Change factors requiring agility and implications for IT

The current highly dynamic business environment requires businesses to be agile. Business agility is the ability to swiftly and easily change businesses and business processes beyond the normal level of flexibility to effectively manage unpredictable external and internal changes. This study reports on a cross-industry analysis of change factors requiring agility and assesses agility gaps that companies are facing in four industry sectors in the Netherlands. A framework was constructed to measure the perceived gaps between the current level of business agility and the required level of business agility. The questionnaire and in-depth interviews held reveal that today's businesses perceive to lack the agility required to quickly respond to changes, whose speed and requirements are difficult to predict. The paper presents rankings of generic and sector-specific agility gaps. These show that although some generic change factors requiring agility exist, the change factors requiring agility that cause agility gaps differ across industry sectors. Among the factors that enable or hinder business agility, the existence of inflexible legacy systems is perceived to be a very important disabler in achieving more business agility. A number of basic principles and directions are discussed to transform Information Technology from barrier into key enabler for increased agility in organizations and business networks.     

The Intelligent New Business Electronic Application and Automated Underwriting Solution at The Western-Southern Life Insurance Company

For life insurance companies, the challenge of the new century is to maintain profitability and market share in a rapidly changing business environment, manifested by increased competition and changes to insurance products required by the market.

In order to meet these challenges, the Western-Southern Life Insurance Company (WSL) decided to automate their insurance policy application process and reengineer the underwriting process. Their main objectives were to reduce the cost of underwriting, reduce application cycle time and streamline the underwriting process. The result was a business intelligence application known as Intelligent New Business.     

Towards lean service bus architecture for industrial integration infrastructure and pull manufacturing strategies

The Lean Manufacturing approach requires advanced and efficient manufacturing technologies in order to meet customer demands. Manufacturing companies have increased their productivity and efficiency over time by implementing new strategies, business processes and IT solutions. Best practices also allow companies to achieve on-demand manufacturing through the integration of pull flow production strategy. In order to achieve agility to meet business needs, a key for success is a flexible integration of different information system components to enable the flow of exchanged data and information. To insure the agility of an enterprise’s organization, ISA S-95 standard can be used to determine which information has to be exchanged between system components. We propose an Industrial System Integration Architecture, a Lean Enterprise Service Bus which relies on Lean Manufacturing constraints based on semantic aspects with respect to the ISA S-95 standard. This architecture aims at enhancing the interoperability between the production system and the global enterprise information system in terms of business and manufacturing requirements and establishes semantic interoperability to achieve an industrial semantic.     

The Orientation of Business Process Management toward the Creation of Knowledge in Enterprises

The main condition for the survival and development of contemporary enterprises is a focus on changes in the business environment. Business Process Management is a concept that enables efficient adaptation to changing business environment conditions. Currently, companies tend to focus on the process approach, using the knowledge that is available within the company. This paper presents research results related to knowledge management in Poland and to both Polish and worldwide practices of Business Process Management. This presentation is followed with a discussion that provides inspiration for in‐depth empirical research in this field. Currently, there is an urgent need for research that addresses the challenging issues related to the integration of available knowledge management technologies, concepts, and methods into organizational business processes.     

Using multi-agent simulation and learning to design new businessprocesses

Business process modeling, analysis, and then redesign are the central task in the efforts of re-engineering business processes. Frequently reviewing and promptly changing business processes to adapt to new business environment is the key to maintain agility under the competitive global market. It is imperative to enhance the adaptability of business processes. This paper proposes a multi-agent information system based on Swarm, a multi-agent simulation platform, to simulate business processes and incorporate reinforcement learning to obtain better process adaptability. The resulting system, called BPSLS, is elaborated and evaluated by the order fulfilment process in supply chain networks     

Cloud manufacturing ecosystem analysis and design

The manufacturing industry is facing the impact of a dynamic market and intensive competition. Many companies are looking for a new approach to improve their business activities in a collaborative business ecosystem with other stakeholders. Cloud computing enables the sharing of manufacturing resources and capabilities between different stakeholders to support business and physical production. The purpose of this research is to explore approaches moving towards a cloud manufacturing ecosystem and present possible implications for practice. To fulfil the research objectives, a multiple-case study was conducted within sheet metal manufacturing companies. Business and technology related requirements for cloud-based collaborative manufacturing portals were collected through interviews with industrial practitioners from the sheet metal manufacturing perspective. Based on analysis a prototype model of a CloudEcosystem was presented to demonstrate the essential features of the portals. This research found that there are three different portal types for cloud manufacturing ecosystems depending on the value chain configuration. Close to real-time information provided by cloud-based platforms can create manufacturing ecosystems where machine owners, product designers and customers may collaborate and compete simultaneously. The CloudEcosystem designed in this research can provide a practical tool and technical solution to help manufacturers think about moving towards cloud manufacturing ecosystems.     

Organizing IT to promote agility

Agility at the individual business unit and organizational levels presents a challenge for many information system (IS) departments. Business unit agility demands the ability to sense and respond to changes in local competitive environments, whereas organizational agility demands the ability to sense broader market opportunities and respond with changes that are organization-wide. The former requires experimentation and customization of system designs, while the latter demands uniformity and standardization. Although flexible and customizable software might assist organizations in adapting systems to meet these challenges simultaneously, coordination across multiple business units also demands effective organization and governance of system design and development. This paper presents a longitudinal case study of an insurance company that was effective at sensing and responding to changes in the environment at the business unit level, but less effective at sensing and responding at the organizational level. Using the platform logic as a theoretical lens, we analyze this case and offer insights into how multi-unit organizations can manage system design at the organizational and business unit levels, thereby supporting agility through the development of effective organizing and governance mechanisms. Our analysis outlines relational and integration mechanisms and explains how these arrangements helped the organization to attain greater enterprise agility and support its overall strategy.

The critical factors of success for information service industry in developing international market: Using analytic hierarchy process (AHP) approach

In the past few years, due to changes in industry structure, market and the saturation of the domestic market, information service firms have started to develop the international market. Hence, to continue running their operations and maintain profitability, they should effectively control the related factors in the development of targeting a market. The purpose of this paper is to find the critical operational factors of the information service industry in developing the market and to provide a referential framework for operations in the information service industry. This research is firstly base on the business model discussed in relevant literature, using cross-case study to observe different domains for the operational strategies and critical factors of those top information service companies combined with thorough interviews with their top management executives, experts, and consultants. Finally, we concludes by proposing six elements of business model and 20 critical factors for using AHP method, and also calculates the quantitative weight of those elements and factors. We also take typical commercial software companies for examples to analyze their strategies of entering the international market.     

Developing a unified framework of the business model concept

Recent rapid advances in Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) have highlighted the rising importance of the Business Model (BM) concept in the field of Information Systems (IS). Despite agreement on its importance to an organization's success, the concept is still fuzzy and vague, and there is little consensus regarding its compositional facets. Identifying the fundamental concepts, modeling principles, practical functions, and reach of the BM relevant to IS and other business concepts is by no means complete. This paper, following a comprehensive review of the literature, principally employs the content analysis method and utilizes a deductive reasoning approach to provide a hierarchical taxonomy of the BM concepts from which to develop a more comprehensive framework. This framework comprises four fundamental aspects. First, it identifies four primary BM dimensions along with their constituent elements forming a complete ontological structure of the concept. Second, it cohesively organizes the BM modeling principles, that is, guidelines and features. Third, it explains the reach of the concept showing its interactions and intersections with strategy, business processes, and IS so as to place the BM within the world of digital business. Finally, the framework explores three major functions of BMs within digital organizations to shed light on the practical significance of the concept. Hence, this paper links the BM facets in a novel manner offering an intact definition. In doing so, this paper provides a unified conceptual framework for the BM concept that we argue is comprehensive and appropriate to the complex nature of businesses today. This leads to fruitful implications for theory and practice and also enables us to suggest a research agenda using our conceptual framework.     

The relationship between work organization and workforce agility in small manufacturing enterprises

Organizational agility requires development of an adaptable workforce that is able to deal with unexpected and dynamic changes in the business environment. However, little research has been done on the attributes and characteristics of workforce agility. Even less is known about what organization characteristics are conducive to the agile performance of employees. The main goal of this study was to explore the effect of agile strategies on work organization and employees' performance. A total of 41 managers, 82 office workers, and 52 production workers from six small manufacturing companies participated in the study. Three questionnaires, including Agility Strategy Scale, Work Organization Scale, and Workforce Agility Scale, were used for the purpose of data collection. The results support a hypothesized relationship between management strategies focused on agility development, work characteristics, and workforce agility. The results also reveal that autonomy at work is one of the most important predictors of workforce agility. A combination of job demands and job uncertainty had a significant effect on workforce agility. The study also suggests that developing strong cooperative relationships within an organization and with customers and suppliers promotes workforce agility in small manufacturing enterprises.     

Self-Service Business Intelligence Resulting in Disruptive Technology

Self-Service Business Intelligence (BI) requires a much greater consideration of the knowledge workers or reporting and analytics users' point of view than in traditional reporting. In order to meet the reporting and analytics users' needs, much greater interaction with the BI users was required because the awareness that those doing the development frequently did not share the reporting and analytics users' perspective or even understand it. The purpose of this Self-Service Business Intelligence effort was to provide customers with a window into available business data, so they can easily manipulate their data to answer business questions. This effort explores some of the disruptive technology available to empower a significantly more information-capable customer. In providing Self-Service Business Intelligence, a significant amount of cost savings can be achieved through better communication between business and information technology (IT) individuals, reducing the required development staff in IT, and increasing agility of the enterprise by using the agreed upon Semantic definition of terms and making the business data more accessible.     

Building an E-Business from Enterprise Systems

Building their companies into successful e-businesses has become an important objective for today's enterprises. Conceptually, it embodies the enabling of the business with such capabilities as global networking, streamlining business processes, sharing information, agility in responding to the market, and intelligent decision making. But how can these concepts be implemented in actual enterprises? Why do these desirable attributes of business systems suddenly become the definition of competency of companies large and small? This paper describes the framework for building an e-business from the enterprise information systems' perspective. Increasingly enterprise systems have extended beyond the traditional business functions and include such new features as supply-chain management, customer relationship management and electronic commerce. The shifting focus is driven by the adoption of the Web as a new channel for product distribution, marketing, and interacting with customers. The integration of the traditional as well as the Web-oriented functions is the cornerstone for a successful e-business. This paper presents a framework for e-businesses that on one hand build on the enterprise systems but on the other hand encompasses the new e-business dimensions.     

Scaling for agility: A reference model for hybrid traditional-agile software development methodologies

The adoption of agility at a large scale often requires the integration of agile and non-agile development elements for architecting a hybrid adaptive methodology. The challenge is ”which elements or components (agile or non-agile) are relevant to develop the context-aware hybrid adaptive methodology reference architecture?” This paper addresses this important challenge and develops a hybrid adaptive methodology reference architecture model using a qualitative constructive empirical research approach. In this way, we have uncovered the agility, abstraction, business value, business policy, rules, legal, context and facility elements or components that have not been explicitly modelled or discussed in International Standards (IS) such as the ISO/IEC 24744 metamodel. It is anticipated that a context-aware hybrid adaptive methodology can be architected by using the proposed context-aware hybrid adaptive methodology reference architecture elements for a particular situation when using a situational method engineering approach.     

An evaluation of simulation to support contract costing

As global markets have become more customer oriented, rapid response rates are now often among the most important metrics in business. To achieve the required agility many companies have turned to outsourcing in order to focus on developing their core activities. By its nature, outsourcing increases the complexity of supply chain networks as more companies are drawn into global logistics networks. The relationships between each of these companies are controlled by contractual agreements. The fast pace of modern industry means that these contracts are entered into relatively quickly often without a full understanding of the true cost implications. This paper presents research conducted as part of a project with the aim of developing contract costing software for outsourcing enterprises. Findings are presented from a study conducted on a number of companies in the electronics sector. A simulation-based study focused on one of these companies, with some associated experimentation, is also presented.     

Digital technology-enabled dynamic capabilities and their impacts on firm performance: Evidence from the COVID-19 pandemic

To understand whether companies can lock in the benefits of digital technology (DT) usage during the COVID-19 pandemic, we draw on a dynamic capability view to examine how digitalization capabilities generate impacts on firm performance. Through the analysis of 165 Chinese manufacturing companies, we find that market capitalizing agility and operational adjustment agility fully mediate the relationship between digitalization capabilities and firm performance. More interestingly, of the effect size of different mediation paths, market capitalizing agility has the strongest effect. We contribute to the existing information systems literature by revealing the possible mediational mechanisms that can solve the digital dilemma.     

Concurrent EDP Auditing an Implementation Approach

Abstract

Success in today's fast-paced global economy requires precision, agility, and speed. Organizations must quickly respond to changing market demands and make timely decisions that impact the success or failure of their business. Through the use of available and proven technologies to increase the velocity of collaborative decision making to match the speed of doing business, the demand for information is driving the need for real-time communications in today's organizations. Instant access to information across internal collaborative groups, important customers, and external trading partners creates business efficiencies and sets the real-time organization above the rest. However, rapid and often unmanaged real-time communications, such as instant messaging (IM) and Voice-over-IP (VoIP), pose grave information and network security risks. Industry analysts Radicati, IDC, and Gartner have all estimated that more than 200 million people, across organizations of all sizes, engage in IM for business and non-business use while at work. Although some companies have policies defining authorized and unauthorized use of IM, most organizations lack the most basic security and management controls. This article explores the underpinnings of the security threats posed by the growing use of unmanaged IM in the enterprise. It also examines the components of a holistic strategy for protecting enterprises against the emerging IM security threat.     

Analysis on the evolution of shipping logistics service supply chain market structure under the application of blockchain technology

With the digital transformation of the shipping industry, the business potential of shipping companies is gradually expanding. In recent years, shipping companies have begun operating freight forwarding businesses powered by the advantages of cost and network. As a result, their business expansion and gradually occupying the market share of agency services. At the same time, the development requirements of digitization are further highlighted, while the problems of opaque information and inaccurate data in the operation of the shipping logistics service supply chain have become more prominent. Thus, the shipping industry has begun to apply Blockchain Technology (BCT) to the shipping logistics. However, the promotion of BCT, an emerging technology in the shipping logistics service market, is not systematic. The members of the supply chain do not have a deep understanding of it, which have led to changes in market demand. We take the shipping logistics service supply chain composed of shipping companies and freight forwarders as the research object in order to investigate the vertical competition between shipping companies and freight forwarders as well as the impact of BCT application on market structure changes. From the perspectives of freight rate competition and the promotion of BCT, the Stackelberg game theory is applied to create a mathematical model that can be used to discuss the evolution of the shipping logistics service market. The results indicate that, the impact of freight rate competition on market evolution is reduced after the application of BCT. Shipping companies should actively promote BCT to reduce the impact of freight competition on the market. Furthermore, freight forwarders can actively participate in the initial stage of application to increase market demand, and the cost of promoting BCT should be reduced in the later stage.     

Enterprise agility and the enabling role of information technology

In turbulent environments, enterprise agility, that is, the ability of firms to sense environmental change and respond readily, is an important determinant of firm success. We define and deconstruct enterprise agility, delineate enterprise agility from similar concepts in the business research literature, explore the underlying capabilities that support enterprise agility, explicate the enabling role of information technology (IT) and digital options, and propose a method for measuring enterprise agility. The concepts in this paper are offered as foundational building blocks for the overall research program on enterprise agility and the enabling role of IT.     

可复用构件的表示和业务构件规则库的研究

构件库作为分类和管理构件资产的基础设施就变得越来越重要,实践中构件数量不断增长、构件也随技术和领域演化而更新,要在众多的构件中爬疏寻找合适的构件就必须建立起有效的构件表示机制和切实可行的构件库管理系统。业务构件是业务对象和构件的融合,是业务对象软件实现所形成的自治的业务概念和可复用的软件单元。业务构件的有序集合,就构成实际的业务活动。本文提出一种基于框架的构件表示方法,并提出基于利用业务构件重组的方式来适应其过程的变化,从而实现业务过程的重组方法。