Information Systems Planning - How to Enhance Creativity?

The global competitiveness and the organizations ability to make effective use of information technology and to focus on innovation and creativity are recognized as being important. The perspective of using creativity techniques or some adaptations, to help innovation in the area of information systems seems to be promising.In this article we propose a strategy for the introduction of creativity in the information systems planning in order to build more agile and efficient information systems, allowing therefore more competitive business.- (undefined

Exploring enterprise social systems & organisational change: Implementation in a digital age

Information systems (IS), since their introduction into organisations over five decades ago, have promised to streamline business processes, integrate disparate systems, increase innovation, and offer greater competitive advantage. Over the past decades, the evolution of Information Systems have mirrored many of the challenges experienced by our work organisations. For example, throughout the 1980s a primary concern for many organisations was the attainment of competitive advantage within their respective industries (Porter, 1980). The IS field responded by developing systems that sought to provide management with timely information to assist in making better strategic decisions, e.g. executive support and decision support systems. In the 1990s, organisations began to look inwards searching for key strategic resources that would yield unique core competencies (Barney, 1991). Similarly, the IS field responded by building highly integrative enterprise-wide systems (Davenport, 1998), which would unite every pillar of the organisation with a single transparent view of firm competencies and business processes, viz Enterprise Systems. The first decade of the 21st century continued in this vein, with organisations extending their global reach through new and innovative business models (Johnson et al, 2008). Similarly, IS have responded with the emergence of digital technologies and their continued growth as transformative organisational systems enabling boundary-less corporate structures, 24/7 real-time customer-centric communication, collaborative supply chain environments, and virtual IS infrastructures delivered via cloud computing

Database marketing based business development – the case of Serbian financial sector

In this paper the authors have discussed on the importance of database marketing and analyzed the level of its development in Serbia. A need to store large amounts of data necessary for making business decisions is the main reason for introduction of information technology, and building information systems and databases in the modern enterprises. To become successful in competitive markets, companies must use databases as a starting point in formulating their marketing campaigns. Information from databases enables companies to optimally adapt all marketing mix elements, increase sales and market share, as well as to improve profitability. In accordance with those assumptions there has been conducted an empirical research in the financial sector in Serbia to determine the level of development of databases and CRM systems. Research results show that in Serbian financial sector, unlike in the rest of the economy, database marketing is very developed and it is following the global trends

Conceptual design of an XML FACT repository for dispersed XML document warehouses and XML marts

Since the introduction of eXtensible Markup Language (XML), XML repositories have gained a foothold in many global (and government) organizations, where, e-Commerce and e-business models have maturated in handling daily transactional data among heterogeneous information systems in multi-data formats. Due to this, the amount of data available for enterprise decision-making process is increasing exponentially and are being stored and/or communicated in XML. This presents an interesting challenge to investigate models, frameworks and techniques for organizing and analyzing such voluminous, yet distributed XML documents for business intelligence in the form of XML warehouse repositories and XML marts. In this paper, we address such an issue, where we propose a view-driven approach for modelling and designing of a Global XML FACT (GxFACT) repository under the MDA initiatives. Here we propose the GxFACT using logically grouped, geographically dispersed, XML document warehouses and Document Marts in a global enterprise setting. To deal with organizations? evolving decision-making needs, we also provide three design strategies for building and managing of such GxFACT in the context of modelling of further hierarchical dimensions and/or global document warehouses

Results readiness in social protection and labor operations

The main focus of the social protection and labor portfolio is on strengthening client's institutional capacity in the design and implementation of programs, but projects are not well equipped to track progress in this area. Correspondingly, there is a need to strengthen approaches to measuring and monitoring a'missing middle'of service delivery, precisely those areas for which counterpart institutions are responsible during the course of a project. In particular, better measures of the primary functions of social protection and labor agencies are needed, such as identifying and enrolling beneficiaries, targeting, payment systems, fraud and error control, performance monitoring of service delivery providers, responsiveness to citizens, transparency, efficiency, management information systems and monitoring and evaluation systems. New World Bank initiatives particularly standard core indicators by sector and the introduction of results based investment lending call for substantial improvements in the use of monitoring and evaluation (M&E). Impact evaluations are included in about half of projects and should continue to be used selectively and strategically, particularly when the program is innovative, replicable and/ or scalable to reach a broader set of beneficiaries, addresses a knowledge gap and is likely to have a substantial policy impact. Structuring evaluations around core themes with common outcome measures is fundamental to building a global knowledge base on development effectiveness.Poverty Monitoring&Analysis,Poverty and Social Impact Analysis,E-Business,Safety Nets and Transfers,Housing&Human Habitats

A SHARED INFORMATION SYSTEM FOR TOURISM ENTERPRISES IN DEVELOPING ECONOMIES

In a developing economy's business environment, introduction of new technology creates a large potential for more effective and streamlined production of tourism services. This study shows guidelines of design of an inter-organizational information system for small tourism enterprises. The entrepreneurial goal is to support strategic alliances in order to obtain better market-fit and sustainable competitive advance. This requires that the enterprises are capable of evaluating their existing processes, identify and outline improvements, and implement them. More than that, enterprises have to execute profound strategic changes in their business processes. For this change, study shows that adaption of supportive information system can be a key factor to satisfy these demands. Firstly, using systematic literature review the study identifies global trends of e-tourism. Secondly the trends are compared with the reality of small tourism enterprises in Nicaraguan Caribbean coast. With interview and brain storming sessions with hotel managers and local tourism specialists, desired state of e-tourism enhanced business processes is defined. Performance gaps and solutions are identified and outlined in order to reach new customer segments and better customer satisfaction with use of inter-organizational information system. With help of shared information system, enterprises search for sustainable economic growth and more stable business environment for their activities. The scientific domain of research is Information systems science. The method used for data collection and interpretation is systematic literature review and human and institutional capacity development -method. As result, the research identifies critical business processes when implementing e-Tourism services into tourism enterprises in developing economies. Strategic solutions for sustainable improvements in business processes supported by use of shared information system are outlined. As a practical result, the study lists required steps in order to reach desired changes in tourism enterprises with e-tourism initiative. Specification of requirements for information system is made. The implementation process and construction of information system is left out from this research and it requires later its own case study.fi=Opinnäytetyö kokotekstinä PDF-muodossa.|en=Thesis fulltext in PDF format.|sv=Lärdomsprov tillgängligt som fulltext i PDF-format

E-COMMERCE

Preface ................................................ 7 Introduction ........................................... Chapter 1. KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT PECULIARITIES IN E- 9 BUSINESS: ACTUALITY AND TENDENCIES ......... 12 Introduction............................................ 1.1. The importance of knowledge management to increase the 12 efficiency of the organisations activity in e-business ...... 15 1.2. Employee competency integrated assessment in e-business 1.2.1.Theoretical evaluation aspects of factors affecting em- 19 ployee competency .......................................... 1.2.2. The identification of the factors affecting the employee 21 competency ................................................ 1.2.3. Concept complex competency assessment model of e- 26 business organisation ........................................ 1.3. Analysis of factors motivating human resources in e-busi- 33 ness .................................................. 1.3.1. Theoretical evaluation aspects of factors affecting human 34 resources motivation ........................................ 1.3.2. Analysis of factors that influence the motivation of human 36 resources .................................................. 1.4. Evaluation system of factors affecting creativity in e-busi- 37 ness .................................................. 1.4.1. Theoretical evaluation aspects of factors affecting creativ- 41 ity ......................................................... 1.4.2. Identification of factors affecting creativity. Partial inte- 42 grated criterion (third stage) ................................ 48 1.4.3. Evaluation system of factors affecting creativity ........ 49 1.5. Knowledge appliance process in e-business organisation .. 1.5.1. The factors proceeding efficiency of knowledge appliance 53 process in e-business ........................................ 1.5.2. The selection of the method to evaluate efficiency of know- 56 ledge appliance process in e-business ......................... 59 Conclusions ........................................... 60 Self test questions ..................................... 63 References ............................................ Chapter 2. CONTENT MANAGEMENT IN VIRTUAL ORGANIZA 64 TIONS ............................................... 70 5 Table of Contents Introduction ........................................... 2.1. A systematical approach to automate content management 70 in a vitual ogranization ................................. 71 2.2. The concept of the content. Content Management ..... 73 2.3. The life cycle of the document ......................... 74 2.4. Document management in a virtual organization ........ 76 2.5. Content capture technology ............................ 77 2.6. Cloud technologies in business processes CMS .......... 83 Conclusion ............................................. 85 References ............................................ 86 Chapter 3. MARKETING COMMUNICATION IN DIGITAL AGE ... 87 Introduction ........................................... 87 3.1. The growing potential of the market ................... 88 3.2. Previous studies in e-business and e-marketing areas .... 91 3.3. The specifics of Internet marketing in B2B communication 92 3.4. E-marketing tools ..................................... 94 3.5. Social networks in marketing ........................... 98 6 3.6. Effectiveness evaluation theories ........................ 100 3.7. Website quality and efficiency evaluation ................ 101 3.8. Cases: resent research results .......................... 106 3.8.1. Online advertisements efficiency research .............. 106 3.8.2. Evaluation of Lithuanian e-shops ...................... 109 Conclusions ........................................... 110 Self test questions ..................................... 111 References ............................................ 111 Chapter 4. IMPROVING THE EFFICIENCY OF E-COMMERCE .. 116 Introduction ........................................... 116 4.1. Scientific research. E-commerce as the Internet technology 116 4.2. Promotion of e-business ............................... 120 4.3. A set of basic tools for e-business ...................... 121 4.4. Security in e-commerce ................................ 124 Conclusion ............................................ 133 Self-examination questions ............................. 133 References ............................................ 134 Chapter 5. ELECTRONIC PAYMENT SYSTEMS.................. 135 Introduction............................................ 135 5.1. The concept of electronic payments.National payment system in Russia ....................................... 136 5.2. Electronic payment systems based on «Client-Bank» and online banking ......................................... 143 5.3. Electronic payments via bank cards ..................... 151 Table of Contents 5 5.4. Electronic payments via digital cash .................... 160 5.5. Internet payment system based on virtual accounts ...... 164 Conclusion ............................................ 166 Self-examination questions ............................. 166 References ............................................ 167 Chapter 6. MANAGEMENT OF THE VIRTUAL ENTERPRISE .... 168 6.1. Virtual enterprise, electronic business, electronic commerce, model of management, manager .................... 168 6.2. Manager .............................................. 174 6.3. Channel ............................................... 175 6.4. Information environment. Knowledge ................... 175 6.5. Problem field .......................................... 176 Self-examination questions ............................. 178 References ............................................ 178 Chapter 7. INTERNET MARKETING ............................ 180 Introduction ........................................... 180 7.1. The concept and structure of the Internet Marketing .... 180 7.2. Market research on the Internet ........................ 182 7.3. Internet advertizing .................................... 187 7.3.1. The concept of Internet advertising .................... 187 7.3.2. Announcement of the search engines and search engine optimization. The concept and purpose of search engine optimization ................................................... 189 7.3.3. Search Engine Advertising ............................ 209 7.3.4. Participation in the rankings and registration in catalogs 215 7.3.5. Banner advertising ................................... 219 7.3.6. Link Exchange ....................................... 236 7.3.7. Profiling and personalization in online advertising........ 239 7.3.8. E-mail-advertising. Basic concepts and advantages e-mailadvertising ................................................. 242 7.3.9. Discussion lists ....................................... 248 7.3.10. Virus marketing. Concept and principles of virus marketing ........................................................ 251 7.3.11. Other methods of advertizing ........................ 258 7.3.12. Analysis of efficiency of Internet advertizing ........... 259 7.3.13. Methods of the collection of information, used for the analysis .................................................... 263 7.4. Marketing in social networks and blogs ................. 282 7.5. Partner programs ...................................... 287 7.6. The problem of return visitors and create a captive audience 292 7.6.1. Statement of the problem of creating a virtual community 292 7.6.2. Methods for creating a virtual community .............. 294 9 Table of Contents 7.7. Off-line support for online projects ...................... 297 Self-examination questions.............................. 298 References ............................................ 299 Chapter 8. REACHING SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS THROUGH E-GOVERNMENT IN THE POST-2015 AGENDA ............................................. 301 Introduction ........................................... 310 8.1. E-government: definition, functions and stages .......... 302 8.2. E-government: global tendencies ....................... 304 8.3. Formation and development of e-government in Uzbekistan 308 Self-examination questions ............................. 314 References ............................................ 314The development of the universities’ ability to quickly respond to new demands of the labor market and to adapt, update, develop and introduce new areas of study to ensure demand for the graduates provides the participation in the international projects of the European program improving higher education «TEMPUS». The project TEMPUS — ECOMMIS («double-level training programs of e-commerce developing the information society in Russia, Ukraine and Israel») was launched in October 2011, and belongs to a class of joint projects to develop new courses and courses for bachelor’s and master’s degrees. The project consortium involves 12 universities from Germany, the Netherlands, Lithuania, Israel, Russia and Ukraine. The main objective of the project is to develop and implement new academic courses and areas of study, taking into account the current status and trends of economic development and the specific requirements of the labor market on the basis of cooperation between universities in different countries. The main feature and complexity of the project academic content of is that e-commerce as an academic concept is absolute new and it appeared just only in the last decade. It is a new interdisciplinary field of knowledge, which is located at the intersection of economics and computer science and it is not covered by the classical training courses in economics and computer science technology. The aspects of national and international law in connection with the growth of international trade, economic cooperation and the development of new Internet based technologies should be taken into account. For the project’s period of three years on the basis of international cooperation the following results were obtained: 11 Preface 1) The analysis and modernization of existing curricula in the field of e-commerce were carried out; 2) new training modules with the introduction of the European creditmodular system of accumulation and transfer transcripts units ( ECTS ) were developed; new modules and courses: e-commerce, electronic payment systems; Internet trading in the financial markets and the stockmarket systems; Information systems for financial analysis and investment; Information systems for business process modeling; corporate information systems and portals; Customer-oriented systems; Internet Marketing; electronic systems for document management; legal aspects of e-commerce; advanced course security for e-commerce were introduced; 3) two international online games to enhance practical skills in the field with online marketing and online trading were developed and conducted among university students; 4) skills training courses e-commerce for various social groups (students, housewives, pensioners, unemployed) were developed and tested; 5) business offices, e-commerce were established to strengthen cooperation between the universities in the labor market and to create the conditions of commercialization of the project results after the end of financial support from the TEMPUS Program. 6) textbooks on the topic of the project were developed and published. In May — July 2013. 62 teachers targeted universities in Israel, Russia and Ukraine received intensive training in the field of e-commerce in three European universities: FONTYS (NL), TU Berlin (DE), VGTU ( LT ). From October 2013 in target universities of Israel, Russia and Ukraine students’ training began on the courses developed in the framework of the new training courses and modules with using computer classes, equipped in accordance with the project plan with new hardware and software tools. The final stage of the project was intended to develop a five-year detailed plan for sustainable development of the results. Such plan that includes coordinated action to disseminate best practices, development of new joint courses for graduate and post-graduate students, scientificmethodical conferences, joint publications will support the further dynamics of the activities involved universities. Joint work on the implementation of the project ECOMMIS led to the emergence of sustainable professional relationships between organizations in the consortium as the training of new qualified professionals, as well as in the field of scientific and methodological developments. This is confirmed by the present collective monograph E-commerc

Working Paper 36 - Information Technology and the Challenge of Economic Growth in Africa

The recent advances in information technology are becoming central to the process of socio-economic development. Information technology offers new ways of exchanging information, and transacting business, changes the nature of the financial and other service sectors and provides efficient means of using the human and institutional capabilities of countries in both the public and private sectors. The world is rapidly moving towards knowledge-based economic structures and information societies, which comprise networks of individuals, firms and countries that are linked electronically and in interdependent relationships. In an increasingly globalized economy, information technology is one of the key determinants of competitiveness and growth of firms and countries. Firms are becoming more competitive on the basis of their knowledge, rather than on the basis of natural endowments or low labor costs. It is becoming increasingly apparent that the role of traditional sources of comparative advantage (a large labor force and abundant natural resources) in determining international competitiveness is diminishing. The competitive and comparative advantages of countries are gradually being determined by access to information technology and knowledge. The comparative advantage that now counts is man-made, engineered by knowledge through the application of information. Since man-made comparative advantage can only be acquired by knowledge and brainpower, the newly emerging knowledge-based economic structures have far reaching implications with regard to labor markets and the roles of technical education, human capital formation and research and development in the process of economic growth. The evolution of the knowledge-based economy is expected to result in increasing the demand for skilled labor and reducing the employment prospects of unskilled labor. And within economies, enterprises would succeed only to the extent that their employees can access and use information and knowledge effectively. Information technology does not only determine the market share and profitability of individual companies in tomorrow's global economy, but it also has a huge impact on future generations of workers and on a country's economic prospects. What are the implications of information technology for the relative fortunes of nations? Countries that invest in and adopt information technology quickly will move ahead and those that fail to rapidly adopt information technology will be left behind. The views on the possible impact of the information revolution on African countries can be grouped in two opposing schools of thought. The first school predicts that as African countries incur an increasing 'technological deficit' the welfare gap between them and the industrialized world would increase. This school stresses that Africa risks further reduction in its ability to generate the resources necessary to accelerate its growth rate and reverse the trend of increasing poverty. On the other hand, the second school believe that information technology may actually help reduce the income gaps between rich and poor countries. In the words of Negroponte (1998): "the Third World five years from now may not be where you think it is. There have been many theories of leapfrog development, none of which has yet survived the test of time. That's about to change". The basic issue separating the two schools with regard to the impact of information technology on African countries is the question of whether Africa and other developing regions could, in the first place have adequate access to the global information Infrastructure, and hence to the information technology age. The prediction of the first school stems from the notion that, starting from an initial position of poverty, African countries would not be able to finance the investments in information infrastructure and computer hardware and software required to access the information technology age. This would, in turn, mean that they would risk increased marginalization in the global economy with severe competitive disadvantage for their goods and services, and hence for their development prospects. The prediction of the second school is based on the argument that the information technology, itself, would provide the means for countries to turn their disadvantages into advantages; adjust to the new ways of doing business; and, put in place the required infrastructure of telecommunications and information systems. This paper reviews Africa's development challenges in an increasingly information and knowledge-based global economy. It outlines the roles of knowledge and information technology in addressing these challenges and also discusses the strategies and policies that Africa and its development partners particularly the African Development Bank could adopt to accelerate the process of integrating the region into the emerging global information system. The paper is organized in five sections. Following this introduction, the next section examines the major developmental challenges facing Africa and what role information technology could play in overcoming them. Section III outlines the policies that would need to be adopted by African countries to improve their information accessibility and examines the initiatives taken by African countries in this domain. Section IV examines the role that could be played by the African Development Bank Group. The conclusion of the paper is provided in the last section.

Digital Tools for Accounting and Analytical Support of Enterprises: Innovation and Management Aspect

Introduction. The modern global economy requires the digitalization of all spheres of enterprise activity, including accounting and analytical processes. This creates new synergistic effects on all related production, management, and business processes and new opportunities and business directions. The analytical process begins to include new information resources, which gives an impetus to the systematic development of support for decision-making by the management of enterprises, increasing the level of relevance of management decisions, and providing opportunities for operational restructuring of market tactics and strategies. Aim and tasks. The study aims to introduce digital tools for analytical accounting support for Ukrainian enterprises based on innovative management aspects and develop a mathematical model for using digital resources to optimize the architecture of enterprise information systems. Results. A mathematical model of the use of digital resources was developed to optimize the architecture of the company's information systems. The process of introducing digital tools for accounting and analytical support of enterprises in Ukraine was also studied and compared with the practice of their implementation under the conditions of “Economy 4.0” in developed countries. The advantages of introducing digital tools for accounting and analytical support were determined and obstacles to this process are named. It is indicated that the main guarantee of the effectiveness of the use of digital tools in view of the innovation-management aspect of their implementation is adaptability to internal and external influences, technological innovations, changes in tasks, goals, and even the sphere of economic activity of the enterprise. It is noted that this largely depends on the architecture of the information systems. According to estimates, the annual “cumulative effect” growth rate from introducing IT technologies in accounting and analytical processes may exceed 19%. Conclusions. The developed mathematical model makes it possible to propose a new approach to the transformation of the system of digital accounting tools and analytical support instead of the traditional eclectic approach, which ensures effective auxiliary functionality or implements new functionality of the entire information management system, the elements of which are digital accounting tools. Factors that prevent the implementation of digital tools, which will increase the competitiveness of Ukrainian enterprises, are indicated