The purpose of the 4th International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems (ICEIS) was to bring together researchers, engineers and practitioners interested in the advances and business applications of information systems. The research papers focused on real world applications covering four main themes: Enterprise Database Applications, Artificial Intelligence Applications and Decision Support Systems, Systems Analysis and Specification, and Internet and Electronic Commerce.
This book will be of interest to information technology professionals, especially those working on systems integration, databases, decision support systems or electronic commerce. It will also be of use to middle managers who need to work with information systems and require knowledge of current trends in development methods and applications.

An integrated view of IT and business processes through extended IT governance allows financial institutions to innovate operations which improve business and organizational performance. However, financial institutions still face challenges with CRM systems in delivering expected results due to lack of complete business integration. Increased exchange of knowledge between customers and the amount of such data available is steadily becoming a challenge for companies, especially in extending internal systems to global information systems with the purpose to collect and update data on a global scale. In this book, Prof. Rajola analyses different aspects of CRM systems taking both an organizational and a technological perspective. He adopts a theoretical framework to unpack issues associated with the need for companies to integrate operations and business processes. The emphasis is then drawn to development of effective CRM (and CRM 2.0) initiatives by making use of illustrative case studies of successful CRM systems implementation in the financial industry. The framework adopted in this book can be used by both scholars and managers to evaluate the interdependencies between operations, business processes, and CRM systems. .

This book inclusively and systematically presents the fundamental methods, models and techniques of practical application of grey data analysis, bringing together the authors' many years of theoretical exploration, real-life application, and teaching. It also reflects the majority of recent theoretical and applied advances in the theory achieved by scholars from across the world, providing readers a vivid overall picture of this new theory and its pioneering research activities. The book includes 12 chapters, covering the introduction to grey systems, a novel framework of grey system theory, grey numbers and their operations, sequence operators and grey data mining, grey incidence analysis models, grey clustering evaluation models, series of GM models, combined grey models, techniques for grey systems forecasting, grey models for decision-making, techniques for grey control, etc. It also includes a software package that allows practitioners to conveniently and practically employ the theory and methods presented in this book. All methods and models presented here were chosen for their practical applicability and have been widely employed in various research works. I still remember 1983, when I first participated in a course on Grey System Theory. The mimeographed teaching materials had a blue cover and were presented as a book. It was like finding a treasure: This fascinating book really inspired me as a young intellectual going through a period of confusion and lack of academic direction. It shone with pearls of wisdom and offered a beacon in the mist for a man trying to find his way in academic research. This book became the guiding light in my life journey, inspiring me to forge an indissoluble bond with Grey System Theory. --Sifeng Liu

This book offers a comprehensive guide to implementing a company-wide management system (CWMS), utilising up-to-date methodologies of lean-six sigma in order to achieve high levels of business excellence. It builds the foundation for quality and continuous improvement, which can be implemented in any organization. The book begins with an introduction to and an overview of CWMSs, and reviews the existing literature on various management systems. It then discusses the integration and implementation of lean-six sigma in supply chain management. The integration approach presented highlights the link between the existing management systems and shows how continuous improvement methodologies are incorporated. The book then examines the components of CWMS, comparing them to other systems. It also explores Kano-based six sigma and concludes with further recommendations for reading. This book covers five management systems integrated into one novel approach that can be followed by organizations wishing to achieve quality and business excellence. Covering lean-six sigma - an essential element of management systems - it is a valuable resource for practitioners and academics alike.

Facing the challenge of the fast changing technological environment, many companies are developing an interest in the field of technology intelligence. Their aim is to support the decision-making process by taking advantage of a well-timed preparation of relevant information by means of systematic identification, collection, analysis, dissemination, and application of this information. This book covers the gap in literature by showing how a technology intelligence system can be designed and implemented.

Since the early eighties IFIP/Sec has been an important rendezvous for Information Technology researchers and specialists involved in all aspects of IT security. The explosive growth of the Web is now faced with the formidable challenge of providing trusted information. IFIP/Sec'01 is the first of this decade (and century) and it will be devoted to "Trusted Information - the New Decade Challenge" This proceedings are divided in eleven parts related to the conference program. Session are dedicated to technologies: Security Protocols, Smart Card, Network Security and Intrusion Detection, Trusted Platforms. Others sessions are devoted to application like eSociety, TTP Management and PKI, Secure Workflow Environment, Secure Group Communications, and on the deployment of applications: Risk Management, Security Policies andTrusted System Design and Management. The year 2001 is a double anniversary. First, fifteen years ago, the first IFIP/Sec was held in France (IFIP/Sec'86, Monte-Carlo) and 2001 is also the anniversary of smart card technology. Smart cards emerged some twenty years ago as an innovation and have now become pervasive information devices used for highly distributed secure applications. These cards let millions of people carry a highly secure device that can represent them on a variety of networks. To conclude, we hope that the rich "menu" of conference papers for this IFIP/Sec conference will provide valuable insights and encourage specialists to pursue their work in trusted information.

Information systems have become so complex and intertwined with process and politics that they now constitute an ecology in which executives must manage subtle human relationships and intricate group interactions as well as computers, networks, software, and individual experts. Hasenyager maintains that for most large corporations building better business technology linkage is a survival essential, enabling them to sustain their vital systems and simultaneously transform them to meet competitive pressures and exploit emerging technology. Written by an experienced manager, this book offers a persuasive discussion of the importance of business technology linkage and practical steps on how to build it in your company. It focuses on management essentials - deciding how much to spend and invest, choosing how to organize, and defining how to measure and reward performance. After an analysis of how to decide how much to spend and what to spend it on, Hasenyager describes how business and technology people within an organization deal with each other. He offers a way to classify relationships based on perceived common interest among people and their relative authority, then focuses on partnerships and teams as the most effective models for business technology linkage. He describes the kinds of teams needed for system development and infrastructure management in the information ecology. With special focus on how ^Iad hoc^R teams relate to an organization's traditional hierarchy, specific suggestions are given on how to establish accountability within teams and how to evaluate team performance. The book concludes with state-of-the-art information connecting organization structure, business technology linkage, and company profitability, followed by 14 principles of information technology management. Senior corporate managers will find this a unique, provocative, and constructive addition to their personal and company libraries on management skills and methods.

The essentials of comprehensible specifications of business and of system artefacts ought to be used by, and therefore understandable to, all customers of these specifications - business subject matter experts, decision makers, analysts, IT architects and developers. These documents have to be understood in the same manner by all stakeholders. And, as C.A.R. Hoare observed, only abstraction "enables a chief programmer or manager to exert real technical control over his teams, without delving into the morass of technical detail with which his programmers are often tempted to overwhelm him."

The book brings together theoreticians and practitioners to report their experience with making semantics precise, clear, concise and explicit in business specifications, business designs, and system specifications. It includes both theoretical and very pragmatic papers based on solid and clearly specified foundations. These seemingly different papers address different aspects of a single problem - they are all about understanding of business enterprises and of information systems (computer-based or not) that these enterprises rely upon. A substantial number of papers demonstrate that good business (and IT) specifications ought to start with the stable basics of the relevant business domains, thus providing a foundation for describing and evaluating the details of apparently "always changing" requirements.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 15th IFIP WG 5.5 Working Conference on Virtual Enterprises, PRO-VE 2014, held in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, in October 2014. The 73 revised papers were carefully selected from 190 submissions. They provide a comprehensive overview of identified challenges and recent advances in various collaborative network (CN) domains and their applications, with a particular focus on the following areas in support of smart networked environments: behavior and coordination; product-service systems; service orientation in collaborative networks; engineering and implementation of collaborative networks; cyber-physical systems; business strategies alignment; innovation networks; sustainability and trust; reference and conceptual models; collaboration platforms; virtual reality and simulation; interoperability and integration; performance management frameworks; performance management systems; risk analysis; optimization in collaborative networks; knowledge management in networks; health and care networks; and mobility and logistics.

In this volume organizational learning theory is used to analyse various practices of managing and facilitating knowledge sharing within companies. Experiences with three types of knowledge sharing, namely knowledge acquisition, knowledge reuse, and knowledge creation, at ten large companies are discussed and analyzed. This critical analysis leads to the identification of traps and obstacles when managing knowledge sharing, when supporting knowledge sharing with IT tools, and when organizations try to learn from knowledge sharing practices. The identification of these risks is followed by a discussion of how organizations can avoid them.

This work will be of interest to researchers and practitioners working in organization science and business administration. Also, consultants and organizations at large will find the book useful as it will provide them with insights into how other organizations manage and facilitate knowledge sharing and how potential failures can be prevented.

This book, written by an interdisciplinary team of authors, explores the transformation of organizations in today's volatile, uncertain, and ambiguous (VUCA) world. It demonstrates the need to manage organizations in a dynamic way, and to revisit and in some cases reinvent working and leadership styles that seemed appropriate during past decades and centuries. In turn, the book puts forward a model based on three distinct pillars of organization and leadership to suit disruptive times: the concepts of 'Sustainable Purpose', 'Travelling Organization', and 'Connecting Resources'. These pillars challenge many of our traditional organizational patterns and meet the need for effective transformative approaches.

The book presents a conceptually novel oscillations based paradigm, the Oscillation-Based Multi-Agent System (OSIMAS), aimed at the modelling of agents and their systems as coherent, stylized, neurodynamic processes. This paradigm links emerging research domains via coherent neurodynamic oscillation based representations of the individual human mind and society (as a coherent collective mind) states. Thus, this multidisciplinary paradigm delivers an empirical and simulation research framework that provides a new way of modelling the complex dynamics of individual and collective mind states. This book addresses a conceptual problem - the lack of a multidisciplinary, connecting paradigm, which could link fragmented research in the fields of neuroscience, artificial intelligence (AI), multi-agent system (MAS) and the social network domains. The need for a common multidisciplinary research framework essentially arises because these fields share a common object of investigation and simulation, i.e., individual and collective human behavior. Although the fields of research mentioned above all approach this from different perspectives, their common object of investigation unites them. By putting the various pathways of research as they are interrelated into perspective, this book provides a philosophical underpinning, experimental background and modelling tools that the author anticipates will reveal new frontiers in multidisciplinary research. Fundamental investigation of the implicit oscillatory nature of agents' mind states and social mediums in general can reveal some new ways of understanding the periodic and nonperiodic fluctuations taking place in real life. For example, via agent states-related diffusion properties, we could investigate complex economic phenomena like the spread of stock market crashes, currency crises, speculative oscillations (bubbles and crashes), social unrest, recessionary effects, sovereign defaults, etc. All these effects are closely associated with social fragility, which follows and is affected by cycles such as production, political, business and financial. Thus, the multidisciplinary OSIMAS paradigm can yield new knowledge and research perspectives, allowing for a better understanding of social agents and their social organization principles.

The revolution in information communication technologies has had a profound effect on the way firms structure and control their operations. At the same time, the ongoing integration of the global economy has greatly expanded international business opportunities. Information Technology in Multinational Enterprises analyses the implications of technological developments for the conduct of international business and the structure and activities of multinational enterprises. Using a combination of theoretical analysis and case studies, it provides a timely introduction to a topic that is of major interest to academics and practitioners in the fields of international business and information science.

This book is broadly organized in three parts. The first section ('Enhancing and Managing Customer Value') focuses on presenting the state-of-knowledge in managing and enhancing customer value through extraction of consumer-centric knowledge from mountains of data that modern interactive applications generate. The extracted information can then be used to provide more personalized information to customers, provide more relevant information or products, and even to create innovative business processes to enhance overall value to customers. The second section in the book ('Computational Approaches for Business Processes') focuses on presenting several specific innovative computing artifacts and tools developed by researchers that are not yet commercially used. These represent cutting-edge thought and advances in business computing research that should soon find utility in real-world applications or as a tool to analyze real-world scenarios. The final section in the book ('Supporting Knowledge Enterprise') presents approaches and frameworks that focus on ability of an enterprise to analyze, build, and protect computing infrastructure that supports value-added dimensions to the enterprise's existing business processes.

This is the fifth volume in a series dealing with such topics as information systems practice and theory, information systems and the accounting/auditing environment, and differing perspectives on information systems research.

The short history of the International Working Conference on Educating Professionals for Network Centric Organizations is a good illustration of the tremendous rate of development of global networking, its impact and of its deep penetration into management of business, industty and administration. In 1996, when the theme and name of the conference had been set, there was yet no heavy use of networks in the fields just mentioned. However, it has been already established well enough to enable those with a visionary sense to feel that it will be an important subject and it could be an interesting theme for a conference to be held within two years. It seemed a risky decision at the time but it turned out to be very successful when conducted in 1998. It has been stated that "it took until 1997 for the business world to discover the Internet." In less than two years, the Internet and the Intranets are a vital component for running major parts of the business world. This fast pace puts some pressure on writing papers and holding a conferenc- effort has to be made to have meaningful contents despite the changes. A time span of 9 months between writing a paper and having it published, seemed once to be very short, but it is not so any more when referring to a dynamic issue like global networking.

In 2007 INTEROP-VLab defined Enterprise Interoperability as the ability of an enterprise system or application to interact with others at a low cost with a flexible approach . Enterprise Interoperability VI brings together a peer reviewed selection of over 40 papers, ranging from academic research through case studies to industrial and administrative experience of interoperability. It shows how, in a scenario of globalised markets, the capacity to cooperate with other firms efficiently becomes essential in order to remain in the market in an economically, socially and environmentally cost-effective manner, and that the most innovative enterprises are beginning to redesign their business model to become interoperable. This goal of interoperability is vital, not only from the perspective of the individual enterprise but also in the new business structures that are now emerging, such as supply chains, virtual enterprises, interconnected organisations or extended enterprises, as well as in mergers and acquisitions. Establishing efficient and relevant collaborative situations requires managing interoperability from a dynamic perspective: a relevant and efficient collaboration of organizations might require adaptation to remain in line with potentially changing objectives, evolving resources, and unexpected events, for example. Many of the papers contained in this, the seventh volume of Proceedings of the I-ESA Conferences have examples and illustrations calculated to deepen understanding and generate new ideas. The I-ESA 14 Conference is jointly organised by Ecole des Mines Albi-Carmaux, on behalf of PGSO, and the European Virtual Laboratory for Enterprise Interoperability (INTEROP-VLab) and supported by the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP). A concise reference to the state of the art in systems interoperability, Enterprise Interoperability VI will be of great value to engineers and computer scientists working in manufacturing and other process industries and to software engineers and electronic and manufacturing engineers working in the academic environment."

Virtual reality--one of the most advanced and exciting technologies to emerge in recent decades--offers businesspeople a new way to grasp information and use it quickly and effectively. By literally experiencing information in an artificially created computer generated world instead of reading, hearing, or viewing it on a screen, businesspeople can get information in a way that has proved most successful and most natural for humans. The result is saved time and money, savings that are essential to any enterprise if it is to survive and prosper in today's fast-paced, competitive business environment. The first book to explore virtual reality strictly for businesspeople, Virtual Reality Systems in Business provides essential information not only on theory and the scientific underpinnings of this new technology, but also on its methods, purposes, and day-to-day applications.

Readers will learn how virtual reality applies to retailing, marketing, design, manufacturing, accounting, finance, training, human resource management, and other functions critical to the operations of any organization, public or private. They will learn the types of hardware and software currently available to develop the virtual worlds they need in their specific organizations, and how to procure them from vendors. Also covered are the methodologies by which computer professionals can develop their own virtual reality systems, and the relationship between virtual reality systems and computer databases and data communications. Explained too is the basic framework underlying business-oriented virtual reality systems and how these systems tie in with nonbusiness oriented systems. A major contribution to our understanding of today's technologies and the benefits that will accrue from them in years to come.

Business Principles for Landscape Contracting, fully revised and updated in its third edition, is an introduction to the application of business principles of financial management involved in setting up your own landscape contracting business and beginning your professional career. Appealing to students and professionals alike, it will build your knowledge of financial management tools and enable you to relate their applications to real-life business scenarios. Focusing on the importance of proactive financial management, the book serves as a primer for students in landscape architecture, contracting, and management courses and entrepreneurs within the landscape industry preparing to use business principles in practice. Topics covered include: Financial management and accountability Budget development Profitable pricing and estimating Project management Creating a lean culture Personnel management and employee productivity Professional development Economic sustainability.

The new organizational paradigms of global cooperation and collaboration require new ways and means for their support. Information and Communication Technology (ICT) can and will play a significant role in this support. However, the many currently available and seemingly conflicting solutions, the confusing terminology, the lack of business justification, and last but not least the insufficient understanding of the technology by the end user community has significantly hampered the large scale application of the relevant ICT support and thereby the acceptance of the new paradigms.

Many of these issues have been addressed in the workshops of the international initiative on Enterprise Inter- and Intra-Organizational Integration, which has been supported by the European IST Programme and NIST. The main subjects of the initiative: relations between knowledge management and business process modeling, interoperability of business processes and process models, enterprise engineering and integration, and representation of process models. Ontologies and agent technologies - the latter with their relations to ontologies and models - have been further subjects of discussions in several workshops.

Results of the initiative are reported in this volume, which comprises the proceedings of the International Conference on Enterprise Integration and Modeling Technology (ICEIMT'02). The conference was sponsored by the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) and held in Valencia, Spain in April 2002.

Enterprise Inter- and Intra-Organizational Integration: Building International Consensus provides not only a wealth of information on the state of the art of the subjects of theinitiative, it also identifies opportunities for research and development. Potential projects are identified in the work group reports and some of those will be taken up by organizations involved.

During the last two decades, there have been many reports about the success and failure of investments in ICT and information systems. Failures in particular have drawn a lot of attention. The outcome of the implementation of information and communication systems has often been disastrous. Recent research does not show that results have improved. This raises the question why so many ICT projects perform so badly. Information, Organization and Information Systems Design: An Integrated Approach to Information Problems aims at discussing measures to improve the results of information systems. Bart Prakken identifies various factors that explain the shortfall of information systems. Subsequently, he provides a profound discussion of the measures that can be taken to remove the causes of failure. When organizations are confronted with information problems, they will almost automatically look for ICT solutions. However, Prakken argues that more fundamental and often cheaper solutions are in many cases available. When looking for solutions to information problems, the inter-relationship between organization, information and the people within the organization should explicitly be taken into account. The measures that the author proposes are based on organizational redesign, particularly using the sociotechnical approach. In cases where ICT solutions do have to be introduced, Prakken discusses a number of precautionary measures that will help their implementation. The book aims to contribute to the scientific debate on how to solve information problems, and can be used in graduate and postgraduate courses. It is also helpful to managers.

This book attempts to link some of the recent advances in crowdsourcing with advances in innovation and management. It contributes to the literature in several ways. First, it provides a global definition, insights and examples of this managerial perspective resulting in a theoretical framework. Second, it explores the relationship between crowdsourcing and technological innovation, the development of social networks and new behaviors of Internet users. Third, it explores different crowdsourcing applications in various sectors such as medicine, tourism, information and communication technology (ICT), and marketing. Fourth, it observes the ways in which crowdsourcing can improve production, finance, management and overall managerial performance. Crowdsourcing, also known as "massive outsourcing" or "voluntary outsourcing," is the act of taking a job or a specific task usually performed by an employee of a company or contractors, and outsourcing it to a large group of people or a community (crowd or mass) via the Internet, through an open call. The term was coined by Jeff Howe in a 2006 issue of Wired magazine. It is being developed in different sciences (i.e., medicine, engineering, ICT, management) and is used in the most successful companies of the modern era (i.e., Apple, Facebook, Inditex, Starbucks). The developments in crowdsourcing has theoretical and practical implications, which will be explored in this book. Including contributions from international academics, scholars and professionals within the field, this book provides a global, multidimensional perspective on crowdsourcing.

Japan is a tiny country that occupies only 0.25% of the world's total land area. However, this small country is the world's third largest in economy: the Japanese GDP is roughly equivalent to the sum of any two major countries in Europe as of 2012. This book is a first attempt to ask leaders of top Japanese companies, such as Toyota, about their thoughts on mathematics. The topics range from mathematical problems in specific areas (e.g., exploration of natural resources, communication networks, finance) to mathematical strategy that helps a leader who has to weigh many different issues and make decisions in a timely manner, and even to mathematical literacy that ensures quality control. The reader may notice that every article reflects the authors' way of life and thinking, which can be evident in even one sentence. This book is an enlarged English edition of the Japanese book What Mathematics Can Do for You: Essays and Tips from Japanese Industry Leaders. In this edition we have invited the contributions of three mathematicians who have been working to expand and strengthen the interaction between mathematics and industry. The role of mathematics is usually invisible when it is applied effectively and smoothly in science and technology, and mathematical strategy is often hidden when it is used properly and successfully. The business leaders in successful top Japanese companies are well aware of this invisible feature of mathematics in applications aside from the intrinsic depth of mathematics. What Mathematics Can Do for You ultimately provides the reader an opportunity to notice what is hidden but key to business strategy.

The first Digital Enterprise Technology (DET) International Conference was held in Durham, UK in 2002 and the second DET Conference in Seattle, USA in 2004. Sponsored by CIRP (College International pour la Recherche en Productique), the third DET Conference took place in Setubal, Portugal in 2006. Digital Enterprise Technology: Perspectives and Future Challenges is an edited volume based on this conference. Topics include: distributed and collaborative design, process modeling and process planning, advanced factory equipment and layout design and modeling, physical-to-digital environment integrators, enterprise integration technologies, and entrepreneurship in DET.

In recent years, much work has been done in formulating and clarifying the concept of sustainable development and related theoretical and research issues. Now, the challenge has shifted to designing and stimulating processes of effective planning and decision-making, at all levels of human activity, in such a way as to achieve local and global sustainable development. Information technology can help a great deal in achieving sustainable development by providing well-designed and useful tools for decision makers. One such tool is the decision support system, or DSS. This book explores the area of DSS in the context of sustainable development. As DSS is a very new technique, especially in the developing world, this book will serve as a reference text, primarily for managers, government officials, and information professionals in developing countries. It covers the concept of sustainable development, defines DSS and how it can be used in the planning and management of sustainable development, and examines the state of the art in DSS use. Other interested readers will include students, teachers, and analysts in information sciences; DSS designers, developers, and implementors; and international development agencies.