Perceptions of data quality dimensions and data roles

Several authors stress the importance of data’s crucial foundation for operational, tactical and strategic decisions (e.g., Redman 1998, Tee et al. 2007). Data provides the basis for decision making as data collection and processing is typically associated with reducing uncertainty in order to make more effective decisions (Daft and Lengel 1986). While the first series of investments of Information Systems/Information Technology (IS/IT) into organizations improved data collection, restricted computational capacity and limited processing power created challenges (Simon 1960). Fifty years on, capacity and processing problems are increasingly less relevant; in fact, the opposite exists. Determining data relevance and usefulness is complicated by increased data capture and storage capacity, as well as continual improvements in information processing capability. As the IT landscape changes, businesses are inundated with ever-increasing volumes of data from both internal and external sources available on both an ad-hoc and real-time basis. More data, however, does not necessarily translate into more effective and efficient organizations, nor does it increase the likelihood of better or timelier decisions. This raises questions about what data managers require to assist their decision making processes.

When is a spinoff the best way to pursue a radical innovation? Insights from Shell technology ventures

The technology and innovation management literature offers somewhat conflicting evidence with regards to the formation of spinoff companies for radically new technologies. Sometimes spinoffs seem to be a very effective strategy—but not always. An obvious question emerges: under what conditions is a spinoff the best way to pursue a radical technology? This paper sheds light on this question by presenting case study evidence from spinoff firms within the Shell Technology Ventures portfolio. The data point to industry clockspeed as a potentially important variable in the decision to create a spinoff or not.

Digital complementary assets

Google, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. are some of the prominent large-scale digital service providers that are having tremendous impact on societies, corporations and individuals. However, despite the rapid uptake and their obvious influence on the behavior of individuals and the business models and networks of organizations, we still lack a deeper, theory-guided understanding of the related phenomenon. We use Teece’s notion of complementary assets and extend it towards ‘digital complementary assets’ (DCA) in an attempt to provide such a theory-guided understanding of these digital services. Building on Teece’s theory, we make three contributions. First, we offer a new conceptualization of digital complementary assets in the form of digital public goods and digital public assets. Second, we differentiate three models for how organizations can engage with such digital complementary assets. Third, user-base is found to be a critical factor when considering appropriability.

Understanding successful use of technology in organisations in developing countries : a structurational perspective

Information Technology and its relationship to organisational performance has been a subject of continued interest to researchers and other stakeholders in developing countries. While there is concurrence that IT does contribute to performance, and we are efficiently expanding our knowledge on what factors cause better leveraging of IT resources in organisations, we have done little to understand how these factors interact with technology that results in improved performance. This paper suggests looking that the interaction between organisational resources and technology within the structurational lens, which recognises the recursive interaction between technology and people in the presence of social practices, and the norms that inform their ongoing practices. An ethnographic approach to understanding this interaction between technology and resources, as suggested by the structuration perspective, is suggested, aiming to provide richer insights on the nature of the environment that promotes better use of IT resources in developing countries. Such insights could provide the IT users in developing countries with at least an initial conception of the “IT usage platform” that they could promote in their organisations to leverage the most from their IT resources.

How was school today?

What I want to do in this Column, is to paint a picture of the current BPM education portfolios that are offered globally by universities active in the BPM space. To do so, I will draw on work I was involved in that reviewed the BPM teaching capacities of five universities in the United States, Europe, Africa and Australia. My ambition is to complement the listings in the BPTrends Academic Program with a more comprehensive and in-depth discussion of a selected set of universities. Let us explore how BPM capability development is implemented and offered in different universities around the globe.

Information accountability with policy languages for e-Health

ICT is becoming a prominent part of healthcare delivery but brings with it information privacy concerns for patients and competing concerns by the caregivers. A proper balance between these issues must be established in order to fully utilise ICT capabilities in healthcare. Information accountability is a fairly new concept to computer science which focuses on fair use of information. In this paper we investigate the different issues that need to be addressed when applying information accountability principles to manage healthcare information. We briefly introduce an information accountability framework for handling electronic health records (eHR). We focus more on digital rights management by considering data in eHRs as digital assets and how we can represent privacy policies and data usage policies as these are key factors in accountability systems.

An introduction to service choreographies (Servicechoreographien – eine Einführung)

Service oriented architecture (SOA) is an architectural style for building software systems based on services. Especially in those scenarios where services implement business processes, complex conversations between the services occur. Service choreographies are a means to capture all interaction obligations and constraints from a global perspective. This article introduces choreographies as an important artifact for SOA, compares them to service orchestrations and surveys existing languages for modeling them.

A software framework for risk-aware business process management

With the large diffusion of Business Process Managemen (BPM) automation suites, the possibility of managing process-related risks arises. This paper introduces an innovative framework for process-related risk management and describes a working implementation realized by extending the YAWL system. The framework covers three aspects of risk management: risk monitoring, risk prevention, and risk mitigation. Risk monitoring functionality is provided using a sensor-based architecture, where sensors are defined at design time and used at run-time for monitoring purposes. Risk prevention functionality is provided in the form of suggestions about what should be executed, by who, and how, through the use of decision trees. Finally, risk mitigation functionality is provided as a sequence of remedial actions (e.g. reallocating, skipping, rolling back of a work item) that should be executed to restore the process to a normal situation.

The use of virtual prototyping for hazard identification in the early design stage

Purpose: The construction industry is well known for its high accident rate and many practitioners consider a preventative approach to be the most important means of bringing about improvements. This paper addresses previous research and the weaknesses of existing preventative approaches and a new application is described and illustrated involving the use of a multi-dimensional simulation tool - Construction Virtual Prototyping (CVP). Methodology: A literature review was conducted to investigate previous studies of hazard identification and safety management and to develop the new approach. Due to weaknesses in current practice, the research study explored the use of computer simulation techniques to create virtual environments where users can explore and identify construction hazards. Specifically, virtual prototyping technology was deployed to develop typical construction scenarios in which unsafe or hazardous incidents occur. In a case study, the users’ performance was evaluated their responses to incidents within the virtual environment and the effectiveness of the computer simulation system established though interviews with the safety project management team. Findings: The opinions and suggestions provided by the interviewees led to the initial conclusion that the simulation tool was useful in assisting the safety management team’s hazard identification process during the early design stage. Originality: The research introduces an innovative method to support the management teams’ reviews of construction site safety. The system utilises three-dimensional modelling and four-dimensional simulation of worker behaviour, a configuration that has previously not been employed in construction simulations. An illustration of the method’s use is also provided, together with a consideration of its strengths and weaknesses.

Robust performance analysis on YAWL process models with advanced constructs

The importance of actively managing and analyzing business processes is acknowledged more than ever in organizations nowadays. Business processes form an essential part of an organization and their ap-plication areas are manifold. Most organizations keep records of various activities that have been carried out for auditing purposes, but they are rarely used for analysis purposes. This paper describes the design and implementation of a process analysis tool that replays, analyzes and visualizes a variety of performance metrics using a process definition and its execution logs. Performing performance analysis on existing and planned process models offers a great way for organizations to detect bottlenecks within their processes and allow them to make more effective process improvement decisions. Our technique is applied to processes modeled in the YAWL language. Execution logs of process instances are compared against the corresponding YAWL process model and replayed in a robust manner, taking into account any noise in the logs. Finally, performance characteristics, obtained from replaying the log in the model, are projected onto the model.

Realizing benefits from enterprise architecture : a measurement model

Enterprise architecture (EA) management has become an intensively discussed approach to manage enterprise transformations. Despite the popularity and potential of EA, both researchers and practitioners lament a lack of knowledge about the realization of benefits from EA. To determine the benefits from EA, we explore the various dimensions of EA benefit realization and report on the development of a validated and robust measurement instrument. In this paper, we test the reliability and construct validity of the EA benefit realization model (EABRM), which we have designed based on the DeLone & McLean IS success model and findings from exploratory interviews. A confirmatory factor analysis confirms the existence of an impact of five distinct and individually important dimensions on the benefits derived from EA: EA artefact quality, EA infrastructure quality, EA service quality, EA culture, and EA use. The analysis presented in this paper shows that the EA benefit realization model is an instrument that demonstrates strong reliability and validity.

From product innovation to organizational innovation – and what that has to do with Business Process Management

One of the key trends that we currently witness not only in academic circles but also in industry - all throughout Australia at least – is that “Innovation” is becoming an important driver for business projects, for change agendas – and in turn, for Business Process Management initiatives.

A ‘service logic’ rationale for business model innovation

Successful firms use business model innovation to rethink the way they do business and transform industries. However, current research on business model innovation is lacking theoretical underpinnings and is in need of new insights. This objective of this paper is to advance our understanding of both the business model concept and business model innovation based on service logic as foundation for customer value and value creation. We present and discuss a rationale for business models based on ‘service logic’ with service as a value-supporting process and compared it with a business model based on ‘goods logic’ with goods as value-supporting resources. The implications for each of the business model dimensions: customer, value proposition, organizational architecture and revenue model, are described and discussed in detail.

Is there an inverted U-shape relationship between job demands and work engagement : the moderating role of social support

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to examine the possibility of an inverted U-shaped relationship between job demands and work engagement, and whether social support moderates this relationship. Design/methodology/approach – This study uses 307 technical and information technology (IT) managers who responded to an online survey. Multiple regressions are employed to examine linear and curvilinear relationship among variables. Findings – Overall, results support the applicability of the quadratic effect of job demands on employee engagement. However, only supervisor support, not colleague support, moderated the relationship between job demands and work engagement. Originality/value – The paper is the first to shed light on the quadratic effect of job demands on work engagement. The findings have noteworthy implications for managers to design optimal job demands that increase employee engagement.

Enterprise systems curricula for Asia-Pacific region : a vision for 2020

Enterprise Systems (ES) have emerged as possibly the most important and challenging development in the corporate use of information technology in the last decade. Organizations have invested heavily in these large, integrated application software suites expecting improvments in; business processes, management of expenditure, customer service, and more generally, competitiveness, improved access to better information/knowledge (i.e., business intelligence and analytics). Forrester survey data consistently shows that investment in ES and enterprise applications in general remains the top IT spending priority, with the ES market estimated at $38 billion and predicted to grow at a steady rate of 6.9%, reaching $50 billion by 2012 (Wang & Hamerman, 2008). Yet, organizations have failed to realize all the anticipated benefits. One of the key reasons is the inability of employees to properly utilize the capabilities of the enterprise systems to complete the work and extract information critical to decision making. In response, universities (tertiary institutes) have developed academic programs aimed at addressing the skill gaps. In parallel with the proliferation of ES, there has been growing recognition of the importance of Teaching Enterprise Systems at tertiary education institutes. Many academic papers have discused the important role of Enterprise System curricula at tertiary education institutes (Ask, 2008; Hawking, 2004; Stewart, 2001), where the teaching philosophises, teaching approaches and challenges in Enterprise Systems education were discussed. Following the global trends, tertiary institutes in the Pacific-Asian region commenced introducing Enterprise System curricula in late 1990s with a range of subjects (a subject represents a single unit, rather than a collection of units; which we refer to as a course) in faculties / schools / departments of Information Technology, Business and in some cases in Engineering. Many tertiary educations commenced their initial subject offers around four salient concepts of Enterprise Systems: (1) Enterprise Systems implementations, (2) Introductions to core modules of Enterprise Systems, (3) Application customization using a programming language (e.g. ABAP) and (4) Systems Administration. While universities have come a long way in developing curricula in the enterprise system area, many obstacles remain: high cost of technology, qualified faculty to teach, lack of teaching materials, etc.