Case Study: Improving Customer Service Through New Technology

Although considerable risks do exist, adopting a new technology can improve the organization's business and lead to an increase in customer satisfaction. This case study describes how one company—Information Handling Services (IHS)—went through the process of evaluating, researching, and eventually adopting electronic beam recorder and optical disk technologies. The resulting system has enabled IHS to offer significant cost savings to its customers and to expand its product line in hopes of further improving its competitive position in the market.     

Improving A Solution's Quality Through Parallel Processing

The primary purpose of parallel computation is the fast execution of computational tasks that are too slow to perform sequentially. However, it was shown recently that a second equally important motivation for using parallel computers exists: Within the paradigm of real-time computation, some classes of problems have the property that a solution to a problem in the class computed in parallel is better than the one obtained on a sequential computer. What represents a better solution depends on the problem under consideration. Thus, for optimization problems, better means closer to optimal. Similarly, for numerical problems, a solution is better than another one if it is more accurate. The present paper continues this line of inquiry by exploring another class enjoying the aforementioned property, namely, cryptographic problems in a real-time setting. In this class, better means more secure. A real-time cryptographic problem is presented for which the parallel solution is provably, considerably, and consistently better than a sequential one.It is important to note that the purpose of this paper is not to demonstrate merely that a parallel computer can obtain a better solution to a computational problem than one derived sequentially. The latter is an interesting (and often surprising) observation in its own right, but we wish to go further. It is shown here that the improvement in quality can be arbitrarily high (and certainly superlinear in the number of processors used by the parallel computer). This result is akin to superlinear speedup—a phenomenon itself originally thought to be impossible.     

软件过程改进中项目计划与跟踪的实例研究

项目的计划与跟踪是软件过程管理与改进活动中应该首先着手的方面。成熟的软件开发组织能够通过有效的软件项目计划与跟踪实现对项目的策划与监控。文章立足小组软件过程,以实际项目为背景,着重介绍了以项目计划和跟踪为主的软件过程改进实施活动。在此基础上,分析了相关项目的计划与跟踪数据,研究总结了实施中遇到的问题和经验,并提出了进一步完善的措施及相关支持工具的研制。     

Integrating Core it Processes: A Case Study

Because of their growing importance, IT organizations are reexamining how they manage their core processes. Most often, these processes are disconnected, isolated, and barely controlled. the IT organization studied in this article used a holistic approach to evaluate, design, and implement a framework that integrates core IT processes. This integration helped the IT department to gain control of its key activities.     

Information technology Alignment Planning—a case study

This paper describes the Information Technology Alignment Planning Process—a strategic IT planning process created to complement the corporate planning model used by a major Utility company in the Midwest. Corporate planning activities produced the divisional strategies, critical success factors, and goals that then were used to by the IT Alignment Planning process to align IT within the company.The process is intended to aid in making the best possible use of IT resources in meeting the corporation’s business objectives. Fifty-eight managers from five major business units participated in the study. Several important factors and their resulting benefits were identified. The model utilized an intuitive color-coded alternative to statistical output that was readily accepted by management. We found that the process helped align IT with business strategies and improved and facilitated communication on IT project management and development.     

Information Technology Alignment Planning—a case study

This paper describes the Information Technology (IT) Alignment Planning process—a strategic IT planning process created to complement the corporate planning model used by a major utility company in the Midwest. Corporate planning activities produced the divisional strategies, critical success factors (CSFs), and goals that then were used to by the IT Alignment Planning process to align IT within the company.The process is intended to aid in making the best possible use of IT resources in meeting the corporation's business objectives. Fifty-eight managers from five major business units participated in the study. Several important factors and their resulting benefits were identified. The model utilized an intuitive color-coded alternative to statistical output that was readily accepted by management. We found that the process helped align IT with business strategies and improved and facilitated communication on IT project management and development.     

Improving Data Quality in Practice: A Case Study in the Italian Public Administration

Assessing and improving the quality of data stored in information systems are both important and difficult tasks. For an increasing number of companies that rely on information as one of their most important assets, enforcing high data quality levels represents a strategic investment aimed at preserving the value of those assets. For a public administration or a government, good data quality translates into good service and good relationships with the citizens. Achieving high quality standards, however, is a major task because of the variety of ways that errors might be introduced in a system, and the difficulty of correcting them in a systematic way. Problems with data quality tend to fall into two categories. The first category is related to inconsistency among systems such as format, syntax and semantic inconsistencies. The second category is related to inconsistency with reality as it is exemplified by missing, obsolete and incorrect data values and outliers.In this paper, we describe a real-life case study on assessing and improving the quality of the data in the Italian Public Administration. The domain of study is set on taxpayer's data maintained by the Italian Ministry of Finances. In this context, we provide the Administration with a quantitative reckoning of such specific problems as record duplication and address mismatch and obsolescence, we suggest a set of guidelines for setting precise quality improvement goals, and we illustrate analysis techniques for achieving those goals. Our guidelines emphasize the importance of data flow analysis and of the definition of measurable quality indicators. The quality indicators that we propose are generic and can be used to describe a variety of data quality problems, thus representing a possible reference framework for practitioners. Finally, we investigate ways to partially automate the analysis of the causes for poor data quality.     

Transforming an Organization Through Prototyping: A Case Study

An organizational prototype is a forum to address simultaneously process, behavioral, and cultural change pursuant to business process redesign (BPR). in this case study, IS personnel facilitated organizational prototypes, thereby extending their knowledge of business systems to a new sphere, facilitating business process redesign. Success of the prototypes led to success in obtaining corporate funding for new client/server systems to support the changes in business operations.     

Improving the Quality of Web-based Enterprise Applications with Extended Static Checking: A Case Study

ESC/Java2 is a tool that statically detects errors in Java programs and that uses the Java Modeling Language (JML) as its annotation language. ESC/Java2 can modularly reason about the code of a Java Web-based Enterprise Application (WEA) and uncover potential errors. In this paper, we assessed the effectiveness of ESC/Java2 at helping developers increase WEA quality by detecting design and implementation issues.     

Improving Information System Efficiency Through Statistical Process Control

Statistical process control has been used in contemporary organizations to improve production and, more recently, administrative and service processes. This article focuses on the concepts behind statistical process control and its problem-solving techniques and illustrates how the MIS department can use these tools to improve a computer decision support system.     

Building an Information Culture: A Case Study

A company's strategic plan, its attitude toward the use and integration of information and technology, and its financial position are key factors in determining the information-related directions it takes. This article describes the development of one companys information culture.     

Building an Information Culture: A Case Study

A company's strategic plan, its attitude toward the use and integration of information and technology, and its financial position are key factors in determining the information-related directions it takes. This article describes the development of one companys information culture.     

利用网络提高C语言实验教学质量

传统的一问一答实验教学模式不能适应现代高等教育的需要。文中介绍了充分利用网络和相关软件。以互动方式向学生传授科学的调试程序方法，以实验报告电子文档的规范化及资源共享，实现了教学相长。实践证明取得了良好的教学效果。     

利用网络提高C语言实验教学质量

传统的一问一答实验教学模式不能适应现代高等教育的需要。文中介绍了充分利用网络和相关软件,以互动方式向学生传授科学的调试程序方法,以实验报告电子文档的规范化及资源共享,实现了教学相长。实践证明取得了良好的教学效果。     

Aligning Strategies, Processes, and it: A Case Study

Hewlett-Packard Co. developed a framework for aligning business and IT strategy. It has allowed the company to make process changes regardless of the limitations of existing technology and it makes visible the changes new technologies and processes have on each other. Most important, the framework enjoys a high level of commitment from people throughout the organization.     

Case Study: Managing IS Through Turbulent Times

Usually, when an organization faces a crisis situation, the IS department suffers cutbacks in staff and systems development projects without any consideration for the adverse effects these actions might have on the departments ability to contribute to the organization's bottom line. This case study examines how one company – Bethlehem Steel Corp-facing its own business decline carefully restructured its IS department to operate more efficiently on its own and become a stronger, more profitable contributor so that it could help Bethlehem Steel successfully compete in the global steel market.     

Case Study: Managing IS Through Turbulent Times

Usually, when an organization faces a crisis situation, the IS department suffers cutbacks in staff and systems development projects without any consideration for the adverse effects these actions might have on the departments ability to contribute to the organization's bottom line. This case study examines how one company - Bethlehem Steel Corp-facing its own business decline carefully restructured its IS department to operate more efficiently on its own and become a stronger, more profitable contributor so that it could help Bethlehem Steel successfully compete in the global steel market.     

Information Integration in Multidimensional Databases: A Case Study

Recognizing the different information requirements for operational and strategic supports, many organizations are facing the problem of managing the two types of information as a unified resource. This article formalizes an analytical framework for managing these two types of information and discusses its implementation and use at a health services organization.     

Mind the Gap: Assessing Alignment between Hospital Quality and its Information Systems

ABSTRACT

We present a method to assess how aligned hospital information systems (HIS) are with quality standards adopted by the organization. Canonical action research is our mode of inquiry, in a district hospital implementing multiple certification standards. We build on the “ground-truth” provided by healthcare professionals to identify risks and opportunities for HIS developments while contributing to their awareness of its implications. We address different categories of design-reality gaps, namely the organizational, service, process, and individual. The findings suggest that HIS compliance should address five interrelated dimensions of context, people, processes, IT, and information/data. The proposed method allows self-evaluation through gap analysis and a comprehensive assessment of hospital quality, integrating HIS and healthcare processes. Moreover, it supports multiple quality models in hospitals and the development of heterogeneous HIS solutions in different maturity stages. HIS developments should be a priority for hospital quality worldwide; especially in the emerging economies that require methods accessible to their resources, standards compliance, and demographic demands for healthcare.     

实例研究：一个信息系统的SLA评价*

提出了一种SLA的详细设计,以中科院计算所信息系统为研究实例,并得以实现。SLA（Service Level Agreement）是一种新的性能评价方法。为体现计算所信息系统的优越性,对新性能指标的定义进行了讨论。最后,通过与传统的评价方法的比较,得出SLA评价的一些优点。