Comparing the relative importance of evaluation criteria in proprietary and open‐source enterprise application software selection – a conjoint study of ERP and Office systems

Until recently, organizations willing to acquire application systems have had no choice but to adopt proprietary software. With the advent of open‐source software (OSS), a new model for developing and distributing software has entered the stage. OSS has evolved from a generally horizontal infrastructure towards more highly visible applications in vertical domains, giving information systems (IS) managers more degrees of freedom in their selection of enterprise application software (EAS). Although a large body of research exists on the relative importance of evaluation criteria for proprietary EAS, the role of OSS in the EAS evaluation process has received little attention so far. To address this research gap, this study represents the first empirical investigation to compare the relative importance of evaluation criteria in proprietary and open‐source EAS selection. Through an online survey, we evaluated the responses of IS managers of 358 organizations to a conjoint study spawning 8592 trade‐off pair comparisons and 3580 purchase evaluations on proprietary and open‐source enterprise resource planning (ERP) and Office software packages. The results show that the relative importance of evaluation criteria significantly varies between proprietary and open‐source ERP systems. Implementation factors such as ease of implementation and support are much more crucial in the evaluation of open‐source than of proprietary ERP systems, which is generally due to IS managers' risk mitigation behaviour. Interestingly, there are no major differences in the ranking of evaluation criteria between proprietary and open‐source Office systems. We conclude our paper with a detailed discussion of our findings and their implications for researchers, companies, EAS vendors and open‐source communities.     

A comprehensive study of the relationship between enterprise resource planning selection criteria and enterprise resource planning system success

We developed a conceptual framework for investigating how ERP selection criteria are linked to system quality and the service provided by suppliers and consultants, and thus how these influenced ERP implementation success. Through a cross-sectional survey of the top 5000 largest companies in Taiwan, using a balanced scorecard concept and path analysis, we showed that four system selection criteria (consultant's suggestion, a certified high-stability system, compatibility between the system and the business process, and the provision of best practices) were positively related to system quality. Three supplier selection criteria (international market position, training support by the supplier and supplier technical support and experience) had a significant influence on supplier service quality, and two consultant selection criteria (consultant's ERP implementation experience in a similar industry and consultant's support after going live) were related to consultant service quality. However, we found that most organizations did not consider all these criteria when implementing ERP systems. Our study also suggested that enhanced system quality and service quality could increase user perspective and ERP success.     

Formalized systems development methodologies: a critical perspective

Systems development issues occupy a position of central importance in the information systems field and much has been prescribed in the quest for successful systems development. However, given the well-documented 'software crisis', success is far from guaranteed for systems development projects. Many researchers see the solution to the software crisis in terms of increased control and the more widespread adoption of rigorous and formalized system development methodologies. This paper presents some arguments and pressures which support the use of methodologies and some evidence of the literature bias which favours methodologies is provided. However the problems associated with the use of methodologies have not perhaps received as much attention in previous research. This paper identifies a number of arguments and pressures which question the value of methodologies, and reports the results of a field study which investigated the role of methodologies in practice. The critical perspective adopted throughout shows that, contrary to the predominant view in literature, the assumption that increased adoption of methodologies addresses the problems inherent in systems development is by no means proven.     

企业应用软件架构分析

通过对企业业务体系的根本需求进行分析,描述了企业业务及其支持软件的特点.从时间和空间两个维度上对企业软件架构进行了描述,通过分析企业应用软件架构与企业业务改进过程的关系,对架构的开发和部署过程提出了一些建议.     

A process model for interactive systems

Designing user interfaces and designing computational software are very different processes. The differences lead to late discovery of design conflicts, which drives up development costs. A unifying methodology that could provide early discovery and resolution of design conflicts must account for the governing principles of both processes. Disciplined long-term investigation of candidate methodologies requires that these governing principles be fixed and that evolving development methods comprising each process be accommodated. This article describes an application of general systems theory to integrate these principles, proposes a process model that fixes them as explicit elements of a process program, argues the feasibility of the model and its worthiness for further study, and describes its initial implementation.     

A multiagent-based complex systems approach for dynamic negotiation mechanism in virtual enterprise

Nowadays a sophisticated match-making mechanism is necessary for appropriate collaborations in virtual enterprise (VE). Virtual market based match-making operation enables effective partner search in terms of products allocation by distributing the scheduled resources according to the market prices, which define common scale of value across the various products. We formulate the VE match-making model as discrete resource allocation problem, and propose a complex market-oriented programming framework based on the economics of complex systems. Three types of heterogeneous agents are defined in the complex virtual market. It is described that their interactions with micro behaviour emerge a macro order of the virtual market, and the clearing price dynamism can be analysed in economic terms. The applicability of the framework into resource allocation problem for VE is also discussed.     

A comparison of standards for software engineering based on DO-178B for certification of avionics systems

Certification of avionics software is an increasingly important subject, since more and more avionics systems in future aircraft will be software equipped. The DO-17813 standard provides guidelines for software certification. Re-use of software is emerging, partly enabled by the integrated modular avionics concept, and imposed by a reduction of life-cycle costs. Re-use, however, requires re-certification or certification of software that was not developed according to DO-17813.

The DO-178B standard is specially developed to provide a certification basis for avionics software, without going into details of the software development process. Other standards focus on software engineering aspects. We have used the DO-178B standard as a common basis for comparison with DOD-STD2167A (military), ESA PSS-05-0 (space), and IEC65A(Secretariat)122 (industry). Comparison topics include:

• • life cycles;

• • prescribed documentation;

• • configuration management;

• • verification and validation;

• • quality assurance.

All standards prescribe the software development process, emphasizing specific aspects in a certain area of interest. The results of our investigation will assist in understanding the rationale behind several standards, and can be used for:

• • certification according to DO-17813 of software that was developed using another standard;

• • certification of software using DO-17813, in concert with another standard.

     

New perspectives for the future interoperable enterprise systems

The rapid changes in today's socio-economic and technological environment in which the enterprises operate necessitate the identification of new requirements that address both theoretical and practical aspects of the Enterprise Information Systems (EIS). Such an evolving environment contributes to both the process and the system complexity which cannot be handled by the traditional architectures. The constant pressure of requirements for more data, more collaboration and more flexibility motivates us to discuss about the concept of Next Generation EIS (NG EIS) which is federated, omnipresent, model-driven, open, reconfigurable and aware. All these properties imply that the future enterprise system is inherently interoperable. This position paper presents the discussion that spans several research challenges of future interoperable enterprise systems, specialized from the existing general research priorities and directions of IFAC Technical Committee 5.3,¹ namely: context-aware systems, semantic interoperability, cyber-physical systems, cloud-based systems and interoperability assessment.     

制印企业ERP管理模式的设计研究

针对某彩色制印类企业的管理现状,进行了企业资源计划(ERP)的需求分析,给出了系统的基本功能模块及其关系。提出ERP系统研制开发的体系结构,给出了该系统的模型设计。构造面向对象模型,采用Active X技术将模型中的对象制作成OCX控件,再将控件嵌入支持OLE技术标准的开发平台,组建ERP原形系统。     

An industrial case study on variability handling in large enterprise software systems

ContextEnterprise software systems (e.g., enterprise resource planning software) are often deployed in different contexts (e.g., different organizations or different business units or branches of one organization). However, even though organizations, business units or branches have the same or similar business goals, they may differ in how they achieve these goals. Thus, many enterprise software systems are subject to variability and adapted depending on the context in which they are used.ObjectiveOur goal is to provide a snapshot of variability in large scale enterprise software systems. We aim at understanding the types of variability that occur in large industrial enterprise software systems. Furthermore, we aim at identifying how variability is handled in such systems.MethodWe performed an exploratory case study in two large software organizations, involving two large enterprise software systems. Data were collected through interviews and document analysis. Data were analyzed following a grounded theory approach.ResultsWe identified seven types of variability (e.g., functionality, infrastructure) and eight mechanisms to handle variability (e.g., add-ons, code switches).ConclusionsWe provide generic types for classifying variability in enterprise software systems, and reusable mechanisms for handling such variability. Some variability types and handling mechanisms for enterprise software systems found in the real world extend existing concepts and theories. Others confirm findings from previous research literature on variability in software in general and are therefore not specific to enterprise software systems. Our findings also offer a theoretical foundation for describing variability handling in practice. Future work needs to provide more evaluations of the theoretical foundations, and refine variability handling mechanisms into more detailed practices.     

Hitting a moving target: a process model of information systems control change

Controls are widely regarded as a key factor in driving high performing organisational processes. However, because of ongoing changes within information systems (IS) processes, control modifications are commonly required in order to maintain performance levels. Although past research recognises the ongoing benefits derived from successful control changes, there is a limited understanding of the actual steps taken by organisations, particularly with regard to avoiding negative performance implications such as process delays or employee resistance. This research draws on empirical data from six case studies to propose a new process model that depicts the interconnected steps involved in control changes. Our findings suggest that the sources of IS control change may be more diverse than most past research suggests and that control changes within non‐project‐oriented processes (e.g. enterprise architecture) present additional challenges in comparison to project‐oriented processes (e.g. systems development). Insights from this research can aid practitioners in streamlining control changes as a means to improve effectiveness, whilst also contributing to research by uncovering an enhanced understanding of why and how control changes are made in IS processes.     

Technical and management perceptions of enterprise information system importance, implementation and benefits

Abstract.  This paper compares information systems (IS) integration in high-tech organizations from the information technology (IT) and general management perspectives. All the organizations studied have experience of integrated Enterprise Resource Planning systems, and some with their extension to Supply Chain Management and Customer Relationship Management systems. The operational scope of the sample systems, and senior IT and general management perceptions of the importance of their functions, benefits and implementation success factors, obtained by qualitative interviews with 49 senior managers and a quantitative survey of 219 high-tech companies, are described and compared. Although the opinions expressed indicate some mutual hostility, IT and general management perceptions of IS implementation were very similar. IT managements overall importance assessments of business functions were more strongly correlated with their overall level of implementation, and they tended to rate system benefits and system reliability more highly. The significance of these findings is discussed and some suggestions for further investigation, placing them in a wider context, are made. Arguably, the similarities found are more important than the differences.     

A decision model and system for planning and adapting the configuration of enterprise information systems

The decision to invest in an enterprise information system is usually made without taking into account the different types of subsequent decisions and without understanding the hidden implications of making them. This paper presents a decision-making model named DecISIonAl used to evaluate and manage implementation risks on ERP and CRM projects before the actual investment is made. This model was implemented into a web-based system to facilitate configuring, comparing, and selecting implementation plans by evaluating their impact in terms of cost, time, benefits, human resources capabilities, and risks. We apply our decision model to investment case studies in two enterprises. The results show a level of compliance between 80% and 83% when comparing the implications estimated by simulated scenarios and the actual investments.     

基于组织建模的企业级信息系统访问控制模型

针对企业级信息系统访问控制中由于用户、角色与资源客体数量多而引起的控制复杂这一问题,提出了基于组织建模的访问控制设计思想。借鉴组织视图建模思想对传统RBAC模型中角色概念进行拓展,对客体分类并进行组件化设计以支持访问粒度控制。在此基础上给出一个基于组织建模的企业级信息系统访问控制模型,定义了一组模型要素并给出了实现访问控制的机理。最后给出一个基于组织建模的访问控制模型实现,并结合具体实例表明了该模型的可行性和有效性。     

Evaluation metrics and methodologies for user-centered evaluation of intelligent systems

In the past four years, we have worked with several research programs that were developing intelligent software for use by intelligence analysts. Our involvement in these programs was to develop the metrics and methodologies for assessing the impact on users; in this case, on intelligence analysts. In particular, we focused on metrics to evaluate how much the intelligent systems contribute to the users’ tasks and what the cost is to the user in terms of workload and process deviations. In this paper, we describe the approach used. We started with two types of preliminary investigations – first, collecting and analyzing data from analysts working in an instrumented environment for a period of 2 years, and second, developing and conducting formative evaluations of research software. The long-term studies informed our ideas about the processes that analysts use and provided potential metrics in an environment without intelligent software tools. The formative evaluations helped us to define sets of application-specific metrics. Finally, we conducted assessments during and after technology insertions. We describe the metrics and methodologies used in each of these activities, along with the lessons learned.     

Behavioral aspects of enterprise systems adoption: An empirical study on cultural factors

Recently, behavioral aspects of enterprise systems have been called to investigate further in the information systems (IS) community. The purpose of this paper is to apply individual-level measurement of cultural orientation, such as power distance and uncertainty avoidance, to the recent findings of computer self-efficacy and ERP adoption belief, such as perceived ease of use, based on the survey of 101 ERP system experts. An online survey methodology is used to gather data from the various industrial fields. The research model is constructed based on the findings of the previous studies in IS, management, and cultural psychology. The results indicate that low power distance and high uncertainty avoidance cultural orientation influence general CSE. In addition, uncertainty avoidance positively influences ease of use of ERP systems. As expected, general CSE positively influences ease of use of ERP systems. Training and managerial interventions through communication to improve these cultural orientations would be effective for the successful ERP systems project. The findings of this research would be helpful to the project managers, IS researchers, and ERP practitioners who want to understand the behavioral aspects of ERP systems adoption in the organization.     

Applying Gaia and AUML for the development of multiagent‐based control software for flexible manufacturing systems: addressing methodological and implementation issues

In this article, we present the development of a simple multiagent‐based system for the control of a flexible manufacturing system. We followed the stages of a methodology specially conceived for the development of agent‐based system, which is an integration of the classical methodology for agent‐oriented analysis and design Gaia, and AUML (Agent‐Unified Modeling Language). We adopted as study case the CIMUBB Laboratory at the University of Bio‐Bio, which has a flexible manufacturing system including three flexible manufacturing cells interconnected by a conveyor belt. In the analysis stage, we identified roles involved, and we design models representing roles and protocols. In the design stage, we applied Gaia agent, services, and acquaintance models from Gaia, and we complemented with AUML as the adopted methodology suggests. With the developed models, we constructed a fully functional system where each agent was built as an independent process tree. Agents communicate by passing messages through the Ethernet network with socket interfaces. Various tests executed in our laboratory scale manufacturing system show the effectiveness of our implementation. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Improved stability criteria and controller design for linear neutral systems

This paper is concerned with the problems of stability and H_∞ control of linear neutral systems. Firstly, some new simple Lyapunov-Krasovskii functionals are constructed by uniformly dividing the discrete delay interval into multiple segments, and choosing proper functionals with different weighted matrices corresponding to different segments in the Lyapunov-Krasovskii functionals. Then using these new simple Lyapunov-Krasovskii functionals, some new delay-dependent stability criteria are derived. These criteria include some existing results as their special cases and are much less conservative than some existing results, which is shown through a numerical example. Secondly, a delay-dependent bounded real lemma (BRL) is established. Employing the obtained BRL, some delay-dependent sufficient conditions for the existence of a delayed state feedback controller, which ensure asymptotic stability and a prescribed H_∞ performance level of the corresponding closed-loop system, is formulated in terms of a linear matrix inequality (LMI). A numerical example is also given to illustrate the effectiveness of the design method.     

Assessing and managing the benefits of enterprise systems: the business manager's perspective

This paper focuses on the benefits that organizations may achieve from their investment in enterprise systems (ES). It proposes an ES benefit framework for summarizing benefits in the years after ES implementation. Based on an analysis of the features of enterprise systems, on the literature on information technology (IT) value, on data from 233 enterprise systems vendor‐reported stories published on the Web and on interviews with managers of 34 organizations using ES, the framework provides a detailed list of benefits that have reportedly been acquired through ES implementation. This list of benefits is consolidated into five benefits dimensions: operational, managerial, strategic, IT infrastructure and organizational, and illustrated using perceived net benefit flow (PNBF) graphs. In a detailed example, the paper shows how the framework has been applied to the identification of benefits in a longitudinal case study of four organizations.     

A CASE-tool oriented approach for embedded systems design

The process of successfully creating an embedded system is highly challenging and complex; engineers typically operate under tight financial, technical and time-to-market constraints. To achieve the desired objective, the design team need to utilise effectively the most advanced software tools available, in order that the task may be completed to specification in a timely and cost-effective manner. This paper discusses the use of a CASE-tool in an embedded systems design, and reviews issues pertaining to the integration of such a tool into an embedded systems development environment. The paper focuses on the application of this high level approach in embedded systems design and concludes by describing the use of the CASE-tool in the design of a simple demonstrator.