Enterprise applications migration to the cloud: risks and opportunities

Millions of enterprises move their applications to a cloud every year. According to Forrester Research “the global cloud computing market will grow from a $40.7 billion in 2011 to $241 billion in 2020”. Due to increased interests and demand broad range of providers and solutions have appeared in the market. It is vital to be able to predict possible problems correctly and to classify and mitigate risks associated with the migration process. The study will show the main criteria that should be taken into consideration while making decision of moving enterprise applications to the cloud and choosing appropriate vendor. The main goal of the research is to identify main problems during the migration to a cloud and propose a solution for their prevention and mitigation of consequences in case of occurrence. The research provides an overview of existing cloud solutions and deployment models for enterprise applications. It identifies decision drivers of an applications migration to a cloud and potential risks and benefits associated with this. Finally, the best practices for the successful enterprise-to-cloud migration based on the case studies analysis are formulated.

The Application of Enterprise Architecture Approach to Military Concept Development–Case Study

Abstract—Concept development and experimentation (CD&E) plays an important role in driving strategic transformation in the military community. Defence architecture frameworks, such as the NATO architecture framework, are considered excellent means to support CD&E. There is not much empirical evidence, however, to indicate how enterprise architectures (EA) are applied in the military community or particularly in military CD&E. Consequently, this paper describes and discusses empirical application of the EA approach in CD&E. The research method in the paper is a case study. Situational method engineering (SiME) is used as a framework to adapt the EA approach to the case project of the paper. The findings of the paper suggest that the EA is applicable to CD&E work, although all aspects of the original concept could not be expressed in the EA model of the case project. The results also show that the SiME method can support in applying the EA framework to the CD&E in the case project.

DEVELOPING SOCIAL CAPITAL WITHIN COMPANIES THROUGH ENTERPRISE 2.0

Whereas external social media has been studied, hyped and integrated into companies´ strategies, an insignificant concentration has been put on internal social solutions, which companies provide increasingly to their personnel. An enterprise focusing solely on the benefits of external social media might end up underestimating the true potential embedded in social business. The purpose of this thesis was to examine how social collaboration can be depicted as a structuration process in an Enterprise 2.0 environment. Furthermore, this thesis sought to reveal the benefits, challenges and possibilities of social business. This thesis focused on researching Enterprise 2.0 at the workplace. The studied Enterprise 2.0 solution was IBM Connections. The qualitative research methodology was an extensive case study. Three companies took part into this thesis and all in all 12 employees were interviewed. Additionally, seven IBM Social Business Experts were interviewed in order to receive a better understanding of the phenomenon. Three research questions were designed to fulfill the purpose of this thesis. The research questions were: 1. How are the dimensions of social capital structured through collaboration? 2. How does agency form in Enterprise 2.0? 3. How does social collaboration emerge as a result of the interplay between agency and dimensions of social capital in an Enterprise 2.0 environment and creates outcomes such as trust, identification and knowledge? The main research findings indicate that social collaboration increases trust, identification and knowledge by giving employees more capabilities to do their work. Consequently, social collaboration increases company performance by making individuals and groups more effective. The support of top management is crucial in making Enterprise 2.0 successful, because it is more a cultural than a technological change. Power agency, the lack of top management support and old established work ways such as email and databases work as barriers to social collaboration.

Lectio praecursoria : Systems between information and knowledge : in a memory management model of an extended enterprise

VTT Jouni Meriluodon valtio-opin alaan kuuluva väitöskirja Systems between information and knowledge : in a memory management model of an extended enterprise tarkastettiin 21.6.2011 Helsingin yliopistossa.

Effects of Socioeconomic Status and Sociodemographic Features on Cardiovascular Disease. Mortality and Morbidity in Finland

Despite declining trends in morbidity and mortality, cardiovascular diseases have a considerable impact on Finnish public health. A goal in Finnish health policy is to reduce inequalities in health and mortality among population groups. The aim of this study was to assess inequalities in cardiovascular diseases according to socioeconomic status (SES), language groups and other sociodemographic characteristics. The main data source was generated from events in 35-99 year-old men and women registered in the population-based FINMONICA and FINAMI myocardial infarction registers during the years ranging from 1988-2002. Information on population group characteristics was obtained from Statistics Finland. Additional data were derived from the FINMONICA and FINSTROKE stroke registers and the FINRISK Study. SES, measured by income level, was a major determinant of acute coronary syndrome (ACS) mortality. Among middle-aged men, the 28-day mortality rate of the lowest group of six income groups was 5.2 times and incidence 2.7 times as high when compared to the highest income group. Among women, the differences were even larger. Among the unmarried, the incidence of ACS was approximately 1.6 times as high and their prognosis was significantly worse than among married persons - both in men and women and independent of age. Higher age-standardized attack rates of ACS and stroke were found among Finnish-speaking compared to Swedish-speaking men in Turku and these differences could not be completely explained by SES. In these language groups, modest differences were found in traditional risk factor levels possibly explaining part of the found morbidity and mortality inequality. In conclusion, there are considerable differences in the morbidity and mortality of ACS and stroke between socioeconomic and sociodemographic groups, in Finland. Focusing measures to reduce the excess morbidity and mortality, in groups at high risk, could decrease the economic burden of cardiovascular diseases and thus be an important public health goal in Finland.

Integration of Electronic Commerce and Enterprise Systems

The necessity of EC (Electronic Commerce) and enterprise systems integration is perceived from the integrated nature of enterprise systems. The proven benefits of EC to provide competitive advantages to the organizations force enterprises to adopt and integrate EC with their enterprise systems. Integration is a complex task to facilitate seamless flow of information and data between different systems within and across enterprises. Different systems have different platforms, thus to integrate systems with different platforms and infrastructures, integration technologies, such as middleware, SOA (Service-Oriented Architecture), ESB (Enterprise Service Bus), JCA (J2EE Connector Architecture), and B2B (Business-to-Business) integration standards are required. Huge software vendors, such as Oracle, IBM, Microsoft, and SAP suggest various solutions to address EC and enterprise systems integration problems. There are limited numbers of literature about the integration of EC and enterprise systems in detail. Most of the studies in this area have focused on the factors which influence the adoption of EC by enterprise or other studies provide limited information about a specific platform or integration methodology in general. Therefore, this thesis is conducted to cover the technical details of EC and enterprise systems integration and covers both the adoption factors and integration solutions. In this study, many literature was reviewed and different solutions were investigated. Different enterprise integration approaches as well as most popular integration technologies were investigated. Moreover, various methodologies of integrating EC and enterprise systems were studied in detail and different solutions were examined. In this study, the influential factors to adopt EC in enterprises were studied based on previous literature and categorized to technical, social, managerial, financial, and human resource factors. Moreover, integration technologies were categorized based on three levels of integration, which are data, application, and process. In addition, different integration approaches were identified and categorized based on their communication and platform. Also, different EC integration solutions were investigated and categorized based on the identified integration approaches. By considering different aspects of integration, this study is a great asset to the architectures, developers, and system integrators in order to integrate and adopt EC with enterprise systems.

Process modeling method for electric accessories manufacturing enterprise

The theoretical research of the study focused to business process management and business process modeling, the goal was to found a new business process modeling method for electrical accessories manufacturing enterprise. The focus was to find few options for business process modeling methods where company could have chosen the best one for its needs The study was carried out as a qualitative research with an action study and a case study as the most important ways collect data. In the empirical part of the study examples of company’s processes modeled with the new modeling method and process modeling process are presented. The new way of modeling processes improves especially visual presentation of the processes and improves the understanding how employees should work in the organizational interfaces of the process and in the interfaces between different processes. The results of the study is a new unified way to model company’s processes, which makes it easier to understand and create the process models. This improved readability makes it possible to reduce the costs that were created from the unclear old process models.

Project Controlling and Management in IT Consulting Enterprise

Liiketoiminnan organisoiminen projekteiksi on erittäin yleistä nykyisin. Suuri osa projekteista erityisesti IT-alalla epäonnistuu kuitenkin saavuttamaan tavoitteensa. Projektin menestys on tyypillisesti mitattu budjetin, aikataulun, laadun ja sidosryhmien tyytyväisyyden perusteella. Tämän Pro Gradu -tutkielman tarkoituksena on etsiä tyypillisimpiä syitä projektien epäonnistumiseen ja löytää projektien seurannan ja mittaamisen avulla keinoja näiden epäonnistumisten ehkäisemiseen. Tutkimusmenetelmänä on laadullinen tapaustutkimus. Empiirinen aineisto on kerätty haastattelujen, eri materiaalien analysoinnin ja havainnoinnin avulla. Teoriaosuus tarjoaa kattavan yhteenvedon projektiliiketoiminnan ja yksittäisten projektien johtamiseen sekä projektien seurantaan ja mittaamiseen aikaisemman kirjallisuuden perusteella. Empiirisessä osiossa suoritetaan analyysi Case -yrityksen projektien seurantaan ja valittuihin projekteihin. Analyysien, haastattelujen ja havainnoinnin pohjalta tehdään johtopäätökset tyypillisimmistä, ongelmia projekteissa aiheuttavista tekijöistä sekä näiden esiintymisestä projektin elinkaaren eri vaiheissa. Mahdolliset ongelmia ehkäisevät keinot esitetään myös. Ehdotuksia kehityskohteiksi esitetään lopuksi teorian ja empirian pohjalta.

Demand forecasting process design and methods in medium sized enterprise

The purpose of this thesis was to study the design of demand forecasting processes and management of demand. In literature review were different processes found and forecasting methods and techniques interviewed. Also role of bullwhip effect in supply chain was identified and how to manage it with information sharing operations. In the empirical part of study is at first described current situation and challenges in case company. After that will new way to handle demand introduced with target budget creation and how information sharing with 5 products and a few customers would bring benefits to company. Also the new S&OP process created within this study and organization for it.

Frequency of Werner helicase 1367 polymorphism and age-related morbidity in an elderly Brazilian population

Werner syndrome (WS) is a premature aging disease caused by a mutation in the WRN gene. The gene was identified in 1996 and its product acts as a DNA helicase and exonuclease. Some specific WRN polymorphic variants were associated with increased risk for cardiovascular diseases. The identification of genetic polymorphisms as risk factors for complex diseases affecting older people can improve their prevention, diagnosis and prognosis. We investigated WRN codon 1367 polymorphism in 383 residents in a district of the city of São Paulo, who were enrolled in an Elderly Brazilian Longitudinal Study. Their mean age was 79.70 ± 5.32 years, ranging from 67 to 97. This population was composed of 262 females (68.4%) and 121 males (31.6%) of European (89.2%), Japanese (3.3%), Middle Eastern (1.81%), and mixed and/or other origins (5.7%). There are no studies concerning this polymorphism in Brazilian population. These subjects were evaluated clinically every two years. The major health problems and morbidities affecting this cohort were cardiovascular diseases (21.7%), hypertension (83.7%), diabetes (63.3%), obesity (41.23%), dementia (8.0%), depression (20.0%), and neoplasia (10.8%). Their prevalence is similar to some urban elderly Brazilian samples. DNA was isolated from blood cells, amplified by PCR and digested with PmaCI. Allele frequencies were 0.788 for the cysteine and 0.211 for the arginine. Genotype distributions were within that expected for the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. Female gender was associated with hypertension and obesity. Logistic regression analysis did not detect significant association between the polymorphism and morbidity. These findings confirm those from Europeans and differ from Japanese population.

Chance of psychiatric morbidity amongst recently diagnosed cancer outpatients attending a chemotherapy unit

The prevalent rate of psychiatry morbidity amongst patients with cancer reported in various studies ranges from 5 to 50%, a variation that can be attributed to differences in sample size, the disease itself and treatment factors. The objectives of the present study were to determine the frequency of psychiatric morbidity amongst recently diagnosed cancer outpatients and try to identify which factors might be related to further psychological distress. Two hundred and eleven (70.9%) female patients and 87 (29.1%) male patients from the chemotherapy unit of the Cancer Hospital A.C. Camargo (São Paulo) completed a questionnaire that featured data on demographic, medical and treatment details. The Self Reporting Questionnaire (SRQ-20) was administered to the patients to determine their personal psychiatric morbidity. Seventy-two patients (25.8%) scored > or = 8 in the SRQ-20, the cut-off point for a patient to be considered a psychiatric case. When the low and high scoring groups were compared no differences were detected regarding age, marital status, tumor site, sex, or previous treatment. Nonetheless, patients in the lowest social class and those who were bedridden less than 50% of the time had a significantly higher probability of being a psychiatric case. Regarding help-seeking behavior in situations in which they had doubts or were frightened, about 64% of the total sample did not seek any type of support and did not talk to anyone. This frequency of psychiatric morbidity agrees with data from the cancer literature. According to many investigators, the early detection of a comorbid psychiatric disorder is crucial to relieve a patient's suffering.

Fundraising and investor relations in social enterprise: Marketing your way out of the pioneer gap in African off-grid renewable energy

Social enterprises apply the best of business for the pursuit of social or environmental mission while also generating revenues. Globally, nearly 1,3 billion people lack access to electricity, as well as another billion having access to only low quality and infrequent electricity. Off-grid renewable energy, like solar, will increasingly have a key role in the solution of the energy access issue. The pioneer gap in off-grid renewable energy consists of financing (or funding) gaps and capacity gaps, to do with both the early stage of the enterprises in question, as well as the early stage of the whole industry. The gaps are emphasised by specific characteristics of off-grid renewable energy business models and the requirements of operating in bottom-of-the-pyramid markets. The marketing perspective to fundraising is chosen to uncover the possible role enterprises themselves have in bridging the pioneer gap. The purpose of this thesis is to study how social enterprises operating in off-grid renewable energy in Africa utilise marketing activities in their investor relations in bridging the pioneer gap. This main research question is divided into the following sub-questions:  How does the pioneer gap affect fundraising for these enterprises?  How are the funding needs for these enterprises characterised?  How do these enterprises build trust in their investor relations? The theoretic framework is built on relationship marketing and investor relations, with an emphasis on creation of trust. The research is conducted as a thematical case study. Primary data is gathered via semi-structured interviews with six solar energy companies and two accelerators. According to the findings, the main components affecting trust-creation are diminished information asymmetry and perceived risk, mission alignment as well as a personal fit or relationship with the investor. Therefore, an enterprise can utilise e.g. the following marketing activities in their investor relations to bridge the pioneer gap: ensuring investor material, the enterprise story and presenting of them is clear, concise and complete to “package” the enterprise as an investment; taking investor needs and motivations into account as well as utilising existing investors as ambassadors.

Production unit’s overhead cost allocation with activity-based costing in food industry enterprise

The main objective of this Master’s thesis is to develop a cost allocation model for a leading food industry company in Finland. The goal is to develop an allocation method for fixed overhead expenses produced in a specific production unit and create a plausible tracking system for product costs. The second objective is to construct an allocation model and modify the created model to be suited for other units as well. Costs, activities, drivers and appropriate allocation methods are studied. This thesis is started with literature review of existing theory of ABC, inspecting cost information and then conducting interviews with officials to get a general view of the requirements for the model to be constructed. The familiarization of the company started with becoming acquainted with the existing cost accounting methods. The main proposals for a new allocation model were revealed through interviews, which were utilized in setting targets for developing the new allocation method. As a result of this thesis, an Excel-based model is created based on the theoretical and empiric data. The new system is able to handle overhead costs in more detail improving the cost awareness, transparency in cost allocations and enhancing products’ cost structure. The improved cost awareness is received by selecting the best possible cost drivers for this situation. Also the capacity changes are taken into consideration, such as usage of practical or normal capacity instead of theoretical is suggested to apply. Also some recommendations for further development are made about capacity handling and cost collection.

Histidine-tryptophan-ketoglutarate solution decreases mortality and morbidity in high-risk patients with severe pulmonary arterial hypertension associated with complex congenital heart disease: an 11-year experience from a single institution

Cardioplegic reperfusion during a long term ischemic period interrupts cardiac surgery and also increases cellular edema due to repeated solution administration. We reviewed the clinical experiences on myocardial protection of a single perfusion with histidine-tryptophan-ketoglutarate (HTK) for high-risk patients with severe pulmonary arterial hypertension associated with complex congenital heart disease. This retrospective study included 101 high-risk patients undergoing arterial switch operation between March 2001 and July 2012. We divided the cohort into two groups: HTK group, myocardial protection was carried out with one single perfusion with HTK solution; and St group, myocardial protection with conventional St. Thomas' crystalloid cardioplegic solution. The duration of cardiopulmonary bypass did not differ between the two groups. The mortality, morbidity, ICU stay, post-operative hospitalization time, and number of transfusions in HTK group were lower than those in St group (P<0.05). Univariate and multivariate analysis showed that HTK is a statistically significant independent predictor of decreased early mortality and morbidity (P<0.05). In conclusion, HTK solution seems to be an effective and safe alternative to St. Thomas' solution for cardioplegic reperfusion in high-risk patients with complex congenital heart disease.