Supporting business intelligence usage: an integrated framework with automatic weighting

This paper presents an integrated framework that comprises an automatic weighting method for assessing data quality (DQ) of the framework so as to better support the business intelligence (BI) usage. Specifically, we utilize business process modeling (BPM) notation and information product map and frame them into a hierarchical mapping structure. Furthermore, we develop and demonstrate an automatic weight-assignment method for evaluating critical dimensions (i.e., completeness and accuracy) of DQ of the integrated framework. Through a design science paradigm, the effectiveness of the framework and the associated DQ weighting method has been rigorously validated by faculty management users of a university. The framework together with the DQ weighting method builds user confidence by enhancing the traceability of a BI product. The automatic DQ weight assignment also provides better time efficiency because the weight of each data attribute is determined automatically based on its usage on the BI dashboard.

Analysis of cultural conflict in the development of web-enabled information systems

The advent of the World Wide Web (WWW) and the emergence of Internet commerce have given rise to the web as a medium of information exchange. In recent years, the phenomenon has affected the realm of transaction processing systems, as organizations are moving from designing web pages for marketing purposes, to web-based applications that support business-to-business (WEB) and business-to-consumer (B2C) interactions, integrated with databases and other back-end systems (Isakowitz, Bieber et al., 1998). Furthermore, web-enabled applications are increasingly being used to facilitate transactions even between various business units within a single enterprise. Examples of some of the more popular web-enabled applications in use today include airline reservation systems, internet banking, student enrollment systems in universities, and Human Resource (HR) and payroll systems. The prime motive behind the adoption of web-enabled applications are productivity gains due to reduced processing time, decrease in the usage of paper-based documentation and conventional modes of communication (such as letters, fax, or telephone), and improved quality of services to clients. Indeed, web-based solutions are commonly referred to as customer-centric (Li, 2000), which means that they provide user interfaces that do not necessitate high level of computer proficiency. Thus, organizations implement such systems to streamline routine transactions and gain strategic benefits in the process (Nambisan & Wang, 1999), though the latter are to be expected in the long-term. Notwithstanding the benefits of web technology adoption, the web has ample share of challenges for initiators and developers. Many of these challenges are associated with the unique nature of web-enabled applications. Research in the area of web-enabled information systems has revealed several differences with traditional applications. These differences exist with regards to system development methodology, stakeholder involvement, tasks, and technology (Nazareth, 1998). According to Fraternali (1999), web applications are commonly developed using an evolutionary prototyping approach, whereby the simplified version of the application is deployed as a pilot first, in order to gather user feedback. Thus, web-enabled applications typically undergo continuous refinement and evolution (Ginige, 1998; Nazareth, 1998; Siau, 1998; Standing, 2001). Prototype-based development also leads web-enabled information systems to have much shorter development life cycles, but which, unlike traditional applications, are regrettably developed in a rather adhoc fashion (Carstensen & Vogelsang, 2001). However, the principal difference between the two kinds of applications lies in the broad and diverse group of stakeholders associated with web-based information systems (Gordijn, Akkermans, et al., 2000; Russo, 2000; Earl & Khan, 2001; Carter, 2002; Hasselbring, 2002; Standing, 2002; Stevens & Timbrell, 2002). Stakeholders, or organizational members participating in a common business process (Freeman, 1984), vary in their computer competency, business knowledge, language and culture. This diversity is capable of causing conflict between different stakeholder groups with regards to the establishment of system requirements (Pouloudi & Whitley, 1997; Stevens & Timbrell, 2002). Since, web-based systems transcend organizational, departmental, and even national boundaries, the issue of culture poses a significant challenge to the web systems’ initiators and developers (Miles & Snow, 1992; Kumar & van Dissel, 1996; Pouloudi & Whitley, 1996; Li & Williams, 1999).

Resistance: a medium for the successful implementation of technological innovation

Resistance to change has long been recognised as a critically important factor that can influence the success or otherwise of implementing any 'technological innovation. Information technology (IT) focused interventions, for example, business process re-engineering (BPR) and enterprise resource planning (ERP), are often quoted as examples of costly failures, with reported levels of dissatisfaction ·with strategic IT investments ranging from 20-70 percent and that employee resistance was to blame. The intention of this chapter is to rethink resistance. The author suggests that resistance remains to this day a complex, multifaceted phenomenon that continues to affect the outcomes of change, both negatively and positively. Although research has procured a solid understanding of resistance- and the benefits that can accrue to an organisation through its proper utilisation, it appears that the classical adversarial approach remains the dominant means ofmanaging resistance because such learning is not reflected in modern management techniques. The author concludes that as companies in every industry are now translating the power and possibilities 0/ e-business into strategic and operational realities, newapproaches in change managementare required to help organisations to understand the complex dynamics o/technological innovation and especially the multifaceted nature o/resistance.

Ontological engineering for conceptual modeling

In acknowledging the importance of ontologies in conceptual modeling, database integration and business process modeling, this paper introduces a set of principles for building ontologies. Starting from Guarino's meta-properties of ontological terms, the paper describes the denotational semantics of the meta-properties and derives from them some engineering rules and checks for constructing domain specific conceptual models, based on the overarching requirement to assign meanings to concepts using tags and labels. Parallel research by the authors into the use of contextual references and roles to restrict such meanings will be published elsewhere.

The development of corporate real estate practices in India : a survey of CRE professionals

Business process outsourcing (BPO) is transforming Western companies? corporate real estate (CRE) requirements. When business processes move to a developing country there are consequences for that country?s CRE practice. This paper considers the effects of western BPO on Indian CRE. Qualitative and quantitative analysis was used to analyze data from a survey of professionals operating in Indian CRE. Location issues, quality of workspace, and the availability of human resources were identified as important in establishing BPO activities in India. Suburban, and campus or built-to-suit facilities, were increasingly preferred locations and styles of workplace that were transforming Indian CRE practice. Also, the effect of western BPO was impacting on the types of CRE services being offered. With the continuing growth in BPO to ?secondary cities? the transformational effects on local CRE practice are likely to spread and further transform CRE practice in India.

Incorporating a knowledge perspective into security risk assessments

Purpose – Many methodologies exist to assess the security risks associated with unauthorized leakage, modification and interruption of information used by organisations. This paper argues that these methodologies have a traditional orientation towards the identification and assessment of technical information assets. This obscures key risks associated with the cultivation and deployment of organisational knowledge. The purpose of this paper is to explore how security risk assessment methods can more effectively identify and treat the knowledge associated with business processes.

Design/methodology/approach – The argument was developed through an illustrative case study in which a well-documented traditional methodology is applied to a complex data backup process. Follow-up interviews were conducted with the organisation’s security managers to explore the results of the assessment and the nature of knowledge “assets” within a business process.

Findings – It was discovered that the backup process depended, in subtle and often informal ways, on tacit knowledge to sustain operational complexity, handle exceptions and make frequent interventions. Although typical information security methodologies identify people as critical assets, this study suggests a new approach might draw on more detailed accounts of individual knowledge, collective knowledge and their relationship to organisational processes.

Originality/value – Drawing on the knowledge management literature, the paper suggests mechanisms to incorporate these knowledge-based considerations into the scope of information security risk methodologies. A knowledge protection model is presented as a result of this research. This model outlines ways in which organisations can effectively identify and treat risks around process knowledge critical to the business.

Quick fixes, drug culture and management culture : excellence and ecstasy, BPR and Brown

This paper critiques the prescriptions of management gurus by charting parallels between management culture and drug culture over the last two decades. I argue that the ‘quick fixes’ peddled by gurus mirror the illicit drug fix of choice popularised in the same era. I suggest that, in terms of the specific nature of their promised highs, Excellence mirrored Ecstasy, and Business Process Reengineering mirrored Heroin. By tracing resonance with drug fixes, I introduce another way to understand why particular corporate fixes are found so attractive, locating this in patterns of addiction and in the gurus’ ability to exploit wider shared cultural contexts. The paper ends by suggesting that the comparison with the world of illicit drugs has lessons not only for our understandings of management and management gurus, but also for critical management academics engagement with both the gurus and our wider audiences.

Exploring the current status of call centre offshoring research : a research agenda and future directions

Call centres have become an important and growing part of the service industry, enabling firms to provide better customer service, extend sales capabilities and manage customer relationships. However, the methods taken by firms around recruitment, training and management of overseas call centre agents have been far more complex, leading to high failure rates with Call Centre Offshoring (CCO) practices. To better understand the current CCO practices, this study reviews a current research status. Through a literature review, we identified a number of themes spanning across disciplines related to CCO. We found that the current literature lacked of understanding of socio-cultural elements such as trust, language, communication, national and organisational culture that positively influenced the stakeholder relationships. We argue that a common link can be established among CCO-related studies across disciplines when approaching the topic from a socio-cultural perspective. Our findings discuss the implications and provide a useful reference for future CCO-related studies.

Performance evaluation of e-government services using balance scorecard : an empirical study in Jordan

Purpose - the purpose of this paper is to emphasise on a balance between quantitative and qualitative measures, and examine the use of Balanced Scorecard to evaluate and estimate the performance of information and communication technologies (ICT) in delivering valuable e-government services through the internet. Design/methodology/approach - This study tests the hypotheses of e-government effectiveness using Balanced Scorecard technique by incorporating qualitative measures within a quantitative research methodology with data collected by means of a survey questionnaire. The survey sample of 383 stakeholders includes common customers, employees of e-government, and employees from the IT sector. The survey data were analysed to test the hypothesis in measuring e-government effectiveness from Balanced Scorecard's four dimensions: customer perspective, financial perspective, internal business process perspective, and innovation and learning perspective. Findings - The results show that the Balanced Scorecard factors fit very well with monitoring and measuring the performance of e-government in Jordan, and also in evaluating their success in IT project investments. Originality/value - This study attempts to address this gap in the literature and would benefit future studies in applying Balanced Scorecard for performance evaluation of various IT projects that are gaining huge investments from governments and organisations .

Looking beyond HRM practices in enhancing employee retention in BPOs: focus on employee–organisation value fit

This paper argues that the effectiveness of HRM practices in tackling employee retention can be enhanced by improving the compatibility between employee and organisational values. We test our hypothesis using structural equation modelling on a sample of 258 employees in business process outsourcing (BPO) firms in the Philippines. The results show that the fit between employee and organisation values positively and partially mediates the effects of HRM practices on employee retention. However, employee–organisation value clash in US-owned BPOs was found to have a negative effect on employee retention. Because employees are less likely to leave when they share similar values as their organisations, HRM practices can be used strategically to improve the employee–organisation value fit to improve retention. The implications of the findings for HR managers of BPOs in developing countries are fully discussed.

Wal-Mart innovation and productivity: a viewpoint

Technology effects, business process development, and productivity growth are considered in the context of a single company: Wal-Mart. The starting point is the 2001 McKinsey Global Institute report, which finds that over 1995–2000, a quarter of U.S. productivity growth is attributable to the retail industry, and almost a sixth of that is attributable to Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart is interesting as well because of its rapid growth in Canada. This is now Canada’s largest private sector employer. We also consider other evidence relevant to public policy formation concerning Wal-Mart and conclude with a discussion of options for partially filling important data gaps.

Secure object tracking protocol for networked RFID systems

Networked systems have adapted Radio Frequency identification technology (RFID) to automate their business process. The Networked RFID Systems (NRS) has some unique characteristics which raise new privacy and security concerns for organizations and their NRS systems. The businesses are always having new realization of business needs using NRS. One of the most recent business realization of NRS implementation on large scale distributed systems (such as Internet of Things (IoT), supply chain) is to ensure visibility and traceability of the object throughout the chain. However, this requires assurance of security and privacy to ensure lawful business operation. In this paper, we are proposing a secure tracker protocol that will ensure not only visibility and traceability of the object but also genuineness of the object and its travel path on-site. The proposed protocol is using Physically Unclonable Function (PUF), Diffie-Hellman algorithm and simple cryptographic primitives to protect privacy of the partners, injection of fake objects, non-repudiation, and unclonability. The tag only performs a simple mathematical computation (such as combination, PUF and division) that makes the proposed protocol suitable to passive tags. To verify our security claims, we performed experiment on Security Protocol Description Language (SPDL) model of the proposed protocol using automated claim verification tool Scyther. Our experiment not only verified our claims but also helped us to eliminate possible attacks identified by Scyther.

A visual language and environment for enterprise system modelling and automation

Objective: We want to support enterprise service modelling and generation using a more end user-friendly metaphor than current approaches, which fail to scale to large organisations with key issues of "cobweb" and "labyrinth" problems and large numbers of hidden dependencies. Method: We present and evaluate an integrated visual approach for business process modelling using a novel tree-based overlay structure that effectively mitigate complexity problems. A tree-overlay based visual notation (EML) and its integrated support environment (MaramaEML) supplement and integrate with existing solutions. Complex business architectures are represented as service trees and business processes are modelled as process overlay sequences on the service trees. Results: MaramaEML integrates EML and BPMN to provide complementary, high-level business service modelling and supports automatic BPEL code generation from the graphical representations to realise web services implementing the specified processes. It facilitates generated service validation using an integrated LTSA checker and provides a distortion-based fisheye and zooming function to enhance complex diagram navigation. Evaluations of EML show its effectiveness. Conclusions: We have successfully developed and evaluated a novel tree-based metaphor for business process modelling and enterprise service generation. Practice implications: a more user-friendly modelling approach and support tool for business end users.

Dimensions and metrics for evaluating recommendation systems

Recommendation systems support users and developers of various computer and software systems to overcome information overload, perform information discovery tasks, and approximate computation, among others. They have recently become popular and have attracted a wide variety of application scenarios ranging from business process modeling to source code manipulation. Due to this wide variety of application domains, different approaches and metrics have been adopted for their evaluation. In this chapter, we review a range of evaluation metrics and measures as well as some approaches used for evaluating recommendation systems. The metrics presented in this chapter are grouped under sixteen different dimensions, e.g., correctness, novelty, coverage. We review these metrics according to the dimensions to which they correspond. A brief overview of approaches to comprehensive evaluation using collections of recommendation system dimensions and associated metrics is presented. We also provide suggestions for key future research and practice directions.