Knowledge management for enterprise systems: observations from small, medium and large organizations

Anecdotal evidence suggests that the lifecycle-wide management of Enterprise System (ES) related knowledge is critical for ES health and longevity. At a time where many ES-vendors now offering solutions to Small and Medium size organizations, this paper investigates the ability of Small and Medium size organizations to maintain a lifecycle-wide knowledge management strategy. The paper explores the alleged differences in the knowledge management practices across 27 small, medium and large organizations that had implemented a market-leading ES. Results suggest that: (1) despite similar knowledge creation efforts in all three organizational sizes, small organizations struggle with retaining, transferring and applying the knowledge. The study also reveals that, (2) the overall goodness of the knowledge management process in larger organizations remains higher than their small and medium counterparts.

Infrastructure asset : developing maintenance management capability

Purpose Maintenance management is a core process in infrastructure asset management. Infrastructure organisations must constantly strive to ensure the effectiveness of this process in order to obtain the greatest lifetime value from their infrastructure assets. This paper aims to investigate how infrastructure organisations can enhance the effectiveness of their maintenance management process. Approach This study utilised multiple case studies as the research approach. The case organisations were asked to identify the challenges faced in the maintenance process and the approaches they have adopted to overcome these challenges. Analysis of these findings, together with deductive reasoning, leads to the development of the proposed capability needed for effective maintenance management process. Findings The case studies reveal that maintenance management process is a core process in ensuring that infrastructure assets are optimally and functionally available to support business operations. However, the main challenge is the lack of skilled and experienced personnel to understand and anticipate maintenance requirement. A second challenge is the reduced window of time available to carry out inspection and maintenance works. To overcome these challenges, the case organisations have invested in technologies. However, technologies available to facilitate this process are complex and constantly changing. Consequently, there is a need for infrastructure organizations to develop their technological absorptive capability, i.e. the ability to embrace and capitalize on new technologies to enhance their maintenance management process. Originality/Value This paper is original in that it provides empirical evidence to identify technological absorptive capability as core to improving the maintenance management process. The findings are valuable because it sheds light on where infrastructure organisation, regardless of whether they are privately or publicly owned, should channel their scarce resources. The development of the core capability will ensure that the maintenance process can contribute value to their organisation.

The safety risk management of unmanned aircraft systems

The safety risk management process describes the systematic application of management policies, procedures and practices to the activities of communicating, consulting, establishing the context, and identifying, analysing, evaluating, treating, monitoring and reviewing risk. This process is undertaken to provide assurances that the risks of a particular unmanned aircraft system activity have been managed to an acceptable level. The safety risk management process and its outcomes form part of the documented safety case necessary to obtain approvals for unmanned aircraft system operations. It also guides the development of an organisation’s operations manual and is a primary component of an organisation’s safety management system. The aim of this chapter is to provide existing risk practitioners with a high level introduction to some of the unique issues and challenges in the application of the safety risk management process to unmanned aircraft systems. The scope is limited to safety risks associated with the operation of unmanned aircraft in the civil airspace system and over inhabited areas. The structure of the chapter is based on the safety risk management process as defined by the international risk management standard ISO 31000:2009 and draws on aviation safety resources provided by International Civil Aviation Organization, the Federal Aviation Administration and U.S. Department of Defense. References to relevant aviation safety regulations, programs of research and fielded systems are also provided.

Risk-informed thinking in airports: the application of business continuity management in airport infrastructure

Airports worldwide represent key forms of critical infrastructure in addition to serving as nodes in the international aviation network. While the continued operation of airports is critical to the functioning of reliable air passenger and freight transportation, these infrastructure systems face a number of sources of disturbance that threaten their operational viability. Recent examples of high magnitude events include the eruption of Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokull volcano eruption (Folattau and Schofield 2010), the failure of multiple systems at the opening of Heathrow’s Terminal 5 (Brady and Davies 2010) and the Glasgow airport 2007 terrorist attack (Crichton 2008). While these newsworthy events do occur, a multitude of lower-level more common disturbances also have the potential to cause significant discontinuity to airport operations. Regional airports face a unique set of challenges, particularly in a nation like Australia where they serve to link otherwise remote and isolated communities to metropolitan hubs (Wheeler 2005), often without the resources and political attention received by larger capital city airports. This paper discusses conceptual relationships between Business Continuity Management (BCM) and High Reliability Theory, and proposes BCM as an appropriate risk-based management process to ensure continued airport operation in the face of uncertainty. In addition, it argues that that correctly implemented BCM can lead to highly reliable organisations. This is framed within the broader context of critical infrastructures and the need for adequate crisis management approaches suited to their unique requirements (Boin and McConnell 2007).

Management characteristics and the decision to internationalize : Exploration of exporters vs. non-exporters within the Chilean wine industry

The objective of this exploratory study was to identify the key factors that enhance and inhibit the export activities of wineries and identify differences between exporters and non-exporters. Based on data collected from Chilean wineries, the findings of this study suggest that the major constraints for non-exporters are the lack of financial resources, limited quantities of stocks for market expansion, management’s lack of knowledge and experience, and the high cost of travelling and participating in trade shows. In addition, the main international markets for Chilean wineries were not psychically close markets as has been found for Australian or other wine industries. For domestic market oriented wineries cellar door sales were an important source of revenue. Finally, the results show that managers have educational levels and international experience exceeding those of other comparable New World wineries.

A semantics-based approach to querying process model repositories

As business process management technology matures, organisations acquire more and more business process models. The resulting collections can consist of hundreds, even thousands of models and their management poses real challenges. One of these challenges concerns model retrieval where support should be provided for the formulation and efficient execution of business process model queries. As queries based on only structural information cannot deal with all querying requirements in practice, there should be support for queries that require knowledge of process model semantics. In this paper we formally define a process model query language that is based on semantic relationships between tasks. This query language is independent of the particular process modelling notation used, but we will demonstrate how it can be used in the context of Petri nets by showing how the semantic relationships can be determined for these nets in such a way that state space explosion is avoided as much as possible. An experiment with three large process model repositories shows that queries expressed in our language can be evaluated efficiently.

The impact of knowledge integration on enterprise system success

Despite promising benefits and advantages, there are reports of failures and low realisation of benefits in Enterprise System (ES) initiatives. Among the research on the factors that influence ES success, there is a dearth of studies on the knowledge implications of multiple end-user groups using the same ES application. An ES facilitates the work of several user groups, ranging from strategic management, management, to operational staff, all using the same system for multiple objectives. Given the fundamental characteristics of ES – integration of modules, business process views, and aspects of information transparency – it is necessary that all frequent end-users share a reasonable amount of common knowledge and integrate their knowledge to yield new knowledge. Recent literature on ES implementation highlights the importance of Knowledge Integration (KI) for implementation success. Unfortunately, the importance of KI is often overlooked and little about the role of KI in ES success is known. Many organisations do not achieve the potential benefits from their ES investment because they do not consider the need or their ability to integrate their employees’ knowledge. This study is designed to improve our understanding of the influence of KI among ES end-users on operational ES success. The three objectives of the study are: (I) to identify and validate the antecedents of KI effectiveness, (II) to investigate the impact of KI effectiveness on the goodness of individuals’ ES-knowledge base, and (III) to examine the impact of the goodness of individuals’ ES-knowledge base on the operational ES success. For this purpose, we employ the KI factors identified by Grant (1996) and an IS-impact measurement model from the work of Gable et al. (2008) to examine ES success. The study derives its findings from data gathered from six Malaysian companies in order to obtain the three-fold goal of this thesis as outlined above. The relationships between the antecedents of KI effectiveness and its consequences are tested using 188 responses to a survey representing the views of management and operational employment cohorts. Using statistical methods, we confirm three antecedents of KI effectiveness and the consequences of the antecedents on ES success are validated. The findings demonstrate a statistically positive impact of KI effectiveness of ES success, with KI effectiveness contributing to almost one-third of ES success. This research makes a number of contributions to the understanding of the influence of KI on ES success. First, based on the empirical work using a complete nomological net model, the role of KI effectiveness on ES success is evidenced. Second, the model provides a theoretical lens for a more comprehensive understanding of the impact of KI on the level of ES success. Third, restructuring the dimensions of the knowledge-based theory to fit the context of ES extends its applicability and generalisability to contemporary Information Systems. Fourth, the study develops and validates measures for the antecedents of KI effectiveness. Fifth, the study demonstrates the statistically significant positive influence of the goodness of KI on ES success. From a practical viewpoint, this study emphasises the importance of KI effectiveness as a direct antecedent of ES success. Practical lessons can be drawn from the work done in this study to empirically identify the critical factors among the antecedents of KI effectiveness that should be given attention.

Using performance management systems as identity products

This paper explores how the effective use of performance management systems (PMS) essentialises collective identities through the use of textual performances. The discursive effect of PMS operates to simplify members’ logic to allow them to understand and negotiate the complex nature of collective performance. Two case studies, drawing on a qualitative study of the implementation of PMS in two public sector organisations, point to the unique contribution of symbolic effects of one popular PMS, the balanced scorecard (BSC). Findings suggest that the BSC visualising the trajectory of achieving organisational vision through multiple perspectives, measures and linkages is a valuable identity product to achieve organisational success. The case studies also provide an analysis that contrasts aspects of the diffusion and promotion of collective identities through the use of the BSC. This demonstrates that clear direction in the identity management process is an important factor in the design and implementation of successful PMS programs. The value of this paper is to heighten recognition of the symbolic agency of PMS, as it serves as a subtle mechanism for identity management, and also to foster the collaboration of communication specialists and management accountants to achieve common organisational goals.

The enterprise information security policy as a strategic business policy within the corporate strategic plan (extended abstract)

Information security has been recognized as a core requirement for corporate governance that is expected to facilitate not only the management of risks, but also as a corporate enabler that supports and contributes to the sustainability of organizational operations. In implementing information security, the enterprise information security policy is the set of principles and strategies that guide the course of action for the security activities and may be represented as a brief statement that defines program goals and sets information security and risk requirements. The enterprise information security policy (alternatively referred to as security policy in this paper) that represents the meta-policy of information security is an element of corporate ICT governance and is derived from the strategic requirements for risk management and corporate governance. Consistent alignment between the security policy and the other corporate business policies and strategies has to be maintained if information security is to be implemented according to evolving business objectives. This alignment may be facilitated by managing security policy alongside other corporate business policies within the strategic management cycle. There are however limitations in current approaches for developing and managing the security policy to facilitate consistent strategic alignment. This paper proposes a conceptual framework for security policy management by presenting propositions to positively affect security policy alignment with business policies and prescribing a security policy management approach that expounds on the propositions.

Detecting approximate clones in process model repositories with Apromore

Approximate clone detection is the process of identifying similar process fragments in business process model collections. The tool presented in this paper can efficiently cluster approximate clones in large process model repositories. Once a repository is clustered, users can filter and browse the clusters using different filtering parameters. Our tool can also visualize clusters in the 2D space, allowing a better understanding of clusters and their member fragments. This demonstration will be useful for researchers and practitioners working on large process model repositories, where process standardization is a critical task for increasing the consistency and reducing the complexity of the repository.

Slice, mine and dice : complexity-aware automated discovery of business process models

Automated process discovery techniques aim at extracting models from information system logs in order to shed light into the business processes supported by these systems. Existing techniques in this space are effective when applied to relatively small or regular logs, but otherwise generate large and spaghetti-like models. In previous work, trace clustering has been applied in an attempt to reduce the size and complexity of automatically discovered process models. The idea is to split the log into clusters and to discover one model per cluster. The result is a collection of process models -- each one representing a variant of the business process -- as opposed to an all-encompassing model. Still, models produced in this way may exhibit unacceptably high complexity. In this setting, this paper presents a two-way divide-and-conquer process discovery technique, wherein the discovered process models are split on the one hand by variants and on the other hand hierarchically by means of subprocess extraction. The proposed technique allows users to set a desired bound for the complexity of the produced models. Experiments on real-life logs show that the technique produces collections of models that are up to 64% smaller than those extracted under the same complexity bounds by applying existing trace clustering techniques.

Process monitoring using sensors in YAWL

This article describes the architecture of a monitoring component for the YAWL system. The architecture proposed is based on sensors and it is realized as a YAWL service to have perfect integration with the YAWL systems. The architecture proposed is generic and applicable in different contexts of business process monitoring. Finally, it was tested and evaluated in the context of risk monitoring for business processes.

The effectiveness of public sector asset management in Malaysia

Property is an important factor in all businesses production in order to function. Nourse (1990) quoted ¡°some businesses are real estate, all businesses use real estate¡±. In recent years, the management of property assets has become the focus of many organisations, including the non-real estate businesses. Good asset management is concerned with the effective utilisation of a property owner.s assets. It is the management process of ensuring that the portfolio of properties held meets the overall requirements of the users. In short, it is the process of identifying the user.s requirement and the rationalisation of property holdings to match that requirement best, followed by a monitoring and ongoing review of practice. In Malaysia, federal agencies and local authorities are among the largest property asset owners. Recently the federal government has released a Total Asset Management Manual (TAMM). It is at the preliminary stage of implementation. This thesis will study the international practices of asset management of public sector assets and assess the effectiveness of TAMM. This research will focus on current international practices for the effective management of public sector property assets. The current application in Malaysia will be highlighted, to determine the awareness and understanding of the current practices to the recently released TAMM. This research is an exploratory research. The basis of this research relies on the combination of qualitative and quantitative approach, whereby the qualitative approach focuses on the international practices and its application to the management of public sector property assets. Questionnaires survey will be conducted among the Malaysian public property assets managers and users in the quantitative approach to gauge the collective opinion on the current practices of TAMM and its implementation

Profiling event logs to configure risk indicators for process delays

Risk identification is one of the most challenging stages in the risk management process. Conventional risk management approaches provide little guidance and companies often rely on the knowledge of experts for risk identification. In this paper we demonstrate how risk indicators can be used to predict process delays via a method for configuring so-called Process Risk Indicators(PRIs). The method learns suitable configurations from past process behaviour recorded in event logs. To validate the approach we have implemented it as a plug-in of the ProM process mining framework and have conducted experiments using various data sets from a major insurance company.