The Viable System Model (VSM) is a model of organizational structure that is based on the structure of the human nervous system. It was described by British cybernetician Stafford Beer in his books Brain of the Firm (1972), The Heart of Enterprise (1979), and Diagnosing the System for Organizations (1985). It has been used as a conceptual tool for understanding organisations, redesign them (where appropriate) and support their management of change.
The VSM is a useful guide for knowledge management. The model explains what structures and procedures are needed at each level of an organization and hence what information and what decisions are needed in each part of the organization.
The Viable System Model identifies five management functions within an adaptive system. - System one consists of the units that do the basic work of the organization, for example manufacturing products or delivering services.
- System two consists of units that handle coordination and scheduling among the system ones. System two activities include allocating space and equipment and enforcing rules and procedures.
- System three is the middle management function, except that its primary activity is to make a “resource bargain” with the system ones. That is, system three makes resources available in exchange for a commitment by the system ones to meet certain objectives that are agreed upon.
- System four is responsible for long-range planning and the design of new products and services. Whereas system three is responsible for activities “inside and now,” system four is responsible for activities “outside and then.”
- System five manages the interaction between systems three and four and embodies the corporate ethos.
- System five decides the identity of the firm and its governing principles and norms. This
includes decisions about the kinds of businesses to be developed by system four and to be put into operation by systems three, two and one.
There are five essential functions for Viability: 1) Implementation: Those responsible for producing the products or services implied by the organization's identity. Are at the core of the recursive model. 2) Coordination: Coordinating the interfaces of the system's value adding functions at the operations of its primary sub-units.
3) Control: Two-way communication between sub-unit and meta-level remains a prerequisite for variability
4) Intelligence: Is the two way link between the primary activity and the external environment. 5) Policy: It needs to be very selective in the information it receives.
Knowledge is the intellectual capital that an organisation possesses. It is much more than data, as it includes the experience and expertise found within an organisation. Information is generally objective, whereas knowledge includes elements of interpretation and understanding. Technological developments have prompted an explosion in the scope and depth of knowledge to which decision-makers have access. However, there is now so much information and knowledge available that what sets successful organisations apart is their ability to develop and use them creatively.
Knowledge and information have to be collected, protected and effectively and intelligently managed if they are to be valuable resources that guide and inform every stage of decision-making.
The following Jing Presentation shows briefly the ideas behind the Knowledge and Information Management, some approaches, classification and techniques for effective KM.
When business began using computers more than 50 years ago, security was accomplished by using physical controls over access to the computers. Alarmed doors and windows, guards, security badges to admit people to sensitive areas, and surveillance cameras were the tool used to secure computers (Schneider, 2011). Computer security meant dealing with the few people who had access to terminals or physical access to the computer room. Security was a pretty simple matter.
However, the population of computer users and the methods to access computing resources have increased tremendously since those early years of computing and nowadays million of people have access to computing power over networks that connect millions of computers to each other. New security tools and methods have evolved and are used today to protect computers and the electronic assets they store.
Further, the computer security industry is estimated to be in the billion-dollar range, and a recent ComputerWorld survey found that almost half of the organisations studied spend more than 5% of their IT budget on security (Brandel, 2006). And a recent Cutter Consortium survey found that ensuring privacy was a key prerequisite to gaining customer trust and building loyalty (Goodin, 2006).
This blog, therefore, focuses on information systems security and IT risk management.
Information System security refers to the set of defences an organisation puts in place to mitigate threats to its technology infrastructure and data resources. IT risk management is the process by which the firm attempts to identify and measure information systems security risks, and to devise the optimal mitigation strategy (Piccoli, 2008). Computer security is the protection of assets from unauthorized access, use, alteration, or destruction.
Computer security is generally considered to include three main elements: secrecy, integrity, and necessity (also known as denial of service) (Schneider, 2011). Secrecy refers to protecting against unauthorized data disclosure and ensuring the authenticity of the data source. Integrity refers to preventing unauthorized data modification. Necessity refers to preventing data delays or denials (removal).
Responding to Security Threats
The management of computer security is a continuous effort. The principal objective is to identify the difference threats and develop safeguards that match up with them and limit their incidents of success.
Internal Security Threats: requires the development and enforcement of security policies and auditing standards designed to ensure that such policies are understood and respected by those in the organisation.
Security Policies: it spells out what the organisation believes are he behaviors that individual employees and groups within the firm should follow in order to minimize security risks (Piccoli, 2008).
Moreover, most organisations follow a five-step process when creating a security policy. (Schneider, 2011). These steps include:
1- Determine which assets must be protected from which threats. For example, a company that stores customer credit card numbers might decide that those numbers are an asset that must protected.
2- Determine who should have access to various parts of the system or specific information assets. In many cases, some of those users who need access to some parts of the system (such as suppliers, customers, and strategic partners) are located outside the organisation.
3- Identify resources available or needed to protect the information assets while ensuring access by those who need it.
4- Using the information gathered in the first three steps, the organisation develops a written security policy.
5- Following the written policy, the organisation commits resources to building or buying software, hardware, and physical carriers that implement the security policy.
External Security Threats
Intrusion: A number of techniques and technologies to prevent intrusion have been developed over the years. One of the most used now is the use of passwords. Passwords ensure that resources are only made available to those who have the appropriate authentication level. Thus, a password can be used to block unauthorized external users as well as discriminate to whom resources should be available among the legitimate users.
Furthermore, a firewall could be used. This is a software tool designed to screen and manage traffic in and out of a computer network. Thus a firewall is used to secure the perimeter of the organization’s computing resources employing a number of technologies and techniques.
Another technique that has been developed to safeguard against the intrusion threats is encryption. Through the encryption process, content is scrambled in such a way that it is remembered unreadable to all recipients, except those who hold a key to decrypt it.
Malware: Safeguarding against malware requires that the firm’s IT professional install the appropriate detection software (e.g., antivirus, spyware sweepers). With a large number of new viruses being released, antivirus and other detection software is only as good as its most recent update.
Denial-of-Service Attack: preventing a denial-of-service attack is very difficult. This is because in a well-orchestrated denial-of-service attack, the requests for the service are not issued from the same few locations, making it easy to recognize and block. Instead, in what’s called a distributed denial-of-service attack, the attacker will hijack or spoof multiple machines and initiate the attack from these multiple locations.
Finally it is important to list some guidelines of managing security (Piccoli, 2008)
Have a Plan and Specify Responsibilities: the overall responsibility for security choices and trade-off should reside with a business owner or other appropriate senior person, not with IT. A crisis management plan should specify who need to be contacted in an emergency and what their roles should be.
Revisit Often: every new technology and software program your firm adopts ushers in a unique set of security and risk management challenges that should be proactively addressed –whether that means taking specific steps to manage it or consciously accepting the risk.
Develop a Mitigation Plan: the first reaction to an attack is often to shut everything down. This is a mistake since diagnosing where the attack is coming from, its security, and its reach is much easier if the system is maintained operational and the attacker is maintained unaware of the fact that you spotted the security breach.
The first order of business at this point should be to determine how the attack took place in order to eliminate its chance of occurring again. The next step requires an assessment of the damage, particularly as it pertains to the loss of sensitive data. It is a wise move to immediately communicate the problem to those affected. As much as you would like to keep the matter private, to avoid the negative publicity, people understand that security breaches may occur, but they will be much less forgiving if they discover an attempt to cover up the problem.
To conclude, the following is a video of ARINC (Advanced Information Management System) which offers services such as: commands and controls; communications; deployment/response; surveillance systems; identity management; vehicle identification; access control; credential management; intrusion detection.
References:
Piccoli, G. (2008). Information Systems for Managers: Text & Cases. John Wiley & Sons,Inc: United States.
Schneider, G. (2011) E-Business: Course technology. Cengage Learning. 9th edition. China Translation & Printing Services Limited.
The business phenomenon that we now call electronic commerce ( or e-Commerce for short) has had an interesting history. Its concept has been widely investigated since its advent in the early 1990s and the history has proven that it is hard to image organisations today, beyond those very small size, that would be well served by ignoring the Internet as a vehicle for commerce, be it as a tool for back-office operations (e.g., purchasing and logistics), a channel of distribution (e.g., online sales), or a complement to the customer service experience. (Piccoli, 2008).
Various definitions of the terms electronic commerce (e-Commerce) and electronic business (e-Business) have been proposed over the years. Perhaps the simplest definition of the terms electronic commerce is the broadest one: an online exchange of value. A more comprehensive one: e-commerce is the process of distributing, buying, selling, marketing, and servicing products and services over computer networks such as the Internet. (Poccoli, 2008).
Electronic business or e-business, refers to the use of digital technology and the Internet to execute the major business processes in the enterprise. (Laudon & Laudon). E-business include activities for the internal management of the firm and for coordination with suppliers and other business partners. It also includes electronic commerce, or e-commerce.
IBM defines electronic business as “the transformation of key business process through the use of Internet technologies. Internet technologies include the Internet, the World Wide Web, and other technologies such as wireless transmission on mobile telephone networks. Companies that operate online are often called dot-com or pure dot-com businesses to distinguish them from companies that operate in physical locations (solely or together with online operations).
Categories of Electronic Commerce
Some people find it useful to categorize electronic commerce by the types of entities participating in the transactions or business processes. The five general electronic commerce categories are business-to-consumer, business-to-business, business processes, consumer-to-consumer, and business-to-government. The three categories that are most commonly used are:
Business-to-Consumer (or B2C): Consumer shopping on the Web. Involve a for-profit organization on one side and the end consumer on the other. This category includes online retailers, such as Amazon.com or Target.com, as well as business models where a firm offers value to a consumer without selling any physical goods. For instance, Edmunds.com provides information and referrals to consumer seeking to purchase automobiles.
Business-to-Business (or B2B): Transactions conducted between businesses on the Web. The transactions can range from one-time interactions, or they can be highly unique and tailored to the relationship between two firms. For instance Dell.com offers a B2C site, where all consumers can purchase computing equipment. Dell also offers an extensive B2B site, called Premier Pages, which offers services tailored to the individual needs of its larger business customers.
Customer-to-Customer (C2C): transactions that enable individual consumers to interact and transact directly. The classic example of a firm that enable C2C transactions is eBay, Inc., the marketplace that lets anyone of us trade goods with other customers.
Consumer-to-Business (C2B): It occurs when individuals transact with business organisations not as buyers of goods and services, but as suppliers. eLance.com represents an example.
E-Government: refers to the application of the Internet and networking technologies to digitally enable government and public sector agencies’ relationships with citizens, businesses, and other arms of government.
In the late 1990s, electronic commerce was still emerging as a new way to do business; however, some companies had established solid footholds online. Amazon.com was rapidly glowing bookseller, eBay had taken the lead as a profitable auction site, and the business of providing Internet search was populated by a few well-established sites, including AltaVista, HotBot,Lycos and Yahoo!. By 1998 two Stanford University students, Lawrence Page and Sergey Brin started Google. Google’s page ranking system, which has been continually improved, turned out to be much better at providing users with relevant results than other search engines. Today Google is one of the most successful online companies in the world. The Web provides a quick path to potential customers for any businessperson with a unique product or service. (Schneider, G. 2011).
Advantages and Disadvantages of Electronic Commerce
Advantages
Firms are interested in electronic commerce because, quite simply, it can help increase profits. electronic commerce can increase sales and decrease costs. advertising done well on the Web can get even a small firm's promotional message out to potential customers in every country in the world. A firm can use electronic commerce to reach small groups of customers that are geographically scattered. The Web is particularly useful in creating virtual communities that become ideal target markets for specific types of products or services (Schneider, 2011). Just as electronic commerce increases sales opportunities for the seller, it increases purchasing opportunities for the buyer. Businesses can use electronic commerce to identify new suppliers and business partners.
Cisco Systems, a leading manufacturer of computer networking equipment, currently sells almost all its products online. Because no customer service representatives are involved in making these sales, Cisco operates very efficiently. Today, Cisco conducts more than 99% of its purchase and sales transactions online.
Most digital products, such as software, music and video files, or images, can be delivered through the Internet, which reduces the time buyers must wait to begin enjoying their purchases.
The benefit of electronic commerce has been extended to the general welfare of society. Electronic payments of tax refunds, public retirement and welfare support cost less to issue and arrive securely and quickly when transmitted over the Internet (Schneider, 2011).
Disadvantages
Some business processes might never lend themselves to electronic commerce. For example, perishable foods and high-cost, unique items such as custom-designed jewelry can be impossible to inspect adequately from a remote location, regardless of any technologies that might be devised in the future.
Many products and services require that a critical mass of potential buyers be equipped and willing to buy through the Internet. Example of it could be the of it are the online grocers such as Peapod, the traditional grocery chains in the United Stated such as Albertsons and Safeway which offer online ordering and delivery services. With the high demand of groceries Peapod had to go offline for few weeks in 2000. Perishable grocery products, such as fruit and vegetable, and others are harder to sell online because customers want to examine and select specific items for freshness and quality (Schneider, 2011).
Overall, the rapid adoption of the Internet and the emerge of the network economy have had some significant implications for established organisations. New technologies continue to define and/or redefine business models as well as many organisational and managerial strategies and how organisations can create value in the network economy.
References
Beynon-Davies, P & (2004) e-business. Palgrave MacMillan. New York.
Piccoli, G. (2008). Information Systems for Managers: Text & Cases. John Wiley & Sons,Inc: United States.
Schneider, G. (2011) E-Business: Course technology. Cengage Learning. 9th edition. China Translation & Printing Services Limited.
We live in a world full of systems. There are central heating systems, telephone systems, computer systems, human circulatory system, to name but a few. There are also more complex systems, such as business information systems.
A typical business organisation has systems supporting processes for each of the major business functions-systems for sales and marketing, manufacturing and production, finance and accounting, and human resources.
A typical firm also has different systems supporting the decision-making needs of each of the main management groups: Operational management, middle management, and senior management; each use systems to support the decisions they must make to run the company.
Today’s blog is about IT Support Systems. First of all, it is important to have an idea of what system means. According to Webster’s Dictionary, a system is “a set of facts, principles, rules, etc. classified or arranged in a regular, orderly form so as to show a logical plan linking the various parts.”
Furthermore, systems are important for quality, productivity, customer and employee satisfaction and of course, to generate a profit and maintain a healthy business – just to name a few. However, business owner's need to apply systems to their business that allow different areas of the business to run efficiently (Gerber, 2007). Business consultant Tony Bass agrees.“Today, as competitive as this industry is, you can grow your business and remain profitable if you are efficient. If you are not, your prices will be high, you marketshare low and your prospect for growth limited.” (Amerpohl, 2005). And the application of those systems imply a decision making process.
Decision making involves taking the correct action from a series of choices. Most companies will have differing business rules depending on the nature of the business. DM defines the actions that need to occur in a business when a particular situation arises. i.e. if a customer requests credit and they have a bad credit history or rating then the company may decide to refuse them credit or employ certain rules and conditions upon them. (Management Information Systems notes, pp.4 of 18).
Organisations will typically use a variety of formal systems to consider their options and make business decisions. These decision-making systems will generally receive, and review, a proposal or business plan. Clearly, such proposals should discuss the health, and management, of their underpinning intellectual assets, ideally by presenting a fit-for-purpose intellectual asset plan (Jeremy 2003)
Making a decision is a multi-step process. Simon (1960) described four different stages in decision making: intelligence, design, choice, and implementation.
Intelligence: consists of discovering, identifying, and understanding the problems occurring in the organisation –why a problem exists, where, and what effects it is having on the firm.
Design: involves identifying and exploring various solutions to the problem.
Choice: consists of choosing among solution alternatives.
Implementation: involves making the chosen alternative work and continuing to monitor how well the solution is working.
Moreover authors have described the levels of managerial decision taking (Curtis & Cobham, 2008). Three levels of managerial activity are important in understanding the way organizations take decisions (Antony, 1965). These are strategic planning, tactical planning and control, and operational planning and control. (Curtis & Cobham, 2008).
1- Strategic Planning: This is carried out by the most senior management and will deal with broad issues concerning an organisation’s development over the long term.
2- Tactical Planning and Control: This activity is normally associated with the middle echelons of management. It may involve the allocation of resources within departmental budget, decisions on medium-term work scheduling and forecasting and planning medium-term cash flows.
3- Operational Planning and Control: Concerned with the decisions made in the normal day-to-day operations within the business.
In order to operate businesses use Intelligence Systems for Decision Support. There are a number of different IT systems that managers are exposed to in a business such as:
· Management Information Systems
· Executive Support Systems
· Expert Systems
· Transaction Processing Systems
· Decision Support Systems
Management Information Systems (MIS)
Any system that provides information for the management activities carried out within an organisation. This information is selected and presented in a form suitable for managerial decision making and for the planning and monitoring of the organisation’s activities.
MIS provide middle managers with reports on the organisation’s current performance. This information is used to monitor and control the business and predict future performance. MIS summarize and report on the company’s basic operations using data supplied by transaction processing systems.
Decision-Support Systems (DSS)
DSS support more non-routine decision making. They focus on problems that are unique and rapidly changing, for which the procedure for arriving at a solution may not be fully predefined and advance. An interesting and powerful DSS is the voyage-estimating system of a subsidiary of a large American metal company that carry bulk cargoes of coal, oil, ores and finished products for its parent company. The system calculates financial and technical voyae details; financial calculations include ship/time costs, port expenses, etc.
The next video is about an Hurricane Evacuation Decision Support System presented by Robert Collins (Sr. Planner) and Tim Ledet (Group Manager) showing an example of a DSS.
ESS helps senior management make these decisions. They address non-routine decisions requiring judgment, evaluation, and insight because there is no agreed-on procedure for arriving at a solution. ESS are designed to incorporate data about external events, such as new tax laws or competitors, but they also draw summarized information from internal MIS and DSS.
For example, the CEO of Leiner Health Products, one of the largest manufacturers of private-label vitamins and supplements in the United States, has an ESS that provides on his desktop a minute-to minute view of the firm’s financial performance as measured by working capital, accounts receivable, accounts payable, cash flow, and inventory. The information is presented in the form of a digital dashboard, which displays on a single screen graphs and charts of key performance indicators for managing a company.
Transaction Processing Systems (TPS)
Operations managers need systems that keep track of the elementary activities and transactions of the organisation, such as sales, receipts, cash deposits, payroll, credit decisions, and the flow of material in a factory. TPS provides this kind of information. For example a TPS can supply employee payments history data for insurance, pension, and other benefits calculations to a firm’s human resource function and employee payment data to government agencies such as the U.S. Internal Revenue Service and Social Security Administration.
Expert Systems
Management Information, decision support, and executive support systems help managers make decisions by providing and analyzing information. They do not, however, advise the decision maker on what to do. An expert system (ES), on the other hand, is a type of information system that gives expert advice to the decision maker. An expert system mimics the way a human expert would analyze a situation and then recommends a course of action. The accomplishes this task by incorporating human expert knowledge and by using this knowledge to analyze specific problems.
An early example of an expert system is Mycin, which was developed at Stanford University in the 1970s. it was used by doctors to help diagnose certain diseases and to recommend treatment. a more recent example is an expert system developed by American Express to decide whether to issue a credit card to a customer. ( Nickerson 2001).
Example:
In Africa, the Ghanaian village of Bonsaaso, Community health workers (CHWs) with basic training, a skilled midwife, an ambulance driver and a receiving hospital use mobile phones to coordinate as a team. Ever more deliveries now take place in the clinic rather than at home; in the event of complications, the mother is whisked to a receiving hospital about 10 miles away. Mobile phone connectivity among community, clinic, ambulance and hospital makes possible a once unthinkable degree of coordination.
In the Kenyan village of Sauri, also part of the Millennium Village Project, CHWs are pioneering the application of expert systems for malaria control. In the past, suspected malaria patients had to walk or be carried to a clinic, often miles away, have a blood smear read under a microscope by a trained technician and, if positive, receive a prescription. With clinics few and far between and with trained technicians and microscopes even scarcer, untreated, lethal malaria ran rampant.
In the new approach, CHWs visit households on the lookout for fevers that may signify malaria. They carry rapid diagnostic tests that examine a drop of blood for the presence of the malaria pathogen. Then they send an SMS (short service message) text with the patient’s ID and the test results. Seconds later an automated text response informs the health worker of the proper course of treatment, if any. The system can also send reminders about any follow-up treatments or scheduled clinic visits for the patient. The new system of malaria control includes insecticide-treated bed nets made to last for five years and a new generation of combination drugs based on a traditional Chinese herbal treatment, artemisinin.
This full set of tools constitutes a remarkably effective malaria-control system. Already a partial deployment of the system is reducing the malaria burden dramatically in several parts of Africa. Modest international financial support could greatly accelerate the deployment of the full system, and if it were scaled up throughout Africa, hundreds of thousands of lives could be saved annually at around $7 per person a year in the malaria-transmission zones.
India is similarly scaling up rural public health by deploying advanced information technologies, CHWs and improved management systems. In the past, public health data became available only after rounds of surveys three years apart, and those results were used mainly for research purposes. Now key data will increasingly be available after only hours or days and will be used for real-time health system management.
Checklists, teamwork and telecommunications-based expert systems can revolutionize rural farm yields, disease control, business networks, rural finance, education systems, and much more. Soon farmers will be able to enter local data for advice on specific soil needs, timing on the planting season, drought and rainfall forecasts, market prices and logistics. Mobile-phone-based banking and payments services will penetrate even the most remote regions. With development aid directed toward these new systems, the world’s capacity to reduce poverty, hunger and illness—and the violence that accompanies them—will become more powerful and effective than ever
References:
Curtis, G and Cobham, D (2008) Business Information Systems: Analysis, Design and Practice. Graham . 6th Edition. Prentice Hall. England).
Nickerson, R. (2001) Business and Information Systems. Second Edition.Prentice Hall:New Jersey.
Today's blog is an overview of the introduction of systems in Small Medium Enterprises (SME). It will briefly reflect some of the decision processes implicated in the implementation system or systematisation of an organisation.
Before starting, just to have an idea of the statistical analysis of small businesses in the UK and information on small businesses government policy, it is said that in 2012, there were 4.8 million businesses in the UK; over 99% of these businesses were small or medium sized businesses, employing less than 250 people; 4.6 million or 96% of all businesses were micro-businesses – employing 0-9 people.
It has been discussed some objectives of Systematisation in Small Business. Just to mention some of them: Enables work to be allocated to the lowest possible cost resource, improving profitability; frees up the owner (s) to work more on growing the businesses; provides a platform for further growth; allows measurement and improvement of the business processes; reduces risk by enabling employees to perform a range of processes by following the procedures; systemise the business, is the first step towards Knowledge Management, making explicit the knowledge of the owner and key staff; aid forecasting and allow greater control; systems that the owner can access when he is away from the business. According with their needs, aims and goals, businesses decide what systems to have, or according their needs, they are advised to have different systems for their different functions withing the organisation.
For instance, a small business will have an accounting system that enables then to keep track of financial performance; it may be used only for looking at recent past data and historical trends; larger organisations may use it to forecast revenues and costs, etc.
Those systems may be either 0n-site software e.g. Sage or Quickbooks, or a Cloud based solution like Kashflow.
Moreover, when communication between managers, sales, prospects, current customers, suppliers, etc. might be complex even in small organisations, therefore, at this stage the business may well be looking at Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software to support the tracking of sales and managing a growing number of client relationships.
Further, ERP systems enable the enterprise to streamline and integrate virtually all operations and functions from order processing to vendor and customer relationship management. These relatively expensive and sophisticated computer-based systems were afforded only by large business organisations in the past. But recently, as they proved to be very effective in providing large enterprises significant competitive advantage over those that did not implement ERP solutions, they became more available and affordable for SMEs as well (Olsen and Saetre, 2007).
Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems are increasingly becoming commonplace in the small and medium enterprise (SME) sector and are being viewed as one of the prime ways to achieve competitive advantage and to re-engineer processes (Gable and Stewart, 1999).
Furthermore, ERP software is aimed at combining the disparate sources of information within an organisation into a central database. Since each data element is populated only once it eliminates multiple data entry and ensures better data visibility within the organisation. The ERP systems typically encompass all functions including finance, sales, CRM, accounting, manufacturing, payroll, etc. (Al-Mashari, 2003; Chung and Snyder, 2000).
Additionally, effective planning and utilization of IT resources involves analysis of available IT sourcing options to effectively respond to environmental changes and exploit IT for gaining competitive advantage. SMEs are subject to similar outsourcing decision considerations as large businesses to ensure their ongoing survival. This includes choosing the optimal software sourcing option when implementing new enterprise software systems. Organizations need to weigh their options relative to their capabilities. (SME ERP system sourcing strategies: a case study).
Software as a service (SaaS) means that cash strapped SMEs do not need to make large investmentsin software, can upgrade when they want while cloud computing minimizes their legacy systems. They can use what they need and then discard it at will, assing new facets to their systems as they grow. (Mellor, 2011)
Furthermore, the edges between technologies are becoming blurred so choice of a particular functionality may well follow available resources, which change in a developmental fashion as the organisation evolves and grows: For example, with work sharing in a particular environment one may wish to start with a free collaborative mashup - like Google Wave - then later progressing to a more secure widget system like e.g. Work Light while for a similar function a large and more solvent organisation may prefer an out-of-the-box solution like MS Groove similarly an organisation may choose a free CRM like SugarCRM before they invest in e.g. MS Dynamics CRM, these again may usefully have links to other corporate services, typically the IT helpdesk, which in turn may be running a proprietary product like Hewlett Packard Open View or open source alternatives like Request Tracker or Summit Seven. (Mellor, 2011)
As an example of a SME and the needs and selection of sofware, it is Albion Fabrics Ltd.
After having various issues regarding their Knowledge sharing amonsgt the workforce, clients ans suppliers; an appropiate KMS that meet the business needs; an appropiate technologies to support the initiatives and the management challenges in implementing the KM initiatives, the CEO received couple of recommentations. However, there were more challenges after all, and other needs were identified such us:
Information System (IS) to support key business processes of CRM and Sourcing (suppliers, etc.).
Potential software for Albion and approach.
Cost for Albion.
Process to implement the new systems
Therefore, other reccomendations were made:
First of all the approach sugested was CLOUD, because of its cost savings, universal access, up to date software, choice of applications, potential to be greener and more economical, flexibility. Other approaches are: on-site, hybrid. Different software were suggested.
Moreover, there are different factors that SME or any other organisation may have in mind when choosing an enterprise software:
Price
Payment terms
Ease of use/ease of deployment
Does it do what we need? Fit of the product to the company requirement
Is it flexible? Can they buy certain modules now, and add news ones later
Does it scale? As they grow will the solution still be a good one
How is the company that provides the software doing? Are they growing? Will they continue to have money to invest in the product?
Do they have customers like us using this?
And finally, the process to implement a new system coul be:
Select: Organisation Requirements
Project Management and Communication: Identify internal activities
Contracting and Software Licensing
Customisation: according to the organisational needs
Data Migration
Training and Support
References:
Amerpohl, N (2005) Systems for your company. 17(5), 14-17.
Chris Rhodes (2012) Small businesses and the UK economy Economic Policy and Statistics.
Deep, A, et al (2008) Investigating factors affecting ERP selection in made-to-order SME sector. Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management. Emerald Group Publishing Limited Vol. 19 No. 4, 2008. pp. 430-446.
Mellor, R. (2011) Knowledge Management and Information Systems: Strategies for Growing Organizations. Palgrave Macmillan.
Sledgianowski, D, et al. (2008) SME ERP system sourcing strategies: a case study. Source: Industrial Management Data Systems. Volume: 108 Issue: 4.
Numerousstudies has been done in the field of the Information
Systems (IS) and its artifacts because of its diversity and the rapid changes that
it have been incurred by the continued evolution.
Examination has also been done in order to establish the suitability of
the Cynefin framework, developed for knowledge management, as a suitable tool
for sense-making in Information Systems.
Cynefin is a holistic sense-making framework developed through research and practice of Knowledge Management (KM) by Dave Snowden (2002) when working at IBM.
Cynefin has the meaning of "Habitat" or "Place". Place of multiple belongings: culture, religious, geographic, tribal, etc. (Snowden, 2002)
Cynefin consists of five domains:
Simple: cause and effect relationship exist, are predictable and
are repeatable. As a result in this domain there is a sense-categorize-respond (Best Practice).
Complicated: here there is a cause and effect but is no evident, therefore, managers should sense-analyze-respond (Good Practice) here there are different ways of doing things if managers and or leader have expertise, however it could be dangerous try to make people to adopt one of them.
Complex: which is a system without causality, there are unpredictable and emergent outcomes. Here managers and or leaders probe-sense and respond (Emergent practice). They could do experiments and try to solve problems, however, the results are not unique.
Chaos: Here the decision model is Act-Sense-Respond (Novel Practice). It is an entry to a situation where the problem is not clear, therefore the possible solution is unclear. This could be described as crisis management that requires a creative action.
Disorder: the fifth central domain, which is the destructive state of not knowing what type of causality exists and thus not knowing which way of working is best. While problems may legitimately be allowed to exist in the other four domains if approached with suitable solutions, those in states of disorder are normally harmful and should be guided into one of the other domains.
Another important point here is how the process after making sense of the organisation and its business problems continues. It carries on with an Envisioning (working out what ideal knowledge work would lead to improvement), then Designing (choosing what knowledge agents, knowledge flows and knowledge work), then Exploring ( examining what if any IT is needed to
support the emerging KMS) and finally Evolving (managing change in the KMS until some future point when the
organization’s needs would require that sense‐making be undertaken to begin the cycle again). this process should be followed by any organisation, any kind of business of any size in the process of decision-making.
In proposing the Cynefin model, initially for KM but increasingly for other areas of investigation, Snowden (2002) makes a point of strongly resisting the existence of a single or idealized model but rather sees the key to survival and growth as coming from the ability to adapt to change through diversity of approach.
Cynefin
provides a research tool that spans the increasing breadth of capability of the
IS artefact, its support for human activities and its continuing evolution into
unanticipated new forms. Cynefin is neither a definitive solution to
all IS problems nor a grand theory to explain all things. (Hasan et al, 2009).
References
Aboubakr A. et al (2009). Towards a Practical Guide for Developing Knowledge Management Systems in Small Organizations. London: Midlesex University.
Hasan, H. M. & Kazlauskas, A. (2009). Making sense of IS with the Cynefin framework. Proceedings of the Pacific Asia Conference on Information Systems (PACIS) (pp. 1-13). Hyderabad, India: Indian School of Business.
Moteleb A.A, Woodman M., and Critten P. (2009). Towards
a Practical Guide for Developing Knowledge Management Systems in Small
Organizations. Procs. European Conference
on Knowledge Management, Vicenza, Italy,
September 2009
Snowden, D and Boone, M (2007) A Leader’s Framework for Decision Making. Harvard Business Review.
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