An Empirical Study of Enterprise 2.0 in Context

As Enterprise 2.0 (E2.0) initiatives are gradually moving out of the early experimenta-tion phase it is time to focus greater attention on examining the structures, processes and operations surrounding E2.0 projects. In this paper we present the findings of an empirical study to investigate and understand the reasons for initiating E2.0 projects and the benefits being derived from them. Our study comprises seven in-depth case studies of E2.0 implementations. We develop a classification and means of visualising the scope of E2.0 initiatives and use these methods to analyse and compare projects. Our findings indicate a wide range of motivations and combinations of technology in use and show a strong emphasis towards the content management functionality of E2.0 technologies

Realising Benefits from Current ERP and CRM Systems Implementations: An Empirical Study

In this study we report on the benefits achieved from enterprise systems implementations. Building on the existing research this paper uses the expectation-benefits framework as an analytical lens to identify and understand realised benefits. The study comprises 14 empirical case studies that focus on projects to extend existing ERP and CRM implementations. The work serves two key objectives. First to gain greater insights into the range and scope of realised benefits and second to further validate the exp-ben framework. Benefits are identifed in all four areas of the exp-ben framework. Most notable is the continued focus on achieving integration and in the improvement of information quality and better business intelligence

The Concept of Social Business: Oxymoron or Sign of a Changing Work Culture?

The article discusses the source and pertinence of the term “Social Business”. We present the findings from a study of projects that are in the early stages of adoption of Social Software in organisations. Using a qualitative research approach we examine real-world cases of implementations of integrated Enterprise Collaboration Systems. 16 existing cases (desk research) and three new cases (field research) are analysed and the findings are compared and aggregated. We apply the 8C Model as an analytical lens to guide the coding of the case data. The study’s results reveal the relations between the different concepts (features, components, collaboration scenarios) that can be identified in the cases. The findings show that the most popular usage scenarios of the software are not very “social” but support people in their daily joint work with a focus on getting the job done. The study also reveals possible beneficial factors for the adoption of Social Software such as improved personal information management, mobile devices and unified communication, and better workspace and presence awareness

Competing in the Message Market: A Teaching Case

This paper describes the innovative strategies that Australia Post (AP) is using to compete in a changing message market, with the aim of providing interesting and relevant case material and teaching resources to support student learning at a tertiary level. The case aims to explore AP’s response to an increasingly competitive global message market by continually seeking innovations that utilise existing organisational strengths and technological opportunities. The case description is based on public documents and includes discussion questions and teaching notes. The results of an evaluation of trials of the case application in the classroom are reported

Issues for the long-term management of Social Business Documents

Social business documents are currently one of the fastest growing content types within organizations. As carriers of important business information they require systematic management to ensure their content is available, accurate and protected over the long-term. To achieve this requires a deep understanding of their structure, nature and use. In this paper we present the findings of a preliminary study of social business documents. The aim of the study is to understand how social business documents are structured and to identify the issues and challenges that surround their management. Through an analysis of social business documents in four different systems we identify and compare their structural components from a user perspective. From this cross document/cross system analysis we develop a conceptual model for social business documents and identify issues for their long-term management. Our findings also identify the need for more in-depth modeling for which we propose methods to assist in understanding the syntactic and semantic structure of social business documents and how these change over the life of a social business document

Managing Information Risks and Protecting Information Assets in a Web 2.0 Era

The growth in volume of digital information arising from business activities presents organisations with the increasingly difficult challenge of protecting their information assets. Failure to protect such information opens up a range of new business risks. The increase in externally hosted services and social networking tools also adds a new layer of complication to achieving information protection. Prior research has recognised the need for a socio-organisational view of information protection, shifting the emphasis from a narrowly defined technical concern to an enterprise-wide, business-led responsibility encompassing strategic and governance issues. We argue that this shift is important but not enough and that greater attention should be given to understanding the nature and complexities of digital business information. In this paper we examine the extent to which existing frameworks for information protection are structured to account for changes in the information environment. Our findings indicate that whilst these frameworks address the need to adopt a broader social and organisational perspective there remain a number of significant limitations in terms of the way the information is treated. To address these limitations we propose a more co-ordinated and information-centric approach to information protection

A Multiorganisational Study of the Drivers and Barriers of Enterprise Collaboration Systems-Enabled Change

Enterprise Collaboration Systems (ECS) are emerging as the de facto technology platform for the digital workplace. This paper presents findings from an in-depth, multiorganisational study that examines the drivers and barriers of ECS-enabled change from two perspectives: i) the company initiating and driving the project and ii) key practitioners responsible for delivering the change. Data is collected from ECS using companies via a survey and face-to-face workshops, analysed using qualitative content analysis methods to identify categories of change and then synthesised to provide a rich classification and visualisation of the drivers, barriers, motivations and pain points (DBMP) to ECS-enabled change. This is followed by a discussion of the similarities and differences between drivers and barriers from both personal and company perspectives. The paper concludes by exploring the potential of the research and visualisation methods used in this work to provide the foundation for the longitudinal study of ECS-enabled change

Information Security Governance: Investigating Diversity in Critical Infrastructure Organizations

The aim of this paper is to report on how information security governance (ISG) arrangements are framed and shaped in practice. Our objective is to examine the extent to which the similarities and differences in institutional environments can subject organizations to multiple, competing and even contradictory arrangements for ISG. Using an interpretive case based research strategy we investigate how ISG arrangements are framed and shaped in fourteen critical infrastructure organizations in Australia. We explicitly recognize the socio-technical nature of ISG and draw insights from institutional theory. Our findings illustrate the heterogeneity and malleability of ISG across different organizations and highlight the need for an information centric view

Studies on the effect of glycosaminoglycans on the release and activity of plasma triglyceride lipases

The highly sulphated glycosaminoglycan (GAG) heparin is widely used clinically as an anticoagulant and antithranbotic. However, parenteral heparin, and also other anionic polysaccharides currently of interest as antithrombotics, release lipases from the capillary endothelium, resulting in clearing of circulating lipoproteins. These enzymes, lipoprotein lipase (LPL) and hepatic triglyceride lipase (HTGL) are released from the extra-hepatic and hepatic circulations respectively. A number of recognised lipase assay systems were compared and shown to vary considerably in their effectiveness and selectivity in measuring LPL and HTGL in post-heparin plasma (PHP). In an effort to determine what differences in polysaccharide structure influence lipase release, heparin and other GAGs and sulphated polysaccharides have been compared for their ability to release lipase after intravenous injection into rats. Molecular weight and charge density (degree of sulphation) were shown to be important, as well as some unknown factor associated with the heparin-heparan family of GAGs. Heparin was able to release approximately 50% more LPL than the other polysaccharides tested, but was only moderately more effective at releasing HTGL. No major differences could be found in the time courses of lipase release and clearance for the different polysaccharides. Purified LPL and HTGL were used to test the hypothesis that lipase release has a role in changing blood coagulability after injection of sulphated polysaccharides. HTGL was shown to have a significant effect on plasma anti-Xa clotting activities (by tests in vitro), to lengthen clotting times in the absence of heparin andto shorten them in its presence. The change induced by HTGL in the absence of heparin could be related positively to the lipoprotein content of the test plasmas, which is consistent with the proposed action of HTGL via lipoproteins. LPL had only a minimal effect, increasing clotting times slightly in both the presence and absence of heparin, and this may be due to the presence of contaminatory antithrombin III.<p