From service-oriented architecture to service-oriented enterprise

Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) was originally motivated by enterprise demands for better business-technology alignment and higher flexibility and reuse. SOA evolved from an initial set of ideas and principles to Web services (WS) standards now widely accepted by industry. The next phase of SOA development is concerned with a scalable, reliable and secure infrastructure based on these standards, and guidelines, methods and techniques for developing and maintaining service delivery in dynamic enterprise settings. In this paper we discuss the principles and main elements of SOA. We then present an overview of WS standards. And finally we come back to the original motivation for SOA, and how these can be realized

Digital maturity variables and their impact on the enterprise architecture layers

This study examines the variables of digital maturity of companies. The framework for enterprise architectures Archimate 3.0 is used to compare the variables. The variables are assigned to the six layers of architecture: Strategy, Business Environment, Applications, Technology, Physical and Implementation and Migration. On the basis of a literature overview, 15 “digital maturity models” with a total of 147 variables are analyzed. The databases Scopus, EBSCO – Business Source Premier and ProQuest are used for this purpose

Using the Asian Knowledge Model “APO” as a Determinant for Performance Excellence in Universities- Empirical Study at Al -Azhar University- Gaza

This study aims to use the Asian knowledge model “APO” as a determinant for performance excellence in universities and identifying the most effecting factors on it. This study was applied on Al-Azhar University in Gaza strip. The result of the study showed that (APO) model is valid as a measure and there are four dimensions in the model affecting significantly more than the others (university processes, KM leadership, personnel, KM outputs). Furthermore, performance excellence produced though modernizing the means of education, curriculum development, technology and flexibility in the organizational structure. The study recommends expanding the usage of (APO) model, enhancing the role of knowledge leadership, technology, organizational flexibility, sharing culture and incentive systems that encouraging innovation

Model-Based Mitigation of Availability Risks

The assessment and mitigation of risks related to the availability of the IT infrastructure is becoming increasingly important in modern organizations. Unfortunately, present standards for Risk Assessment and Mitigation show limitations when evaluating and mitigating availability risks. This is due to the fact that they do not fully consider the dependencies between the constituents of an IT infrastructure that are paramount in large enterprises. These dependencies make the technical problem of assessing availability issues very challenging. In this paper we define a method and a tool for carrying out a Risk Mitigation activity which allows to assess the global impact of a set of risks and to choose the best set of countermeasures to cope with them. To this end, the presence of a tool is necessary due to the high complexity of the assessment problem. Our approach can be integrated in present Risk Management methodologies (e.g. COBIT) to provide a more precise Risk Mitigation activity. We substantiate the viability of this approach by showing that most of the input required by the tool is available as part of a standard business continuity plan, and/or by performing a common tool-assisted Risk Management

ERP implementation methodologies and frameworks: a literature review

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) implementation is a complex and vibrant process, one that involves a combination of technological and organizational interactions. Often an ERP implementation project is the single largest IT project that an organization has ever launched and requires a mutual fit of system and organization. Also the concept of an ERP implementation supporting business processes across many different departments is not a generic, rigid and uniform concept and depends on variety of factors. As a result, the issues addressing the ERP implementation process have been one of the major concerns in industry. Therefore ERP implementation receives attention from practitioners and scholars and both, business as well as academic literature is abundant and not always very conclusive or coherent. However, research on ERP systems so far has been mainly focused on diffusion, use and impact issues. Less attention has been given to the methods used during the configuration and the implementation of ERP systems, even though they are commonly used in practice, they still remain largely unexplored and undocumented in Information Systems research. So, the academic relevance of this research is the contribution to the existing body of scientific knowledge. An annotated brief literature review is done in order to evaluate the current state of the existing academic literature. The purpose is to present a systematic overview of relevant ERP implementation methodologies and frameworks as a desire for achieving a better taxonomy of ERP implementation methodologies. This paper is useful to researchers who are interested in ERP implementation methodologies and frameworks. Results will serve as an input for a classification of the existing ERP implementation methodologies and frameworks. Also, this paper aims also at the professional ERP community involved in the process of ERP implementation by promoting a better understanding of ERP implementation methodologies and frameworks, its variety and history