Improving Schema Mapping by Exploiting Domain Knowledge

This dissertation addresses the problem of semi-automatically creating schema mappings. The need for developing schema mappings is a pervasive problem in many integration scenarios. Although the problem is well-known and a large body of work exists in the area, the development of schema mappings is today largely performed manually in industrial integration scenarios. In this thesis an approach for the semi-automatic creation of high quality schema mappings is developed

Electronic Markets, Search Costs and Firm Boundaries

We study how electronic markets that facilitate broader inter-firm transactions affect the vertical scope of emerging IT-enabled extended enterprises. We do so by modeling firms in a three-tier value chain who are each connected to a common electronic market that facilitates direct business transactions across tiers, and that lowers the search costs associated with finding an appropriate trading partner for each of them. The extent to which search costs are reduced depends on the complexity of B2B search, and the nature of the supporting technologies that the electronic market facilitates. Variation in search costs affect firms across the value chain in three key ways: by a change in the transaction costs of interaction between firms; by a change in the contracting costs associated with outsourcing owing to changes in the costs of moral hazard for delegated search, and by a change in the price dispersion of upstream input commodities. We capture each of these effects in a new model that integrates search theory into the principal-agent framework, and establish that the optimal outsourcing contract has a simple "all or nothing" performance-based structure under fairly general assumptions. We then apply this model to contrast the effect that different information technologies have on the relative B2B search costs of different firms in the value chain, contrasting the predicted changes of proportionate, constant and convergent changes in search costs. When integrated with a detailed analysis of the nature of B2B search, these results predicts that when B2B search is information-intensive, electronic markets will facilitate an increase in outsourcing, market-based transactions and a reduction in the vertical scope of extended enterprises. In contrast, when B2B search is primarily communication-intensive, electronic markets will lead to tighter integration and an increase in the vertical scope of the extended enterprise. Our research suggest that the nature of the information technologies and of the business activities supported by an electronic market are crucial determinants of the organizational and industry changes they induce, and our results have important implications for a variety of industries in which both technological and agency issues will influence the eventual success of global IT-facilitated extended enterprise initiatives.Information Systems Working Papers Serie

Semantic and Syntactic Matching of Heterogeneous e-Catalogues

In e-procurement, companies use e-catalogues to exchange product infor-mation with business partners. Matching e-catalogues with product requests helps the suppliers to identify the best business opportunities in B2B e-Marketplaces. But various ways to specify products and the large variety of e-catalogue formats used by different business actors makes it difficult. This Ph.D. thesis aims to discover potential syntactic and semantic rela-tionships among product data in procurement documents and exploit it to find similar e-catalogues. Using a Concept-based Vector Space Model, product data and its semantic interpretation is used to find the correlation of product data. In order to identify important terms in procurement documents, standard e-catalogues and e-tenders are used as a resource to train a Product Named Entity Recognizer to find B2B product mentions in e-catalogues. The proposed approach makes it possible to use the benefits of all availa-ble semantic resources and schemas but not to be dependent on any specific as-sumption. The solution can serve as a B2B product search system in e-Procurement platforms and e-Marketplaces

Contributions to chatbots and digital analytics in industry

Diese kumulative Dissertation umfasst zehn wissenschaftliche Artikel, die zur Forschung digitaler Analytik, Messung von Technologieakzeptanz und Chatbots beitragen. Ziel der Artikel ist es, die Entwicklung, Implementierung und Verwaltung von Technologien zu vereinfachen und zu unterstützen. Modelle werden entwickelt, welche die wichtigsten Schritte beschreiben und unter anderem relevante damit zusammenhängende Fragen auflisten, die zu beteiligenden Interessengruppen benennen und geeignete Tools vorstellen, welche berücksichtigt werden sollten. Es werden Chatbot Taxonomien entwickelt und vorgestellt, welche die Bandbreite der derzeit bestehenden Gestaltungsmöglichkeiten aufzeigen, während identifizierte Archetypen zu beobachtende Kombinationen aufzeigen. Die Identifizierung der häufigsten Gründe für Misserfolge und die Entwicklung kritischer Erfolgsfaktoren tragen ebenfalls zu dem Ziel bei, den Entwicklungs- und Managementprozess zu erleichtern. Da die Endnutzer über die Akzeptanz und Nutzung und damit über den Erfolg einer Technologie entscheiden, werden Ansätze genutzt, wie die Nutzerakzeptanz von Technologien gemessen werden kann und wie Nutzer frühzeitig in den Entwicklungsprozess eingebunden werden können

Business process and technology lessons learned, recommendations and best practices for new adopters

Thesis (M. Eng. in Logistics)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, 2006."June 2006."Includes bibliographical references (leaves 117-118).This thesis focuses on documenting learnings from a RFID data exchange pilot in the fast moving consumer goods industry. The pilot we studied is a collaborative effort between two of the largest retailers in the world and five of their major suppliers, facilitated by EPCglobal and the MIT Auto-ID labs. Currently, manufacturers and suppliers are building the infrastructure to exchange EPC data to validate standards and proof of concepts for RFID adoption. The outcome of these pilots will essentially set the stage for large scale RFID adoption worldwide. Our thesis attempts to document issues relating to data exchange from business process, organizational and technical perspectives. We have synthesized the findings and consolidated the lessons learned during the pilot in an attempt to form a set of actionable recommendations for new companies looking to start on RFID pilot projects.by Rida Chan [and] Sangeeth Ram.M.Eng.in Logistic

Utilization of Chatbots in Customer Interface

Automation has become a worldwide trend in business. Businesses try to find competitive edge from more efficient processes, lower costs and better customer service. In this Bachelor’s thesis, I focus on one instance of the trend: web-based chatbots in the customer interface. Based on a broad literature review, this thesis illustrates what are the prerequisites for the utilization of chatbots, how should they be implemented and finally, what pros and cons managers can expect from such investments. Managers should first be aware of the technical restrictions and challenges chatbots as a medium exhibit. Then, through analysis on their customers, managers should assess the suitability of chatbots for their business. The design process should include both the customers as well as different departments in the company. This can also help with change resistance in the implementation phase. Finally, the chatbot should be constantly evaluated to ensure the benefits promised are delivered. Although chatbots can offer versatility and cost savings, poorly design may end up costing the firm both in the terms of unnecessary investment and reduced customer satisfaction. Although no new concepts are introduced, this thesis is a good starting point for managers interested in utilizing chatbots. On the other hand, as the topic is currently relevant, this thesis can be useful for other industries as well

Tecnologias IoT para pastoreio e controlo de postura animal

The unwanted and adverse weeds that are constantly growing in vineyards, force wine producers to repeatedly remove them through the use of mechanical and chemical methods. These methods include machinery such as plows and brushcutters, and chemicals as herbicides to remove and prevent the growth of weeds both in the inter-row and under-vine areas. Nonetheless, such methods are considered very aggressive for vines, and, in the second case, harmful for the public health, since chemicals may remain in the environment and hence contaminate water lines. Moreover, such processes have to be repeated over the year, making it extremely expensive and toilsome. Using animals, usually ovines, is an ancient practice used around the world. Animals, grazing in vineyards, feed from the unwanted weeds and fertilize the soil, in an inexpensive, ecological and sustainable way. However, sheep may be dangerous to vines since they tend to feed on grapes and on the lower branches of the vines, which causes enormous production losses. To overcome that issue, sheep were traditionally used to weed vineyards only before the beginning of the growth cycle of grapevines, thus still requiring the use of mechanical and/or chemical methods during the remainder of the production cycle. To mitigate the problems above, a new technological solution was investigated under the scope of the SheepIT project and developed in the scope of this thesis. The system monitors sheep during grazing periods on vineyards and implements a posture control mechanism to instruct them to feed only from the undesired weeds. This mechanism is based on an IoT architecture, being designed to be compact and energy efficient, allowing it to be carried by sheep while attaining an autonomy of weeks. In this context, the thesis herein sustained states that it is possible to design an IoT-based system capable of monitoring and conditioning sheep’s posture, enabling a safe weeding process in vineyards. Moreover, we support such thesis in three main pillars that match the main contributions of this work and that are duly explored and validated, namely: the IoT architecture design and required communications, a posture control mechanism and the support for a low-cost and low-power localization mechanism. The system architecture is validated mainly in simulation context while the posture control mechanism is validated both in simulations and field experiments. Furthermore, we demonstrate the feasibility of the system and the contribution of this work towards the first commercial version of the system.O constante crescimento de ervas infestantes obriga os produtores a manter um processo contínuo de remoção das mesmas com recurso a mecanismos mecânicos e/ou químicos. Entre os mais populares, destacam-se o uso de arados e roçadores no primeiro grupo, e o uso de herbicidas no segundo grupo. No entanto, estes mecanismos são considerados agressivos para as videiras, assim como no segundo caso perigosos para a saúde pública, visto que os químicos podem permanecer no ambiente, contaminando frutos e linhas de água. Adicionalmente, estes processos são caros e exigem mão de obra que escasseia nos dias de hoje, agravado pela necessidade destes processos necessitarem de serem repetidos mais do que uma vez ao longo do ano. O uso de animais, particularmente ovelhas, para controlar o crescimento de infestantes é uma prática ancestral usada em todo o mundo. As ovelhas, enquanto pastam, controlam o crescimento das ervas infestantes, ao mesmo tempo que fertilizam o solo de forma gratuita, ecológica e sustentável. Não obstante, este método foi sendo abandonado visto que os animais também se alimentam da rama, rebentos e frutos da videira, provocando naturais estragos e prejuízos produtivos. Para mitigar este problema, uma nova solução baseada em tecnologias de Internet das Coisas é proposta no âmbito do projeto SheepIT, cuja espinha dorsal foi construída no âmbito desta tese. O sistema monitoriza as ovelhas enquanto estas pastoreiam nas vinhas, e implementam um mecanismo de controlo de postura que condiciona o seu comportamento de forma a que se alimentem apenas das ervas infestantes. O sistema foi incorporado numa infraestrutura de Internet das Coisas com comunicações sem fios de baixo consumo para recolha de dados e que permite semanas de autonomia, mantendo os dispositivos com um tamanho adequado aos animais. Neste contexto, a tese suportada neste trabalho defende que é possível projetar uma sistema baseado em tecnologias de Internet das Coisas, capaz de monitorizar e condicionar a postura de ovelhas, permitindo que estas pastem em vinhas sem comprometer as videiras e as uvas. A tese é suportada em três pilares fundamentais que se refletem nos principais contributos do trabalho, particularmente: a arquitetura do sistema e respetivo sistema de comunicações; o mecanismo de controlo de postura; e o suporte para implementação de um sistema de localização de baixo custo e baixo consumo energético. A arquitetura é validada em contexto de simulação, e o mecanismo de controlo de postura em contexto de simulação e de experiências em campo. É também demonstrado o funcionamento do sistema e o contributo deste trabalho para a conceção da primeira versão comercial do sistema.Programa Doutoral em Informátic

Scaling through investment in medium-sized SaaS enterprises

The concept of scaling has become a closely followed and interesting topic in the SaaS industry in the context of growth, which indicates a need for additional research on scaling up companies, and especially what to strive for and how to execute plans regarding scaling. This study has attempted to contribute to existing literature and provide practical applications and managerial implications for any SaaS company trying to scale up their business, especially from the new sales and revenue generation perspective. This thesis aims to fill the research gaps, especially on the process of scaling and how to achieve scalable growth. The approach can be condensed into the main research question “How are medium-sized SaaS businesses scaling up after investment?” and the two sub-questions “What are the processes behind scaling up medium-sized SaaS businesses?” and “What is the role of investment in scaling up medium-sized SaaS businesses?” These research questions are answered through the combination of reviewing existing literature on the subject and data collected by interviewing industry experts on the phenomenon of scaling up SaaS businesses. The research process begins with a review of existing academic literature, which will then be used to create a theoretical framework. The findings from the review and the creation of the framework guide the planning and generation of the interview questions, and the framework is also used when presenting and discussing findings from the collected data. The theoretical framework is a result of an iterative parsimony effort, where an existing framework on scaling is modified to better fit the process of scaling up SaaS businesses. The modified drivers represent four key elements in scaling up SaaS businesses after receiving investment: Creation of value propositions, investor value-added, access to new markets and institutionalized rules and norms. The collected data is examined through the perspective of the four drivers. The main finding of this thesis is the process a SaaS company can utilize when aiming to scale up after receiving external investment. The process includes getting to understand how the market and company are developing, evaluating if the efforts and resources should be focused on existing customers and the processes associated with maintaining and growing customer relationships or if the focus can be on growing the customer base through the actions of sales and marketing. The conclusions and managerial implications provide additional detail to how initiatives should be attempted and what kinds of ways can be evaluated when deciding on the proper approach to scaling up a SaaS company. In addition to this, the thesis contributes to defining the term scaling, which is yet to enjoy a commonly agreed upon definition. The thesis is evaluated from a critical perspective and certain limitations are identified and presented, alongside suggestions for future research. The main suggestions revolve around the data collection phase, namely the selection and number of interviewees.Skaalautuvuuden käsitteestä on tullut tiiviisti seurattu ja mielenkiintoinen aihe SaaS-toimialalla, mikä on osoittanut tarvetta tutkimukselle yritysten skaalaamisesta ja erityisesti siitä, mihin skaalaussuunnitelmilla kannattaa pyrkiä ja miten niitä kannattaa toteuttaa. Tällä tutkimuksella on pyritty täydentämään olemassa olevaa kirjallisuutta ja tarjoamaan käytännön sovelluksia SaaS-yrityksille, jotka yrittävät laajentaa liiketoimintaansa, erityisesti asiakashankinnan näkökulmasta. Tämän opinnäytetyön tavoitteena on täyttää tutkimusaukot erityisesti skaalausprosessin ja skaalautuvan kasvun saavuttamisen osalta. Lähestymistapa voidaan tiivistää päätutkimuskysymykseen ”Kuinka keskisuuret SaaS-yritykset skaalautuvat investoinnin jälkeen?” ja kahteen alakysymyksen "Mitkä prosessit ovat keskisuurten SaaS-yritysten skaalaamisessa tärkeimpiä?" ja "Mikä on investointien rooli keskisuurten SaaS-yritysten skaalaamisessa?" Näihin tutkimuskysymyksiin vastataan tarkastelemalla aiempaa kirjallisuutta ja alan asiantuntijoita haastattelemalla kerättyä tietoa SaaS-liiketoiminnan laajentamisesta. Tutkimusprosessi alkaa akateemisen kirjallisuuden katsauksella, jota käytetään teoreettisen viitekehyksen luomiseen. Katsauksen havainnot ja viitekehyksen luominen ohjaavat haastattelukysymysten suunnittelua ja viitekehystä käytetään myös esiteltäessä ja keskusteltaessa kerätystä datasta saatuja tuloksia. Teoreettinen viitekehys on iteratiivisen prosessin tulos, jossa olemassa olevaa skaalautuvuuteen liittyvää viitekehystä muutetaan sopimaan paremmin SaaS-yritysten skaalausprosessiin. Muokatut ajurit edustavat neljää keskeistä elementtiä SaaS-liiketoiminnan laajentamisessa investoinnin jälkeen: arvolupausten luominen, sijoittajavetoinen arvonlisäys, pääsy uusille markkinoille sekä institutionalisoidut säännöt ja normit. Kerättyä dataa tarkastellaan näiden neljän ajurin näkökulmasta. Tämän opinnäytetyön tärkein löydös on prosessi, jota SaaS-yritys voi hyödyntää pyrkiessään laajentamaan toimintaansa investoinnin jälkeen. Prosessi sisältää markkinoiden ja tarkastelun alla olevan yrityksen kehittymisen ymmärtämisen, arvioinnin siitä pitäisikö panostukset ja resurssit keskittää olemassa oleviin asiakkaisiin, asiakassuhteiden ylläpitämiseen ja kasvattamiseen liittyviin prosesseihin vai kannattaako keskittyä asiakaskunnan kasvattamiseen. Tämän lisäksi opinnäytetyö myötävaikuttaa termin ”skaalaaminen” määrittelyyn. Tutkimusta arvioidaan myös kriittisesti, tiettyjä rajoituksia tunnistetaan ja esitellään, joiden lisäksi tarjotaan jatkotutkimusehdotuksia. Tärkeimmät jatkotutkimusehdotukset liittyvät tiedonkeruuvaiheeseen, tarkemmin haastateltavien valintaan ja määrään