Managing Global Information Strategy: Xerox, Ltd.

The diversity of information management (IM) issues and problems that a large multinational company may face are illustrated by showing how Xerox Ltd. managed its IM strategy over a ten-year period. The case study details the IM developments and shows how the Xerox IM team managed by focusing on a six-pronged strategy: business processes, data and information, applications, technology, organization, and human resources. The problems that Xerox faced in each of these areas are discussed and management’s approach to resolving them is described. In essence, Xerox’s move to managing-by-process required matching changes in IM capability to support it. Xerox’s earlier approach, which entailed a decentralized IS model, became inadequate for supporting the dynamic process model, and ultimately customer needs. The case then shows how the process model became heavily reliant on the capabilities offered by IM. As business processes and information systems became increasingly intertwined, Xerox aligned the development of both models and effectively brought their management and coordination together. A centralization strategy was key to bringing these latter changes about

Managing Identities: from goverment e-commerce to national security

This paper is concerned with the challenges and issues facing US State and Federal government in attempting to develop, implement and maintain electronic identity managament systems. Primary data was collected from four key stakeholders in two US States and from five key stakeholders at the US Federal government (two 'agencies'). A qualitative analysis identifies four dominant themes and a trend that is shifting government identity management efforts from supporting government e-commerce transactions to improving national security. Central to this trend are key structural changes in the Federal management and budgeting of identity management initiatives. Projects that involved multi-million dollar investments in facilitating government e-Commerce transactions appear to have lost momentum, putting those huge investments at risk. Furthermore, the research findings suggest that US government electronic identity implementers depend heavily on exogenous standards, with anecdotal evidence indicating that this may be a very risky approach

Information management and the holistic, process-oriented enterprise

This research examines the role of the information management process within a process-oriented enterprise, Xerox Ltd. The research approach is based on a post-positive paradigm and has resulted in thirty-five idiographic statements. The three major outcomes are: 1. The process-oriented holistic enterprise is an organisation that requires a long-term management commitment to its development. It depends on the careful management of people, tasks, information and technology. A complex integration of business processes is required and this can be managed through the use of consistent documentation techniques, clarity in the definition of process responsibilities and management attention to the global metrics and the centralisation of the management of the process model are critical to its success. 2. The role of the information management process within the context of a process-oriented enterprise is to provide flexible and cost-effective applications, technological, and process support to the business. This is best achieved through a centralisation of the management of information management and of the process model. A business-led approach combined with the consolidation of applications, information, process, and data architectures is central to providing effective business and process-focused support. 3. In a process oriented holistic enterprise, process and information management are inextricably linked. The model of process management depends heavily on information management, whilst the model of information management is totally focused around supporting and creating the process model. The two models are mutually creating - one cannot exist without the other. There is a duality concept of process and information management

Information security: a stakeholder network perspective

Despite existing approaches and techniques for securing corporate information assets, information security threats continue to challenge business and government. Research suggests that to improve the effectiveness of information security a clear understanding of the organisational context is required. We have used stakeholder salience and stakeholder networks lenses to identify key stakeholders who shaped the information security processes of a large Australian financial institution. We have also examined how the interrelationships between these stakeholders might impact on their role in a stakeholder network. Our research suggests that a number of key stakeholders exist who require attention and engagement from those responsible for information security. We also highlight several stakeholders that have traditionally been given lower priority, but should be seen as more important due to their positioning and influence on the stakeholder network. We suggest that a better understanding more concerted engagement with these stakeholders can assist information security teams in achieving organisational security objectives

Enterprise Microblogging: Procrastination or productive use?

There are growing fears amongst corporate managers that the introduction of Social Media and related technologies such as microblogging platforms will lead to large-scale time-wasting with negative impacts on corporate productivity. Our research analyses the communication practices of a corporate team that has embraced an Enterprise Microblogging platform and embedded its use into their day-to-day activities. We conduct a genre analysis of the team’s microblogs and compare our results with a recent study of public microblogging on the Twitter platform. By analyzing genre repertoires we have shown that enterprise microblogging can be significantly different to the public equivalent, and that in the corporate context, microblogging platforms can be used in productive ways

E-business in Lithuania Transport Sector: Current Situation and Challenges Ahead

Lithuania has a well-developed transportation system. Its geographically strategic position is very important to European transport corridors. In Lithuania, there are various important factors that contribute to shaping the sector’s characteristics — lack of knowledge, a low level of computerization and Internet usage – that cause ’ebusiness possibilities’ not to be used. An appropriate analysis of effective e-business usage for the development of competitive advantage between transportation companies is a very important task which requires theoretical grounding and research of practical possibilities. The purpose of paper is to analyze the use of e-business in Lithuania’s transportation companies. The survey was supposed to act as a guideline to the future of Internet usage in the Lithuanian transportation industry. The survey tried to find out considerations about the Internet, how it had affected their business and activities and what might happen in the future

In-Depth Revealing Grid Based Web Service Provision Model: Grid Service Provision (GSP)

Current development of network infrastructures is undergoing rapid transformation. With the emergence of the Open Grid Service Architecture and Globus Toolkit as incubators for evolving ASP business model to maintain profitability, this paper presents an in-depth analysis of the hypothetical Grid Service Provision (GSP) model by firstly giving an historical account of evolutionary factors in Internet architectures leading to Grid and P2P and secondly, investigating GSP model in the contexts of Service Level Agreements metrics and GSP implementation details. It is acknowledged by some experts that this hypothetical model is technologically feasible in reality