Strategic issues in customer relationship management (CRM) implementation

A number of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) implementations has grown dramatically in recent years. However, few academic studies of the issues associated with the implementation of the concept are available. In this paper, the author offers a modest contribution through the analysis of a case study of a CRM implementation at a United Kingdom based manufacturing company. The case study illustrates that CRM is a complex and holistic concept, organised around business processes and the integration of information technologies. The study also highlights that implementing CRM requires effective leadership, sourcing, targeting and evaluation strategies

Politics in packaged software implementation

The academic literature relating to the political issues of information systems is fairly well established. However, there are relatively few empirical studies relating to the political issues associated with the organisational implementation of package software. The aim of this paper is to offer a modest contribution via case study research with an analysis of a packaged software implementation at an organisation based in the United Kingdom. The study raises issues that support and question some of the notions inherent in many political theories relating to information systems. The study also highlights the multifarious and complex nature of politics in the development of packaged software implementation

A review of ethical theory in the ‘upper echelons’ of information systems research

Despite some notable and rare exceptions and after many years of relatively neglect (particularly in the ‘upper echelons’ of IS research), there appears to be some renewed interest in Information Systems Ethics (ISE). This paper reflects on the development of ISE by assessing the use and development of ethical theory in contemporary IS research with a specific focus on the ‘leading’ IS journals (according to the Association of Information Systems). The focus of this research is to evaluate if previous calls for more theoretically informed work are permeating the ‘upper echelons’ of IS research and if so, how (Walsham 1996; Smith and Hasnas 1999; Bell and Adam 2004). For the purposes of scope, this paper follows on from those previous studies and presents a detailed review of the leading IS publications between 2005 to 2007 inclusive. After several processes, a total of 32 papers are evaluated. This review highlights that whilst ethical topics are becoming increasingly popular in such influential media, most of the research continues to neglect considerations of ethical theory with preferences for a range of alternative approaches. Finally, this research focuses on some of the papers produced and considers how the use of ethical theory could contribute

An analysis of customer centricity in customer relationship management (CRM) systems

A growing number of organisations have implemented or are considering implementing Customer Relationship Management (CRM) strategies for the purpose of becoming more customer focussed. Despite this trend, there remains a relative dearth of academic literature relating to examining the realities of achieving such organisational objectives. The purpose of this paper is to offer a modest contribution to this area by analysing some of the core concepts of CRM, particularly in respect of customer centricity and contrasting this with case study research of customer-facing systems in two diverse organisations based in the United Kingdom. The first organisation (Logistics Limited) is a small to medium sized manufacturing company that believes that it is failing to compete because of a loss of customer focus. It is widely perceived that Retail Limited is a market leading retailer because of its ability to consistently meet customer needs. This paper reveals that despite their diverse legacies, both organisations are struggling to implement, to varying degrees, some of the principles of customer centricity within their CRM systems

Computer and information ethics: the neglect of moral issues associated with e-commerce

This research explores the ethical and social issues arising from the phenomenal growth of commercial E-Gambling within Europe. The digitised commercial services of a leading European operator is scrutinised using internet research methods from 2003 to 2006 to produce the findings. Internet research methods were selected because they offer interesting insights that have proved difficult to ascertain by others, using alternative approaches. This empirical study highlights some of the social problems associated with E-Gambling, particularly in relation to concerns with the level of problem gambling. In addition, it finds that commercial operators have a contradictory stance in terms of the delivery of their ethical policies in some commercial practices

The Voluntary Adjustment of Railroad Obligations

Automatic memory management techniques eliminate many programming errors that are both hard to find and to correct. However, these techniques are not yet used in embedded systems with hard realtime applications. The reason is that current methods for automatic memory management have a number of drawbacks. The two major ones are: (1) not being able to always guarantee short real-time deadlines and (2) using large amounts of extra memory. Memory is usually a scarce resource in embedded applications. In this paper we present a new technique, Real-Time Reference Counting (RTRC) that overcomes the current problems and makes automatic memory management attractive also for hard real-time applications. The main contribution of RTRC is that often all memory can be used to store live objects. This should be compared to a memory overhead of about 500% for garbage collectors based on copying techniques and about 50% for garbage collectors based on mark-and-sweep techniques

Exploring MacIntyre’s virtue ethics in relation to information systems

There is still surprisingly little explicit consideration of ethics in relation to IS. This paper addresses this relative gap by arguing that MacIntyre’s critique of utilitarianism in bureaucratic organizations with its alternative ‘virtues-goods-practice-institution’ framework offers a fruitful approach for an analysis of ethical concerns relating to information systems. We cast the notion of ‘best practice’, as embodied in an information system, as a central ethical concern. We briefly describe an empirical study of a Customer Relationship Management system implementation reflecting on the ways that MacIntyre’s ethical framework may be a suitable approach towards the ethical analysis of information systems

Outsourcing paradox: total outsourcing, organisational innovation, and long run productivity growth

A growing empirical literature indicates that outsourcing can deliver short term cuts in costs but leads to a long term loss of productivity growth. In order to explain this outsourcing productivity paradox, the paper examines the connection between total outsourcing and organisational innovation, a major contributor to productivity growth. This is done within a model in which managers raise the productive efficiency by identifying organisational architectures that more effectively integrate the value adding activities and administrative routines. As part of this process, managers can internally or externally source an activity. Simulations of the model show that large scale outsourcing restricts the scope for organisational innovation, leading to low productivity growth. The findings accord with the empirical data, and provide a salutary warning for managers and policy-makers about the potential long term implications of total outsourcing

Exposing the Interplay Between Enzyme Turnover, Protein Dynamics and the Membrane Environment in Monoamine Oxidase B

There is an increasing realization that structure-based drug design may show improved success rates by understanding the ensemble of conformations and sub-states accessible to an enzyme and how the environment affects this ensemble. Human monoamine oxidase B (MAO-B) catalyzes the oxidation of amines and is inhibited for the treatment of both Parkinson’s disease and depression. Despite its clinical importance, its catalytic mechanism remains unclear and routes to drugging this target would be valuable and relevant. Evidence of a radical in either the transition state or resting state of MAO-B is present throughout the literature, and is suggested to be a flavin semiquinone, a tyrosyl radical or both. Here we see evidence of a resting state flavin semiquinone, via absorption redox studies and electron paramagnetic resonance, suggesting that the anionic semiquinone is biologically relevant. Based on enzyme kinetic studies, enzyme variants and molecular dynamics simulations we find evidence for the crucial importance of the membrane environment in mediating the activity of MAO-B and that this mediation is related to effects on the protein dynamics of MAO-B. Further, our MD simulations identify a hitherto undescribed entrance for substrate binding, membrane modulated substrate access, and indications for half-site reactivity: only one active site is accessible to binding at a time. Our study combines both experimental and computational evidence to illustrate the subtle interplay between enzyme activity, protein dynamics and the immediate membrane environment. Understanding key biomedical enzymes to this level of detail will be crucial to inform strategies (and binding sites) for rational drug design for these drug targets