10. Interuniversitäres Doktorandenseminar Wirtschaftsinformatik Juli 2009

Begonnen im Jahr 2000, ist das Interuniversitäre Wirtschaftsinformatik-Doktorandenseminar mittlerweile zu einer schönen Tradition geworden. Zunächst unter Beteiligung der Universitäten Leipzig und Halle-Wittenberg gestartet. Seit 2003 wird das Seminar zusammen mit der Jenaer Universität durchgeführt, in diesem Jahr sind erstmals auch die Technische Universität Dresden und die TU Bergakademie Freiberg dabei. Ziel der Interuniversitären Doktorandenseminare ist der über die eigenen Institutsgrenzen hinausgehende Gedankenaustausch zu aktuellen, in Promotionsprojekten behandelten Forschungsthemen. Indem der Schwerpunkt der Vorträge auch auf das Forschungsdesign gelegt wird, bietet sich allen Doktoranden die Möglichkeit, bereits in einer frühen Phase ihrer Arbeit wichtige Hinweise und Anregungen aus einem breiten Hörerspektrum zu bekommen. In den vorliegenden Research Papers sind elf Beiträge zum diesjährigen Doktorandenseminar in Jena enthalten. Sie stecken ein weites Feld ab - vom Data Mining und Wissensmanagement über die Unterstützung von Prozessen in Unternehmen bis hin zur RFID-Technologie. Die Wirtschaftsinformatik als typische Bindestrich-Informatik hat den Ruf einer thematischen Breite. Die Dissertationsprojekte aus fünf Universitäten belegen dies eindrucksvoll.

The use of information systems for logistics and supply chain management in South East Europe: Current status and future direction

This research aims to investigate the current status and future direction of the use of information systems for logistics and supply chain management (LSCM) in South East Europe. The objectives are threefold: (1) to identify major challenges and developments on the use of information systems for LSCM by enterprises, (2) to examine the actual level of satisfaction of current policy on LSCM, and (3) to reveal the actual need of enterprises in South East Europe on effective use of information systems for LSCM. Mixed methodology of literature review and questionnaire survey is adopted in this research. Data collected from 79 enterprises are analysed using descriptive analysis in SPSS. The findings suggest that enterprises in Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), Romania, and Serbia and Montenegro, face similar challenges but all are in different stages of developments of LSCM. Their use of information systems explains their heavy focus on supply chain partnership and weakness in demand chain partnership. Major findings suggest that companies and governments alike in that region do not seem to be ready for playing a significant and demanding role in global supply chains. Current deficiencies, including limited abilities in building valuable forward relations, weak strategic planning and organisation, and infrastructural problems, are major obstacles for fast development in LSCM. At the same time though, traces of changing mentalities do exist, setting the ground for improved performance and ultimately for a better position in global business

Semantic discovery and reuse of business process patterns

Patterns currently play an important role in modern information systems (IS) development and their use has mainly been restricted to the design and implementation phases of the development lifecycle. Given the increasing significance of business modelling in IS development, patterns have the potential of providing a viable solution for promoting reusability of recurrent generalized models in the very early stages of development. As a statement of research-in-progress this paper focuses on business process patterns and proposes an initial methodological framework for the discovery and reuse of business process patterns within the IS development lifecycle. The framework borrows ideas from the domain engineering literature and proposes the use of semantics to drive both the discovery of patterns as well as their reuse

Indian Organised Apparel Retail Sector and DSS (Decision Support Systems)

Indian apparel retail sector poses interesting challenges to a manager as it is evolving and closely linked to fashions. Appealing mainly to youth, the sector has typical information requirements to manage its operations. DSS (Decision Support Systems) provide timely and accurate information & it can be viewed as an integrated entity providing management with the tools and information to assist their decision making. The study exploratory in nature, adopts a case study approach to understand practices of organized retailers in apparel sector regarding applications of various DSS tools. Conceptual overview of DSS is undertaken by reviewing the literature. The study describes practices and usage of DSS in operational decisions in apparel sector and managerial issues in design and implementation of DSS. A multi brand local chain and multi brand national chain of apparel was chosen for the study. Varied tools were found to be used by them. It was also found that for sales forecasting and visual merchandising decisions, prior experience rather than any DSS tool was used. The benefits realized were; “help as diagnostic tool”, “accuracy of records and in billing”, “smooth operations”. The implementation issues highlighted by the store managers were; more initial teething problems rather than resistance on the part of employees of the store, need for investment of time & money in training, due to rapid technological advancements, time to time updation in DSS tools is required . Majority of operational decisions like inventory management, CRM, campaign management were handled by ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) or POS (Point of Sale). Prioritization as well as quantification of benefits was not attempted. The issues of coordination, integration with other systems in case of ERP usage, training were highlighted. Future outlook of DSS seems bright as apparel retailers are keen to invest in technology.

Designing interoperable museum information systems

Museum collections are characterized by heterogeneity, since they usually host a plethora of objects of categories, while each of them requires different description policies and metadata standards. Moreover the museum records, which keep the history and evolution of the hosted collections, request proactive curation in order to preserve this rich and diverse information. In this paper, the architecture of an innovative museum information system, as well as its implementation details is presented. In particular the requirements and the system architecture are presented along with the problems that were encountered. The main directions of the system design are (a) to increase interoperability levels and therefore assist proactive curation and (b) to enhance navigation by the usage of handheld devices. The first direction is satisfied by the design of a rich metadata schema based on the CIDOC/CRM standard. The second direction is fulfilled by the implementation of a module, which integrates the museum database with a subsystem appropriate to support user navigation into the museum floors and rooms. The module is expressed as a navigation functionality, which is accessed through handheld devices and peripherals, such as PDAs and RFID tags. The proposed system is functional and operates into the Solomos Museum, situated in Zakynthos island, Greece

How do supply chain management and information systems practices influence operational performance?:Evidence from emerging country SMEs

This study first provides a comparative analysis of the impact of supply chain management (SCM) and information systems (IS) practices on operational performance (OPER) of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) operating in two neighbouring emerging country markets of Turkey and Bulgaria. Then, we investigate moderating effects of both SCM–IS-linked enablers and inhibitors on the links between SCM and IS practices and OPER of SMEs. To this end, we first empirically identify the underlying dimensions of SCM and IS practices, and SCM–IS-related enabling and inhibiting factors. Second, a series of regression analyses are undertaken to estimate the impact of the study's constructs on OPER of SMEs. The results are discussed comparatively within the contexts of both Turkish and Bulgarian SMEs and beyond. The study makes a significant contribution to the extant literature through obtaining and analysing cross-national survey data of SCM and IS practices in emerging country markets

A taxonomy of logistics innovations

In this paper we present a taxonomy of supply chain and logistics innovations, which is based on an extensive literature survey. Our primary goal is to provide guidelines for choosing the most appropriate innovations for a company, such that the company can outrun its competitors. We investigate the factors, both internal and external to the company, that determine the applicability and effectiveness of the listed innovations. We support our suggestions with real world cases reported in literature

Extending CRM in the Retail Industry: An RFID-Based Personal Shopping Assistant System

This paper describes the research and development of a radio frequency identification (RFID)-based personal shopping assistant (PSA) system for retail stores. RFID technology was employed as the key enabler to build a PSA system to optimize operational efficiency and deliver a superior customer shopping experience in retail stores. We show that an RFID-based PSA system can deliver significant results to improve the customer shopping experience and retail store operational efficiency, by increasing customer convenience, providing flexibility in service delivery, enhancing promotional campaign efficiency, and increasing product cross selling and upselling through a customer relationship management (CRM) system. In this study, an RFID value grid for retail stores is proposed that allows managers to use RFID technology in stores to add value to the shopping experience of their customers. Four propositions are presented as the research agenda for examining the ability of RFID technology to improve the operations management of retail stores

Risk management in organic coffee supply chains : testing the usefulness of critical risk models

This report documents the findings of the analysis of the supply chain of organic coffee from Uganda to the Netherlands using a Chain Risk Model (CRM). The CRM considers contamination of organic coffee with chemicals as a threat for the supply chain, and analyses the consequences of contamination in one stage of the supply chain for the subsequent stages. Next to this, CRM also analyses the effectiveness and efficiency of measures to avoid or detect contamination. In a subsequent phase of this research, the CRM can also be used to analyse the consequences of fraud (= mixing of organic coffee and non-organic coffee) and measures to tackle fraud

Invited Article: The Future of CRM is UX

Background: This paper connects several sides of the web and mobile usages in business. The idea is to utilize Customer Relations Management (CRM) as the vehicle to establish connection from Web one and Web two into Web three. Objectives: This paper has the main purpose combine efforts in developing business strategies into general path of future Web development. Methods/Approach: Using the extensive literature, business cases and software trends in the area, the paper is focused on predicting the future in the area of the business trends in Information Technology (IT). Results: After discussion of the development using selected milestones: CRM is supported by the Social Networks (SN) and is enabled by Cloud Computing (CC), we were able to achieve the predictions. Conclusions: The final conclusion is in the convergence of the business efforts and SN methods on the new paradigm called the User eXperience (UX)