Network-based business process management: embedding business logic in communications networks

Advanced Business Process Management (BPM) tools enable the decomposition of previously integrated and often ill-defined processes into re-usable process modules. These process modules can subsequently be distributed on the Internet over a variety of many different actors, each with their own specialization and economies-of-scale. The economic benefits of process specialization can be huge. However, how should such actors in a business network find, select, and control, the best partner for what part of the business process, in such a way that the best result is achieved? This particular management challenge requires more advanced techniques and tools in the enabling communications networks. An approach has been developed to embed business logic into the communications networks in order to optimize the allocation of business resources from a network point of view. Initial experimental results have been encouraging while at the same time demonstrating the need for more robust techniques in a future of massively distributed business processes.active networks;business process management;business protocols;embedded business logic;genetic algorithms;internet distributed process management;payment systems;programmable networks;resource optimization

Towards Understanding the Politics of Flex Crops and Commodities: Implications for Research and Policy Advocacy

This discussion paper offers a preliminary exploration of the concept and phenomenon of “flex crops and commodities”, building on an earlier and initial analysis and abbreviated idea put forward by some of the authors of this paper. We discuss the dual concepts of the “multiple-ness” and “flexible-ness” of crops and commodities as two distinct but intertwined dimensions of some key crops and commodities. These key crops and commodities are shaped by the changing global context that is itself (re)moulded in large part by the convergence of multiple crises and the various responses to those crises. Building on these dual concepts, we will identify and explain the minimum requirements for crop and commodity flexing. We will also try to typologize the various types of crop and commodity flexing, namely, “real flexing”, “anticipated/speculated flexing”, and “imagined flexing”—to allow for a deeper examination of these interrelated processes. The boundaries between these categories (multiple/flexible, real, anticipated and imagined) are not always clearly demarcated, requiring us to examine the issue of flex crops and commodities in a more interlinked manner. We will focus our initial exploration on the political dynamics of such interactions and intersections, looking into the factors that encourage or discourage, facilitate or hinder maximization of the “multiple-ness” and/or “flexible-ness” of particular crops and commodities. Finally, and as a way of closing, we will outline the implications of these dynamics for how we think of engaged research, public actions and policy advocacy, including a brief discussion of what we call “flex policy narratives” by governments and corporations.

How Smart Card Technology Could Be Used for Dynamic Pricing in Transportation Network?

The past decade has witnessed an increased application for dynamic pricing in transportation industry, where firms use various forms of dynamic pricing to respond to market fluctuations and uncertainty in demand. In light of the success in the airline dynamic pricing practice and given the advancement of the ICT technology, the question is raised as follows: can technology adoptions, such as smart card, help the transportation companies, especially public transport operators, to approach the dynamic pricing in an innovative way? By using the case of the smart card adoption in the Dutch transportation industry, this article articulates the opportunities the smart card brings to the dynamic pricing design and use. It is demonstrated that the smart card data gives a dimensional view on the travellers, where both the market segmentation and the travel behaviour could be better studied. It is also argued that the rich segmentation information on the travellers and the increased understanding of the travel behaviour could lead to the level of refinement of the dynamic pricing strategies for the transportation companies. Furthermore, a number of dynamic pricing strategies are proposed that correspond to the discussed smart card dimensions

Network-based business process management: embedding business logic in communications networks

Advanced Business Process Management (BPM) tools enable the decomposition of previously integrated and often ill-defined processes into re-usable process modules. These process modules can subsequently be distributed on the Internet over a variety of many different actors, each with their own specialization and economies-of-scale. The economic benefits of process specialization can be huge. However, how should such actors in a business network find, select, and control, the best partner for what part of the business process, in such a way that the best result is achieved? This particular management challenge requires more advanced techniques and tools in the enabling communications networks. An approach has been developed to embed business logic into the communications networks in order to optimize the allocation of business resources from a network point of view. Initial experimental results have been encouraging while at the same time demonstrating the need for more robust techniques in a future of massively distributed business processes

Sustainable revenue management

The introduction of public transport smart cards means it is now possible to forecast how behavioural change stimulators, such as time-variable pricing, will impact passenger activity. This is an invaluable tool for managing revenue in a sustainable way, not just in the public transport sector, but also for every industry constrained by peak-loading capacity

Organizational Performance of a Firm in a Modular Business Network

The organizational capabilities to interact with others have been greatly improved as a result of modern information and communications technologies: Nowadays a company can maintain more relationships with more companies at much lower costs than before. What impact does this increased interaction capability have on the company\u27s choice to perform tasks itself or to \u27outsource\u27 such tasks to others (the trade-off between \u27make\u27 or \u27buy\u27)? Business network theory places the company in a \u27business network\u27, a web of business partners linked together in a flexible way to produce different outputs depending on the customer requirements. Previous research suggests that such business networks require modularization of the products, the processes and the firm in order to be effective. Firms would be able to share their core capabilities and therefore can respond faster, and more effective, to different requirements. Are business networks indeed more dynamic and more \u27agile\u27 than other forms of inter-organizational co-operation like alliances, joint-ventures or markets? More precisely, what is the impact of the structure of a business network on the performance of the participating actor organizations? The objective of this study is to define and understand this relationship: business network structure and organizational performance. In this Research in Progress Paper we present our preliminary set of hypotheses and our testing instrument, a management game called the Business Networking Game that simulates modular business networks