Information Technologies for Engineering Asset Management – Cultural and Technical Barriers

Engineering enterprises utilize a variety of technologies to manage the lifecycle of their critical assets. These technologies consist of operational as well as information technologies that aim to provide control of individual asset management processes as well as to create overall information enabled integrated view of the asset lifecycle management regime. However, implementation and adoption of these technologies is not a linear progression and raises many issues at both the macro and micro levels in the organization. It is for the same reason that utilization of same technologies produces variance in efficiency, results, and outputs among different organizations. In many instances, the consideration of organizational and cultural issues is more important than technological issues in determining a successful outcome for information technologies deployment. In fact, it has been stated that the primary cause for information technology’s failure to yield positive results has been organizational behavior problems. This paper reports the findings from a study conducted in Australian asset managing organizations, which highlights how these organizations have used information technologies for asset management. This paper highlights that value maximization from information technologies utilization has strong contextual and social underpinnings. Their optimal utilization, therefore, calls for understanding the context within which they are deployed, as well as the processes that influence and are influenced by their use

Open Source Software Utilization in Australian State Governments

The financial meltdown has affected businesses around the globe. Businesses are facing extreme pressures to reduce overheads, rationalize costs, and consolidate operations. It is, therefore, decisive to scrutinize all of the options available to the business before making an investment into information technology infrastructure and select the best option within the available means towards growth and seizing long term opportunities. These considerations are even more important in government departments or agencies, where broader public good and the need to demonstrate responsible usage of taxpayer funds are always paramount. Open source technology presents itself as a viable alterative to proprietary software and offers best little opportunity cost and trade offs. Open source software technologies offer genuinely collaborative innovation, at a fraction of cost, and provide robust and secure solutions. This paper presents a study of the open source software penetration in Australian state governments departments, and puts into perspective the value that open source software can add to these departments. It examines why the adoption of OSS for e-government is successfully utilized elsewhere but not in Australia

Information Systems as Strategic Advisors and Strategic Translators – Proposing Information Centred Performance Management

Information technologies, in general, and information systems, in particular, are fast becoming the prime enablers of success and survival in business organisations. These technologies, on one hand, enrich economic, social, and cultural environment of organisations, and on the other hand enhance their competitiveness. For asset managing engineering enterprise, information systems not only help in capturing, storing, and exchanging information, but also enable an integrated view of asset lifecycle management through integration and interoperability of lifecycle information. The variety of systems and the range of objectives associated with these systems demand that organisations need to take stock of their capabilities, resources, and aspirations to enable informed choices regarding Information systems investments. This paper tackles the issue of performance management of information systems utilised in asset lifecycle management, by providing a performance evaluation framework. The framework institutes a generative learning based continuous improvement regime for asset lifecycle management. It provides a cyclical approach to performance measurement such that it assesses and informs the role of Information systems in translating and informing the asset management strategy in a single cycle, thereby enhancing competitiveness of asset managing engineering enterprises

Continuance usage intention in microblogging services: The case of twitter

The emergence of Web 2.0 has brought with it a plethora of social networking technologies. Among these, microblogging has emerged as a new and popular tool for short, frequent communication via Web postings. The most popular microblogging service, Twitter, has established a large user base, in spite of numerous criticisms. This study aims to examine why this is the case. In particular, the study develops a model of microblogging use continuance based on theories of continuance, habit and critical mass. The model is then tested by means of a Web survey of Twitter users (n=131) and structural equation modelling using the partial least squares technique. The results suggest that continued use intention is strongly determined by perceived usefulness, satisfaction and habit (R2=0.454) which together provide a strong explanation for Twitter user behaviour. Further, critical mass and frequency of prior behaviour, both influenced by social network size, are strong determinants of the habit construct. The paper rounds off with conclusions and implications for future research and practice in this very new area of inquiry

Creativity Lies at the Edges of Chaos- Reducing Complexity in IT Projects

As businesses operate in increasingly more complex environments, understanding complexity and its sources is becoming increasingly important. These sources range from internal organizational culture to, technical and social environment in which the business operates, to the competitive dynamics aimed at capturing and maximizing market share. The increasing unpredictability and complexity of unforeseen competitive consequences call for novel methods of planning, execution, and management of business. As organizations confront these changes and attempt to adapt to them, they find that management of technology intensive projects can no longer be viewed as a linear process of planned actions. In these project change agents self organize to accomplish pre-determined goals based on the feedback, emerging circumstances, and to cope with future uncertainty. This process of self organization results in organizational evolution and growth based on generative learning that facilitates continuous improvement through action oriented learnings. In doing so, this increased complexity results in complex adaptive systems increasingly evolving throughout the organization and creating unpredictable changes operating between stability and instability. This paper tackles the issue complexity management in technology intensive projects. It particularly focuses on elements of complexity; role of project managers; and theories for managing complexities in projects

The Influence of Online Social Networks and Web 2.0 Applications on the Political Environment

This paper outlines the impact of the internet applications of second generation (Web 2.0) on the political environment. After a brief examination of the peculiar features of the most known and widely used applications, such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Wiki and Weblogs, follows a discussion on some of the roles that these online tools can play in the political field. Social network sites can have a mobilization effect on the voters, can influence the political debate and can be used as an effective propaganda tool during elections campaign. The paper examines, finally, the impact that web 2.0 applications have had on politics in two countries: The United States of America and Australia

What Happens After the Click? Role of Internet Information in Shaping Democratic Values

The concept of democracy and the one that internet works on are extremely similar in nature. Particularly the freedom of expression and the notion of equality makes internet is an inherently democratic medium. This paper discusses the issues surrounding democracy and the internet by examining the relationship between the two. While the internet has many elements which can be extremely beneficial to democratic societies, such as access to information and broadening communication, these benefits are not qualities inherent to the internet; rather, they are outcomes of the context and cultures in which the internet based technologies are developed and placed. Equally, the negative aspects of the internet’s nature, such as encouragement of the digital divide, and the potential for developing lynch-mob mentalities, are dependent on who is using the technology and how it is used

Believable Unbelievable Internet Based Information

The world around us has changed over recent years with the evolution of cyberspace and the development of the internet. Information in cyberspace is like an endless repository of information of various kinds, where there are no checks on who uploads the information and who downloads the same. Cyberspace thus practices equality in its most pristine form, though at the same time it also has the potential of fomenting communal hatred, inciting violence, and affecting public opinion. The fundamental challenge here is how to establish what information in cyberspace is useful, authentic, and original and what is not. Given the growing popularity of the internet, there is a need to address the regulation of its use so that our society is not divided on social, cultural, and economic lines. This paper discusses the issues concerning openness and authenticity of information found in cyberspace, and its impact on the world around us. It illustrates the point that certain level of control is essential to minimise the detrimental social, cultural, and economic impacts from the multifaceted information available in cyberspace. This may even require re-examination and re-structuring of the traditional institutions that we have come to rely on to resolve the basic issues of society

Institutionalising Information Technology for Engineering Asset Management-Impeding Issues

Information technologies implementation in asset managing organisations does not follow a linear path. It is primarily driven by cost concerns, rather than an approach that takes into account the existing technological infrastructure, business requirements, available skill base, social and cultural environment, and operational and strategic value of technology investment. This paper presents a case of information technologies implementation in asset managing organisations. It concludes that technology for asset management needs to be physically adopted, and socially and organisationally institutionalised, to create consensus on what the technology is supposed to accomplish and how it is to be utilized in the organisation

CONCEPTUAL AND OPERATIONAL LIMITATIONS OF EVALUATING IS FOR ENGINEERING ASSET MANAGEMENT

Asset managing organisations utilize a variety of information systems to support the lifecycle of their assets. Traditionally, engineering enterprises take a deterministic approach to technology adoption. Evaluation of these systems, therefore, is an important aspect of managing IT investments in these organisations. Information systems evaluation is not an inert or stagnant activity, in fact it is highly influenced by the organisational environment. There are certain conceptual and operational issues and challenges that impede the employment of an effective evaluation mechanism. This paper provides a discussion on the conceptual and operational dimensions of the evaluation of the information systems utilized in asset lifecycle management. It highlights that an effective approach to information systems evaluation calls for pluralism, which demands qualitative as well as quantitative measures, involving context based cultural, social, economic, political, technical, and organisational aspects