially the elements of Personnel, Funding, Facilities and Infrastructure, and Documents (P3D). Research findings since the 2019 Budget Year Bandung City Government through the Department of Transportation has no longer allocated the Cicaheum terminal budget. Likewise, accessibility dimension, especially the intensity factor (density) of land use which is no longer suitable with the current conditions

Spatial Integration and Price Transmission in Selected Rural and Urban Markets for Cassava Fresh Roots in Nigeria

An advanced time series econometric technique was used to study the interaction between the prices of cassava fresh roots in typical urban-demand and rural-supply markets in Nigeria. The price data cover 95 weeks from week 37 of 2004 to week 28 of 2006. The Augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF) test was used to investigate stationarity in the prices while Johansen cointegration test procedure, with its associated vector error correction model (VECM) was used to measure the speed of adjustment coefficients that characterized the long-run dynamics of the system. Unit root tests revealed non-stationarity in both urban and rural prices series: in levels the ADF-test statistics were calculated as -1.68 for the rural price and -2.69 for the urban price while in first differences they were -13.98 and -11.91 respectively. Cointegration test revealed that both prices were cointegrated with the trace- and maximum eigenvalue statistics calculated as 18.79 and 16.38, each being statistically significant (p<0.5). The VECM reveals that any positive deviation from the long-run equilibrium would cause the system to respond with decreases in both the rural and urban prices, albeit the rural price responded faster. The impulse response analysis revealed that the rural price was more responsive to shocks emanating from the rural markets. The effect of the shock was calculated as 63.8% using the forecast error variance decompositions. The effect of rural price shock on the urban price appeared to be very infinitesimal at only 6.0% after about 10 periods. The Granger causality test did not reveal any significant causality link between the rural and urban markets prices, suggesting lack of clear trends in price leadership. The finding reveals the lack of predictability and reliability of markets for highly perishable and susceptible agricultural products, like raw cassava roots. There is need to strengthen cassava value chains with greater emphasis on processing and/or direct sale of roots to commercial processors, so as to reduce the volume of transaction of raw roots in the open market, because of the associated price shocks that have perpetually left the rural Nigerian farmer in abject poverty. Keywords: Cassava fresh roots, spatial integration, rural, urban, markets, price leadership, Nigeria