Cloud ConsultingCrowdsourcing-Based Framework for ERP Consulting

Information Technology (IT) altered the way of running businesses in all fields. The installation and integration of an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system is a critical process. With the emergence of Web 2.0, many businesses were created or reengineered to gain an advantage from this technology. This offers an enormous network of users with different interests and skills, and support knowledge transfer. Our expectation is that ERP consulting business will be the next to be changed. In this work, a cloud consulting framework will be provided to enhance the services offered based on crowdsourcing. After examining literature on crowdsourcing and ERP consulting, the following research question was stated: “How can cloud consulting employ crowdsourcing to improve ERP consultancy?” Thus, the research objective is to develop a cloud consulting framework for ERP consulting based on crowdsourcing

Benefits of Data Center Virtualization to Increase The Availability as A Central Quality of Service Aspect, Using The Example of Cloud Services

Like most entrepreneurs, data center operators pursue goals like profit-maximization and improvement of the company’s reputation. Part of those aims is to guarantee a given quality of a service. These quality characteristics are specified in a contract, the so called service level agreement. The central part of this agreement are the non-functional characteristics of an IT service. The most important of these properties is the availability of the system. To comply with the requirements for availability, data center operators can use virtualization technologies. Regarding the performance of different virtualization solutions, there is still lack of easy prepared information about the different solutions. Therefore, the goal of this paper is to introduce a model, which represents the influence of features of different virtualization technologies on the availability of the data center’s IT services. At the same time, the paper points to possible problems and sensitizes for disadvantages of virtualization. Thus, the result of the paper is to improve the transparency for opportunities and risks of data center virtualization, especially in relation to system availability

Towards a Systematic Evaluation of Web Design

A good web design is a prerequisite for a successful business nowadays, when the most used way for the people to inform themselves is the Internet. Web design includes the optical composition, the structure and the user guidance of websites. The importance of each website leads to the question if there is a way to measure its usefulness. The aim of this paper is to suggest a methodology for the evaluation of web design. The desired outcome is to have an evaluation that is concentrated on a specific website and its target group

Exploring the Applicability of Test Driven Development in the Big Data Domain

Big data analytics and the according applications have gained huge importance in daily life. This results on the one hand from their versatility and on the other hand from their capability to greatly improve an organization’s performance when utilized appropriately. However, despite their prevalence and the corresponding attention through practitioners as well as the scientific world, the actual implementation still remains a challenging task. Therefore, without the adequate testing, the reliability of the systems and thus the obtained outputs is uncertain. This might reduce their utilization, or even worse, lead to a diminished decision-making quality. The publication at hand explores the adoption of test driven development as a potential approach for addressing this issue. Subsequently, using the design science research methodology, a microservice-based test driven development concept for big data (MBTDD-BD) is proposed. In the end, possible avenues for future research endeavours are indicated

Computer-Supported Knowledge Management in SME

Knowledge management (KM) and Knowledge Management Systems (KMS) are not new. With the rise of the Internet, distributed and increasingly social technology, the management principles as well as the tools supporting KM also start to address small and medium-sized enterprises (SME). Todays SMEs are increasingly required to manage knowledge assets in order to sustain their position on the competitive forefront in agile markets. This paper investigates the current state of the art on computer-based KMS (or KM tools as we call them) and commercial KM tools in order to harmonize the picture, derive a joint feature and application system scope and finally inspire future design-oriented research by unveiling gaps. It shows that recent SME-related KM tools do not address KM in a holistic managerial way, fail to link operative data sources such as ERP and CRM, lack effective reward and enabling processes to more quickly establish a knowledge sharing culture amongst SME employees. The main objective of the paper is to inform future design-oriented research

Ask the Right Questions: Requirements Engineering for the Execution of Big Data Projects

Big data and data analytics related projects are attracting researchers, practitioners, and policymakers around the globe. In order to increase the probability of a project success and to get competitive advantages, stakeholders need to have solid understanding of the main objectives, risks, requirements, and the used technologies. This is a challenging task, especially for a big sized project based on new introduced technologies. Using the design science methodology, this paper attempts to answer the following question: How can the requirements of a project be identified and analyzed to determine the suitability of a combined big data technology application? The main objective is a suitable procedure to determine the most relevant requirements as well as the suitability of the combined use of big data technologies in projects. Thus, a new process model will be proposed, detailed, and evaluated. Then, all findings will be discussed and a comprehensive outlook for further research will be highlighted

Increasing the System Availability of Data Centers by Using Virtualization Technologies

Like most entrepreneurs, data center operators pursue goals such as profit-maximization, improvement of the company’s reputation or basically to exist on the market. Part of those aims is to guarantee a given quality of service. Quality characteristics are specified in a contract called the service level agreement. Central part of this agreement is non-functional properties of an IT service. The system availability is one of the most important properties as it will be shown in this paper. To comply with availability requirements, data center operators can use virtualization technologies. A clear model to assess the effect of virtualization functions on the parts of a data center in relation to the system availability is still missing. This paper aims to introduce a basic model that shows these connections, and consider if the identified effects are positive or negative. Thus, this work also points out possible disadvantages of the technology. In consequence, the paper shows opportunities as well as risks of data center virtualization in relation to system availability

Measuring the Performance of Service-Based Companies

Service-Based Companies (SBCs) operate in a fiercely and intense competitive market. In order to support the business processes and as a prerequisite for managing, analyzing and optimizing these processes, the measurement of performance and process attributes is required. While much of the available literature provides good guidelines regarding Performance Measurement (PM) in Product-Based Companies, there is less focus addressing challenges of measuring performance in SBCs. Because of the important role of SBCs in today’s economic environment, this paper focuses on measuring their performance. A new standardized framework is proposed where the strengths of the existing Performance Measurement approaches and the SBCs characteristics are taken into account

Understanding Issues in Big Data Applications – A Multidimensional Endeavor

The amount of data to be produced and analyzed is increasing year by year. As a result, the concept of big data gained interest among researchers and practitioners. However, a plethora of challenges and potentials require the attention from researchers and practitioners to enhance the future development. Apart from the pure processing of the data and its occurring obstacles, also other dimensions need to be considered in this context. This includes the technical planning of the related systems as well as the human interaction with them. When it comes to the strategic design, development, deployment and use of big data systems, especially the aspect of potential issues is often underestimated and less researched. Hence, in this contribution a comprehensive investigation on the various dimensions of big data under a quality assurance perspective is performed. Consequently an overview about the current state of the art and promising solutions are presented, providing a foundation for the future work of practitioners and researchers

Hybrid Project Management Methods Efficiency in IT Projects

Digitalization move has motivated companies to adopt software for their business processes. This led to increase projects\u27 complexity. Project management process plays a significant role in reaching a successful completion of IT-projects. It has been seen that management methodologies like waterfall and scrum are still not sufficient for every project. When it comes to complex projects where we need planning on the front part and agility on the developing part, a pure waterfall or agile is not sufficient. Thus, this study focuses on evaluating existing hybrid Methods as a useful alternative. A systematic literature review has been followed to select out the appropriate existing methodologies. Eleven different parameters have been selected for the evaluation on different measuring levels. It has been concluded based on a morphological analysis that a hybrid project management methodology is a good and efficient alternative