Challenges of IT implementation for supporting collaboration in distributed organizations

The study focuses on the implementation of information technology (IT) for supporting collaboration in distributed organizations, i.e. organizations consisting of two or more semi-autonomous units in different geographical locations. Six case studies of IT implementation projects have been conducted, focusing on the challenges in the implementation process as seen from the perspective of the implementation team. Being of an exploratory nature, the study has identified a large number of issues that have influenced the different stages in the implementation process. The implementation context studied is found to imply several additional challenges for the implementation team, compared to ‘traditional’ intra-organizational IT implementation. This is a result of greater autonomy among the participating units, heterogeneous technological platforms and logistical barriers in the implementation activities. Resistance from the organizational units, technological incompatibility and lack of incentives for adopting new work practices, are identified as major barriers in the implementation. In general, the implementation is found to require a process of maturation, where implementers and adopters gradually develop an understanding of how the technology can support the organizational needs.     

Dialectical hermeneutics: a theoretical framework for the implementation of information systems

Abstract. Despite the proliferation of information technology, the implementation of information systems remains problematic. Many systems fail to live up to expectations and some end up as disasters. Research on implementation has been conducted for the past two decades, but no theoretical framework for IS implementation has been widely accepted. This paper proposes dialectical hermeneutics as a theoretical framework for IS implementation research. Dialectical hermeneutics, as an integrative theoretical framework, combines both interpretive and critical elements, and addresses those social and organizational issues which are critical to the successful implementation of information systems. The case study research method was used to examine the implementation of systems in three organizations.     

The use of ICT in primary schools within emerging communities of implementation

To illustrate the conditions under which successful innovation adoption takes place, this paper focuses on the implementation of information and communication technologies (ICT) through emerging communities in schools. Two types of such communities are described in terms of the degree of participation in the implementation: school-wide communities and enclaves. The article describes implementation practices in four primary schools with reported high ICT use, selected as case-studies. Four criteria, reflecting the domain, personnel relationships, policy and implementation goals and strategies, as well as staff consistency, are employed to outline the existence and types of communities of implementation within these schools. Findings indicate that, although both school-wide communities and enclaves are present in successful schools, enclaves – compared to school-wide communities – are related to lower levels of implementation. Based on these findings the authors discuss policy directions towards the development of school-wide communities as a purposeful implementation strategy to help transition ICT institutionalization from the initiation to the habitualization stage.     

Implementing enterprise resource planning systems: organizational performance and the duration of the implementation

This paper examines the impact of the duration of ERP implementation on firm performance both during and after implementation. Organizations choose either an accelerated implementation approach or a traditional (longer) implementation approach. The former approach gives the organization the advantage of speed, but the disadvantage of fitting its processes to that of a packaged (thus, undifferentiated from competitors) ERP. The latter approach allows the organization to redesign strategy and processes, and thus, search for ways to be unique from its competition. The study uses a regression model to capture the changes in various performance measures during and after implementation between firms that implemented the ERP, using the performance measure of a matched group of firms that did not implement an ERP as a benchmark/control sample, on the basis of the duration of the implementation. Financial data from Compustat, and data on start date and end date of ERP implementation between 1990 and 2005 for firms in the Oil and Gas industry was collected from an ERP vendor. Results show that measures such as return on sales improved after implementation. However, measures such as inventory turnover, which reflect operational benefits, improve during implementation. We find that accelerated implementation confers both operational and strategic benefits. This study highlights the strategic consequences of the different choices of implementation.     

在构件的多个实现间动态选择的算法*

为了提高构件在处理多种类型请求时的效率,构件可以有多个不同的内部实现,每一个实现都是为一种特定类型的请求而优化的。提出了一种在构件的多个实现间动态选择的算法,算法尽可能地为每一种类型的请求挑选最优的实现,同时又尽量避免在不同的实现之间进行切换,从而使构件在处理一个请求序列时所花费的总开销尽可能少。     

Active ERP implementation management: A Real Options perspective

Although enterprise resources planning (ERP) implementation has been one of the most significant challenges of the last decade, it comes with a surprisingly high failure rate due to its high risk nature. The risks of ERP implementation, which involve both technical and social uncertainties, must to be effectively managed. Traditional ERP practices address the implementation of ERP as a static process. Such practices focus on structure, not on ERP as something that will meet the needs of a changing organization. As a result, many relevant uncertainties that cannot be predefined are not accommodated, and cause the implementation fail in the form of project delay and cost overruns. The objective of this paper is to propose an active ERP implementation management perspective to manage ERP risks based on the Real Options (RO) theory, which addresses uncertainties over time, resolves uncertainties in changing environments that cannot be predefined. By actively managing ERP implementation, managers can improve their flexibility, take appropriate action to respond to the often-changing ERP environment, and achieve a more successful ERP implementation.     

An implementation of F-channels

An F-channel can permit as much concurrency as a non-first-in-first-out (FIFO) communication channel and yet retain the properties of a FIFO channel that lead to simplicity of reasoning in design and proofs of the correctness of distributed algorithms. The author presents an implementation of an F-channel on top of a non-FIFO channel that derives its non-FIFO nature from a message taking any of the alternate paths from the source to the destination in the underlying network in which each channel is either an F-channel implemented using some other implementation or recursively using the implementation presented or a FIFO channel. The correctness of the implementation is proven     

The Implementation of Best Practices: Process and Performance Effects

Much has been written about best practices and world class manufacturing in recent years. Various practices and improvement programmes have been suggested as best practices, assuming that their adoption would to lead to higher performance. The implementation process of these practices is, however, often neglected in the literature and, hence, relatively poorly understood. The purpose of this article is to provide insight into that process and how different implementation approaches influence performance. An analysis of the implementation of a range of manufacturing action programmes in two companies showed that a broad and incremental implementation approach initially leads to reduced performance followed by a gradual improvement as larger parts of the programmes are institutionalized. A ‘big bang’ implementation approach does not seem to lead to deterioration in performance.     

Towards a complete framework for parallel implementation of logic languages: the data parallel implementation of SEL

Although logic languages, due to their non-declarative nature, are widely proclaimed to be conducive in theory to parallel implementation, in fact there appears to be insufficient practical evidence to stimulate further developments in this field. The paper puts forward various complications which arise in assuming a solely process parallel approach as a possible explanation for this situation. As an alternative, data parallelism is posited as an underutilized forte of logic programming. The paper illustrates a data parallel implementation of a particular language called SEL which is based on sets. Thus, SEL (set equational language) is introduced as an example of logic language which lends itself to an efficient data parallel implementation. The strategy of this implementation assumes an abstract machine called SAM (set-oriented abstract machine) which is based on the WAM (Warren abstract machine). SAM serves as an intermediary between the SEL language and the target machine for the implementation, the Connection Machine. Finally, some preliminary benchmarks are presented.     

神经网络计算机的一种分形实现

神经网络计算机的实现是神经网络研究领域中一个重要课题。目前,神经网络的研究已形成了较为系统的理论模型与算法,但神经网络计算机的研究却至今没有重大突破,主要困难就在于网络规模过大,突触联系密度太高等等,为解决这个问题,文中基于分形理论,提出一种神经网络计算机的分形实现方案,给出了分形维数的计算公式,产从物理上实现了与体结构具有自相似性的分形子结构,在神经网络计算机的实现上作了有益的探索。     

GPU 上的矩阵乘法的设计与实现

矩阵乘法是科学计算中最基本的操作,高效实现矩阵乘法可以加速许多应用。本文使用NVIDIA的CUDA在GPU上实现了一个高效的矩阵乘法。测试结果表明,在Geforce GTX260上,本文提出的矩阵乘法的速度是理论峰值的97％,跟CUBLAS库中的矩阵乘法相当。     

一种道路识别算法的硬件设计与实现

车辆视觉导航算法的硬件实现具有实际意义,是目前的研究热点之一;为克服传统算法硬件设计实现比较复杂、调试困难、对设计人员要求较高等缺点,对基于高级语言的复杂算法硬件设计实现方法进行了研究;分析了基于Handel-C语言的道路识别算法FPGA硬件设计与实现过程,并进行了实验验证;实验结果表明,和目前采用的VHDL语言等设计方法相比,该方法具有设计灵活、开发周期短、资源利用合理等优点,同时易于软硬件协同设计.     

ERP实施的对策研究

主要从我国实施 ERP的现状着手 ,分析了企业应用 ERP不成功的原因即软件问题和实施问题 ,并着重分析了不成功的主要原因——实施问题 ,根据实施中出现的不同问题给出了不同的解决方法 ,以提高我国企业实施 ERP的成功率     

The complexities of electronic services implementation and institutionalisation in the public sector

Electronic service implementation (ESI) in the public sector attempts to improve efficiency, effectiveness, and transparency of governmental departments. Despite having provided the necessary infrastructure and investment, many governments have struggled to realise such aims due to the various forces that challenge implementation and institutionalisation. Using institutional theory as a lens, we explored the forces influencing the implementation and institutionalisation of ESI in the public sector. While our results reinforced previous research in IT implementation and organisational transformation, they showed that the dynamic nature of technology poses unanticipated pressures, and that these can impede the implementation and institutionalisation process.     

User engagement in e-government systems implementation: A comparative case study of two Singaporean e-government initiatives

Noting that user engagement is a key issue in e-government systems implementation and that the actual form and strategies of user engagement, especially within the context of e-government, is poorly defined, this paper intends to contribute to the research and practice of e-government systems implementation by conducting a comparative case study of two e-government systems implementation within a single government agency in Singapore. The comparative analysis of these two e-government systems implementation was accomplished through using stakeholder theory as a sense-making theoretical lens. This generated four findings pertaining to the form and strategies of user engagement in e-government systems implementation.     

进度管理在软件项目中的应用实践

阐述了在项目实施当中所采用的进度管理的策略、技术与方法,说明了如何制定符合项目及环境特点的进度管理策略,描述了工作量与工期估算以及进度计划编制与控制等的具体方法,并对如何在项目中保证进度管理的策略的实现进行了分析,给出了具体措施,最后列出了项目实施当中进度管理的特点.     

Generic operations and capabilities in the JR concurrent programming language

The JR concurrent programming language extends Java with additional concurrency mechanisms, which are built upon JR's operations and capabilities. JR operations generalize methods in how they can be invoked and serviced. JR capabilities act as reference to operations. Recent changes to the Java language and implementation, especially generics, necessitated corresponding changes to the JR language and implementation. This paper describes the new JR language features (known as JR2) of generic operations and generic capabilities. These new features posed some interesting implementation challenges. The paper describes our initial implementation (JR21) of generic operations and capabilities, which works in many, but not all, cases. It then describes the approach our improved implementation (JR24) uses to fully implement generic operations and capabilities. The paper also describes the benchmarks used to assess the compilation and execution time performances of JR21 and JR24. The JR24 implementation reduces compilation times, mainly due to reducing the number of files generated during JR program translation, without noticeably impacting execution times.     

Including scalars in a programming language based on the relationalalgebra

Scalars, arrays, and records, together with associated operations and syntax, have been introduced as special cases of relations into the relational programming system, relix. This permits all of these data types, as well as relations, to be stored persistently. The requirement in most languages that array elements and record fields can be assigned to leads in this case to the general implementation of QT-selectors as l-expressions, with, in particular, systematic interpretations of assignment to projections and selections of relations. The authors discuss the principles and the implementation of this extension to the relational algebra. They take advantage of the very specialized syntax of array access to build a tuned access method, using B-trees and Z-order. The performance results show the advantage of this implementation over the slower implementation required for general QT-selectors     

信息化项目实施中的问题反馈及处理机制分析

针对煤炭企业信息化项目的特殊性,以某煤炭企业信息化项目为例,分析了项目在实施过程中存在的问题,并提出了客观、合理的对策,建立了问题反馈及处理机制,实现了对项目实施过程的动态管理,对于实施信息化系统具有一定的借鉴作用。