The Implementation Of ICT In Public Sector Organisations. Analysing Selection Criteria For eGovernment Projects

Taking as a starting point the recent approval of 138 co-financing proposals put forward by numerous local government bodies within the context of a national e-government plan, the article poses the question of whether these types of initiatives are really likely to unleash mechanisms capable of improving organisational performance. The evaluation criteria adopted in the course of the selection process are analysed on the basis of a model elaborated by Soh and Markus (1995) with the object of throwing light on the role attributed to information and communication technology (ICT) in the shaping of organisational innovation in the public sector

Web Services System Development: A Grounded Theory Study

This study in progress presents a grounded theory analysis of a case study in the banking industry with a view to showing the role of \u201cWeb services\u201d technology in information systems development practices. The case study relates to the implementation in the Central Europe Bank (a pseudonym) of a new software application based on Web services technology. In particular, the focus is on the following research question: what are the peculiarities of the Web services software development process? A tentative answer to the question is advanced here in the form of a preliminary formulation of a descriptive theory of the Web services ISD process. In particular, an effort is made to understand whether the Web services ISD process can be considered as a short-cycle development process (Baskerville and Pries-Heje, 2004). The process under observation might be categorised in a preliminary way as a \u201chybrid\u201d one lying between methodical and amethodical development processes. Indeed, the data collected and analysed so far confirm the complexity and richness of the situation taken into consideration, offering useful insights to complete and further extend both theoretical and empirical analysis

Sowing the Seeds of is Cultivation in Public Service Organisations

This paper aims to highlight the relevance of a cultivation approach with the goal of exploring the concrete implications it may have for public administrations (PA) involved in projects of organisational change. We suggest that adopting an approach to change that reflects the cultivation perspective is an unavoidable choice for PA, much more so than it is for the corporate world. The claim is that public-sector organisations design and implement organisational solutions that find it hard to move away from the ‘maintenance’ logic of legacy systems. Compared with the rational perspective, which is geared entirely to establishing optimal relations between means and ends, the cultivation approach enables us to make valuable advances at the interpretive level. We argue that the value of the processual and incremental perspective can be useful in creating a more realistic and less illusory reconstruction of the relationship between technological change and organisational change. In this paper, we discuss how combining policy studies with ICT social studies can help empower the cultivation logic, originating new tools for analysing and evaluating e-government results

Web Services and Emergent Organizations: Opportunites and Challenges for IS Development

We are living in exciting times, in which technological innovation and new forms of organization are advancing at a very fast pace. On the organizational side, the lack of stability of the so-called emergent organizations, those that are in continuous evolution and transformation, represents a big challenge for Information Systems Development practices and technologies: in a fast changing organization, there may be no optimal set of specifications for an Information System and even the traditional concept of the Information System life cycle may need to be replaced by one involving the idea of continuous development. On the technological side, the diffusion of Internet-based platforms and, in particular, the recent introduction of the so-called Web Services technological standard for dynamic component-based software development may represent a potentially interesting opportunity to build continuously changing Information Systems. In this contribution we start exploring this territory, focusing on the concepts of emergent systems and continuous development, explaining the major characteristics of Web services technology and the potential uses of it

ITALY’S ONE-STOP BUSINESS SHOPS: WHY ‘INNOVATION BY LAW’ IS A CAR WITHOUT WHEELS

Lean administrative procedures and One-Stop Shops are key drivers of bureaucratic simplification and to ease the administrative burdens on business and industry with the ultimate aim of making a country more competitive and of spurring its economic growth. The paper investigates the case of Italy’s One-Stop Business Services and Information Shops and why it has taken 15 years and a stream of legislation to get the municipalities to implement the concept. The paper assesses whether the Italian government’s One-Stop Business Shop (‘SUAP’) programme has effectively lightened the administrative load that weighs on the country’s enterprises and then analyzes its implementation. A critical discussion of the “innovation by law” approach taken by the Italian government to not only the setting up of the One-Stop Business Shops, but also to diffuse e-government (i.e., the National Action Plans for e-Government) seeks to shed light on the problems that continue to dog e- Government implementation in Italy

Electronic Commerce on the New Silk Road: A Conucopia of Resarch Opportunities

The Silk Road was an important trade route between Europe and Asia a thousand years ago. It connected locations in Central and Eastern Europe with those scattered around West, Central and Eastern Asia. In more recent times, it has been neglected commercially, with the development of other ports and routes. In this paper, the potential rejuvenation of the Silk Road with eCommerce is discussed. In this research project, we characterise emerging opportunities for eCommerce research in the regions of Western China (Xinjiang) and Central Asia (e.g. Kazakhstan). Infrastructural barriers (financial, logistical and physical) are identified, together with cultural and local economic concerns. Our analysis is generally positive and we expect that a new e-Silk Road will emerge in due course, rejuvenating life and the local economy

The use of hysteroscopic metroplasty with diode laser to increase endometrial volume in women with septate uterus: preliminary results

Background: Septate uterus is a common Mullerian ducts anomaly. The aim of our pilot study was the evaluation of diode laser hysteroscopic metroplasty efficacy to increase endometrial volume in women with septate uterus. Results: We prospectively enrolled 10 consecutive patients with septate uterus undergoing office hysteroscopic metroplasty with diode laser between February and November 2019. Endometrial volume was evaluated before and 3 months after surgery using 3D transvaginal ultrasound. The surgical procedure was uncomplicated in all patients, the endometrial volume increased at 3 months follow-up (the median increase was 1.9 cm3 (range 1.7– 2.1), and there was a complete removal of septum with no intrauterine synechiae at follow-up hysteroscopy. Conclusions: Office hysteroscopic metroplasty with diode laser is a safe procedure and has preliminary showed to increase endometrial volume. The increase in endometrial volume by 3D-TV US could be used as a prognostic factor for the reproductive outcomes

Extensible Architectures: The Strategic Value of Service Oriented Architecture in Banking

Information and communication technology (ICT) has helped to drive increasingly intense global competition. In turn, this intensity increases the need for flexibility and rapid changeability in ICT to support strategies that depend on organizational agility. We report a comparative, cross-cultural case study of the implementation of Service Oriented Architectures (SOA) at a Scandinavian bank and a Swiss bank. The strategic rewards in the adoption of SOA appear to go beyond marketplace issues of ICT capability acquisition, and unexpectedly arise in the creation of an extensible organizational ICT architecture. The extensibility of the ICT architecture that results from the adoption of SOA provides potential for greater organizational agility (and thereby competitiveness)