Information Systems: The e-Business Challenge Indisputable, e-Business is shaping the future inspiring a growing range of innovative business models. To bring it to the point: the Internet has redefined the way electronic business is performed. In an electronic supported business all relationships are transformed -may it be a seller-to buyer relationship or a an agency-to-citizen relationship. So for instance in commerce new business models incorporate various activities: promoting and communicating company and product information to a global user base; accepting orders and payments for goods and services; providing ongoing customer support; getting feedback and spurring collaboration for a new product development. There are several ways of further differentiating e-Business such as sketching some diversions on various levels: e-Commerce, e-Government; B2C, B2B, B2G, G2C; Customer Relationship Management, Business Intelligence and so on. Further distinctions may follow divergent criteria such as separating in business stages. Thus particular problem domains emerge. They all state of its own guiding the development of adequate information systems.

In the foreword to this volume of conference proceedings for IFIP Working Group 8.4, it is appropriate to review the wider organization to which the Working Group belongs. The International Federation of Information Processing (IFIP) is a non-governmental, non-profit umbrella organization for national societies working in the field of information processing that was established in 1960 under the auspices of UNESCO. IFIP's mission is to be the leading, truly international, apolitical organization which encourages and assists in the development, exploitation and application of Information Technology for the benefit of all people. At the heart of IFIP lie its Technical Committees that, between them, count on the active participation of some two thousand people world-wide. These Groups work in a variety of ways to share experience and to develop their specialised knowledge. Technical Committees include: TC 1. Foundations of Computer Science; TC 2: Software: Theory and Practice; TC 3: Education; TC 6: Communication Systems; TC 7: System Modelling and Optimization; TC 9: Relationship between Computers and Society; TC 11: Security and Protection in Information Processing Systems; TC 12: Artificial Intelligence and TC 13: Human-Computer Interaction. The IFIP website www.ifip.org) has further details. Technical Committee 8 (TC8) is concerned with Information Systems in organisations. Within TC8 there are different Working Groups focusing on particular aspects of Information Systems.

BE 2002 is the second in a series of conferences on eCommerce, eBusiness, and eGovemment organised by the three IFIP committees TC6, TC8, and TCll. As BE 2001 did last year in Zurich, BE 2002 continues to provide a forum for users, engineers, and researchers from academia, industry and government to present their latest findings in eCommerce, eBusiness, and eGovernment applications and the underlying technologies which support those applications. This year's conference comprises a main track with sessions on eGovernment, Trust, eMarkets, Fraud and Security, eBusiness (both B2B and B2C), the Design of systems, eLearning, Public and Health Systems, Web Design, and the Applications of and Procedures for eCommerce and eBusiness, as well as two associated Workshops (not included in these proceedings): eBusiness Models in the Digital Online Music and Online News Sectors; and eBusiness Standardisation - Challenges and Solutions for the Networked Economy. The 47 papers accepted for presentation in these sessions and published in this book of proceedings were selected from 80 submissions. They were rigorously reviewed (all papers were double-blind refereed) before being selected by the International Programme Committee. This rejection rate of almost 50% indicates just how seriously the Committee took its quality control activities.

"The trend is your friend"is a practical principle often used by business managers, who seek to forecast future sales, expenditures, and profitability in order to make production and other operational decisions. The problem is how best to identify and discover business trends and utilize trend information for attaining objectives of firms.This book contains an Excel-based solution to this problem, applying principles of the authors' "profit system model" of the firm that enables forecasts of trends in sales, expenditures, profits and other business variables. The program, called FIRM, which runs on Windows with Microsoft Excel 2010, useshistorical time series of total sales, total costs, and total assets of the firm from its financial statements (income statements and balance sheets), estimates relationships among these variables, and then employs the estimated relationships to forecasts trends in these vital business variables. Featuring step-by-step case examples, the goal is to equip business managers and students with easy-to-use tools for understanding and forecasting trends in important business variables, thereby empowering them to make better business decisions.

This volume contains case studies, theoretical papers and project development reports on one of the greatest challenges facing the new digital enterprises: the life cycle approach to management and production. Main issues discussed in the book include CAD/CAM/CIM/CAE, intelligent manufacturing, and control and robotics applications.

This book constitutes the proceedings of the 6th International Workshop on Enterprise Applications and Services in the Finance Industry, FinanceCom 2012, held in Barcelona, Spain, on June 10, 2012.

The workshop spans multiple disciplines, including technical, service, economic, sociological, and behavioral sciences. It reflects on technologically enabled opportunities, implications, and changes due to the introduction of new business models or regulations related to the financial services industry and the financial markets.

The seven papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from numerous submissions. The topics covered are: news and text analysis; algorithmic and high-frequency trading; and the role and impact of technology.

This volume contains ten thoroughly refereed and revised papers detailing recent advances in research on designing trading agents and mechanisms for agent-mediated e-commerce. They were originally presented at the 13th International Workshop on Agent-Mediated Electronic Commerce (AMEC 2011), collocated with AAMAS 2011 in Taipei, Taiwan, or at the 2011 Workshop on Trading Agent Design and Analysis (TADA 2011), collocated with IJCAI 2011 in Barcelona, Spain.The papers presented at these two workshops illustrate both the depth and broad range of research topics in this field. They range from providing solutions to open theoretical problems in online scheduling and bargaining under uncertainty, to designing bidding agents in a wide area of application areas, such as electronic commerce, supply chain management, or keyword advertising, to designing agents that can successfully replicate actual human behaviors in realistic games.

This Springer Briefs volume guides the reader in a comprehensive form to design new digital business models. The book provides strategic roadmaps for enterprises in the digital world, and a comprehensive framework to assess new business models. It aligns both, research and a practical perspective through real case study examples. Even extreme scenarios are employed to ensure that innovative approaches are being considered adequately.

ECWAC2012 is an integrated conference devoted to Electronic Commerce, Web Application and Communication. In the this proceedings you can find the carefully reviewed scientific outcome of the second International Conference on Electronic Commerce, Web Application and Communication (ECWAC 2012) held at March 17-18,2012 in Wuhan, China, bringing together researchers from all around the world in the field.

The availability of effective global communication facilities in the last decade has changed the business goals of many manufacturing enterprises. They need to remain competitive by developing products and processes which are specific to individual requirements, completely packaged and manufactured globally. Networks of enterprises are formed to operate across time and space with world-wide distributed functions such as manufacturing, sales, customer support, engineering, quality assurance, supply chain management and so on. Research and technology development need to address architectures, methodologies, models and tools supporting intra- and inter-enterprise operation and management. Throughout the life cycle of products and enterprises there is the requirement to transform information sourced from globally distributed offices and partners into knowledge for decision and action. Building on the success of previous DrrSM conferences (Tokyo 1993, Eindhoven 1996, Fort Worth 1998), the fourth International Conference on Design of Information Infrastructure Systems for Manufacturing (DrrSM 2000) aims to: * Establish and manage the dynamics of virtual enterprises, define the information system requirements and develop solutions; * Develop and deploy information management in multi-cultural systems with universal applicability of the proposed architecture and solutions; * Develop enterprise integration architectures, methodologies and information infrastructure support for reconfigurable enterprises; * Explore information transformation into knowledge for decision and action by machine and skilful people; These objectives reflect changes of the business processes due to advancements of information and communication technologies (ICT) in the last couple of years.

Semantic Issues in e-Commerce Systems comprises the proceedings of the Ninth Working Conference on Database Semantics, which was sponsored by the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) and held in Hong Kong in April 2001. This volume will be essential for researchers and practitioners working in the areas of database management, information retrieval and data mining, and user interfaces, as applied to e-commerce.

It is 5 years since the publication of the seminal paper on "Design Science in Information Systems Research" by Hevner, March, Park, and Ram in MIS Quarterly and the initiation of the Information Technology and Systems department of the Communications of AIS. These events in 2004 are markers in the move of design science to the forefront of information systems research. A suf cient interval has elapsed since then to allow assessment of from where the eld has come and where it should go. Design science research and behavioral science research started as dual tracks when IS was a young eld. By the 1990s, the in ux of behavioral scientists started to dominate the number of design scientists and the eld moved in that direction. By the early 2000s, design people were having dif culty publishing in mainline IS journals and in being tenured in many universities. Yes, an annual Workshop on Information Technology and Systems (WITS) was established in 1991 in conju- tion with the International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS) and grew each year. But that was the extent of design science recognition. Fortunately, a revival is underway. By 2009, when this foreword was written, the fourth DESRIST c- ference has been held and plans are afoot for the 2010 meeting. Design scientists regained respect and recognition in many venues where they previously had little.

The unusual direct progress of civilization in many fields concerning technical sciences is being observed in the period of last two decades. Experiencing extraordinary dynamics of the development of technological processes, particularly in ways of communicating, makes us believe that the information society is coming into existence. Having the information in today's world of changing attitudes and socio-economic conditions can be perceived as one of the most important advantages.

The content of this book is divided into four parts:

Mathematical and technical fundamentals
Information management systems and project management
Information security and business continuity management
Interdisciplinary problems

This monograph has been prepared to contribute in a significant way to the success of implementing consequences of human imagination into social life. The authors believe that this monograph will influence the further technology development regarding IT with constantly expanding spectrum of its applications."

ECWAC2012 is an integrated conference devoted to Electronic Commerce, Web Application and Communication. In the this proceedings you can find the carefully reviewed scientific outcome of the second International Conference on Electronic Commerce, Web Application and Communication (ECWAC 2012) held at March 17-18,2012 in Wuhan, China, bringing together researchers from all around the world in the field.

This book contains revised versions of papers presented on scientific workshop "Modeling Multi-commodity Trade: Information exchange methods," which took place in November 2010 atWarsaw University of Technology. It summarizes results of the research work supported so far by scientific grant "Methods and architectures of information interchange for electronic trade on infrastructural markets" (see page xi), and some earlier research work on multi-commodity markets modeling. Though partial results of the research were published earlier, the book gives the most complete view on results of our research in the field of modeling the trade on complex multi-commodity infrastructural markets.

An increasing number of products and services are not differentiated by inherent features, but by the vendors, particularly their reputation and marketing commu- cation. Consequently, a positive reputation provides competing vendors with a virtually inimitable competitive advantage. Contemporary research concerning antecedents and consequences of reputation in the domain of marketing is dominated by branding and line extension issues. Organizations' communication efforts and the relation of reputation and the c- munication media are not fully understood; nor have they been challenged up to now. Moreover, customers' perception of reputation is clearly embedded in their cultural context. However, contemporary marketing research restricts both conceptual and empirical considerations to Western-type cultures. Frequently, even the differences in Western-type cultures are neglected. Considering these shortcomings in contemporary marketing research, Dr. Christine Falkenreck investigates the opportunities and limits, and also the potential bene?ts and dangers of transferring a vendor's positive reputation to product categories never produced or offered by the considered vendor. Embedding the empirical investigation of both reputation management and reputation transfer in a coherent theoretical framework, which is grounded in the Commitment-Trust theory, is her merit. She derives and validates an integrated model that appears to be valid in all cultures considered in her study. The results of this analysis contribute substantially to our understanding of reputation measuring and managing. These results are not restricted to academic interests and they provided practitioners with a variety of new insights. Thus, this thesis will ho- fully be widely discussed in both academia and management practice.

Collective intelligence has become an attractive subject of interest for both academia and industry. More and more conferences and workshops discuss the impact of the users' motivation to participate in the value creation process, the enabling role of leading-edge information and communication technologies and the need for better algorithms to deal with the growing amount of shared data. There are many interesting and challenging topics that need to be researched and discussed with respect to knowledge creation, creativity and innovation processes carried forward in the emerging communities of practice.

COLLIN is on the path to become the flagship conference in the areas of collective intelligence and ICT-enabled social networking. We were delighted to again receive contributions from different parts of the world including Australia, Europe, Asia, and the United States. Encouraged by the positive response, we plan COLLIN 2012 to be held next year end of August at FernUniverstitat in Hagen.

In order to guarantee the quality of the event, each paper went through a doubleblind review process. The reviews concentrated on originality, quality and relevance of the paper topic to the symposium. In addition, we invited a few renowned experts in the field to contribute to the success of the symposium with outstanding papers reporting on their most recent research. Our special thanks go to the authors for submitting their papers, to the international program committee members, and to numerous reviewers who did an excellent job in guaranteeing that the papers in this volume are of very high quality."

Services als grundlegende Bausteine von Organisationen und Unternehmenswelten erzeugen vollig neue, teilweise nicht vorhersehbare Eigenschaften. Pervasive Computing, Ambient Intelligence auf der einen Seite, internetbasierte, virtuelle Organisationen bestehend aus vielen Partnern auf der anderen Seite sind Formen digitaler Okosystemen, die zukunftig den Alltag verandern werden. Der Autor betrachtet die Steuer- und Realisierbarkeit solcher digitaler Okosysteme und stellt die Frage, ob solche grossen Systeme uberhaupt noch kontrollierbar sind."

Like many other incipient technologies, Web services are still surrounded by a substantial level of noise. This noise results from the always dangerous combination of wishful thinking on the part of research and industry and of a lack of clear understanding of how Web services came to be. On the one hand, multiple contradictory interpretations are created by the many attempts to realign existing technology and strategies with Web services. On the other hand, the emphasis on what could be done with Web services in the future often makes us lose track of what can be really done with Web services today and in the short term. These factors make it extremely difficult to get a coherent picture of what Web services are, what they contribute, and where they will be applied.
Alonso and his co-authors deliberately take a step back. Based on their academic and industrial experience with middleware and enterprise application integration systems, they describe the fundamental concepts behind the notion of Web services and present them as the natural evolution of conventional middleware, necessary to meet the challenges of the Web and of B2B application integration.

Rather than providing a reference guide or a "how to write your first Web service" kind of book, they discuss the main objectives of Web services, the challenges that must be faced to achieve them, and the opportunities that this novel technology provides. Established, as well as recently proposed, standards and techniques (e.g., WSDL, UDDI, SOAP, WS-Coordination, WS-Transactions, and BPEL), are then examined in the context of this discussion in order to emphasize their scope, benefits, and shortcomings. Thus, the book is ideally suited both for professionals considering the development of application integration solutions and for research and students interesting in understanding and contributing to the evolution of enterprise application technologies.

As the population ages and healthcare costs continue to soar, the focus of the nation and the healthcare industry turns to reducing costs and making the delivery process more efficient. Demonstrating how improvements in information systems can lead to improved patient care, Information and Communication Technologies in Healthcare explains how to create a holistic Medical Records System as a core component to addressing the issues affecting the U.S. healthcare system. Examining the impact of our aging population on healthcare, the book describes the range of systems that support key segments of the industry, including: hospitals, physicians, imaging, and nursing. It considers patient records, the physician's office, emerging home-monitoring networks, the recording and information submitting process, and hospice/nursing home use. Leaving no stone unturned, this reference investigates: Healthcare technology Healthcare data standards Healthcare information exchange Legal and regulatory issues Electronic medical records Usability by patients and physicians Security and privacy Healthcare facility planning Emerging media and healthcare The book includes a case study that illustrates the human factors behind the implementation of technology. Following the principle that data should be captured only once, stored in a repository, and then made available throughout the medical system, this is the ideal starting point for those looking to improve the effectiveness and cost efficiencies of the healthcare system.

Home-Oriented Informatics and Telematics is an essential reference for both academic and professional researchers in the field of home informatics. The home is a key aspect of society and the widespread use of computers and other information appliances is transforming the way in which we live, work and communicate in the information age. This area of study has seen remarkable growth in the last few years as information technology has encroached into every corner of home and social spheres.

The papers selected here cover a growing range of topics, including assistive technology; smart homes; home technology; memory aids; home activity; appliance design; design methodology; time, space and virtual presence; social and ethical aspects; and home activities.

This state-of-the-art volume presents the proceedings of the Home-Oriented Informatics and Telematics conference held in York, U.K, April 13-15, 2005. This collection will be important not only for home informatics experts and researchers, but also for teachers, administrators, and anyone else seeking to keep up to date in this rapidly emerging field.