Unleashing the Effectiveness of Process-oriented Information Systems: Problem Analysis, Critical Success Factors, Implications

Process-oriented information systems (IS) aim at the computerized support of business processes. So far, contemporary IS have often fail to meet this goal. To better understand this drawback, to systematically identify its rationales, and to derive critical success factors for business process support, we conducted three empirical studies: an exploratory case study in the automotive domain, an online survey among 79 IT professionals, and another online survey among 70 business process management (BPM) experts. This paper summarizes the findings of these studies, puts them in relation with each other, and uses them to show that "process-orientation" is scarce and "process-awareness" is needed in IS engineering

The role of organisational culture during the implementation of internal succession planning within Malaysian research universities

Succession planning is not new to academia and many institutions have supported these programs for years. Few, however, have adopted formal succession planning strategies that are both strategic and deliberate and encompass the full spectrum of succession planning activities. However, less is understood about the role of culture on succession planning within public universities in Malaysia. Nevertheless; there is an absence of a comprehensive conceptual model of the culture-succession relationship in the literature that includes the impact of moderators such as national culture. A mixed mode design was adopted by the study where qualitative data was first collected, analyzed and then used to develop a survey instrument for the quantitative phase of the study. The study surveyed 375 academic staff of the five research universities in Malaysia, and the results were analyzed using the IBM SPSS for Windows and PLS-SEM. A structural model was built to identify the relationship between the organisational culture and succession planning and the moderating effect of the national culture in public research universities. The study's findings showed that succession planning is still new to public universities in Malaysia and training and development are still unstructured. Although there was a positive and significant relationship between organisational culture and succession planning, whereas, findings suggested national culture showed a moderating effect on the relationship of organisational culture and succession planning. The model can help to analyze organisational culture in order to change the Malaysian public universities’ strategy to implement succession planning

Informatisation of transport process using GPS navigation system

Nowadays, internal business processes are one of the crucial factors of firms’ competitive advantage achievement, which is becoming increasingly important, not only on local but also on global markets. Firms’ performance improvement depends to a large extent on its flexibility, adjustability and especially ability to manage internal business processes. Hence, use of information technology is among the fundamental elements of business process change, which not only improve competitiveness but also assure long term development and growth of the firm. For all these reasons, the main purpose of this article is firstly to establish that use of information technology is feasible in all industries, explain what possible obstacles for successful informatisation are, and which are major advantages after its implementation. Secondly, within theoretical aspect we present broaden view of informatisation in logistics, whilst practical example illustrates successful informatisation of transport process with adoption of GPS (Global Positioning System) in a transport firm. Furthermore, in this article we are also introducing a case study of three transport firms describing process flow before and after implementation identifying enhanced information quality, service quality and communication as a foremost advantages and achievements after informatisatio

A Case Study Of E-Supply Chain & Business Process Reengineering Of A Semiconductor Company In Malaysia

Penglibatan e-perniagaan dalam rantaian bekalan telah mewujudkan e-rantaian bekalan yang baru (e-SC) di firma-firma tempatan dan global. Due to globalization and advancement in information technology (IT), companies adopt best practices in e-business and supply chain management to be globally competitive as both are realities and prospects in 21st century

Coupling Performance Measurement and Collective Activity: The Semiotic Function of Management Systems. A Case Study

Theories about management instruments often enter dualistic debates between structure and agency: do instruments determine the forms of collective activity (CA), or do actors shape instruments to their requirements, or are instruments and concrete activity decoupled, as some trends of new institutionalist theory assume? Attempts to overcome the dualistic opposition between structure and activity stem from diverse sources: actors’ networks theory, structuration theory, pragmatism, theory of activity, semiotics. Performance measurement and management systems can be defined as structural instruments engaged in CA. As such they constrain the activity, but they do not determine it. Reciprocally, they are modified by the way CA uses them and makes sense of them. The central thesis of this paper will be that it is impossible to study the role of performance measurement as a common language in organizations independently from the design of the CA in which it is engaged. There is a not deterministic coupling between structure (i.e. management technical tools) and CA (i.e. business processes). The transformation of CA entails a transformation in the meaning of the “performance” concept, in the type of measurement required and in the performance management practices. The relationship between performance measurement and CA is studied here in the production division of a large electricity utility in France. The research extended over several years and took place when two new management systems were simultaneously implemented: a new management accounting system and an integrated management information system (ERP), both in the purchasing process. The new management accounting system was designed by the purchasing department; the new management information system was designed by the operational departments. Whereas the coherence between both projects could have been given by their common subordination to the rebuilding of CA (the purchasing process), their disconnection from concrete CA opened the possibility of serious dissonances between them. Both the new performance management system and the new ERP met difficulties to provide common languages, since the dimension of CA was taken for granted and consequently partly ignored in the engineering of both systems. When CA incurs radical transformations, actors’direct discursive exchanges about it, “collective activity about collective activity”, become necessary to ensure a flexible and not deterministic coupling between CA and new management systems. This reflexive and collective analysis of the process by actors themselves requires the establishment of “communities of process”, which can jointly redesign the CA and its performance measurement system. We conclude that performance measurement can be a common language as far as there is a clear and shared understanding of how CA should concretely take place and should be assigned to the different categories of actors.Business Process; Collective Activity; Community of Process; Management Instruments; Performance Measurement; Semiotics; Theory of Activity

Toward joint Medical Logistics 2010 and beyond: process innovation and redesign of Class VIII supply chain at a medical logistics company

The purpose of this thesis is to evaluate current Class VIII supply chain procedures at a U.S. Medical Logistics Company (Med Log Co), process map the "as is" baseline process and propose possible "to be" process redesign alternatives that will possibly improve efficiency and produce long-term cost savings. To perform this analysis, the 1st Med Log Co at Camp Pendleton, CA was chosen. The assessment of their "as is" process includes a historical background on medical logistics within the Department of Defense, a comprehensive material logistics literature review, site visits, personnel interviews, process mapping of the baseline "as is" process, and proposal of two redesign alternatives for the "to be" process. A comprehensive analysis was conducted using Thomas Davenport's Process Innovation Framework and quantitative measurements were obtained using the Knowledge-based Organizational Process Redesign (KOPeR) methodology to diagnosis existing pathologies. KOPeR measurements indicate that the 1st Med Log Co's existing "as is" process is a fragmented, mostly manual procurement process that can be innovated now using information technology as a process enabler. Our results indicate that by formally injecting the use of electronic mail and shared databases into the "as is" procurement process an immediate impact can be realized. Further efficiency and cost savings can be accomplished by coupling the injection of information technology with a web- based end-to-end procurement process that assigns a case manager to the "to be" process.http://www.archive.org/details/towardjointmedic00auguMajor, United States Marine CorpsLieutenant, United States NavyApproved for public release; distribution is unlimited

Determinants for a generic mobile commerce transformation framework

Current technological advancement has given the necessary impetus for businesses to transform from traditional ways into to mobile business or m-businesses. This transformation has begun from the Internet era, where traditional businesses transformed to e-businesses by taking advantages of the facilities offered by the Internet. Recent development in wireless technology facilitated businesses to move further to m-businesses. Despite the development in the technical domain, it appears that businesses still struggle to comprehend the processes involved in the transformation because a proper framework is yet to evolve. This work-in-progress paper provides a background to such transformation with a method to achieve this transformation

Information technology in construction: How to realise the benefits?

Advancement in the utilisation of computers has, in recent years, become a major, even dominating research and development target in the architecture, engineering and construction industry. However, in empirical investigations, no major benefits accruingfrom construction IT have been found. Why do the many IT applications, which when separately analysed seem so well justified, fail to produce positive impacts when the totality of the construction project is analysed? The objective of this chapter is to find the explanation for this paradox and to provide initial guidelines as to what should be done to correct the situation