"Vivek Kale's Creating Smart Enterprises goes smack-dab at the heart of harnessing technology for competing in today's chaotic digital era. Actually, for him, it's SMACT-dab: SMACT (Social media, Mobile, Analytics and big data, Cloud computing, and internet of Things) technologies. This book is required reading for those that want to stay relevant and win, and optional for those that don't." -Peter Fingar, Author of Cognitive Computing and business technology consultant Creating Smart Enterprises unravels the mystery of social media, mobile, analytics and big data, cloud, and Internet of Things (SMACT) computing and explains how it can transform the operating context of business enterprises. It provides a clear understanding of what SMACT really means, what it can do for smart enterprises, and application areas where it is practical to use them. All IT professionals who are involved with any aspect of a SMACT computing project will profit by using this book as a roadmap to make a more meaningful contribution to the success of their computing initiatives. This pragmatic book: Introduces the VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity) business ecosystem confronted by the businesses today. Describes the challenges of defining business and IT strategies and of aligning them as well as their impact on enterprise governance. Provides a very wide treatment of the various components of SMACT computing, including the Internet of Things (IoT) and its constituting technologies like RFID, wireless networks, sensors, and wireless sensor networks (WSNs). This book addresses the key differentiator of SMACT computing environments and solutions that combine the power of an elastic infrastructure with analytics. The SMACT environment is cloud-based and inherently mobile. Information management processes can analyze and discern recurring patterns in colossal pools of operational and transactional data. Analytics, big data, and IoT computing leverage and transform these data patterns to help create successful, smart enterprises.

Enterprise Process Management Systems: Engineering Process-Centric Enterprise Systems using BPMN 2.0 proposes a process-centric paradigm to replace the traditional data-centric paradigm for Enterprise Systems (ES)--ES should be reengineered from the present data-centric enterprise architecture to process-centric process architecture to be called as Enterprise Process Management Systems (EPMS). The real significance of business processes can be understood in the context of current heightened priority on digital transformation or digitalization of enterprises. Conceiving the roadmap to realize a digitalized enterprise via the business model innovation becomes amenable only from the process-centric view of the enterprise. This pragmatic book: Introduces Enterprise Process Management Systems (EPMS) solutions that enable an agile enterprise. Describes distributed systems and Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) that paved the road to EPMS. Leverages SOA to explain the cloud-based realization of business processes in terms of Web Services. Describes how BPMN 2.0 addresses the requirements for agility by ensuring a seamless methodological path from process requirements modeling to execution and back (to enable process improvements). Presents the spreadsheet-driven Spreadsheeter Application Development (SAD) methodology for the design and development of process-centric application systems. Describes process improvement programs ranging right from disruptive programs like BPR to continuous improvement programs like lean, six sigma and TOC. Enterprise Process Management Systems: Engineering Process-Centric Enterprise Systems using BPMN 2.0 describes how BPMN 2.0 can not only capture business requirements but it can also provide the backbone of the actual solution implementation. Thus, the same diagram prepared by the business analyst to describe the business's desired To-Be process can also be used to automate the execution of that process on a modern process engine.

"Vivek Kale has written a great book on performance management that focuses on decision-making; on continuous, incremental improvement; and on identifying common patterns in becoming a more intelligent organization." -James Taylor, CEO of Decision Management Solutions and author of Real-World Decision Modeling with DMN "Introducing the concepts of decision patterns and performance intelligence, Vivek Kale has written another important book on the issues faced by contemporary organizations."-Gary Cokins, author of Predictive Business Analytics and Performance Management: Integrating Strategy Execution, Methodologies, Risk, and Analytics Enterprise Performance Intelligence and Decision Patterns unravels the mystery of enterprise performance intelligence (EPI) and explains how it can transform the operating context of business enterprises. It provides a clear understanding of what EPI means, what it can do, and application areas where it is practical to use. The need to be responsive to evolving customer needs and desires creates organizational structures where business intelligence (BI) and decision making is pushed out to operating units that are closest to the scene of the action. Closed-loop decision making resulting from a combination of on-going performance management with on-going BI can lead to an effective responsive enterprise; hence, the need for performance intelligence (PI). This pragmatic book: Introduces the technologies such as data warehousing, data mining, analytics, and business intelligence systems that are a first step toward enabling data-driven enterprises. Details decision patterns and performance decision patterns that pave the road for performance intelligence applications. Introduces the concepts, principles, and technologies related to performance measurement systems. Describes the concepts and principles related to balance scorecard systems (BCS). Introduces aspects of performance intelligence for the real-time enterprises. Enterprise Performance Intelligence and Decision Patterns shows how a company can design and implement instruments ranging from decision patterns to PI systems that can enable continuous correction of business unit behavior so companies can enhance levels of productivity and profitability.

"A highly readable and yet comprehensive book on network businesses that have become governable with the advent of cloud and big data computing. Vivek Kale is a master of simplifying the complex world of network theory and its relevance to business." -Jagdish N. Sheth, Charles H. Kellstadt Professor of Marketing, Emory University Agile Network Businesses: Collaboration, Coordination, and Competitive Advantage reflects the shift from traditional networks to virtual and agile networks that enable businesses to operate dynamically, thereby representing markets more closely. This book enables IT managers and business decision-makers to understand clearly what network businesses and enterprises are, what they can do for them, and how to realize them. Customers in geographically dispersed markets are demanding higher quality products in a greater variety, at lower cost, and in a shorter time. Thus, enterprises have moved from a few centralized and vertically integrated facilities to geographically dispersed networks of capabilities, competencies and resources, which are the core of network businesses. Enterprises are now constructing more fluid network businesses in which each member facility focuses on differentiation and relies increasingly on its partners, suppliers, and customers to provide the rest. Network businesses have emerged as an organizational paradigm for collaboration and coordination across loosely connected individual organizations. This pragmatic book: Introduces network solutions and distributed systems that are a first step towards enabling a network enterprise. It also gives a detailed description of networks and agent system that have paved the road to network enterprises. Describes the basics of service-oriented architecture (SOA), cloud computing, and big data that are essential to network enterprises. Details the distinguishing aspects of network enterprises, which include virtual enterprises, management of network enterprises, and collaborative network enterprises. Covers such major application areas as supply, manufacturing, e-business, platform, social and wireless sensor networks. Introduces decision networks in the context of supply chain networks This book reinterprets the traditional supply chain in terms of the flow of decisions, information, and materials, which leads to reconfiguring the traditional supply chain network into mutually separate decision networks (e.g., fourth-party logistics or 4PL), information networks (e.g., wireless sensor networks), and logistics networks (e.g., third-party logistics or 3PL).

Guide to Cloud Computing for Business and Technology Managers: From Distributed Computing to Cloudware Applications unravels the mystery of cloud computing and explains how it can transform the operating contexts of business enterprises. It provides a clear understanding of what cloud computing really means, what it can do, and when it is practical to use. Addressing the primary management and operation concerns of cloudware, including performance, measurement, monitoring, and security, this pragmatic book: Introduces the enterprise applications integration (EAI) solutions that were a first step toward enabling an integrated enterprise Details service-oriented architecture (SOA) and related technologies that paved the road for cloudware applications Covers delivery models like IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS, and deployment models like public, private, and hybrid clouds Describes Amazon, Google, and Microsoft cloudware solutions and services, as well as those of several other players Demonstrates how cloud computing can reduce costs, achieve business flexibility, and sharpen strategic focus Unlike customary discussions of cloud computing, Guide to Cloud Computing for Business and Technology Managers: From Distributed Computing to Cloudware Applications emphasizes the key differentiator-that cloud computing is able to treat enterprise-level services not merely as discrete stand-alone services, but as Internet-locatable, composable, and repackageable building blocks for generating dynamic real-world enterprise business processes.

Enhancing Enterprise Intelligence: Leveraging ERP, CRM, SCM, PLM, BPM, and BI takes a fresh look at the benefits of enterprise systems (ES), focusing on the fact that ES collectively contribute to enhancing the intelligence quotient of an enterprise. The book provides an overview of the characteristic domains (i.e., business functions, processes, and activities) addressed by the various categories of ES, namely, ERP, CRM, SCM, PLM, BPM, and BI. The book begins with an overview of agile enterprises and dimensions of intelligent enterprises. The middle chapters detail CRM's decisive concept of customer centricity, SCM's differentiating concept of customer responsiveness, and PLM's stupendous transformative potential for renewing the enterprise along with the establishment of a collaborative enterprise with BPM and enterprise BPM methodology. The latter chapters deal with the realization of an informed enterprise with BI coupled with the novel concept of decision patterns. The author highlights the fact that any end-user application's effectiveness and performance can be enhanced by transforming it from a bare transaction to one clothed by a surrounding context formed from an aggregate of all relevant past decision patterns. The final chapter examines various aspects relating to a successful ES implementation project, and the appendix provides an overview of the SAP Business Suite to give you a practical context to the discussions presented in the book.

This book unravels the mystery of Big Data computing and its power to transform business operations. The approach it uses will be helpful to any professional who must present a case for realizing Big Data computing solutions or to those who could be involved in a Big Data computing project. It provides a framework that enables business and technical managers to make optimal decisions necessary for the successful migration to Big Data computing environments and applications within their organizations.

Guide to Cloud Computing for Business and Technology Managers: From Distributed Computing to Cloudware Applications unravels the mystery of cloud computing and explains how it can transform the operating contexts of business enterprises. It provides a clear understanding of what cloud computing really means, what it can do, and when it is practical to use. Addressing the primary management and operation concerns of cloudware, including performance, measurement, monitoring, and security, this pragmatic book: Introduces the enterprise applications integration (EAI) solutions that were a first step toward enabling an integrated enterprise Details service-oriented architecture (SOA) and related technologies that paved the road for cloudware applications Covers delivery models like IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS, and deployment models like public, private, and hybrid clouds Describes Amazon, Google, and Microsoft cloudware solutions and services, as well as those of several other players Demonstrates how cloud computing can reduce costs, achieve business flexibility, and sharpen strategic focus Unlike customary discussions of cloud computing, Guide to Cloud Computing for Business and Technology Managers: From Distributed Computing to Cloudware Applications emphasizes the key differentiator-that cloud computing is able to treat enterprise-level services not merely as discrete stand-alone services, but as Internet-locatable, composable, and repackageable building blocks for generating dynamic real-world enterprise business processes.

In today's competitive business environment, most companies realize that the better they can manage their customer relationships, the more successful they will become. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software systems are key tools for companies to manage the customer-facing processes of their businesses. However, many companies have resisted implementing this most critical customer-oriented application due in large part to the lack of a single-point resource on implementing a CRM system. This book attempts to fill that gap. Implementing SAP (R) CRM will help technologists and managers come to grips with the vision, concept, and technology of CRM. It begins by laying out the groundwork for understanding CRM. It explains the concept and context of CRM and the tangible business benefits of CRM adoption. Demonstrating a professional approach to the evaluation and selection of SAP, it details the critical success factors (CSFs), patterns, and anti-patterns of a successful SAP CRM implementation. CRM implementations can add significant benefit to the company's bottom line only if the company first transforms itself into a customer-centric and customer-responsive enterprise. This book explains what it means to be a customer-centric and responsive enterprise, and provides a framework for business operations based on customer relationships, rather than the traditional four Ps (product, positioning, price, promotion). It further spells out business process reengineering (BPR) strategies to configure internal business processes and operations with SAP CRM to improve customer-facing strategies, services, and relationships.

"Vivek Kale's Creating Smart Enterprises goes smack-dab at the heart of harnessing technology for competing in today's chaotic digital era. Actually, for him, it's SMACT-dab: SMACT (Social media, Mobile, Analytics and big data, Cloud computing, and internet of Things) technologies. This book is required reading for those that want to stay relevant and win, and optional for those that don't." -Peter Fingar, Author of Cognitive Computing and business technology consultant Creating Smart Enterprises unravels the mystery of social media, mobile, analytics and big data, cloud, and Internet of Things (SMACT) computing and explains how it can transform the operating context of business enterprises. It provides a clear understanding of what SMACT really means, what it can do for smart enterprises, and application areas where it is practical to use them. All IT professionals who are involved with any aspect of a SMACT computing project will profit by using this book as a roadmap to make a more meaningful contribution to the success of their computing initiatives. This pragmatic book: Introduces the VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity) business ecosystem confronted by the businesses today. Describes the challenges of defining business and IT strategies and of aligning them as well as their impact on enterprise governance. Provides a very wide treatment of the various components of SMACT computing, including the Internet of Things (IoT) and its constituting technologies like RFID, wireless networks, sensors, and wireless sensor networks (WSNs). This book addresses the key differentiator of SMACT computing environments and solutions that combine the power of an elastic infrastructure with analytics. The SMACT environment is cloud-based and inherently mobile. Information management processes can analyze and discern recurring patterns in colossal pools of operational and transactional data. Analytics, big data, and IoT computing leverage and transform these data patterns to help create successful, smart enterprises.

In today's competitive business environment, most companies realize that the better they can manage their customer relationships, the more successful they will become. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software systems are key tools for companies to manage the customer-facing processes of their businesses. However, many companies have resisted implementing this most critical customer-oriented application due in large part to the lack of a single-point resource on implementing a CRM system. This book attempts to fill that gap. Implementing SAP (R) CRM will help technologists and managers come to grips with the vision, concept, and technology of CRM. It begins by laying out the groundwork for understanding CRM. It explains the concept and context of CRM and the tangible business benefits of CRM adoption. Demonstrating a professional approach to the evaluation and selection of SAP, it details the critical success factors (CSFs), patterns, and anti-patterns of a successful SAP CRM implementation. CRM implementations can add significant benefit to the company's bottom line only if the company first transforms itself into a customer-centric and customer-responsive enterprise. This book explains what it means to be a customer-centric and responsive enterprise, and provides a framework for business operations based on customer relationships, rather than the traditional four Ps (product, positioning, price, promotion). It further spells out business process reengineering (BPR) strategies to configure internal business processes and operations with SAP CRM to improve customer-facing strategies, services, and relationships.

"Vivek Kale has written a great book on performance management that focuses on decision-making; on continuous, incremental improvement; and on identifying common patterns in becoming a more intelligent organization." -James Taylor, CEO of Decision Management Solutions and author of Real-World Decision Modeling with DMN "Introducing the concepts of decision patterns and performance intelligence, Vivek Kale has written another important book on the issues faced by contemporary organizations."-Gary Cokins, author of Predictive Business Analytics and Performance Management: Integrating Strategy Execution, Methodologies, Risk, and Analytics Enterprise Performance Intelligence and Decision Patterns unravels the mystery of enterprise performance intelligence (EPI) and explains how it can transform the operating context of business enterprises. It provides a clear understanding of what EPI means, what it can do, and application areas where it is practical to use. The need to be responsive to evolving customer needs and desires creates organizational structures where business intelligence (BI) and decision making is pushed out to operating units that are closest to the scene of the action. Closed-loop decision making resulting from a combination of on-going performance management with on-going BI can lead to an effective responsive enterprise; hence, the need for performance intelligence (PI). This pragmatic book: Introduces the technologies such as data warehousing, data mining, analytics, and business intelligence systems that are a first step toward enabling data-driven enterprises. Details decision patterns and performance decision patterns that pave the road for performance intelligence applications. Introduces the concepts, principles, and technologies related to performance measurement systems. Describes the concepts and principles related to balance scorecard systems (BCS). Introduces aspects of performance intelligence for the real-time enterprises. Enterprise Performance Intelligence and Decision Patterns shows how a company can design and implement instruments ranging from decision patterns to PI systems that can enable continuous correction of business unit behavior so companies can enhance levels of productivity and profitability.

Over time, overemphasis and adherence to the same "proven "routines that helped your organization achieve success can also lead to its decline resulting from organizational inertia, complacency, and inflexibility. Drawing lessons from one of the best models of success, the evolutionary model, Inverting the Paradox of Excellence explains why your organization must pro-actively seek out changes or variations on a continuous basis for ensuring excellence by testing out a continuum of opportunities and advantages. In other words, to maintain excellence, the company must be in a constant state of flux
The book introduces the patterns and anti-patterns of excellence and includes detailed case studies based on different dimensions of variations, including shared values variations, structure variations, and staff variations. It presents these case studies through the prism of the "variations" idea to help you visualize the difference of the "case history" approach presented here. The case studies illustrate the different dimensions of business variations available to help your organization in its quest towards achieving and sustaining excellence.
The book extends a set of variations inspired by the pioneering McKinsey 7S model, namely shared values, strategy, structure, stuff, style, staff, skills, systems, and sequence. It includes case history segments for Toyota, Acer, eBay, ABB, Cisco, Blackberry, Tata, Samsung, Volvo, Charles Schwab, McDonald's, Scania, Starbucks, Google, Disney, and NUMMI. It also includes detailed case histories of GE, IBM, and UPS.