Since SAP is emphasizing recent developments in operations management in its SCM initiative, this book describes the methodological background from the viewpoint of a company using SAP systems. It describes order processing both in an intra- and interorganizational perspective, as well as describing future developments and system enhancements.

This book is a result of the Tenth International Conference on Information Systems Development (ISD2001) held at Royal Holloway, University of London, United Kingdom, during September 5-7, 2001. ISD 2001 carries on the fine tradition established by the first Polish-Scandinavian Seminar on Current Trends in Information Systems Development Methodologies, held in Gdansk, Poland in 1988. Through the years, this seminar evolved into an International Conference on Information Systems Development. The Conference gives participants an opportunity to express ideas on the current state of the art in information systems development, and to discuss and exchange views on new methods, tools, applications as well as theory. In all, 55 papers were presented at ISD2001 organised into twelve tracks covering the following themes: Systems Analysis and Development, Modelling, Methodology, Database Systems, Collaborative Systems, Theory, Knowledge Management, Project Management, IS Education, Management issues, E-Commerce. and Technical Issues. We would like to thank all the contributing authors for making this book possible and for their participation in ISD200 1. We are grateful to our panel of paper reviewers for their help and support. We would also like to express our sincere thanks to Ceri Bowyer and Steve Brown for their unfailing support with organising ISD2001.

This book presents a selection of studies that have applied Operational Research methods to improve emergency planning in healthcare, to include both A&E and public health emergencies like epidemic and natural disasters. The studies have delved into qualitative Operational Research like Problem Structuring, Critical Systems Thinking, Soft Systems Methodology, and Qualitative System Dynamics, and also quantitative techniques such as Monte Carlo Simulation, Discrete-event Simulation, and System Dynamics. These techniques have been applied for review and assessment of emergency services, for policy formulation and for facilitating broader public engagement in emergency preparedness and response. Furthermore, this book presents rigorous reviews on the applications of Operational Research in the wider healthcare context. This volume focuses mainly on emergency planning at the strategic level, whereas volume 1 focuses on planning at the operational level. The OR Essentials series presents a unique cross-section of high quality research work fundamental to understanding contemporary issues and research across a range of Operational Research (OR) topics. It brings together some of the best research papers from the highly respected journals of the Operational Research Society, also published by Palgrave Macmillan.

Praise for The Mathematics of Derivatives

"The Mathematics of Derivatives provides a concise pedagogical discussion of both fundamental and very recent developments in mathematical finance, and is particularly well suited for readers with a science or engineering background. It is written from the point of view of a physicist focused on providing an understanding of the methodology and the assumptions behind derivative pricing. Navin has a unique and elegant viewpoint, and will help mathematically sophisticated readers rapidly get up to speed in the latest Wall Street financial innovations."
--David Montano, Managing Director JPMorgan Securities

"A stylish and practical introduction to the key concepts in financial mathematics, this book tackles key fundamentals in the subject in an intuitive and refreshing manner whilst also providing detailed analytical and numerical schema for solving interesting derivatives pricing problems. If Richard Feynman wrote an introduction to financial mathematics, it might look similar. The problem and solution sets are first rate."
--Barry Ryan, Partner Bhramavira Capital Partners, London

"This is a great book for anyone beginning (or contemplating), a career in financial research or analytic programming. Navin dissects a huge, complex topic into a series of discrete, concise, accessible lectures that combine the required mathematical theory with relevant applications to real-world markets. I wish this book was around when I started in finance. It would have saved me a lot of time and aggravation."
--Larry Magargal

Information and Process Integration in Enterprises: Rethinking Documents is a bold attempt to address information and process integration issues as a single body of research and practice. This book has identified the concept of documents as a common thread linking the integration issues. Documents, after all, are representations of information, along with representations of the usage of the information contained therein. Rethinking the role of documents is therefore central to (re)engineering enterprises in the context of information and process integration. The chapters of this book are based on papers presented at the International Working Conference on Information and Process Integration in Enterprises (IPIC '96)', held at MIT on November 14 and 15, 1996. The chapters cover a range of issues: from the future role of documents in enterprise integration, to emerging models of business processes and information use, to practical experiences in implementing new processes and technologies in real work environments. Information and Process Integration in Enterprises: Rethinking Documents is suitable as a secondary text for a graduate level course on information technology.

Information technology continues to revolutionarize the way commercial enterprises, government, and individuals conduct business. Sustained success in value creation in today's networked economies depends in part on how organizations are effective in attracting, developing, and retaining talented IS professionals. The magnitude of the challenges that face organizations in managing IS professionals demand clearer and more cohesive strategies than currently exist. Firms with more effective strategies for managing IS professionals will consistently outperform their peers. Studies have shown that the IS profession is now characterized by staff skill shortages, high turnover rates, job stress, and burnout. Strategies for Managing IS/IT Personnel explores the challenges faced by organizations as they develop strategies for recruiting, training, retraining and retaining IT professional. The book should be valuable to all managers, researchers, teachers and students who want to learn about issues related to the IS professional career and how strategies for recruiting, training, retraining and retaining the "best and the brightest" IT talent can be designed, implemented and monitored.

"Ade McCormack sounds a much-needed clarion call for IT to "grow up" and become a mature business function"
--Nicholas Carr, Author of "Does IT Matter and The Big Switch"

"The wit, imagination and insight that Ade brings to his regular Boardroom Debate column in the Financial Times Digital Business section shine through his new book. Ade looks at where the power, blame, influence and value in IT all sit as business technology matures and the game shifts towards maximising its value."
--Peter Whitehead, "FT Digital Business" editor

"This excellent book is a must read for anyone in business. As in his first book Ade McCormack demystifies IT and makes it clear, relevant and interesting for business."
--Dr Gerard-Lyons, Chief Economist at Standard Chartered

"Ade McCormack hits at the key issues, the Business/IT relationship can no longer be one of master/slave, but must evolve into one of value based partnership for business advantage. An essential read for those organisations who believe there has to be a third way between traditional business and IT approaches."
--Eddie Short, Vice President, Global Lead - Business Information Management, Capgemini, London

Successful IT value realisation is a cloudy subject. This in part contributes to the overall dissatisfaction many organisations have with IT. This book tackles the subject of IT value realisation head on. Most importantly it provides a model to help CIOs and business leaders maximize the return on their IT investment.

This book is based on the author's "IT Value Stack" methodology, which helps business leaders take control of their IT investment. Boardroom-bound CIOs will also find this book of value. As will those that advise on strategic business-IT matters.

The model is corroborated with input from influential people working within the world's most successful end-user, business advisory and technology organisations.

The book covers: The IT Value Stack ModelBusiness-IT strategy entwinementProcess-IT entwinementUser-technologist entwinementTechnology managementIT service managementCirculation managementValue management.Valuable input from influential contributors from the end-user, technology and advisory communities.

In today's world, widespread change in business and technology creates a dynamic and chaotic work environment, pushing intelligent use of information communication technologies (ICTs) to survive.""Information and Communication Technologies Management in Turbulent Business Environments"" informs today's business managers of important ICT strategy in changing business environments, techniques for effective ICT development, and ICT challenges for the future. A cutting-edge research publication for practitioners, researchers, and academicians, this book covers topics such as e-technology, knowledge management, and security and risk management.

Data mining has emerged as one of the most active areas in information and c- munication technologies(ICT). With the boomingof the global economy, and ub- uitouscomputingandnetworkingacrosseverysectorand business, data andits deep analysis becomes a particularly important issue for enhancing the soft power of an organization, its production systems, decision-making and performance. The last ten years have seen ever-increasingapplications of data mining in business, gove- ment, social networks and the like. However, a crucial problem that prevents data mining from playing a strategic decision-support role in ICT is its usually limited decision-support power in the real world. Typical concerns include its actionability, workability, transferability, and the trustworthy, dependable, repeatable, operable and explainable capabilities of data mining algorithms, tools and outputs. This monograph, Domain Driven Data Mining, is motivated by the real-world challenges to and complexities of the current KDD methodologies and techniques, which are critical issues faced by data mining, as well as the ?ndings, thoughts and lessons learned in conducting several large-scale real-world data mining bu- ness applications. The aim and objective of domain driven data mining is to study effective and ef?cient methodologies, techniques, tools, and applications that can discover and deliver actionable knowledge that can be passed on to business people for direct decision-making and action-takin

Digitalizing Sustainability outlines why 'business as usual' isn't working and sets out five Transformational Forces which can be used to innovate and scale sustainability solutions using digital means. This transformation will be powered by a range of digital technologies that have the potential to ideate, propel and scale sustainability solutions in an exponential manner over the next decade. This book introduces the Five Forces of Digital Transformation. These forces all share a common root - they are powered by digital technologies that enable them to operate at the speed and scale that we need to achieve global transformation for people and planet. Working together, these forces help overcome many of the barriers and pitfalls that humanity has faced in trying to achieve sustainability 2.0.and will help you tackle these questions: Why has sustainability 1.0 failed us? What are the bugs and bad code in our operating systems that we must address to have any hope at creating a sustainable civilization? What are the Five Forces of Digital Transformation that will forge a sustainable and resilient future for our people and planet? What are the core priorities going forward for coalitions of the willing to harness these forces for sustainability and resilience? Disruptive and innovative, this book provides readers with a clear path forward to a sustainable digital future. It will be of great interest to anyone interested in the adoption of digital technologies for driving solutions to global sustainability challenges.

The book focuses on applications of belief functions to business decisions. Section I introduces the intuitive, conceptual and historical development of belief functions. Three different interpretations (the marginally correct approximation, the qualitative model, and the quantitative model) of belief functions are investigated, and rough set theory and structured query language (SQL) are used to express belief function semantics. Section II presents applications of belief functions in information systems and auditing. Included are discussions on how a belief-function framework provides a more efficient and effective audit methodology and also the appropriateness of belief functions to represent uncertainties in audit evidence. The third section deals with applications of belief functions to mergers and acquisitions; financial analysis of engineering enterprises; forecast demand for mobile satellite services; modeling financial portfolios; and economics.

'Rana el Kaliouby's vision for how technology should work in parallel with empathy is bold, inspired and hopeful' Arianna Huffington, founder and CEO of Thrive Global 'This lucid and captivating book by a renowned pioneer of emotion-AI tackles one of the most pressing issues of our time: How can we ensure a future where this technology empowers rather than surveils and manipulates us?' Max Tegmark, professor of physics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and author of Life 3.0 We are entering an empathy crisis. Most of our communication is conveyed through non-verbal cues - facial expressions, tone of voice, body language - nuances that are completely lost when we interact through our smartphones and other technology. The result is a digital universe that's emotion-blind - a society lacking in empathy. Rana el Kaliouby discovered this when she left Cairo, a newly-married, Muslim woman, to take up her place at Cambridge University to study computer science. Many thousands of miles from home, she began to develop systems to help her better connect with her family. She started to pioneer the new field of Emotional Intelligence (EI). She now runs her company, Affectiva (the industry-leader in this emerging field) that builds EI into our technology and develops systems that understand humans the way we understand one another. In a captivating memoir, Girl Decoded chronicles el Kaliouby's mission to humanise technology and what she learns about humanity along the way.

Addressed to the management of financial institutions and computer and communications technologists, this book aims to prvide information on the four generations of on-line financial networks which have evolved over the past twenty years in Japan.;The background to the book is electronic banking, and the forward- looking financial industries and the benefits they have achieved.;The author has also recently written "Membership Of The Board Of Directors".

Organizations are information intensive systems, operating in dynamic and competitive markets, structured around complex physical and political infrastructures. This book characterises the critical nature of these environments through strategies for business information technology management (BITM).

"Hands-On Database "uses a scenario-based approach that shows readers how to build a database by providing them with the context of a running case throughout each step of the process.

This book opens the "black box" of software sourcing by explaining how dynamic software alignment is established and how it impacts business performance outcomes. By investigating how software-sourcing modes are related to value generation in the post-implementation phase, it shows researchers and managers the impact logic of on-demand, on-premises, and in-house software on dynamic fit and process-level performance outcomes in a client organization. It describes dynamic IT alignment as the key to success in a fast-moving digital world with software-as-a-service on the rise and highlights the fact that today companies can choose between developing software in-house (make) or sourcing packaged systems in an on-premises (buy) or an on-demand (lease) mode. This book is the first to explicitly compare these sourcing arrangements with each other in terms of alignment and business performance.

Business Intelligence (BI) and Performance Management (PM) - the development and delivery of business insight for users and the management of execution based on that insight - are two solution-types that promise to bring great value to enterprises. Yet most organizations haven't yet realized the elusive bene?ts of these two important disciplines. The reasons for this are manifold. However, the primary causes are the culture of the organization and it leadership. This is a topic, which I've addressed at length in my latest book: Pro?les in Performance - Business Intelligence Journeys and the Roadmap for Change. The culture and leadership of the organization determines the importance and strategic intent surrounding the use of BI and PM. Sadly, most organizations lack the motivation to embrace transparency and accountability - or to align with the strategy of the organization - enabling execution and coordination in unison with the mission. However, once an organization and its leadership are ready to take a step towards real change - creating an environment of openness, sharing and alignment - with BI and PM as its centerpiece - the next question then becomes one of "how and where to begin"? Even with great strategic intent, missteps in the development and deployment of BI and PM and can cause disillusionment and disappointment - lending support to the naysayers of the organization - and leading to failure and abandonment of these critical programs.

After the introduction of Enterprise Information Systems (EIS) and Enterprise Resources Planning (ERP) applications to many business organizations, the functional issues such as technical problems, security threats, persistent end-user resistance, and the excessive hidden costs of these systems began coming to light. Cases on Enterprise Information Systems and Implementation Stages: Learning from the Gulf Region focuses on the Gulf region and its lead on the enterprise systems adoption which has exceeded those in many developed countries. This reference book highlights experiences implementing EIS, delivering a comprehensive multi-perspective account of EIS issues, and explores the concerns, risks, and critical success factors of EIS for a variety of organizations. It aims to be beneficial for both practitioners and academics alike.

A new look at nearly 20 years of theoretical and practical research on IT outsourcing, this book explores how good IT outsourcing theories shape practice and how effective IT outsourcing practices inform theory. It highlights the importance of examining theories borrowed from economics, strategy, and sociology to study IT outsourcing.

In Entrepreneurship and Sustainability the editors and contributors challenge the notion that not-for-profit social entrepreneurship is the only sort that can lead to the alleviation of poverty. Entrepreneurship for profit is not just about the entrepreneur doing well. Entrepreneurs worldwide are leading successful for-profit ventures which contribute to poverty alleviation in their communities. With the challenge of global poverty before them, entrepreneurs continue to develop innovative, business-oriented ventures that deliver promising solutions to this complex and urgent agenda. This book explores how to bring commercial investors together with those who are best placed to reach the poorest customers. With case studies from around the World, the focus of the contributions is on the new breed of entrepreneurs who are blending a profit motive with a desire to make a difference in their communities and beyond borders. A number of the contributions here also recognize that whilst much research has been devoted to poverty alleviation in developing countries, this is only part of the story. Studies in this volume also focus upon enterprise solutions to poverty in pockets of significant deprivation in high-income countries, such as the Appalachia region of the US, in parts of Europe, and the richer Asian countries. Much has been written about the achievements of socially orientated non-profit microfinance institutions. This valuable, academically rigorous but accessible book will help academics, policy makers, and business people consider what the next generation of more commercially orientated banks for the 'bottom billion' might look like.

The three volumes of Interest Rate Modeling present a comprehensive and up-to-date treatment of techniques and models used in the pricing and risk management of fixed income securities. Written by two leading practitioners and seasoned industry veterans, this unique series combines finance theory, numerical methods, and approximation techniques to provide the reader with an integrated approach to the process of designing and implementing industrial-strength models for fixed income security valuation and hedging. Aiming to bridge the gap between advanced theoretical models and real-life trading applications, the pragmatic, yet rigorous, approach taken in this book will appeal to students, academics, and professionals working in quantitative finance. The first half of Volume III contains a detailed study of several classes of fixed income securities, ranging from simple vanilla options to highly exotic cancelable and path-dependent derivatives. The analysis is done in product-specific fashion covering, among other subjects, risk characterization, calibration strategies, and valuation methods. In its second half, Volume III studies the general topic of derivative portfolio risk management, with a particular emphasis on the challenging problem of computing smooth price sensitivities to market input perturbations.

This book is a result of the Seventh International Conference on Information Sys tems Development-Methods and Tools, Theory and Practice held in Bled, Slovenia, Sep tember 21-23, 1998. The purpose of the conference was to address issues facing academia and industry when specifying, developing, managing, and improving information comput erized systems. During the past few years, many new concepts and approaches emerged in the Information Systems Development (ISD) field. The various theories, methods, and tools available to system developers also bring problems such as choosing the most effec tive approach for a specific task. This conference provides a meeting place for IS re searchers and practitioners from Eastern and Western Europe as well as from other parts of the world. An objective of the conference is not only to share scientific knowledge and in terests but to establish strong professional ties among the participants. The Seventh International Conference on Information Systems Develop ment-ISD'98 continues the concepts of the first Polish-Scandinavian Seminar on Current Trends in Information Systems Development Methodologies held in Gdansk, Poland in 1988. Through the years, the Seminar developed into the International Conference on In formation Systems Development. ISD'99 will be held in Boise, Idaho. The selection of papers was carried out by the International Program Committee. All papers were reviewed in advance by three people. Papers were judged according to their originality, relevance, and presentation quality. All papers were judged only on their own merits, independent of other submissions."

Why do some corporate superstars collapse dramatically, while others survive and prosper over many decades? Is the fall primarily caused by 'technical factors', such as poor products and pricing, financial management or market choices, by self-aggrandisement, or perhaps by poor leadership attributes and capabilities? Greg Park argues that ultimately organisational survival and optimal performance over the long term is dependent upon collaborative wisdom. Within the dominant coalition of a successful community or corporation there is an inherited, pervasive, commonly and collectively held dominant logic, comprising leadership principles, perspectives and priorities, based upon universal values which are understood and accepted as satisfying the requirements and aspirations of each stakeholder. This collaborative wisdom ensures cohesive and consistent behaviour across and within every function of a complex, fast-moving organization. Its practical application is reflected in the daily operational decisions of leaders within the organisation, be they divisional, departmental heads or supervisors. Without collaborative wisdom organisational collapse is the inevitable result, primarily through the disintegration of belief, confidence, motivation, cohesion, advocacy and energy within and between key stakeholder groups. Collaborative Wisdom examines the nature and criticality of wisdom as a leadership attribute, how effective operational leadership is not just about knowledge and experience, but more fundamentally about a cognitive mental process which considers and consistently applies fundamental values, principles, perspectives and priorities in an analytical and affective manner. This ensures effective operational leadership and optimal organisational performance over the long term, informed by experience, instinct, intuition, but also by insight, judgment and ultimately, wisdom.

This volume provides important benchmarks for the integration of entrepreneurship and international business. It extends scholarship beyond the firm as single unit of analysis, instead including the role of the founder/entrepreneur. Exploration of this domain discusses possibilities for theory revision or development as well as providing information about an under-researched segment of companies.