Process orientation and information technology:customer engagement at Xerox (UK) Ltd

Xerox Customer Engagement activity is informed by the "Go To Market" strategy, and "Intelligent Coverage" sales philosophy. The realisation of this philosophy necessitates a sophisticated level of Market Understanding, and the effective integration of the direct channels of Customer Engagement. Sophisticated Market Understanding requires the mapping and coding of the entire UK market at the DMU (Decision Making Unit) level, which in turn enables the creation of tailored coverage prescriptions. Effective Channel Integration is made possible by the organisation of Customer Engagement work according to a single, process defined structure: the Selling Process. Organising by process facilitates the discipline of Task Substitution, which leads logically to creation of Hybrid Selling models. Productive Customer Engagement requires Selling Process specialisation by industry sector, customer segment and product group. The research shows that Xerox's Market Database (MDB) plays a central role in delivering the Go To Market strategic aims. It is a tool for knowledge based selling, enables productive SFA (Sales Force Automation) and, in sum, is critical to the efficient and effective deployment of Customer Engagement resources. Intelligent Coverage is not possible without the MDB. Analysis of the case evidence has resulted in the definition of 60 idiographic statements. These statements are about how Xerox organise and manage three direct channels of Customer Engagement: Face to Face, Telebusiness and Ebusiness. Xerox is shown to employ a process-oriented, IT-enabled, holistic approach to Customer Engagement productivity. The significance of the research is that it represents a detailed (perhaps unequalled) level of rich description of the interplay between IT and a holistic, process-oriented management philosophy.

In search of a theory of list memory: an inquiry into the efects of long-term information on short-term recall

Over recent years, evidence has been accumulating in favour of the importance of long-term information as a variable which can affect the success of short-term recall. Lexicality, word frequency, imagery and meaning have all been shown to augment short term recall performance. Two competing theories as to the causes of this long-term memory influence are outlined and tested in this thesis. The first approach is the order-encoding account, which ascribes the effect to the usage of resources at encoding, hypothesising that word lists which require less effort to process will benefit from increased levels of order encoding, in turn enhancing recall success. The alternative view, trace redintegration theory, suggests that order is automatically encoded phonologically, and that long-term information can only influence the interpretation of the resultant memory trace. The free recall experiments reported here attempted to determine the importance of order encoding as a facilitatory framework and to determine the locus of the effects of long-term information in free recall. Experiments 1 and 2 examined the effects of word frequency and semantic categorisation over a filled delay, and experiments 3 and 4 did the same for immediate recall. Free recall was improved by both long-term factors tested. Order information was not used over a short filled delay, but was evident in immediate recall. Furthermore, it was found that both long-term factors increased the amount of order information retained. Experiment 5 induced an order encoding effect over a filled delay, leaving a picture of short-term processes which are closely associated with long-term processes, and which fit conceptions of short-term memory being part of language processes rather better than either the encoding or the retrieval-based models. Experiments 6 and 7 aimed to determine to what extent phonological processes were responsible for the pattern of results observed. Articulatory suppression affected the encoding of order information where speech rate had no direct influence, suggesting that it is ease of lexical access which is the most important factor in the influence of long-term memory on immediate recall tasks. The evidence presented in this thesis does not offer complete support for either the retrieval-based account or the order encoding account of long-term influence. Instead, the evidence sits best with models that are based upon language-processing. The path urged for future research is to find ways in which this diffuse model can be better specified, and which can take account of the versatility of the human brain.

Analyze impact of context information on rate adaptation algorithm in vehicular communication

Nowadays, road safety and traffic congestion are major concerns worldwide. This is why research on vehicular communication is very vital. In static scenarios vehicles behave typically like in an office network where nodes transmit without moving and with no defined position. This paper analyses the impact of context information on existing popular rate adaptation algorithms. Our simulation was done in MATLAB by observing the impact of context information on these algorithms. Simulation was performed for both static and mobile cases.Our simulations are based on IEEE 802.11p wireless standard. For static scenarios vehicles do not move and without defined positions, while for the mobile case, vehicles are mobile with uniformly selected speed and randomized positions. Network performance are analysed using context information. Our results show that in mobility when context information is used, the system performance can be improved for all three rate adaptation algorithms. That can be explained by that with range checking, when many vehicles are out of communication range, less vehicles contend for network resources, thereby increasing the network performances. © 2013 IEEE.

Ontology augmentation:combining semantic web and text resources

This work investigates the process of selecting, extracting and reorganizing content from Semantic Web information sources, to produce an ontology meeting the specifications of a particular domain and/or task. The process is combined with traditional text-based ontology learning methods to achieve tolerance to knowledge incompleteness. The paper describes the approach and presents experiments in which an ontology was built for a diet evaluation task. Although the example presented concerns the specific case of building a nutritional ontology, the methods employed are domain independent and transferrable to other use cases. © 2011 ACM.

Network structures and resources for emergency communications

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Information and communication technology adoption in the Italian road freight haulage industry

Despite the importance of information and communication technology (ICT) in the management of transport and logistics systems, there is a shortage of studies in the road freight haulage sector. This paper is aimed at filling this void through an exploratory survey on ICT adoption and the influencing factors carried out in the Italian road transport market. The paper provides a review of the previous research on this topic that allows the identification of research gaps that have been addressed through a questionnaire survey. The findings provide evidence of a passive stance on ICT usage characterised by the adoption of isolated applications. The financial risk associated with technology investment and human resources are the main barriers to ICT adoption, while the improvement of service level and the reliability of transport operations emerge as stimulating factors. The results suggest that the potential benefits of technology have not been fully exploited and a risk-sensitive stance on ICT is evident preventing the full incorporation of ICT into business processes.

What do students want most from written feedback information? Distinguishing necessities from luxuries using a budgeting methodology

Feedback is a key concern for higher education practitioners, yet there is little evidence concerning the aspects of assessment feedback information that higher education students prioritise when their lecturers’ time and resources are stretched. One recent study found that in such circumstances, students actually perceive feedback information itself as a luxury rather than a necessity. We first re-examined that finding by asking undergraduates to ‘purchase’ characteristics to create the ideal lecturer, using budgets of differing sizes to distinguish necessities from luxuries. Contrary to the earlier research, students in fact considered good feedback information the single biggest necessity for lecturers to demonstrate. In a second study we used the same method to examine the characteristics of feedback information that students value most. Here, the most important perceived necessity was guidance on improvement of skills. In both studies, students’ priorities were influenced by their individual approaches to learning. These findings permit a more pragmatic approach to building student satisfaction in spite of growing expectations and demands.

An analysis and comparison of commonly available United Kingdom prescribing resources

Background and objective: Safe prescribing requires accurate and practical information about drugs. Our objective was to measure the utility of current sources of prescribing guidance when used to inform practical prescribing decisions, and to compare current sources of prescribing guidance in the UK with idealized prescribing guidance. Methods: We developed 25 clinical scenarios. Two independent assessors rated and ranked the performance of five common sources of prescribing guidance in the UK when used to answer the clinical scenarios. A third adjudicator facilitated review of any disparities. An idealized list of contents for prescribing guidance was developed and sent for comments to academics and users of prescribing guidance. Following consultation an operational check was used to assess compliance with the idealized criteria. The main outcome measures were relative utility in answering the clinical scenarios and compliance with the idealized prescribing guidance. Results: Current sources of prescribing guidance used in the UK differ in their utility, when measured using clinical scenarios. The British National Formulary (BNF) and EMIS LV were the best performing sources in terms of both ranking [mean rank 1·24 and 2·20] and rating [%excellent or adequate 100% and 72%]. Current sources differed in the extent to which they fulfilled criteria for ideal prescribing guidance, but the BNF, and EMIS LV to a lesser extent, closely matched the criteria. Discussion: We have demonstrated how clinical scenarios can be used to assess prescribing guidance resources. Producers of prescribing guidance documents should consider our idealized template. Prescribers require high-quality information to support their practice. Conclusion: Our test was helpful in distinguishing between prescribing resources. Producers of prescribing guidance should consider the utility of their products to end-users, particularly in those more complex areas where prescribers may need most support. Existing UK prescribing guidance resources differ in their ability to provide assistance to prescribers. © 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.