Systems Engineering for Business Process Change: New Directions is a collection of papers resulting from an EPSRC managed research programme set up to investigate the relationships between Legacy IT Systems and Business Processes. The papers contained in this volume report the results from the projects funded by the programme, which ran between 1997 and 2001. An earlier volume, published in 2000, reported interim results.
Bringing together researchers from diverse backgrounds in Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering and Business Schools, this book explores the problems experienced by IT-dependent businesses that have to implement changing business processes in the context of their investment in legacy systems. The book presents some of the solutions investigated through the collaborations set up within the research programme.
Whether you are a researcher interested in the ideas that were generated by the research programme, or a user trying to understand the nature of the problems and their solutions, you cannot fail to be inspired by the writings contained in this volume.

This important, state-of-the-art book brings together for the first time in one volume the two areas of Legacy Systems and Business Processes. The research discussed has arisen from the EPSRC research programme on Systems Engineering for Business Process Change, and the book contains contributions from leading experts in the field.
Both the consumer and supplier of IT have problems with legacy systems and business process change, so Systems Engineering for Business Process Change will be of great interest to practitioners who are encountering, or likely to encounter, problems with legacy systems and business process change, as well as researchers preparing future research programmes, and those studying system and business evolution.

A very large proportion of commercial and industrial concerns in the UK find their business competitiveness dependent on huge quantities of already installed, legacy IT. Often the nature of their business is such that, to remain competitive, they have to be able to change their business processes. Sometimes the required change is radical and revolutionary, but more often the required change is incremental. For such incremental change, a major systems engineering problem arises. The cost and delay involved in changing the installed IT to meet the changed business requirements is much too high. In order to address this issue the UK Engineering and Physical Science Research Council (EPSRC) set up, in 1996, a managed research programme entitled Systems Engineering for Business Process Change (SEBPC). I was appointed as co-ordinator of the programme. The overall aim of this new managed research programme was to release the full potential of IT as an enabler of business process change, and to overcome the disabling effects which the build-up of legacy systems has on such change. As such, this aim addressed a stated objective of the Information Technology and Computer Science (IT&CS) part of EPSRC to encourage research at a system level.

Systems Engineering for Business Process Change: New Directions is a collection of papers resulting from an EPSRC managed research programme set up to investigate the relationships between Legacy IT Systems and Business Processes. The papers contained in this volume report the results from the projects funded by the programme, which ran between 1997 and 2001. An earlier volume, published in 2000, reported interim results. Bringing together researchers from diverse backgrounds in Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering and Business Schools, this book explores the problems experienced by IT-dependent businesses that have to implement changing business processes in the context of their investment in legacy systems. The book presents some of the solutions investigated through the collaborations set up within the research programme. Whether you are a researcher interested in the ideas that were generated by the research programme, or a user trying to understand the nature of the problems and their solutions, you cannot fail to be inspired by the writings contained in this volume.

Latin America in the Modern World is the first text to situate the history of Latin America within a wider global narrative. Written by leading scholars, the book focuses on five themes: state formation; the construction of national identity through popular culture and religion; economics and commodities; race, class, and gender; and the environment. Emphasizing the distinct experiences of each of the Latin American countries, the book provides students with an entry point into understanding this vital region. Instead of suggesting that all Latin American nations have an interchangeable heritage, the authors seek to clearly identify themes, topics, people, and intellectual currents that help to knit the history of modern Latin America into a coherent category of study. While providing in-depth coverage of the history of the three largest Latin American countries (Mexico, Brazil, and Argentina), Latin America in the Modern World also offers case studies from almost all of the countries, including Central American and Andean nations.

This book reviews the past, present and future generation and use of electricity. While noting the importance of electricity to the well-being of people, it argues that all means of electricity generation have adverse ecological consequences. The ecological effects of all the main forms of electricity generation, storage and transmission are reviewed in 14 chapters. The chapters briefly cover the engineering and physics of each method of electricity generation followed by a description of the different ways in which the technology interacts with the natural world. Finally, sections consider the importance of these impacts and how they can be mitigated or avoided. A final chapter summarizes the issues and emphasizes that the only way to truly minimize the impacts of electricity generation is to reduce our consumption and transmission. Future efforts should continue to focus on increasing the efficiency of light production, refrigeration, electrical appliances and batteries.