The digital disruption is to transform all industries, leading to new business models based on the new technologies. In manufacturing, one model for digital disruption is Industrie 4.0. Proposals for Industrie 4.0 involve the virtualization and vertical and horizontal integration of the value chain, digital services, the digital transformation of products, the digital transformation of production equipment, the digital transformation of factories and the digital transformation of supply chains. The former two are already in place today. This article and its follow-up builds an overview of the pillars of Industrie 4.0 as addressed by the proponents of the model, by consultancy companies, by journal research, and by the customer proposition of Siemens. CapGemeni rate General Electric as a key player in the Industrial Internet in the Digital Revolution, and Siemens is its contestant. This article builds a detailed analysis of Siemens' strategy which covers the steps already made and the steps to be made in the future as a follow-up. The digital twin strategy leads the way to the next stage.
This article describes how digital disruption transforms all industries, leading to new business models based on the new technologies. In manufacturing, one model for digital disruption is Industrie 4.0, supported mainly in Germany. Proposals for Industrie 4.0 involve the virtualization and vertical and horizontal integration of the value chain, digital services, the digital transformation of products, the digital transformation of production equipment, the digital transformation of factories and supply chains. Whereas the former two are already in place today, the latter is researched and developed. Products and production equipment will be transformed from physical to cyber-physical. Together, they will negotiate as peers over the Internet of Things and form smart factories. Via the Internet of Services, the entire supply chain will be integrated. The most popular business model is mass customization, according to which the customer order triggers production and logistics in the entire supply chain. Siemens intends to use information technology to migrate customers to tomorrow's digitalization.
Green IT adoption is a sustainable use of computing resources to address the growing environmental challenges resulted from business activities. Drawing from this need, this article aims to examine the influential factors that affect Green IT adoption in SMEs. This article is an initial attempt to understand the Green IT adoption experience of SMEs in the Philippines. A framework is created encompassing the interactions of factors that facilitate the successful Green IT adoption of SMEs in developing countries. The framework was then analyzed with data from multiple case studies of Philippine SMEs. The results suggest that individual attitude, IT infrastructure, managerial support, availability of budget, and government support have significantly facilitated Green IT adoption in SMEs. The results of this article will assist business owners, policymakers, and industry associations to further Green IT adoption by SMEs in the Philippines. Practical and research implications are presented.
The continuous evolution of e-business has demanded firms to seek innovative business models to collect and integrate information from electronic marketplaces. The authors present a case study of Card Union to investigate how companies can develop innovative models of service delivery at different stages to adapt to the changing environments of electronic business. Their analysis demonstrates that B2B2C models allow firms to extend their product and service varieties through information integration and delivery so as to obtain the benefits of long-tail effects and economies of scope. The authors' research provides valuable insights about the evolution of B2B2C models and practical guidance for managers to effectively design and deploy their e-business models.
This article develops an empirically grounded model of antecedents and effects of green information systems (IS) initiatives. The model is empirically based on an in-depth case of the Nordic financial institution. The authors' study examines the effect of several organizational factors, and characteristics of Green IS initiatives themselves on organizations' intention to adopt Green IS initiatives. Their study finds that employees' attitudes toward these initiatives affect their participation in the initiatives, as well as the success of Green IS initiatives. The adoption of the initiatives was seen to affect individual and organizational level outcomes, with positive experiences enabling employees to continue to use/support the initiatives, and organizations also often realizing improvements in practice.
Agile mode projects are increasingly popular among IT Department, including the most complex organizations. The deployment of agility on a larger scale fits over a long period because the motivations are part of a persistent setting. The deployment of large-scale agility is therefore based on a deep and lasting transformation of the organization. In order to support transformational business changes, IT must streamline the top-down process of new IT processes. The success of an IT service and asset management depends on innovation, agility, and efficiency to accompany the transformation of the organization from a traditional vision to a digital vision. The aim of this article is to propose a practical agile framework to improve IT service and asset management ITSM/ITAM processes through a case study in the organization. The finding will help organizations to assess their capabilities and to address the procedural, technical and human aspects of IT service and asset management.
Team productivity is one of the issues that always been considered in the software development teams. In software development process, as a team-oriented process, team productivity is a serious issue in software competitive industry that always gets high attention. Several studies have been conducted on various aspects of team productivity, but because of role of employed methodologies, providing a unified model in this regard is not possible. This article is specifically aimed to focus on team productivity in XP methodology and provide a productivity model dedicated for this method. The proposed model is developed based on the most influential features affecting team productivity. This model evaluated and gained enough acceptance. The article also shows the most effective XP practices that positively impact team productivity in XP projects.
The potential of digital technologies in safeguarding and preserving valuable assets have been established over time, predominantly in preserving our increasingly threatened heritage. Technological advancements in digitization and preservation aspects in the form of more sophisticated digitization gadgets have resulted in the practical implications of many digital preservation initiatives. The article discusses the concept of cultural heritage and need of digital preservation for managing and distributing cultural heritage collections through cooperative endeavors. It highlights the importance of incorporating technological advancements for managing effective and long-term cultural preservation projects. It points out various challenges concerning digital preservation initiatives for cultural heritage including financial, technical, policy guidelines, legal aspects and metadata concerns. The article further discusses some important digital preservation projects for managing Cultural Heritage and lists detailed features under each initiative for addressing various challenges.
Organizations recognize the need to adopt Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) in order to become more competitive, efficient, and productive, although the adoption and implementation of an ERP system is a costly and risky endeavor. Recently, cloud computing has become a viable and competitive means by which most organizations, especially Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs), can implement an ERP system in a short time frame and cost-effective way. The authors' research examines the feasibility of cloud-based ERP systems for SMEs through a case study. The case emphasizes the potential of cloud-based ERP systems for SMEs as well as some of the challenges and peculiarities involved in their efforts to obtain an affordable and versatile ERP system. Their findings can potentially guide SMEs to make well-informed decisions throughout their cloud-based ERP adoption process.
An ideal face-to-face tutor learner interaction aims to offer learning to the learner in a manner that best suits an individual learner's learning level and learning style. This ability of differentiated instruction has been built in Seis-Tutor Intelligent Tutoring system, developed to offer subject matter knowledge of ‘Seismic Data Interpretation,' a field of geo-physics. The detailed architecture of learner-centric curriculum sequencing module, built to this effect, with its components, sub-components, their interconnected functioning, to generate exclusive learning path, have been described. An algorithm for learner-centric curriculum sequencing, a mathematical model and proposed implementation using a case study has been elaborated.
The purpose of this article is twofold. First is to ascertain and establish the collaboration required between different stakeholders in the fundamental process of New Product Development (NPD). Augmentation of the process with the IoT origin real time data to enrich the efficacy of the New Product Development process forms the second part of the study. The primary data is collated from over 100 plus professionals while the qualitative data required for the second part is collated with the help of focused group interviews. The Likert scale with five points was deployed to record the opinions. The empirical analysis supports the theory that an effective collaboration is required between the different entities such as Sales, Marketing, R&D and going beyond the organizational boundaries Suppliers & Customers for the new product to be fruitful and successful in the market. The impact of using the IoT origin real time data on the effectiveness of the New Product Development is evaluated. In the current scenario for an organization to lead the market, it is essential that it has a descent product roadmap and an effective NPD. The current study reveals the importance of the NPD and contributes towards making it more effective with the IoT origin real time data.
In the digital era, organization-wide information security risk assessment has gained importance because it can impact businesses in many ways. In this article, the authors propose a model to assess the information security risk using Fuzzy Petri Nets (FPN). Deeply rooted in the OCTAVE framework, this research presents a taxonomy of risk practice areas and risk factors. The authors apply the constituents of the taxonomy to risk assessment through a well-defined FPN model. The primary motive of the article is to extend the usability of FPNs to newer and less explored domains like audit and evaluation of information security risks. The unique contribution of this article is the definition and development of a comprehensive and measurable model of risk assessment and quantification. The model can also serve as a tool to capture the risk perception of the respondents for validating the criticality of risk and facilitate the top management to invest in information security control eco-system judiciously.
Traditional methods of teaching have created several gaps in the Faculty Evaluation System. E-Governance of Faculty Evaluation System is a modern technique which leads to an efficient performance of the education system. Driven by the need for transparency in the system, the aim of this article is to propose a model for an efficient E-Governance of the Faculty Evaluation. The authors have conducted a qualitative study to build up a theoretical model for E-Governance of Faculty Evaluation System. Nineteen enablers are identified from the literature and model has been developed through Total Interpretive Structural Modeling Approach (TISM). The VAXO model, Reachability matrix, binary interaction matrix and transitive links have been explained in the article. The research has developed a model for the Faculty Evaluation System. This is an important concept and is in need at the present hour. This concept could bring equality in faculty employment system and impart quality knowledge to the Education System. This concept can create a novelty in the education system.
Safety is a fundamental concern in modern society, and security is a precondition for safety. Ensuring safety and security of complex integrated systems requires a coordinated approach that involve different stakeholder groups going beyond safety and security experts and system developers. The authors have therefore proposed CHASSIS (Combined Harm Assessment of Safety and Security for Information Systems), a method for collaborative determination of requirements for safe and secure systems. In this article, the authors evaluate CHASSIS through industrial case studies of two small-to-medium sized suppliers to the air-traffic management (ATM) sector. The results suggest that CHASSIS is easy to use, and that handling safety and security together provides benefits because techniques, information, and knowledge can be reused. The authors conclude that further exploration and development of CHASSIS is worthwhile, but that better documentation is needed—including more detailed process guidelines—to support elicitation of security and safety requirements and to systematically relate them to functional requirements.
Institutional repositories (IRs) are emerging trends in scholarly discourse among members of the academic community in Nigeria. Global practice shows that many IRs are administered by librarians in the academia. This article examines the nexus between libraries and IRs. It observed that though the emergence of IRs holds great advantage for academic institutions, many Nigerian institutions, especially universities, do not have functional IRs because of the inability of their libraries to run them. The article further identifies the digital divide, inadequate financing, the lack of ICT skills and awareness as well as copyright issues as challenges inhibiting the establishment and management of IRs in Nigeria. Recommendations are made for dealing with the identified challenges.
This article is based on one of the manufacturers of automotive components in India referred to as Avanti Enterprises (AvE). It describes the implementation of a Business-to-Business (B2B) website by AvE for its suppliers and highlights the factors that led to use of this website, by one particular supplier. As an example, this supplier is referred to as Bhusan Industries (BHI). The case is based on a dyad of primary organization (AvE) and the user organization (BHI) to discuss the level of use of a B2B website by the dyad and describes the factors related to the primary hosting organization and the user organization that determines use. The article aims to: understand why a website is used; to describe the website features and how they are used; describe the primary organization characteristics; how and why those characteristics influence the website use; to describe the user organization characteristics; and how and why they influence the website use. Sources of data include company documentation, interviews, industry databases, secondary case studies relevant to the framework and company websites.
In the era of technology, the Chinese government wants to adopt the latest technologies and interlink their processes to secure information of all stakeholders. Digital rights management (DRM) is one form of computerized system of copyright to protect access and stop infringement of digital contents for commercial purposes. For this article, the authors used a secondary literature review approach to first explore the development of intellectual property rights (IPR) in China and then they moved further to highlight the challenges and opportunities of DRM application and its use. The article concludes that China, as an emerging knowledge based economy, is trying to become a part of international laws and treaties. For this they should abide with international laws, treaties and also amend and enforce their own local laws, acts, rules and regulations based on IPR by adopting the latest technology such as DRM. Finally, the authors provided recommendations to offset the challenges together with existing opportunities.
This article describes how nowadays due to the importance of information technology in organizations, it is necessary to examine the efficiency of IT used in the organization. Given the importance of IT in organizations, waste identification in such context and its elimination can have a significant effect on production quality optimization, service provision and IT management. Accordingly, the concept of lean IT was introduced in 2007 which mainly aims to make IT more efficient in organization as much as possible. The current study aims to examine lean IT level in organization. Therefore, first the criteria and sub-criteria of lean IT were determined by experts; after identifying their hierarchical structure, a questionnaire was given to the experts in IT department in two companies. In the next stage, another questionnaire was designed which included importance and status of criteria in the organizations from the viewpoint of the experts. Based on the obtained results, two criteria including “error prevention or hash” and “wait time/delay removal” obtained the highest priority.
