The optimal level of CRM IT investments

In light of the growing relevance of customer-oriented business strategies IT investments in the field of Customer Relationship Management have increased considerably. However, firms often could not realize sufficient returns on these IT investments. One major reason for this failure seems to be the lack of appropriate approaches to determine the economic impact of such investments ex ante. Therefore, we develop an economic model to determine the optimal level of Customer Relationship Management IT investments. Using this approach, firms can evaluate, to what extent investments in Customer Relationship Management IT are reasonable. One major result is that in most cases the “all or nothing strategy” pursued by many firms does not lead to the optimal level of investments. To illustrate the practical utility and applicability of the approach, we provide a real world example of a German financial services provider.     

A process-focused decision framework for analyzing the business value potential of IT investments

A key consideration during investment decision making is the overall business value potential of an information technology (IT) solution. The complexity of the contemporary IT landscape is increasing. As information systems and technologies become more advanced and interconnected, they often impact multiple business processes in the organization. This in turn increases the complexity of IT investment decisions. This paper describes a decision framework for considering investments in information technologies that impact multiple business processes in the organization. The decision framework is illustrated via a case study of a small business that invested in mobile and wireless computing. The microcosm of the small business serves to illustrate some aspects of the business value derived from information technology investments that are often challenging to isolate in more complex organizational environments. The decision framework can support managers to analyze the overall business value returns arising from the ‘ripple effect’ of an IT investment on core and ancillary business processes. In the decision framework, the business value ripple effect is analyzed via a vertical dimension that emanates from core business processes to ancillary processes, and a horizontal dimension that extends over time.

Quality engineering: a new framework applied to justifying and prioritising IT investments

Quality engineering (QE) is a generic concept developed by the author that is designed to assess rigorously new investment ideas concerned with improving the quality of business processes. The aim is to provide a solid basis to decide trade-offs between varying levels of quality to be achieved and limited resources to be employed. In the present context, the approach is applied to justify and to prioritise a growing class of IT investments: systems designed to implement quality, effectiveness and strategic business vision. Companies report that purely accounting-based methods are unable to cope with these kinds of investments and that a change in investment appraisal procedures is now needed to complement financial approaches, with quality-based approaches to support the decision-making process in relation to sophisticated IT. Based on research projects at the Kobler Unit, Imperial College, where data was collected on the relative success of new IT initiatives, and in collaboration with several large companies, quality engineering has been further developed into four modules, to be applied iteratively: quality standards (QS), quality awareness (QA), quality performance indicators (QPI) and quality value (QV). Compared to traditional accounting-based frameworks, quality engineering places a new emphasis on critical success factors, structured awareness raising exercises, measurable performance indicators, distinguishing between primary systems objectives and their inevitable second-order effects, risk assessment, and strategic business integration.     

Activity-based design

In many types of activities, communicative and material activities are so intertwined that the one cannot be understood without taking the other into account. This is true of maritime and hospital work that are used as examples in the paper. The spatial context of the activity is also important: what you can do depends upon where you are. Finally, human and automatic machinery alternate in filling certain roles in the activity: sometime the officer maintains the course, sometimes the autopilot. Such activities require us to rethink the traditional oppositions between communication and instrumental actions, between human and non-human participants, and between an activity and its spatio-temporal context. The advent of pervasive technologies, where active or passive systems become embedded in our working and living spaces, from where they offer their services to us, puts the need to reconsider these basic oppositions high on the research agenda. This paper presents a consistent framework called habitats for understanding communicative and material activities and their interplay, for understanding how activities can be associated to physical surroundings, and for understanding how humans and automatic machinery can replace one another in an activity. It also gives an example of how to use the framework for design.     

Aligning IT investments and workforce composition: the impact of diversification in life insurance companies

This paper investigates the impact on productivity of combined changes in information technology (IT) investments and workforce composition of life insurance companies. Workforce composition is defined in terms of three broad classes: clerical, managerial and professional. Hypotheses on the combined impact of changes in IT investments and workforce composition on productivity are proposed and empirically tested on a sample of companies from the US life insurance industry. Companies are clustered based on two main strategy alternatives, focus on a market niche vs diversification. In niche companies, higher IT investments accompanied by a decrease in the clerical and managerial components of the workforce are found to have a positive contribution to productivity. On the contrary, higher IT investments in conjunction with a decrease of the professional component show a negative effect. In diversified companies, increasing IT investments show a positive contribution to productivity when accompanied by a decrease of the professional component and a growth in the clerical and managerial component of the workforce. Findings are discussed in the light of fundamental competitive goals in the industry.     

Activity-based costing model for joint products

Activity-Based Costing (ABC) is developed to improve the accuracy of product cost data derived from the traditional cost system. ABC transforms indirect (overhead) cost in the traditional cost system into direct costs by using activities as the intermediums of cost assignment. ABC traces indirect costs to the activities and then distributes the activity costs to the products. ABC has been extensively used in the practice and discussed in the literature. The purpose of this paper is to present the ABC model for joint products. A simplified illustrative case is used to demonstrate the product costing for joint products under ABC.     

Activity-based OO business modeling and control

The paper considers how process modeling can help you control or assess the impact of changes to a software process. It discusses business modeling for control, change management, object oriented business modeling and an industry case study     

基于活动的数据空间数据关系发现

基于分析用户日常活动间存在的相关性,利用活动与数据间的紧密联系,提出了一种基于活动的数据空间数据关系发现方法.通过分析用户活动发现数据间的隐含关联.利用日志系统收集用户活动窗口信息,从语义、切换、时间等方面计算活动相关度信息,并从中提取生成数据关系信息.系统还可随用户递增的活动信息及用户对数据关系的反馈,更新数据关系信息,提高系统的服务能力.     

Explanation-based learning as justification of knowledge

Abstract: This paper describes the use of the explanation-based learning (EBL) machine learning technique in the practical domain of knowledge acquisition for expert systems. A knowledge acquisition tool, EBKAT (Explanation-Based Knowledge Acquisition Tool), is described, which may be used in the development of knowledge bases for diagnostic expert systems. The functioning of EBKAT attempts to combine the full potential of a domain expert's skills and the power of explanation-based machine learning techniques. The EBL component is not employed in the acquisition of the knowledge base rules but is used to justify the knowledge entered and to relate it to the knowledge already in the system. It is suggested that the EBKAT tool goes some way towards overcoming the knowledge acquisition bottleneck and results in the acquisition of knowledge which is rich in contextual information.     

Micro law-sweat equity investments

Looks at conflicting arguments which are responses to G. Davis' article (ibid., Dec 1993). The original article discussed the copyright issues involved in Lotus 1-2-3. The author looks at copyright law, its' bearing on this case, and possible amendments     

Managing your EDA investments

Every IC/systems design manager faces the same optimization problem: how to minimize costs while maximizing productivity? Take it one or two organizational levels higher and the problem becomes even move critical. That's because individual performance ratings and bonuses are based on metrics such as below-budget, on-time delivery for new products. The following concepts are discussed: competitive advantage, parity, and the design process; the M1-M2-M3 model; and the application of M1-M2-M3 model     

Economic justification of computer control systems

Control of an industrial process can be described as making adjustments in certain manipulated variables in order to achieve well-defined objectives in the face of disturbances, using such measurements, control devices, and procedures as may be appropriate technically and justified economically.Where a computer control system is the appropriate solution to a process problem, a choice now exists between packaged systems for standard applications and custom systems to meet special requirements. Computer system costs may vary from $50,000 to as much as $8,000,000.Benefits from computer control are found in increased production, improved control of product quality, better use of raw materials, reduced operating manpower, and savings in capital investment. Simple examples illustrate the calculation of benefits from better quality control through increased production or reduced operating costs.The best criterion for evaluating a proposed computer control system is the expected return on investment (ROI) which allows consideration of the timing of income and expense items, as well as their magnitudes. This criterion also focuses attention on the need for effective project management.Published cost and benefit figures are given to show typical results obtained in actual control computer installations.     

黑川雅之：我最自豪的是，一直在认真生活

如果试图从黑川雅之的设计作品中剥丝抽茧,探寻每个来源。我们必须将他生活中的每个细节放大。在他五十多年的设计生涯里．几乎包纳了跨越时间、空间的一切。我们不确定究竟何时何地,他就会对街边的一个瓷碗或是遥远大陆上的旧石像产生兴趣。他挖掘、探索它们．进而深入思考并得出某个结论。过于严肃的头衔其实并不适台他,因为就是凭着“精气神”与好奇心,以及狂热思考。成就了他今天的伟大。     

Expected benefits of information security investments

Ideally, decisions concerning investments of scarce resources in new or additional procedures and technologies that are expected to enhance information security will be informed by quantitative analyses. But security is notoriously hard to quantify, since absence of activity challenges us to establish whether lack of successful attacks is the result of good security or merely due to good luck. However, viewing security as the inverse of risk enables us to use computations of expected loss to develop a quantitative approach to measuring gains in security by measuring decreases in risk. In using such an approach, making decisions concerning investments in information security requires calculation of net benefits expected to result from the investment. Unfortunately, little data are available upon which to base an estimate of the probabilities required for developing the expected losses. This paper develops a mathematical approach to risk management based on Kaplan–Meier and Nelson–Aalen non-parametric estimators of the probability distributions needed for using the resulting quantitative risk management tools. Differences between the integrals of these estimators evaluated for enhanced and control groups of systems in an information infrastructure provide a metric for measuring increased security. When combined with an appropriate value function, the expected losses can be calculated and investments evaluated quantitatively in terms of actual enhancements to security.     

Justifying investments in industrial ergonomics

This paper describes current research work aimed at developing an evaluation process as well as an accounting framework specifically tailored to industrial ergonomics and which concentrate on the following economic issues related to ergonomic or health and safety costs: identifying and classifying health and safety costs within a comprehensive cost classification; studying the behavior of health and safety costs; allocating health and safety costs to cost objects.     

两级作业成本管理系统设计与实现

作业成本法在企业战略决策和战术决策方面都有应用,但是如何使作业成本实施同时满足战略与战术决策的需要,是实施应用的难点。文章提出一种两级作业成本管理系统的实施体系和框架结构,把企业看成部门的集合体。在部门层次,分别对各部门实施作业成本,侧重于战术决策,在企业层次,对各部门的实施进行信息综合,支持战略决策。对作业成本核算模型在以下三个方面进行了扩展:丰富的分配路径、统一的动因管理、统一的分配管理,从而增加了模型的适用性。结合提出的体系结构开发了原型系统,并给出原型系统的信息模型和在一个小型企业的运行案例。