1,783 research outputs found

    Migrating Legacy Systems in the Global Merger & Acquisition Environment Teaching Case

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    MetaFrame system migration project at Worldpharm, driven by the fiesta of merger and acquisition, had engendered both technical challenges and convoluted organizational issues in the climate of uncertainties. This project was aligned with IT strategy that aimed to streamlining IT resources and enhancing system efficiency of the post-merger organization. In spite of recognizing that it was treading in the treacherous water, Worldpharm still insisted on instigating this post-merger MetaFrame system migration project, which served to (1) consolidate all legacy MetaFrame systems from the three pre-merger pharmaceutical organizations into one globally managed system and (2) develop a global support team for the globally managed MetaFrame system

    Migrating Legacy Systems in the Global Merger & Acquisition Environment

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    The MetaFrame system migration project at WorldPharma, while driven by merger and acquisition, had faced complexities caused by both technical challenges and organizational issues in the climate of uncertainties. However, WorldPharma still insisted on instigating this post-merger system migration project. This project served to (1) consolidate the separated legacy MetaFrame systems from the three pre-merger pharmaceutical organizations into one globally managed system and (2) develop a global support team for the newly consolidated global MetaFrame system. This system migration project was aligned with WorldPharma’s IT strategy that aimed to streamline its IT resources and enhance system efficiency

    Towards ‘Onlife’ Education. How Technology is Forcing Us to Rethink Pedagogy

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    [EN] The objective of this chapter is twofold: on the one hand, to provide an explanation for the need we have today to rethink pedagogy based on new realities and the scenarios in which we live, also in education, generated by the technology of our time and, on the other hand, to point out the direction in which we can find a path that leads us to that reflection in the face of the inevitable convergence between technology and pedagogy in which we are today

    Enterprise Resource Planning Systems Research: An Annotated Bibliography

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    Despite growing interest, publications on ERP systems within the academic Information Systems community, as reflected by contributions to journals and international conferences, is only now emerging. This article provides an annotated bibliography of the ERP publications published in the main Information Systems journals and conferences and reviews the state of the ERP art. The publications surveyed are categorized through a framework that is structured in phases that correspond to the different stages of an ERP system lifecycle within an organization. We also present topics for further research in each phase

    A social realist analysis of participation in academic professional development for the integration of digital technologies in higher education

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    The introduction of digital technologies at the Durban University of Technology (DUT), in keeping with higher education institutions globally, has had a significant impact on the learning environment at the institution. Despite this the anticipated demand for academic professional development (APD) did not materialise at DUT. Using Margaret Archer’s Realist Social Theory (1995) this single-institution case study offers a critical examination of cultural, structural and agential conditions that enable and constrain academic professional development (APD) for the integration of digital technologies in teaching–learning interactions at a higher education institution in South Africa. Archer’s (1995) morphogenetic approach enabled an investigation of the interface between the conditions encountered by the academics (at macro, meso and micro levels), in order to theorise about the material, ideational and agential conditions that obtained and which in turn influenced the decision to participate or not participate in the APD programmes. This longitudinal study from 2012 until 2016 traced the APD related changes following the decision to promote the implementation of digital technologies in teaching–learning interactions as an institutional imperative. The theoretical framework allowed for an examination of the interpretation of the conditions experienced by academics, either as compatible or contradictory to their individual or collective concerns. It further provided an insight into their evaluation of the legitimacy and value of the APD programmes. The study examined the impact of the provision of resources for APD on the nature of the use of digital technologies in teaching–learning interactions at the site of the case study, the Durban University of Technology in South Africa. The analysis of academic reactions to the changes instituted at both the meso (institutional) and micro (academic professional development) levels revealed that the changes produced conditions that resulted in limited morphogenesis. In particular, it seems that the disruption brought about by the introduction of the technology imperative was accompanied by conditions resulting in further diversification of academic capacities at the institution. This study advances concrete propositions about the conditions that influenced the APD related responses of the academics to the institutionalisation of e-Learning. The research adds to knowledge through insights into the process theory approach to causation, which recognises that structures, mechanisms and events produce unique effects and that the same mechanisms at times produce different events. This study argues that understanding what underlies a certain course of events may enable informed interventions to create better correspondences between APD and the introduction of digital technologies in higher education. Further, this study has generated insights into the importance of taking into consideration the discipline-related knowledge structures in the design and provision of academic development programmes. It is proposed that the incorporation of organising principles of knowledge practices within the academic professional development programme design would earn value and legitimacy for the programme, and promote participation by academics in digital technology-related academic professional development. In summary, the research contributes to an understanding of why it has been that, even with many first order barriers – such as digital access and infrastructural limitations – reduced, the uptake of digital technologies and participation in related academic professional development programmes by academics in higher education has yet to initiate a move beyond doing what is familiar in a digitally-mediated learning environment

    ACUTA Journal of Telecommunications in Higher Education

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    In This Issue UConn Looks at Little Details for Big Savings A Framework for Managing Best Practices Auditing, Honesty, and Big Savings Leveraging SIP within Existing Networks: Reflecting on the University Network Merging Faces of Telecom Service Providers How Three Schools Make Profitable Use of the Web Developing Accounting and Planning Systems to Control Network Costs lnstitutional Excellence Award: The Advanced Network Services Registry at KU Are You Ready for Best Practices? Interview President\u27s Message From the Executive Directo

    Large-scale computing systems study

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    abstract: The State of Arizona has made great advances in the use of technology to improve and enhance the efficiency, effectiveness and timeliness of those processes which are critical to the management of information technologies

    Banco CTT : managing a major strategic move

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    The main goal of the present dissertation is to explore the concept of “Diversification Strategy” and the main challenges of planning, implementing and managing it in the first years of operations. To address this strategy, a specific example of a Portuguese postal services’ incumbent, CTT – Correios de Portugal, S.A., that diversifies its business with the creation of a postal bank is covered. With the information on the international experience in this type of diversification and the current situation of the Portuguese retail banking sector, one can conclude that the postal bank may have the capacity to adapt to the demanding conditions due to a competitive advantage in some of the industry’s key success factors. This competitive advantage is identified when the company aligns its core competencies with the market characteristics. To preserve this benefit the company should assume a proactive role in exploring the external environment and be prepared for realignment situations. This initiative is crucial once several strategy-related, industry-related or company-related problems were identified during the analysis of the postal bank’s future. In both the short and the long run the postal bank will potentially face problems that may result in managerial changes such as acquisitions of other companies (to lower the risk exposure and gain more expertise in certain business areas), divestment in certain product lines and investment in foreign markets (to compensate the lower national revenues).O principal objetivo desta dissertação é explorar o conceito de “Estratégia de Diversificação” e os principais desafios do planeamento, implementação e gestão do mesmo, durante os primeiros anos de operação. Para desenvolver este tema, é dada como exemplo a estratégia de diversificação do operador postal histórico CTT – Correios de Portugal, S.A. na criação do banco postal. Combinando a informação da experiência internacional neste tipo de diversificação com a situação atual do sector da banca de retalho em Portugal, é possível concluir que, devido à vantagem competitiva em alguns dos factores críticos de sucesso nesta indústria, o banco postal poderá ter capacidade para se adaptar às difíceis condições do mesmo. Esta vantagem competitiva é identificada aquando do alinhamento das competências centrais da empresa com as características do mercado. Para conservar esta vantagem, a empresa necessita de ter um papel proactivo no estudo dos fatores externos à mesma, de forma a estar preparada para situações de realinhamento. Esta é uma iniciativa muito importante, uma vez que foram identificados problemas relativos à estratégia de diversificação, à indústria da banca de retalho e à empresa, durante a análise do futuro do banco postal. Tanto no curto como no longo prazo, o mais provável será o banco postal defrontar-se com diferentes problemas, onde serão necessárias mudanças na sua gestão, tais como a aquisição de outras empresas, o desinvestimento em certos produtos e o investimento no mercado externo

    The Evolution of Diversity

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    Since the beginning of time, the pre-biological and the biological world have seen a steady increase in complexity of form and function based on a process of combination and re-combination. The current modern synthesis of evolution known as the neo-Darwinian theory emphasises population genetics and does not explain satisfactorily all other occurrences of evolutionary novelty. The authors suggest that symbiosis and hybridisation and the more obscure processes such as polyploidy, chimerism and lateral transfer are mostly overlooked and not featured sufficiently within evolutionary theory. They suggest, therefore, a revision of the existing theory including its language, to accommodate the scientific findings of recent decades

    The role played by foreign African migrants in the promotion of African scholarship in the faculty of humanities, development and social sciences at the University of KwaZulu-Natal.

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    Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2012.This thesis is based on a study examining the concept of African scholarship through the contributions of foreign African academics at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) on the Howard College and Pietermaritzburg campuses. Being branded “The Premier University of African Scholarship” the study principally set out to investigate the role played by these academics as possible conduits in the expansion of African scholarship within the knowledge production circuit. The concept of African scholarship, though not a novel term, remains an elusive category that still needs to be defined within the global knowledge economy. A cursory look at written literature around African scholarship reveals a general tendency that presents „the debate‟ much more as a theoretical engagement and less at empirical engagements that could help advance the practicalities of this concept within the different intellectual debates. Among the different pockets of intellectuals concerned with the vision of African scholarship, the African diaspora outside the continent has always played a leading role in the need to address the African knowledge paradigms within the global intellectual production of knowledge. This study is of significance because it engages with an emerging African diaspora within the South African space and attempts to highlight how their experiences as migrants help in broadening the understanding of the African experience as a knowledge site. Using in-depth interviews within a qualitative research framework in combination with the technique of observation, the findings of this study reveal that as an emerging diaspora, foreign African academics at UKZN, are actively taking advantage of the university‟s slogan to meaningfully (re)insert „Africanness‟ in the kind of knowledge that is produced in the institution. Their contributions are measured in terms of postgraduate supervision, new research agendas, pedagogic and curricular development and networks of collaborations with other universities in Africa. Using an anthropological approach the study equally examines the implications of the attempt to position African scholarship within the global knowledge production map. The study further highlights the role that social identities such as gender, language, nationality, and race can play as epistemic spaces in the advancement of African scholarship. By engaging with these markers, the debate advances beyond the current ad hoc manner of presenting African scholarship simplistically within political rhetoric to a more nuanced incorporation of other markers which should occupy epistemic spaces within the discourse of African scholarship
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