Showing papers on "Enterprise software published in 2009"

Enterprise 2.0: New Collaborative Tools for Your Organization's Toughest Challenges

Abstract: "Web 2.0" is the portion of the Internet that's interactively produced by many people; it includes Wikipedia, Facebook, Twitter, Delicious, and prediction markets. In just a few years, Web 2.0 communities have demonstrated astonishing levels of innovation, knowledge accumulation, collaboration, and collective intelligence. Now, leading organizations are bringing the Web's novel tools and philosophies inside, creating Enterprise 2.0. In this book, Andrew McAfee shows how they're doing this, and why it's benefiting them. Enterprise 2.0 makes clear that the new technologies are good for much more than just socializing-when properly applied, they help businesses solve pressing problems, capture dispersed and fast-changing knowledge, highlight and leverage expertise, generate and refine ideas, and harness the wisdom of crowds. Most organizations, however, don't find it easy or natural to use these new tools initially. And executives see many possible pitfalls associated with them. Enterprise 2.0 explores these concerns, and shows how business leaders can overcome them. McAfee brings together case studies and examples with key concepts from economics, sociology, computer science, consumer psychology, and management studies and presents them all in a clear, accessible, and entertaining style. Enterprise 2.0 is a must-have resource for all C-suite executives seeking to make technology decisions that are simultaneously powerful, popular, and pragmatic.

A common database approach for OLTP and OLAP using an in-memory column database

Abstract: When SQL and the relational data model were introduced 25 years ago as a general data management concept, enterprise software migrated quickly to this new technology. It is fair to say that SQL and the various implementations of RDBMSs became the backbone of enterprise systems. In those days. we believed that business planning, transaction processing and analytics should reside in one single system. Despite the incredible improvements in computer hardware, high-speed networks, display devices and the associated software, speed and flexibility remained an issue. The nature of RDBMSs, being organized along rows, prohibited us from providing instant analytical insight and finally led to the introduction of so-called data warehouses. This paper will question some of the fundamentals of the OLAP and OLTP separation. Based on the analysis of real customer environments and experience in some prototype implementations, a new proposal for an enterprise data management concept will be presented. In our proposal, the participants in enterprise applications, customers, orders, accounting documents, products, employees etc. will be modeled as objects and also stored and maintained as such. Despite that, the vast majority of business functions will operate on an in memory representation of their objects. Using the relational algebra and a column-based organization of data storage will allow us to revolutionize transactional applications while providing an optimal platform for analytical data processing. The unification of OLTP and OLAP workloads on a shared architecture and the reintegration of planning activities promise significant gains in application development while simplifying enterprise systems drastically. The latest trends in computer technology -- e.g. blade architecture, multiple CPUs per blade with multiple cores per CPU allow for a significant parallelization of application processes. The organization of data in columns supports the parallel use of cores for filtering and aggregation. Elements of application logic can be implemented as highly efficient stored procedures operating on columns. The vast increase in main memory combined with improvements in L1--, L2--, L3--caching, together with the high data compression rate column storage will allow us to support substantial data volumes on one single blade. Distributing data across multiple blades using a shared nothing approach provides further scalability.

Social enterprise: An international overview of its conceptual evolution and legal implementation

Abstract: – The purpose of this paper is to analyze the evolution of the social enterprise concept at an international level. It provides a comprehensive overview of the existing literature in this subject area and focuses on the legal implementation of social enterprises., – The paper is an analytic review, building on previous work. Conclusions are on how the social enterprise concept has been legally implemented in a number of representative European countries., – The lack of a common understanding of social enterprise should not be regarded as a limitation as such debate encourages a rethinking of the theoretical definition of enterprise and its legal structure. The legal recognition of social enterprise contributes to conceptual clarification in the countries concerned., – This is a conceptual discussion paper, which stimulates further research on the most interesting mechanisms and consistent models of social enterprise that are developing at an international level., – The paper synthesises existing conceptual studies on social enterprise. It contributes to enrich the current debate on social enterprise and aids in focusing future research.

From business process models to process-oriented software systems

Abstract: Several methods for enterprise systems analysis rely on flow-oriented representations of business operations, otherwise known as business process models. The Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN) is a standard for capturing such models. BPMN models facilitate communication between domain experts and analysts and provide input to software development projects. Meanwhile, there is an emergence of methods for enterprise software development that rely on detailed process definitions that are executed by process engines. These process definitions refine their counterpart BPMN models by introducing data manipulation, application binding, and other implementation details. The de facto standard for defining executable processes is the Business Process Execution Language (BPEL). Accordingly, a standards-based method for developing process-oriented systems is to start with BPMN models and to translate these models into BPEL definitions for subsequent refinement. However, instrumenting this method is challenging because BPMN models and BPEL definitions are structurally very different. Existing techniques for translating BPMN to BPEL only work for limited classes of BPMN models. This article proposes a translation technique that does not impose structural restrictions on the source BPMN model. At the same time, the technique emphasizes the generation of readable (block-structured) BPEL code. An empirical evaluation conducted over a large collection of process models shows that the resulting BPEL definitions are largely block-structured. Beyond its direct relevance in the context of BPMN and BPEL, the technique presented in this article addresses issues that arise when translating from graph-oriented to block-structure flow definition languages.

Growing the social enterprise – issues and challenges

Abstract: Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the concept of business growth as it applies to the social enterprise. It examines if social entrepreneurs have a growth agenda, how this is achieved and the challenges encountered in achieving firm growth.Design/methodology/approach – This exploratory study involves the completion of a series of four case studies of established social enterprises.Findings – Social entrepreneurs do have aspirations to grow their enterprise, where growth is perceived from multiple perspectives, primarily underpinned by the provision of a perceived social value. Firm growth is predominately measured from the external beneficiary perspective rather than internal financial metrics. Sourcing financing, staff retention adjusting to different roles in managing the enterprise and measuring the scale and impact of their business are the primary challenges encountered. The creation of social value and profit generation are not mutually exclusive in the social enterprise when social ...

Enterprise proposal management system

Abstract: A system and method for managing an enterprise is provided. The system and method may be based on a layered architecture including a data center that may store all documents and data abstractions for an enterprise. One or more services may interact with an enterprise resource planning system and/or a customer relationship manager to facilitate interaction with the documents and data abstractions. A client access point of the system may include a graphical user interface that includes one or more enterprise management functions for managing the enterprise documents and/or data abstractions. The enterprise management functions may include a user proposal manager, an enterprise proposal manager, a proposal library, a content health manager, an archive library, a bid center, a contracts manager, a resume manager, a debriefing center, and/or a projects manager. The enterprise management functions may re-engineer business processes and enable users to manage all aspects of an enterprise using a single unified interface.

Interdisciplinary and Interorganizational Research: Establishing the Science of Enterprise Networks

Abstract: We review and discuss the evolution of interdisciplinary and interorganizational research in operations management and suggest directions for future investigations. The proposed operations management research focus is one that embraces a more holistic view of an “extended enterprise” which involves working with a new business model—the organization as a network. This methodology starts by treating the organization as a system that is enabled by information technology and is characterized by ubiquitous information sharing across traditional enterprise. Proper integration of technology, business processes and people factors needs to be developed to create higher value from networked enterprises. Operations management research future lies in establishing this science from an interdisciplinary perspective. We analyze this perspective in the context of papers published in the first 50 issues of Production and Operations Management and the related literature.

Process-centered knowledge model and enterprise ontology for the development of knowledge management system

Abstract: Among many enterprise assets, knowledge is treated as a critical driving force for attaining enterprise performance goals. This is because knowledge facilitates the better business decision makings in a timely fashion. However, since knowledge is created and utilized during the execution of business processes, if knowledge is separated from the business process context, it does not lead to the ability to take the right action for target performance.This paper proposes the framework for process-centered knowledge model and enterprise ontology for the context-rich and networked knowledge storage and retrieval required during task execution. The enterprise knowledge object for a process-centered knowledge model is classified into two types: process knowledge and task support knowledge. In the proposed enterprise ontology, which represents major enterprise concepts, and the relationships between them, all domain concepts are related to the "process" concept, both directly and indirectly. As a result, networked and sophisticated knowledge, rather than single-level knowledge, is provided to the participant of unit activity.In order to show the applicability of the proposed framework, a process-centered KMS (knowledge management system) was also developed, which is classified into 3 parts: (1) project management sub-system based on process knowledge. (2) Knowledge management sub-system for maintaining task support knowledge. (3) Infrastructure sub-system which supports the above two sub-systems.

Enterprise risk management: small business scorecard analysis

Abstract: Enterprise risk management has become an important consideration in all aspects of business, including production planning. Business risk scorecards are important tools to monitor the performance of organisations. This article demonstrates the value of business scorecards as a means to monitor organisational performance with respect to risk management. A small bank credit loan case is used to make this demonstration. The relevance of small business scorecards to operations and supply chain management as a means to implement enterprise risk management is discussed.

An integrated decision support system dealing with qualitative and quantitative objectives for enterprise software selection

Abstract: Previous methods for enterprise software selection generally take into account the attributes that are restricted to some financial factors, such as costs and benefits. However, the literature lacks studies on considering the evaluation of both functional and non-functional suitability of software alternatives versus various requirements. This study presents a new decision support system for combining these two kinds of evaluation to select suitable enterprise software. A hierarchical objective structure that contains both qualitative and quantitative objectives is proposed to evaluate software products systematically. This approach uses a heuristic algorithm, a fuzzy multi-criteria decision making procedure and a multiobjective programming model to make final selection decision. All the phases of presented method are applied in an electronic company's ERP software selection project to validate it with a real application. The satisfactory results are obtained during this project. The company can select the right software to fit its business processes instead of adapting its business processes to fit the software.

An Empirical Investigation of the Value of Integrating Enterprise Information Systems: The Case of Medical Imaging Informatics

Abstract: This paper identifies and measures the various business value benefits that accrue as a result of implementing and integrating large-scale enterprise information systems. Specifically, we look at the integration of electronic medical records for all patients with the radiology information system and a picture archiving and communication system at a regional medical center. Our work is among the first to carefully study and analyze the impact of enterprise information systems at a large-scale service organization that produces intangible outputs-health. It extends the literature on information economics by quantifying the benefits in process dynamics as a source of ongoing firm-level performance improvements. The key dimensions of measurements include financial revenues, operating lead times, and subjective satisfaction levels by the clinical staff and by the referring physicians. Analyses of longitudinal data suggest that performance levels along a key metric-clinical process lead time-showed a significant improvement immediately after the deployment and integration of the systems. The evidence reveals that performance kept improving for the following 12 months at an impressive learning rate of 63 percent. Moreover, the reported satisfaction level after installation was higher among referring physicians who actively used the full spectrum of technological functionalities at their own clinics or at the hospital's site. Finally, we present a general framework for capturing the actual tangible and intangible benefits of enterprise information systems installation and integration in a clinical context.

MoKi: The Enterprise Modelling Wiki

Abstract: Enterprise modelling focuses on the construction of a structured description, the so-called enterprise model , which represents aspects relevant to the activity of an enterprise Although it has become clearer recently that enterprise modelling is a collaborative activity, involving a large number of people, most of the enterprise modelling tools still only support very limited degrees of collaboration Within this contribution we describe a tool for enterprise modelling, called MoKi (MOdelling wiKI), which supports agile collaboration between all different actors involved in the enterprise modelling activities MoKi is based on a Semantic Wiki and enables actors with different expertise to develop an enterprise model not only using structural (formal) descriptions but also adopting more informal and semi-formal descriptions of knowledge

Management for Social Enterprise

Abstract: Introduction to the Landscape for Social Enterprise - Bob Doherty Social Enterprise in Context - Bob Doherty The Story So Far Strategic Management for Social Enterprises - John Meehan Managing People in a Social Enterprise Environment - Maureen Royce Social Enterprise and Financial Management - George Foster Marketing for Social Enterprise - Bob Doherty and Karon Meehan Business Ethics and Social Enterprise - Neil Rotheroe Social Enterprise Governance - Chris Mason

An Approach for Creating and Managing Enterprise Blueprints: A Case for IT Blueprints

Abstract: One important role of Enterprise Architecture aims at modeling enterprise artifacts and their relationships, ranging from the high-level concepts to physical ones such as communication networks and enterprise premises. As it is well known, these artifacts evolve over time, as well as their relationships. The dynamic nature of such artifacts has been a difficulty not only in modeling but also in keeping enterprise blueprints updated. This paper presents our approach to handle blueprints of the Enterprise Architecture, based on several years and projects in large organizations, both in the financial and telecommunication industry.

Lean-Agile Software Development: Achieving Enterprise Agility

Abstract: Agile techniques have demonstrated immense potential for developing more effective, higher-quality software. However,scaling these techniques to the enterprise presents many challenges. The solution is to integrate the principles and practices of Lean Software Development with Agiles ideology and methods. By doing so, software organizations leverage Leans powerful capabilities for optimizing the whole and managing complex enterprise projects. A combined Lean-Agile approach can dramatically improve both developer productivity and the softwares business value.In this book, three expert Lean software consultants draw from their unparalleled experience to gather all the insights, knowledge, and new skills you need to succeed with Lean-Agile development. Lean-Agile Software Development shows how to extend Scrum processes with an Enterprise view based on Lean principles. The authors present crucial technical insight into emergent design, and demonstrate how to apply it to make iterative development more effective. They also identify several common development anti-patterns that can work against your goals, and they offer actionable, proven alternatives. Lean-Agile Software Development shows how to Transition to Lean Software Development quickly and successfully Manage the initiation of product enhancements Help project managers work together to manage product portfolios more effectively Manage dependencies across the software development organization and with its partners and colleagues Integrate development and QA roles to improve quality and eliminate waste Determine best practices for different software development teams The books companion Web site, www.netobjectives.com/lasd, provides updates, links to related materials, and supportfor discussions of the books content.

Enterprise Knowledge Clouds: Next Generation KM Systems?

Abstract: We are witnessing the emergence of the global, dependable and efficient infrastructure of cloud computing. We assess the current state of the Enterprise Knowledge Management field and project the possible emergence of Enterprise Knowledge Clouds. We give some architectural views, discuss briefly the underlying technologies and describe roughly related applications. We conclude with possible developments in the next five to fifteen years.

Industry-oriented enterprise resource planning

Abstract: General purpose enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems have problems such as complex configuration processes, low adaptation to specific industries, and an extensive implementation time period. In order to alleviate these issues, this paper proposes the concept of industry-oriented ERP (IERP) and a component-based approach to IERP development. This paper also presents the framework of developing IERP in which business process modelling and software reuse are employed as primary methods to improve the operability of component-based IERP. The framework consists of five layers including server layer, team work supporting layer, IERP construction and customisation layer, reusable assets and toolset layer, and the IERP system instance layer. These layers as well as their relationship with each other are also discussed.

Principles of Enterprise Systems

Abstract: The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) through its Lean Advancement Initiative (LAI) research team has been conducting research and facilitating enterprise-level transformations in large complex sociotechnical enterprises for over fifteen years These enterprises have spanned a broad base of industries and governmental organizations including aerospace, automotive, electronics, health care, transportation, construction, defense acquisition and logistics, research labs and many others What has emerged from both the action research in the field and its application in case studies in graduate courses is the concept of “overarching” enterprise principles and transformation methodologies that are independent of the industry or organization A framework for transformation that consists of a set of interdependent methodologies, tools and enterprise principles that support holistic enterprise transformation is described and includes the following five elements: 1) Key Principles of Enterprise Thinking, 2) Enterprise Transformation Roadmap, 3) Lean Enterprise Self Assessment Tool (LESAT), 4) Enterprise Strategic Analysis for Transformation (ESAT) and 5) Enterprise Architecting Framework The application of this framework to the enterprise systems analysis and design of various industry and governmental organizations is discussed

Enterprise Information Systems for Business Integration in SMEs: Technological, Organizational, and Social Dimensions

Abstract: Consisting of an integrated technology platform, enterprise information systems enable organizations to integrate and coordinate all business processes, offering a strategic area of focus. Enterprise Information Systems for Business Integration in SMEs: Technological, Organizational, and Social Dimensions discusses the main issues, challenges, opportunities, and trends related to the impact of IT on every part of organizational and inter-organizational environments. Containing expert international contributions by leading field researchers, this publication provides readers with the most relevant findings in the topic of enterprise information systems.

Enterprise knowledge modelling: Domains and aspects

Abstract: The paper presents the Knowledge‐based Enterprise framework aimed for the analysis of knowledge management and development of an Enterprise knowledge base. The approaches concerning the modelling of enterprise domains and aspects are presented and used for the development of the concept of Enterprise Knowledge Component. The Enterprise knowledge component (B, T, K) is defined as a composition of 3 obligatory parts: knowledge management methods (K), the knowledge about IT (T) services and tools, and business management knowledge (B). The formal modelling structure – the Enterprise Knowledge Space (B, T, K) is constructed for the refinement of the hierarchy of enterprise knowledge items. The Knowledge‐based Enterprise framework is represented as modified Value Chain Model including the knowledge management layer and IT component. The major knowledge subsets of the enterprise knowledge base are identified.

SOA and EA - Sustainable Contributions for Increasing Corporate Agility

Abstract: Service oriented architectures (SOA) have been introduced for various reasons over the previous couple of years. Analogous to the introduction of enterprise application integration (EAI) technologies before re-use and cost cutting potentials have been among the most prominent reasons. But considering the increasing complexity of an application landscape following the introduction of a SOA, the re-use and cost cutting arguments will lead to disappointment. However, service oriented architectures offer a great potential to increase corporate agility. To sustainable preserve corporate agility it is necessary to ex- plicitly manage the enterprise architecture. This paper discusses the problems of re-use and cost cutting expectations in service oriented architectures and contrasts them with the potentials related to make sustainable contributions to corporate agility. Structures, processes, and instruments to realize these potentials are discussed with reference to selected case studies.

Organizing a virtual manufacturing enterprise: an analytic network process based approach for enterprise flexibility

Abstract: Virtual manufacturing is a dynamic enterprise structure that will enable future competitiveness in the fast changing business environment. This is made possible through quick IT based integration of flexible and core competent business entities capable of providing value-added product and services. Flexibility elements represent change capabilities of enterprise wide processes and resources in time and cost dimensions. Value chain considerations require synergy among the participating flexible resources. Also decision information synchronization delays need to be managed so that other entity flow processes in the enterprise remain well synchronized. This may require a capability of dynamic changes in flexible structures leading to effective virtual enterprises. There is a need to develop suitable enterprise architectures for virtual enterprises that offer an increasing focus on agility. Infrastructure support for integration of flexible capability to attain synergy among resources is necessary for enterpr...

Measuring the Quality of Service Oriented Design

Abstract: Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) has gained popularity as a design paradigm for realizing enterprise software systems through abstract units of functionality called services While the key design principles of SOA have been discussed at length in the literature, much of the work is prescriptive in nature and do not explain how adherence to these principles can be quantitatively measured in practice In some cases, metrics for a limited subset of SOA quality attributes have been proposed, but many of these measures have not been empirically validated on real-life SOA designs In this paper, we take a deeper look at how the key SOA quality attributes of service cohesion, coupling, reusability, composability and granularity may be evaluated, based only on service design level information We survey related work, adapt some of the well-known software design metrics to the SOA context and propose new measures where needed These measures adhere to mathematical properties that characterize the quality attributes We study their applicability on two real-life SOA design models from the insurance industry using a metrics computation tool integrated with an Eclipse-based service design environment We believe that availability of these measures during SOA design will aid early detection of design flaws, allow different design options and trade-offs to be considered and support planning for development, testing and governance of the services