Sähköisen taloushallinnon vaikutus tilitoimistojen tuottavuuteen Case: Heeros Systems Oy

Tässä tutkimuksessa tarkasteltiin tuottavuuden käsitettä ja mittaamista palvelualoilla. Tutkielman tavoitteena oli kuvata ja ymmärtää sähköisen taloushallinnon vaikutusta tilitoimistojen tuottavuuteen. Aihetta lähestyttiin sähköisiä taloushallinto-ohjelmia valmistavan case-yhtiö Heeros Systems Oy:n avulla. Tutkimus on luonteeltaan laadullinen tutkimus, jonka tutkimusmenetelmä-nä käytettiin teemahaastatteluja. Tutkimusaineisto kerättiin haastattelemal-la yhteensä kymmentä tutkimuksen kohteena olevan tilitoimiston edusta-jaa. Tutkimuksen perusteella ei havaittu sähköisen taloushallinnon selkeästi vaikuttavan tilitoimistojen tuottavuuteen tässä vaiheessa, mutta toiminto-ympäristön sähköistyessä, esimerkiksi verkkolaskujen yleistyessä, tilan-teen uskotaan muuttuvan nopeasti. Tällöin tuottavuuden kasvu edellyttää työprosessin muuttamista ja huolellista suunnittelua.

Developing of the Variable Speed Drive -control in simulated parallel pumping systems

This thesis presents briefly the basic operation and use of centrifugal pumps and parallel pumping applications. The characteristics of parallel pumping applications are compared to circuitry, in order to search analogy between these technical fields. The purpose of studying circuitry is to find out if common software tools for solving circuit performance could be used to observe parallel pumping applications. The empirical part of the thesis introduces a simulation environment for parallel pumping systems, which is based on circuit components of Matlab Simulink —software. The created simulation environment ensures the observation of variable speed controlled parallel pumping systems in case of different controlling methods. The introduced simulation environment was evaluated by building a simulation model for actual parallel pumping system at Lappeenranta University of Technology. The simulated performance of the parallel pumps was compared to measured values of the actual system. The gathered information shows, that if the initial data of the system and pump perfonnance is adequate, the circuitry based simulation environment can be exploited to observe parallel pumping systems. The introduced simulation environment can represent the actual operation of parallel pumps in reasonably accuracy. There by the circuitry based simulation can be used as a researching tool to develop new controlling ways for parallel pumps.

Combining Generic Programming and Service-Oriented Architectures for the Effective and Timely Development of Complex e-Learning Systems

Peer-reviewed

A Co-Processor Approach for Efficient Java Execution in Embedded Systems

This thesis deals with a hardware accelerated Java virtual machine, named REALJava. The REALJava virtual machine is targeted for resource constrained embedded systems. The goal is to attain increased computational performance with reduced power consumption. While these objectives are often seen as trade-offs, in this context both of them can be attained simultaneously by using dedicated hardware. The target level of the computational performance of the REALJava virtual machine is initially set to be as fast as the currently available full custom ASIC Java processors. As a secondary goal all of the components of the virtual machine are designed so that the resulting system can be scaled to support multiple co-processor cores. The virtual machine is designed using the hardware/software co-design paradigm. The partitioning between the two domains is flexible, allowing customizations to the resulting system, for instance the floating point support can be omitted from the hardware in order to decrease the size of the co-processor core. The communication between the hardware and the software domains is encapsulated into modules. This allows the REALJava virtual machine to be easily integrated into any system, simply by redesigning the communication modules. Besides the virtual machine and the related co-processor architecture, several performance enhancing techniques are presented. These include techniques related to instruction folding, stack handling, method invocation, constant loading and control in time domain. The REALJava virtual machine is prototyped using three different FPGA platforms. The original pipeline structure is modified to suit the FPGA environment. The performance of the resulting Java virtual machine is evaluated against existing Java solutions in the embedded systems field. The results show that the goals are attained, both in terms of computational performance and power consumption. Especially the computational performance is evaluated thoroughly, and the results show that the REALJava is more than twice as fast as the fastest full custom ASIC Java processor. In addition to standard Java virtual machine benchmarks, several new Java applications are designed to both verify the results and broaden the spectrum of the tests.

Technology roadmap for new sales support and management system for crane manufacturing company

Sales configurators are essential tools for companies that offer complicated case specifically crafted products for customers. Most sophisticated of them are able to design an entire end product on the fly according to given constraints, calculate price for the offer and move the order into production. This thesis covers a sales configurator acquisition project in a large industrial company that offers cranes for its customers. The study spans the preliminary stages of a large-scale software purchase project starting from the specification of problem domain and ending up presenting the most viable software solution that fulfils the requirements for the new system. The project consists of mapping usage environment, use cases, and collecting requirements that are expected from the new system. The collected requirements involve fitting the new sales system into enterprise application infrastructure, mitigating the risks involved in the project and specifying new features to the application whilst preserving all of the admired features of the old sales system currently used in the company. The collected requirements were presented to a number of different sales software vendors who were asked to provide solution suggestions that would fulfil all the demands. All of the received solution proposals were exposed to an evaluation to determine the most feasible solutions, and the construction of evaluation criteria itself was a part of the study. The final outcome of this study is a short-list of the most feasible sales configurator solutions together with a description of how software purchase process in large enterprises work, and which aspects should be paid attention in large projects of similar kind.

Web services to link interlibrary software with OCLC WorldShare

Purpose - This article describes the use of web services to interconnect the GTBib interlibrary loan program with the OCLC WorldShare platform. Design/methodology/approach - We describe the current problem of duplication of procedures in libraries that have added their collections to the OCLC WorldCat catalogue in recent years and are therefore more likely to receive interlibrary loan requests through the WorldShare Platform. Findings - A solution that uses web services to insert and retrieve requests between the two systems is presented. Autonomous agents periodically check the status of the requests and keep them updated and synchronized. These agents also inform the library staff of any variation or inconsistency that is detected. Practical Implications - This technology reduces process management time by making it unnecessary to introduce the request data in both systems. Agents are used to check the consistency of statuses between the two systems, thus avoiding errors and omissions and improving the efficiency of the whole interlibrary loan process. Originality/value - This paper describes in detail the technical aspects of the solution as a reference for the development of future applications.

Supporting Solution Business with an Integrated Enterprise System

Some of the world’s leading companies now compete by providing integrated solutions to identify and solve each customer’s business problem by providing services to design, integrate, operate and finance a product or system during its life cycle. At the same time, because of the requirements of new global economy, companies are implementing new integrated ERP systems. The objective of this thesis was to define how solution offering can be implemented in the integrated ERP system so that it is possible to sell, deliver and maintain solution offering with the new enterprise applications. The research was conducted as a qualitative case study research consisting of literature review, theme-interviews and an analysis phase. For a start this study introduces new insight for combining solution business, offering modeling and modern ERP system theories. The results of this research illustrate the limitations of an integrated ERP system to support solution business and show the need to develop a commercial product model in order to improve the combination of solution offering and IT systems.

El software libre al servicio de la economía productiva : Caso real de implantación de un ERP en una micro PYME

Este trabajo de fin de grado intenta, mediante el caso real de la implantación de un ERP en una micro PYME, ajustar a la realidad socioeconómica de la gran mayoría de empresas españolas las técnicas de implantación de software y de gestión de proyectos, usando como elemento conductor un ERP de software libre, para conseguir el triple objetivo de mantener los ratios de calidad deseados en cualquier proyecto de ingeniería de software, con unos costes asumibles por una micro PYME y satisfaciendo las necesidades de negocio.

Estudi de software lliure en diferents entorns

El software lliure està tenint últimament un pes cada cop més important en les empreses, però encara és el gran desconegut per a molta gent. Des de la seva creació als anys 80 fins ara, hi ha hagut un creixement exponencial de software lliure de gran qualitat, oferint eines per a tot tipus de necessitats, eines ofimàtiques, gestors de correu, sistemes de fitxer, sistemes operatius…. Tot aquest moviment no ha passat desapercebut per a molts usuaris i empreses, que s’han aprofitat d’ell per cobrir les seves necessitats. Pel que fa a les empreses, cada cop n’hi ha més que en petita o gran mesura, utilitzen el software lliure, ja sigui per el seu menor cost d’adquisició, o bé per la seva gran fiabilitat o per que és fàcilment adaptable o per no establir cap lligam tecnològic, en definitiva per tenir més llibertat. En el moment de la creació d’una nova empresa, on es parteix de zero en tota la tecnologia informàtica, és el moment menys costòs d’implementar l’arquitectura informàtica amb software lliure, és quan l’impacte que té sobre l’empresa, usuaris i clients és menor. En les empreses que ja tenen un sistema informàtic, caldrà establir un pla de migració, ja sigui total o parcial. La finalitat d’aquest projecte no és la de dir quin software és millor que l’altre o de dir quin s’ha d’instal•lar, sinó el de donar a conèixer el món del software lliure, mostrar part d’aquest software, fer alguna comparativa de software lliure amb software propietari, donant idees i un conjunt de solucions per a empreses, per què una empresa pugui agafar idees d’implementació d’algunes de les solucions informàtiques exposades o seguir algun dels consells proposats. Actualment ja hi ha moltes empreses que utilitzen software lliure. Algunes només n’utilitzen una petita part en les seves instal•lacions, ja que el fet de que una empresa funcioni al 100% amb software lliure, tot i que n’hi comença ha haver, de moment ho considero una mica arriscat, però que en poc temps, aquest fet serà cada cop més habitual.

Quality standards in e-business software development

Large enterprises have for many years employed eBusiness solutions in order to improve their efficiency. Smaller companies, however, have not been able to leverage these technologies due to the high level of know-how and resources required in implementing them. To solve this, novel software services are being developed to facilitate eBusiness adoption for the small enterprise with the aim of making B2Bi feasible not only between large organisations but also between trading partners of all sizes. The objective of this study was to find what standards and techniques on eBusiness and software testing and quality assurance fit best for building these new kinds of software considering the requirements their unique eBusiness approach poses. The research was conducted as a literature study with focus on standards on software testing and quality assurance together with standards on eBusiness. The study showed that the current software testing and quality assurance standards do not possess such characteristics as would make select standards evidently better fitted for building this type of software, which were established to be best developed as web services in order for them to meet their requirements. A selection of eBusiness standards and technologies was proposed to support this approach. The main finding in the study was, however, that these kinds of web services that have high interoperability requirements will have to be able to carry out automated interoperability and conformance testing as part of their operation; this objective dictates how the software are built and how testing during software development is to be done. The study showed that research on automated interoperability and conformance testing for web services is still limited and more research is needed to make the building of highly-interoperable web services more feasible.

The Detector Control Systems for the CMS Resistive Plate Chamber at LHC

The RPC Detector Control System (RCS) is the main subject of this PhD work. The project, involving the Lappeenranta University of Technology, the Warsaw University and INFN of Naples, is aimed to integrate the different subsystems for the RPC detector and its trigger chain in order to develop a common framework to control and monitoring the different parts. In this project, I have been strongly involved during the last three years on the hardware and software development, construction and commissioning as main responsible and coordinator. The CMS Resistive Plate Chambers (RPC) system consists of 912 double-gap chambers at its start-up in middle of 2008. A continuous control and monitoring of the detector, the trigger and all the ancillary sub-systems (high voltages, low voltages, environmental, gas, and cooling), is required to achieve the operational stability and reliability of a so large and complex detector and trigger system. Role of the RPC Detector Control System is to monitor the detector conditions and performance, control and monitor all subsystems related to RPC and their electronics and store all the information in a dedicated database, called Condition DB. Therefore the RPC DCS system has to assure the safe and correct operation of the sub-detectors during all CMS life time (more than 10 year), detect abnormal and harmful situations and take protective and automatic actions to minimize consequential damages. The analysis of the requirements and project challenges, the architecture design and its development as well as the calibration and commissioning phases represent themain tasks of the work developed for this PhD thesis. Different technologies, middleware and solutions has been studied and adopted in the design and development of the different components and a big challenging consisted in the integration of these different parts each other and in the general CMS control system and data acquisition framework. Therefore, the RCS installation and commissioning phase as well as its performance and the first results, obtained during the last three years CMS cosmic runs, will be

Software para simulação de mecanismo de supressão da luminescência: modelo cinético de Stern-Volmer

A software that includes both Stochastic and Molecular Dynamics procedures has been developed with the aim of visualizing the Stern-Volmer kinetic mechanism of dynamic luminescence quenching. The software allows the student to easily simulate and graphically visualize the molecular collisions, the molecular speed distributions, the luminescence decay curves, and the Stern-Volmer graphs. The software named "SternVolmer" is written for the FreeBASIC compiler and can be applied to dynamic systems where luminescent molecules, during their excited state lifetimes, are able to collide with quenching molecules (collisional quenching). The good agreement found between the simulations and the expected results shows that this software can be used as an effective teaching aid for the study of luminescence and kinetic decay of excited states.

Business intelligence –järjestelmä integraation tukena kansainvälisessä yrityksessä

Business intelligencellä tarkoitetaan liiketoimintatiedon hallintaan liittyviä prosesseja ja tekniikoita. Se pitää sisällään tiedon keräämiseen, tallentamiseen, analysointiin ja jakamiseen käytettyt tuotteet, tekniikat ja prosessit, joiden tavoitteena on auttaa yrityksen työntekijöitä liiketoimintaan liittyvässä päätöksenteossa. Tutkimuksen tavoitteena on tutkia uuden yritysryhmän laajuisen BI-tietojärjestelmän suunnitteluun ja käyttöönotoon liittyviä seikkoja ja luoda valmiudet BI-tietojärjestelmän kehitys- ja käyttöönottoprojektin kohdeyrityksessä, jonka toimiala on kansainvälinen terveydenhoitoalan tukkuliiketoiminta. Uuden BI-järjestelmän halutaan tukeva yritysryhmän yritysten välistä integraatiota ja tehostavan tiedonhakuun ja analysointiin liittyviä prosesseja. Tutkimus toteutettiin konstruktiivisena tutkimuksena, joka kattaa kohdeyrityksen IT-arkkitehtuurin, tietosisällön, prosessit ja organisaation raportoinnin kannalta. Lisäksi työssä suoritettiin ohjelmistovertailu kahden markkinoilla toimivan merkittävän ohjelmistotalon BI-tuotteiden välillä. Työssä havaittiin, että BI-projekti on laaja-alainen ja suuri hanke, joka ulottuu läpi koko organisaation. BI-ohjelmiston tehokas hyödyntäminen asettaa vaatimuksia erityisesti taustajärjestelmien tiedon huolelliseen mallintamiseen liittyen. Työssä saatiin pilotoinnin kautta käytännön kokemuksia uudesta järjestelmästä ja sen tarjoamista mahdollisuuksista kohdeyrityksessä.

Verkkokaupan perustamisen suunnittelu lastenvaateliikkeelle

Verkkokauppa on yleistynyt viime vuosina voimakkaasti. Sähköisen kaupankäynnin avulla yrityksellä on mahdollisuus kasvaa markkina-alueen laajetessa, tosin laajalla markkina-alueella myös kilpailu on kovaa. Verkkokaupan perustaminen on teknisesti nopeaa ja helppoa, mutta verkkokaupan menestyksekäs toteuttaminen vaatii huolellisen ennakkosuunnittelun. Tämän diplomityön tavoitteena on kerätä taustatiedot ja suunnitella perustekijät kuluttajakaupassa verkkokauppaa aloittelevalle lastenvaateliikkeelle menestyksekkään kaupankäynnin tukemiseksi. Työssä on perehdytty yleisesti sähköiseen kaupankäyntiin, sen toimijoihin ja verkkokaupan tuotteisiin kirjallisuuden ja muiden lähteiden avulla. Tämän lisäksi on haettu tietoa verkkokaupan palveluntarjoajista ohjelmistoihin, maksujärjestelmiin ja kuljetuspalveluihin liittyen. Työ sisältää kohdeyritykseen, sen myymiin tuotteisiin, kilpailijoihin ja potentiaalisiin asiakkaisiin tutustumisen. Kilpailija-analyysi sisältää samantyyppisten yritysten perustietojen lisäksi näiden jo toimivien verkkokauppojen havainnoinnin. Potentiaalisia asiakkaita ja näiden mieltymyksiä on kartoitettu verkossa toteutetun asiakaskyselyn avulla. Markkinointiviestintää, tietoturvaa ja teknisiä yksityiskohtia koskevat asiat on rajattu pääosin ulkopuolelle. Työn tuloksena on toimenpidesuositus verkkokaupan käynnistämisvaiheeseen sisältäen tutkitut verkkokaupan osa-alueet. Haettujen perustietojen ja toteutettujen analyysien pohjalta on suositeltu kohdeyritykselle soveltuvia palveluntarjoajia ja keskeisiksi havaittujen toiminnallisuuksien toteutusta verkkokaupassa.