Marketing VM services to achieve competitive advantage in the Malaysian Construction Sector

Value Management (VM) has been proven to provide a structured framework, together with supporting tools and techniques that facilitate effective decision-making in many types of projects, thus achieving ‘best value’ for clients. It is identified at International level as a natural career progression for the construction service provider and as an opportunity in developing leading-edge skills. The services offered by contractors and consultants in the construction sector have been expanding. In an increasingly competitive and global marketplace, firms are seeking ways to differentiate their services to ever more knowledgeable and demanding clients. The traditional demarcations have given way, and the old definition of what contractors, designers, engineers and quantity surveyors can, and cannot do in terms of their market offering has changed. Project management, design and cost and safety consultancy services, are being delivered by a diverse range of suppliers. Value management services have been developing in various sectors in industry; from manufacturing to the military and now construction. Given the growing evidence that VM has been successful in delivering value-for-money to the client, VM would appear to be gaining some momentum as an essential management tool in the Malaysian construction sector. The recently issued VM Circular 3/2009 by the Economic Planning Unit Malaysia (EPU) possibly marks a new beginning in public sector client acceptance on the strength of VM in construction. This paper therefore attempts to study the prospects of marketing the benefits of VM by construction service providers, and how it may provide an edge in an increasingly competitive Malaysian construction industry.

Analyzing requirements and approaches for sourcing software based services

Increasingly, software is no longer developed as a single system, but rather as a smart combination of so-called software services. Each of these provides an independent, specific and relatively small piece of functionality, which is typically accessible through the Internet from internal or external service providers. To the best of our knowledge, there are no standards or models that describe the sourcing process of these software based services (SBS). We identify the sourcing requirements for SBS and associate the key characteristics of SBS (with the sourcing requirements introduced). Furthermore, we investigate the sourcing of SBS with the related works in the field of classical procurement, business process outsourcing, and information systems sourcing. Based on the analysis, we conclude that the direct adoption of these approaches for SBS is not feasible and new approaches are required for sourcing SBS.

Analyzing requirements and approaches for sourcing software based services

Increasingly, software is no longer developed as a single system, but rather as a smart combination of so-called software services. Each of these provides an independent, specific and relatively small piece of functionality, which is typically accessible through the Internet from internal or external service providers. There are no standards or models that describe the sourcing process of these software based services (SBS). The authors identify the sourcing requirements for SBS and associate the key characteristics of SBS (with the sourcing requirements introduced). Furthermore, this paper investigates the sourcing of SBS with the related works in the field of classical procurement, business process outsourcing, and information systems sourcing. Based on the analysis, the authors conclude that the direct adoption of these approaches for SBS is not feasible and new approaches are required for sourcing SBS.

The impact of red light cameras on safety in Arizona

Red light cameras (RLCs) have been used in a number of US cities to yield a demonstrable reduction in red light violations; however, evaluating their impact on safety (crashes) has been relatively more difficult. Accurately estimating the safety impacts of RLCs is challenging for several reasons. First, many safety related factors are uncontrolled and/or confounded during the periods of observation. Second, “spillover” effects caused by drivers reacting to non-RLC equipped intersections and approaches can make the selection of comparison sites difficult. Third, sites selected for RLC installation may not be selected randomly, and as a result may suffer from the regression to the mean bias. Finally, crash severity and resulting costs need to be considered in order to fully understand the safety impacts of RLCs. Recognizing these challenges, a study was conducted to estimate the safety impacts of RLCs on traffic crashes at signalized intersections in the cities of Phoenix and Scottsdale, Arizona. Twenty-four RLC equipped intersections in both cities are examined in detail and conclusions are drawn. Four different evaluation methodologies were employed to cope with the technical challenges described in this paper and to assess the sensitivity of results based on analytical assumptions. The evaluation results indicated that both Phoenix and Scottsdale are operating cost-effective installations of RLCs: however, the variability in RLC effectiveness within jurisdictions is larger in Phoenix. Consistent with findings in other regions, angle and left-turn crashes are reduced in general, while rear-end crashes tend to increase as a result of RLCs.

Efficient algorithm for achieving GWPMM fairness in ATM ABR services

A new explicit rate allocation algorithm is proposed for achieving generic weight-proportional max-min (GWPMM) fairness in asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) available bit rate services. This algorithm scales well with a fixed computational complexity of O(1) and can realise GWPMM fair rate allocation in an ATM network accurately.

Providing technical support for a university radiological laboratory

Queensland University of Technology has a long standing in providing tertiary education and training in ionising radiation. The radiological laboratory plays an important part in this education and training. As radiological applications are diversified in the fields of health and environment, the laboratory provides support for a number of scenarios in the use of experimental situations in radiation detection and radiation protection. This paper discusses the role that a radiological laboratory technician plays in the functionality of a radiological laboratory.

Secure tracking for critical applications : communications, GPS and future Galileo services

Tracking/remote monitoring systems using GNSS are a proven method to enhance the safety and security of personnel and vehicles carrying precious or hazardous cargo. While GNSS tracking appears to mitigate some of these threats, if not adequately secured, it can be a double-edged sword allowing adversaries to obtain sensitive shipment and vehicle position data to better coordinate their attacks, and to provide a false sense of security to monitoring centers. Tracking systems must be designed with the ability to perform route-compliance and thwart attacks ranging from low-level attacks such as the cutting of antenna cables to medium and high-level attacks involving radio jamming and signal / data-level simulation, especially where the goods transported have a potentially high value to terrorists. This paper discusses the use of GNSS in critical tracking applications, addressing the mitigation of GNSS security issues, augmentation systems and communication systems in order to provide highly robust and survivable tracking systems.

Secure tracking using trusted GNSS receivers and Galileo authentication services

This paper describes a secure framework for tracking applications that use the Galileo signal authentication services. First a number of limitations that affect the trust of critical tracking applications, even in presence of authenticated GNSS signals, are detailed. Requirements for secure tracking are then introduced; detailing how the integrity characteristics of the Galileo authentication could enhance the security of active tracking applications. This paper concludes with a discussion of our existing tracking technology using a Siemens TC45 GSM/GPRS module and future development utilizing our previously proposed trusted GNSS receiver.

Requirements for enhancing trust, security and integrity of GNSS location services

The paper describes a number of requirements for enhancing the trust of location acquisition from Satellite Navigation Systems, particularly for those applications where the location is monitored through a remote GNSS receiver. We discuss how the trust of a location acquisition could be propagated to an application through the use of a proposed tamper-­resistant GNSS receiver which quantifies the trust of a location solution from the signaling used (ie. P(Y) code, Galileo SOL, PRS, CS) and provides a cryptographic proof of this to a remote application. The tamper­-resistance state of the receiver is also included in this cryptographic proof.

Workflows, processes and technical solutions for seeding the research data commons

Queensland University of Technology (QUT) completed an Australian National Data Service (ANDS) funded “Seeding the Commons Project” to contribute metadata to Research Data Australia. The project employed two Research Data Librarians from October 2009 through to July 2010. Technical support for the project was provided by QUT’s High Performance Computing and Research Support Specialists. ---------- The project identified and described QUT’s category 1 (ARC / NHMRC) research datasets. Metadata for the research datasets was stored in QUT’s Research Data Repository (Architecta Mediaflux). Metadata which was suitable for inclusion in Research Data Australia was made available to the Australian Research Data Commons (ARDC) in RIF-CS format. ---------- Several workflows and processes were developed during the project. 195 data interviews took place in connection with 424 separate research activities which resulted in the identification of 492 datasets. ---------- The project had a high level of technical support from QUT High Performance Computing and Research Support Specialists who developed the Research Data Librarian interface to the data repository that enabled manual entry of interview data and dataset metadata, creation of relationships between repository objects. The Research Data Librarians mapped the QUT metadata repository fields to RIF-CS and an application was created by the HPC and Research Support Specialists to generate RIF-CS files for harvest by the Australian Research Data Commons (ARDC). ---------- This poster will focus on the workflows and processes established for the project including: ---------- • Interview processes and instruments • Data Ingest from existing systems (including mapping to RIF-CS) • Data entry and the Data Librarian interface to Mediaflux • Verification processes • Mapping and creation of RIF-CS for the ARDC

Using a design led disruptive innovation approach to develop new services : practising innovation in times of discontinuity

Organisations face increasing competition from new firms in emerging markets and their past superior products may no longer provide competitive advantage in markets based on different cost and value differentials. A shift in design practices from product solutions to health services which are accessible and affordable by all is required. This paper explores a design led approach to innovation to assist medical device companies develop new services and experiences and reshape their notions of the nature, development and deployment of health care services. This approach uses design tools and methodologies that are grounded in the authentic understandings of stakeholder experiences, to assist an organisation create a vision of likely future health care scenarios. Through this process, organisations can explore the complexities in the delivery of future health care services in new and emerging markets allowing them to tailor product and service solutions which focus on being accessible and affordable by all. The industry based case study for the design of health services in carried out in emerging economies. The contribution of this work in advancing research into design innovation and future research directions are also presented.

Collaboration based on web services

Web services are software components designed to support interoperable machine-to-machine interactions over a network, through the exchange of SOAP messages. Since the underlying technology is independent of any specific programming language, Web Services can be effectively used to interconnect business processes across different organizations. However, a standard way of representing such interconnections has not yet emerged and is the subject of an ongoing debate.

New media services : ratings and recommendations websites in the travel and tourism industry

The travel and hospitality industry is one which relies especially crucially on word of mouth, both at the level of overall destinations (Australia, Queensland, Brisbane) and at the level of travellers’ individual choices of hotels, restaurants, sights during their trips. The provision of such word-of-mouth information has been revolutionised over the past decade by the rise of community-based Websites which allow their users to share information about their past and future trips and advise one another on what to do or what to avoid during their travels. Indeed, the impact of such user-generated reviews, ratings, and recommendations sites has been such that established commercial travel advisory publishers such as Lonely Planet have experienced a pronounced downturn in sales ¬– unless they have managed to develop their own ways of incorporating user feedback and contributions into their publications. This report examines the overall significance of ratings and recommendation sites to the travel industry, and explores the community, structural, and business models of a selection of relevant ratings and recommendations sites. We identify a range of approaches which are appropriate to the respective target markets and business aims of these organisations, and conclude that there remain significant opportunities for further operators especially if they aim to cater for communities which are not yet appropriately served by specific existing sites. Additionally, we also point to the increasing importance of connecting stand-alone ratings and recommendations sites with general social media spaces like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, and of providing mobile interfaces which enable users to provide updates and ratings directly from the locations they happen to be visiting. In this report, we profile the following sites: * TripAdvisor, the international market leader for travel ratings and recommendations sites, with a membership of some 11 million users; * IgoUgo, the other leading site in this field, which aims to distinguish itself from the market leader by emphasising the quality of its content; * Zagat, a long-established publisher of restaurant guides which has translated its crowdsourcing model from the offline to the online world; * Lonely Planet’s Thorn Tree site, which attempts to respond to the rise of these travel communities by similarly harnessing user-generated content; * Stayz, which attempts to enhance its accommodation search and booking services by incorporating ratings and reviews functionality; and * BigVillage, an Australian-based site attempting to cater for a particularly discerning niche of travellers; * Dopplr, which connects travel and social networking in a bid to pursue the lucrative market of frequent and business travellers; * Foursquare, which builds on its mobile application to generate a steady stream of ‘check-ins’ and recommendations for hospitality and other services around the world; * Suite 101, which uses a revenue-sharing model to encourage freelance writers to contribute travel writing (amongst other genres of writing); * Yelp, the global leader in general user-generated product review and recommendation services. In combination, these profiles provide an overview of current developments in the travel ratings and recommendations space (and beyond), and offer an outlook for further possibilities. While no doubt affected by the global financial downturn and the reduction in travel that it has caused, travel ratings and recommendations remain important – perhaps even more so if a reduction in disposable income has resulted in consumers becoming more critical and discerning. The aggregated word of mouth from many tens of thousands of travellers which these sites provide certainly has a substantial influence on their users. Using these sites to research travel options has now become an activity which has spread well beyond the digirati. The same is true also for many other consumer industries, especially where there is a significant variety of different products available – and so, this report may also be read as a case study whose findings are able to be translated, mutatis mutandis, to purchasing decisions from household goods through consumer electronics to automobiles.

Effectiveness of nurse-led preoperative assessment services for elective surgery : a systematic review

Background--The admission and assessment of patients for elective procedures is a task faced by all healthcare organisations that provide elective surgical services. Several different strategies have been used to facilitate the management of these tasks. Nurse-led preadmission clinics or services have been implemented in many health services as one of these management strategies; however their effectiveness has not been established. Objectives--The objective of this review was to examine the available research on the effectiveness of nurse-led elective surgery preoperative assessment clinics or services on patient outcomes.--Results--Of the 19 included articles, there were 10 audits of patient and hospital data, 3 surveys or questionnaires, 3 descriptive studies, 1 action research design, 1 prospective observational study and 1 RCT. Five of ten studies reporting data on cancellations rates found that nurse-led preadmission services reduced the number of day-of-surgery cancellations. Non-attendance for surgery was also reduced, with nine studies reporting decreases in the number of patients failing to attend. Eight studies reporting data on patient or parent satisfaction found high levels of satisfaction with nurse-led preadmission services. Three of four studies investigating the effect of the nurse-led preadmission service on patient anxiety found a reduction in reported anxiety levels. Three studies found that preoperative preparation was enhanced by the use of a nurse-led preadmission service.--Conclusions--While all included studies reported evidence of effectiveness for nurse-led preadmission services on a wide range of outcomes for elective surgery patients, the lack of experimental trials means that the level of evidence is low, and further research is needed.--Implications for practice--Nurse-led preadmission services may be an effective strategy for reducing procedural cancellations, failure to attend for procedures, and patient anxiety, however currently the evidence level is low.

Preparing library staff for research support services at QUT

INTRODUCTION: Queensland University of Technology (QUT) Library is partnering with High Performance Computing (HPC) services and the Division of Research and Commercialisation to develop and deliver a range of integrated research support services and systems designed to enhance the research capabilities of the University. Existing and developing research support services include - support for publishing strategies including open access, bibliographic citation and ranking services, research data management, use of online collaboration tools, online survey tools, quantitative and qualitative data analysis, content management and storage solutions. In order to deliver timely and effective research referral and support services, it is imperative that library staff maintain their awareness of, and develop expertise in new eResearch methods and technologies. ---------- METHODS: In 2009/10 QUT Library initiated an online survey for support staff and researchers and a series of focus groups for researchers aimed at gaining a better understanding of current and future eresearch practices and skills. These would better inform the development of a research skills training program and the development of new research support services. The Library and HPC also implemented a program of seminars and workshops designed to introduce key library staff to a broad range of eresearch concepts and technologies. Feedback was obtained after each training session. A number of new services were implemented throughout 2009 and 2010. ---------- RESULTS: Key findings of the survey and focus groups are related to the development of the staff development program. Feedback from program attendees is provided and evaluated. The staff development program is assessed in terms of its success to support the implementation of new research support services. --------- CONCLUSIONS QUT Library has embarked on an ambitious awareness and skills development program to assist Library staff transition a period of rapid change and broadening scope for the Library. Successes and challenges of the program are discussed. A number of recommendations are made in retrospect and also looking forward to the future training needs of Library staff to support the University’s future research goals.