Inter-organisational infrastructures for competitive advantage : strategic alignment in virtual corporations

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Applications of maintenance optimisation models: a review and analysis

In this paper we give an overview of applications of maintenance optimization models published so far. We analyze the role of these models in maintenance and discuss the factors which may have hampered applications. Finally, we discuss future prospects

Coordinated African Programme of Technical Assistance on Services (CAPAS): a study on services in Zimbabwe

This study examines the services sector in Zimbabwe with the view of assisting policy makers within both the national context and the context of the Uruguay Round. It is hoped that this study, and others being conducted in other countries, will put the nations' negotiators in a strong and informed position in the current round GATT negotiations. In this regard, the study assesses the contribution of services to the national economy directly through income and employment generation and indirectly through linkages with other sectors of the economy. The study reviews the regulatory environment within which the sector operates and examines how liberalisation can affect the sector's role in facilitating competitive development of the productive sectors. The study also addresses issues of regional co-operation within the various service sub-sectors. The study was conducted in two phases. The first phase entailed examining the national economic environment and identifying the contribution of services to various aggregate macro-economic variables. It then went on to examine the legal/regulatory framework and regional cooperation agreements and arrangements. To achieve the above, the study team examined secondary data published by the Central Statistical Office, policy documents and legal instruments governing the operations of various service sub-sectors. In addition interviews were conducted with government officials and officials from the various service sub-sectors. Phase 2 entailed detailed studies on selected sub-sectors. These are financial services, transportation and telecommunications. For these detailed studies, structured questionnaire interviews were conducted to get further information on how the sub-sectors operate and interact with other sectors, the constraints faced and competition within the sub-sectors and competitiveness of the sub-sectors. In both phases the interface between the research team, representatives of the various sub-sectors and policy makers was of critical importance as part of the methodology. An inter institutional working group (IWG) was established to facilitate this process

Understanding knowledge awareness in organizations

Master'sMASTER OF ENGINEERIN

Integrated Servies Digital Network: Issues and Options for the World\u27s Future Communications Systems

There has been virtually no public discussion of the significant public policy issues raised because of the intimidating nature of network engineering which forms the basis for nearly all the current dialogue. This paper discusses current ISDN developments, and sets forth an analytical framework within which these issues may be discussed

Success and failure factors in ICT projects: a Dutch perspective.

This thesis examines the success and failure factors in ICT projects. The low success rate of software projects in terms of reliability, meeting due dates and working within assigned budgets is widely recognised and topical. International as well as Dutch publications and the procedures in Tarek Abdel-Hamid's work on Software Project Management/Dynamics are discussed. A SUFFI Chart (SUFFI = SUccess and Failure Factors in ICT projects) is developed. The management of a portfolio of projects is compared with the SUFFI Chart. A number of Dutch projects with which the author was directly involved are examnined to show how they compare with the factors identified from the literature. These do show considerable correlation between important SUFFI factors and project success. The portfolio consists of nine ICT projects and four ICT project audits. Projects such as SAP, RBAC, EAI, charging method, PABX, financial building adrnmistration, information retrieval, book reservations, traffic data collection, introduction of the Internet functionality and SOX, for different companies/organisations (Delft University of Technology, National Police Services Agency, KPN - Dutch Telecom Company, University of Amsterdam, government, banking). This work shows that for a successful project 4 of the 5 most important SUFFIs have to be absent

Telecommunications: Some Policy Issues; Proceedings of a Task Force Meeting, March 28-30, 1982, Budapest, Hungary

In line with the selected methodology, the Innovation Management Task at IIASA is concentrating on sectors in an attempt to analyze the situation at this level of the economy before making any aggregations or conclusions relevant to management. In order to properly cover industry, it was suggested that branches that are at differing stages or that display different kinds of development be chosen for the study. Telecommunications was recommended as a branch with high growth. This was the first in a series of task force meetings initiated to promote an exchange of views among researchers and to coordinate the activities of individual collaborating institutions. A wide selection of issues for discussion are reviewed in the first paper (Vasko), which was circulated to participants in advance. It deals with macroeconomic aspects as well as with sectoral policy issues relevant to innovation. Prof. Braun's paper deals with basic questions of information related to macroeconomic variables. It particularly points out the volatility of value concepts as related to information and some of its consequences. The papers that follow deal with the organizational and economic environment of telecommunications. This environment, which was stable for decades, has been disturbed recently by new technology, which has brought with it new economies of scale, new demands, new organizational structures, new time horizons, etc. The paper by Dr. Mueller explores how this has changed the potential for competition in telecommunications. When asking for resources at a national level, proponents of telecommunications often have to show that the sector can provide social returns comparable to or even higher than those offered by other branches competing for the same resources. Here it is not easy to make a convincing case ex ante, which becomes a difficulty especially when we have new services in mind. Similar difficulties are experienced by individual services within the telecommunications branch or even by individual users, as is shown in the paper by Dr. Puzman. No generally accepted methodology is in sight-case studies and their conclusions seem to be the only substitute. A similar problem is described and suggested for further research by John Page. He concentrates on the interaction of telecommunications and computer-based information technology. Many managerial and policy issues are generated by this interaction and by organizational and operational dissimilarities of these two branches. The last four papers deal with the relation of telecommunications development to other branches and activities. Dr. Seetzen points out how different technological innovations can be "complementary" to each other in delivering a system capable of new services and/or in offering a new value to the user. Some potential applications (in information transfer) of these innovations are explored in the second paper by Mr. Page. He shows also how present tariff policies can hamper the acceptance of new services (for example electronic document delivery). The relations of telecommunications to the printing industry and its potential future development are explored in the paper by Prof. Karttunen. He shows how the progress of information technology in general and telecommunications in particular can influence the graphic arts industry and its progress, giving particular attention to the scene in Finland. An interesting attempt is made in the paper by Dr. Granstrand. He compares the innovation environment in two production branches in Sweden in which two innovated products have emerged recently -- the automobile and telecommunication equipment branches. This comparison serves as a vehicle for identifying similarities and differences in the process of innovation mangement with emphasis on capital formation. The last paper in the proceedings describes the result of research in videotex systems carried out at IIASA by Drs. Maurer and Sebestyen. The paper presents a technical and economic analysis of the present state of the art and the potential future development of videotex systems with special attention to a comparison of one-way and two-way videotex systems. The authors also try to identify the role of technical innovation of individual components in the system's development with due attention to human and societal factors. The paper presented by Mr. Nemeth on the use of viewdata systems for inventory control is not included in the proceedings but will be published as a collaborative paper by the institute at a later date