e-Mahtari – Improving Maternal Healthcare in Rural India through Information and Communication Technologies

People living in rural areas in developing nations have limited access to quality healthcare. According to a recent United Nations report, most developing nations will not reach their millennium development goals related to maternal and child care. Lack of infrastructure creates a challenge in deploying information and communication technologies (ICT) to extend the reach of healthcare to rural areas. This study reports on a successful implementation of a low cost innovative mobile phone-based health information system to improve maternal and child care in rural India. A case study research method was used with the Practice Lens providing the theoretical framework for the investigation. The findings enrich the ICT for development (ICT4D) literature, and inform health policy makers and technology designers interested in creating innovative solutions to healthcare problems in resource-starved regions of the world

Intranet-based Training Facilities ERP System Implementation: A Case Study

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems enable organizations to gain better control over their operations and costs by tightly integrating related business functions. This results in substantial savings. They provide a migration path from legacy systems to a client server environment. They also offer a solution to the year 2000 problem. This has led to a sharp increase in the demand for these systems. Implementation of ERP systems, however, is considered to be a high cost high risk project. Training is a key factor in implementation success. ERP implementation affects the roles of a large number of employees in an organization, who must be trained within a relatively short time period. Organizing and delivering such training in a cost effective and timely manner is a challenging task. Trainers are using innovative methods to accomplish this. Web- based training is recently gaining popularity as a convenient and economical means for imparting training to a large group of widely dispersed audience. In this article we describe an innovative use of intranet-based training to facilitate ERP implementation in a manufacturing organization

Enhancing Data Management Support for Case-based Reasoning Systems

Case-based reasoning offers a novel approach to develop knowledge based systems. A case-based system (CBS) stores problem solving expertise as cases in its casebase. A case captures a problem description and the description of a solution to the problem. A CBS solves a problem by starting with an approximate solution found in a case in its casebase. When presented with a problem, a CBS analyzes it to extract salient features relevant for problem solving. It searches the casebase to identify cases with similar features. All such cases are retrieved and compared with the problem to select the best matching case. The solution in the best case is adapted to develop a solution to the problem. The proposed solution is evaluated. A new case is formed by combining the problem with the proposed solution. This case, if found suitable, is stored in the casebase. A CBS, thus, augments its casebase with new cases as it solves new problems. Case-based reasoning has been used in a wide range of application domains to develop problem solving and advisory systems. A limitation of these systems is that they lack adequate data management support for casebases. Most current CBS are small memory-resident systems. They use small casebases, which are loaded into primary memory during processing. This limits the size of the casebase and restricts the scope of the CBS. Since a CBS develops a solution by starting with an approximate solution from its casebase, its problem solving ability depends to a great extent on the variety and number of cases available in its casebase. It is more likely to find a closely matching case for a given problem in a large casebase compared to that in a smaller casebase. A CBS, therefore, needs a large casebase to operate at an acceptable level of expertise. As a CBS solves new problems, it adds new cases to its casebase. Thus the casebase keeps growing with the daily use of the system. A major research issue confronting CBS research is how to create large systems that can handle large casebases comprising hundreds and thousands of cases (Kolodner 1993). Our research addresses this important issue of providing data management support to large casebases

The Role of Information Technology in Knowledge Management

Effective knowledge management is becoming crucial for the survival of business organizations due to their increasing reliance on knowledge work. Information technology (IT) plays a key role in enabling knowledge management. The objective of this research is to understand the role of IT in managing organizational knowledge. The results of the study will enhance our understanding of the organizational knowledge management process and provide guidelines for designing IT infrastructure for effective knowledge management

Locus of Fluctuations: an Examination of Project Disruptions

Project deviations of different types are used to examine the theorized role of Locus of Control on two types of project outcomes: process performance and developer satisfaction. A survey of 315 professional project managers is analyzed with PLS-SEM to quantify the direct effects of requirements fluctuations, staff fluctuations and technology fluctuations as well as the contingent effects from External Locus of Flux. We demonstrate the consequences of deviation events that complicate efforts to maintain situational control. Implications for research and practice are discussed