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Institute
The skill shortage is becoming an ever-increasing challenge for IT departments. Allocation of resources in the best possible way is even more important. The challenge is to improve the enterprise not only on the side of the organizational and process level, but to develop new strategies and approaches in human resource management. Only a symbiosis of the disciplines economics, psychology and information technology will enable relevant and indispensable employees and promote loyalty to the company. A frequent change of the work place, for a well-trained professional, is so long associated with normality until they find the best environment for fulfilling their needs and expectations. These expectations are no longer just on a financial level. This paper will analyse the previous work on these topics and demonstrate first conclusions regarding a way forward.
Interactions among people have substantially changed since the emergence of social networks, the expansion of the Internet and the proliferation of connected mobile devices, and so have the possibilities of collaborative learning, with the inclusion of new e-learning platforms. From this point, assessing human knowledge in these virtual environments is not a trivial task. This work presents a novel cloud-computing-based service which relies on advanced artificial intelligence mechanisms to infer knowledge and interest from users considering the aggregated data presented from/to these users in different social networks. This way it is possible to assess with a certain degree of confidence the user knowledge level in different topics as well as recommend additional specific education related to his/her former studies in order to get a better/desired job.
This paper aims to present a solution that enables organizations to monitor and analyse the performance of their business processes by means of Big Data technology. Business process improvement can drastically influence in the profit of corporations and helps them to remain viable. However, the use of traditional Business Intelligence systems is not sufficient to meet today's business needs. They normally are business domain-specific and have not been sufficiently process-aware to support the needs of process improvement-type activities, especially on large and complex supply chains, where it entails integrating, monitoring and analysing a vast amount of dispersed event logs, with no structure, and produced on a variety of heterogeneous environments. This paper tackles this variability by devising different Big Data based approaches that aim to gain visibility into process performance.
The authors propose a resource management process for information security management systems to more transparently plan and assign costs of controls. The process relies on and is compliant with international standards of the ISO/IEC 27000 family and can be implemented by all organizations regardless of type, size, or nature.
Modern day labour market is influenced by different factors, mainly by ambitious investment in latest machinery, office automation software systems and computer-based solutions. Utilization of computer has benefited the employment market on vast scale, depending on the requirements of a particular business, its size and financial capabilities, and the intention to use. Furthermore, unparalleled technologies, such as cloud computing and smart technologies has directly affected demand for modern day labour. Nowadays, the utility model of cloud computing made it more popular and a favourite choice for the institutes to free up their internal resources and also reduce the number of administrative staff needed to maintain it. With certain kinds of offerings, institutes operating at small scales are also benefitting, which was almost impossible only a decade ago. Given that, the successful utilization of cloud computing remains a topic of extra ordinary importance among the scholars, experts, interested groups and several other institutions, and is defined in different ways according to their particular understanding and usage. But cloud is best defined by National institutes of standard and technology.
Purpose Without effective implementation, no information technology (IT) strategy can succeed. There has been much re-search into IT planning, but few studies have developed one of the most important phases of IT strategy: IT Implementation. IT implementation can be improved at information and communication technology (ICT) organizations through the use of organization learning models (OLM) and the implementation of ICT tools. This paper has two purposes define an OLM framework that determines the best practices to increase knowledge at individual, group and/organizational levels, and define and implement an ICT tool to facilitate the integration and institutionalization of the OLM. The ICT tool is based on the technology roadmapping technique that allows an organization to manage at an executive level what, when and how the IT strategy is going to be implemented. Design/methodology/approach This paper is based on a case study performed at an ICT organization that provides ICT services to financial institutions. The study was carried out in 2014. It analyzed over 24,000 projects, which translated into an equivalent of more than 18 million man-hours. The proposal was assessed at a very large ICT organization. Findings This paper proposes a framework called SPIDER to effectively implement OLMs based on Big Data management principles for monitoring and reporting current status of IT innovation strategies. These kinds of approaches contribute to solve the problems identified in the state-of-the-art regarding the communication and monitoring the implementation status of IT innovation strategies. During this research work, several factors that are essential to implement these kinds of approaches in large banking organizations were identified: effort required to elaborate the monitoring and reporting activities; easiness to understand the reported information; detailed planning of the implementation program; and focus on communication efficiency. Originality/value This paper determined the best practices to manage knowledge generated during the implementation of an IT strategy. Additionally, this paper defined and implemented an ICT tool to properly communicate and monitor the implementation of an IT innovation strategy, based on technological roadmap techniques.
This paper provides an overview of cloud governance aspects based on a representative survey of trends in the perception, assessment and adoption of cloud computing within the enterprise. The survey was conducted through a twofold research approach and combined a meta-study of existing and published empirical studies with an own empirical study within a representative group of European and international enterprises. We consider governance through the prism of adoption drivers and focus on the role of cloud brokers and cloud marketplaces more specifically, as well as the inclusion of semantic based strategies oriented to enhance the quality of service offered by cloud service brokers.
Cloud-Computing, insbesondere „Software as a Service (SaaS)“ und „Platform as a Service (PaaS)“ ist zugleich Herausforderung und Chance für IT-Anwender. Marktplatz-Ansätze aus der Welt der mobilen Applikationen (App Stores) können eine Grundlage für die Vermarktung von Software-Diensten darstellen. Ihre Konzepte lassen sich jedoch nur durch eine erweiterte Betrachtung von funktionalen und nicht-funktionalen Aspekten der webbasierten Dienste in die Welt des Cloud Computing übertragen.
Application Stores und Marktplätze für webbasierte Dienste (z.B. Asperado, Cloud-Portal, Software-Marktplatz) helfen bei Identifizierung und Bewertung der Angebote und bei der Kommunikation mit potentiellen Kunden.
We present MagicMap, a cooperative, hybrid positioning system developed at the Humboldt-University in Berlin. While most other positioning systems are limited to specific scenarios and technologies our system provides means to incorporate any available wireless networking technology. Currently, MagicMap supports WLAN, RFID, and ZigBee as wireless technologies for positioning and Linux, Windows, and Windows CE as platforms. Position calculation and exchange is based on a cooperative approach allowing an open internet community to share the required data.
Cloud computing, especially Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), changes the IT processes of companies for application deployment, access, usage, maintenance, governance and management. In an age of Bring-Your-Own-Device, small businesses through to globally operating companies increasingly support their employees and customers with SaaS-applications that allow access to internal and external business information. Whether employees are in the office, at a client facility, at home or on the road, they need fast, easy access to business applications with any type of device.
SaaS offers companies an interesting alternative to classical on-premise IT solutions. Cloud computing provides innovative applications, high connectivity and performance, cost reduction, flexibility and fast time to market with a minimum of effort. Cloud computing is a special form of outsourcing that has its roots in the fifties. Ten years ago similar concepts to cloud computing e.g. Application Service Providing (ASP) appeared and failed. But it seems that the willingness to use cloud computing is now much higher and the cost pressure effects of the financial crisis also motivate decision makers in companies to focus on cloud computing.
This contribution presents the results of actual scientific literature investigations alongside interviews with owners of Software-as-a-Service Marketplaces. It describes several types of SaaS marketplaces using different business models to bring together customers and providers. It shows that SaaS marketplaces are two-sided and demonstrates how platforms are emerging that bundle features into significant value propositions for both sides.
This work is relevant to firms who seek business solution recommendations beyond the focus of their on-premise-focussed advisors. It is also relevant for owners and potential owners of SaaS marketplaces and SaaS providers exploring alternatives in their distribution mix.
The emergence of the Internet of Services and the Internet of Devices opens new possibilities for societal computung scenarios. Ambient Intelligence (AmI) is a vision of an environment that puts the needs of the user in the center of the technological design process. An AmI environment consists of ubiquitous distributed devices such as sensors, displays, data memories which are embedded in everyday objects like walls, clothes, tables or the pavement. These devices are interconnected and seamlessly deliver applications and services to the user. AmI emphasizes the intelligence of the environments interfaces and the intelligence that can be achieved by correlating context information from different data sources. In this work we present an approach to transfer the AmI vision to the public services sector using the paradigm of service orientation and Cloud Computing. Based on scenarios in the healthcare sector the benefits and challenges of such transfer are presented.
CERO: CE RObots Community
(2005)
We describe our experience creating a robots community using standard hardware and software - the Windows CE operating system, XScale development boards, and LEGO Mindstorm actuators. We focus on an open and extendable distributed robotics system, which in contrast to most existing proprietary robotics systems, supports cost-effective integration and assembly of components while providing dependable communication and coordination. To demonstrate feasibility we have developed the CERO Framework for ad hoc cooperation in robots communities employing a service-oriented architecture with the main building blocks: ad hoc networking for different wireless technologies (e.g., Bluetooth, WLAN, or 433 MHz radio communication), a protocol for interconnecting development board and actuators, and a CE.NET based software framework supporting complex movements, consensus protocols, cooperation, and positioning. It offers high-level interfaces for programming complex tasks in cooperative robotics. We also present an overview of intended applications.
Composability is a sought after property. However, whereas there is usually an intuitive understanding of this concept, a clear definition has been frequently missing.
In this paper, we refine our concept of composability given in. We see composability as a property of an architecture not of systems. In addition, we do not want to reduce composability to the functional specification; rather, we are focusing on how composability effects the nonfunctional properties, especially the composed system's real-time behavior, its reliability, its security, etc. We see the advantage of our approach in having a wide application domain. It works for functional and non-functional properties, it may consider both, hardware and software, and it allows for a description of composition anomalies.
In this paper, we show how to apply our concept to an embedded hardware-software co-designed architecture and to composition and decomposition of dependable services in embedded environments.
In this report we present an architectural approach to add quality-of-service (QoS) assurance and location awareness to service-based systems within existing clinical infrastructures. To address typical design requirements of such systems (e.g., cooperating services, performance and availability) the work proposes a service-oriented architecture (SOA) as architectural concept and architectural translucency to provide stable QoS. We evaluate position sensing systems, QoS assurance approaches and present design principles for service-based health care applications. Furthermore, we present a clinical application scenario and an architectural approach to integrate existing infrastructure into a human centric assistance system.
Bei der Datenerhebung und -verarbeitung durch AAL-Infrastruktur im Pflegesektor sind rechtliche Rahmenbedingungen zu prüfen, die die Nutzung der Messdaten juristisch zulässig machen. Hierzu wurden die in der praxisnahen Pflegeliteratur dargestellten Rechtsnormen zusammengefasst und kategorisiert. Somit ließ sich ermitteln, welche Daten als schützenswert zu definieren und mit welchen Sicherungsmaßnahmen zu versehen sind. Auf dieser Basis kann ein Ansatz präsentiert werden, der eine rechtlich unbedenkliche Absicherung aller technischen Elemente bei der Implementierung einer AAL-Infrastruktur in der Pflege ermöglicht.
Berlin ist eine der großen europäischen Hauptstädte mit einem breiten Angebot an öffentlichen Dienstleistungen (Public Services). 2003 hat der Berliner Senat den „Landesbetrieb für Gebäudebewirtschaftung" (LfG) gegründet, der die Facility Management Aktivitäten des Landes bündelt. Seit 2005 wird zusammen mit der TU Berlin der Einsatz innovativer Informations-technologien (IT) in diesem Bereich konsequent erweitert. Die Kombination aus einer unauffälligen (unobtrusiven) IT-Infrastruktur und einer flächendeckenden und kontextbezogenen Einsetzbarkeit wird oft als ambient bezeichnet und stellt sehr spezifische Anforderungen an die Gestaltung der Mensch-Maschine-Interaktionen. In diesem Beitrag wird die Gestaltung eines Systems für die Ver- und Entsorgung als Teil der Facility Management Aufgaben beschrieben. Ausgehend von der Beschreibung unseres Vorgehensmodells zur Erhebung der Ist-Prozesse und Usability Evaluation, werden in einem zweiten Schritt Nutzerprofile erstellt und die Ist-Prozesse um diese erweitert. Die zweite Hälfte des Beitrags beschreibt das eingeführte, ambiente Ver- und Entsorgungssystem, zusammen mit einigen Interaktionsszenarien. Abschließend erfolgt eine Evaluierung der Wirtschaftlichkeit und der Usability des Systems.
Service-oriented architecture (SOA) in the enterprise was one of the key enablers for cloud computing. Therefore, it can serve as a natural fit for bringing traditional IT governance approaches forward to the challenges of cloud governance. In this work we present an approach for mapping IT governance mindsets to the aspects of SOA governance. It allows an IT organisation the adaptation and the continuous usage of already established governance models during the adoption of cloud computing solutions. We also present an application case study where we demonstrate the feasibility of the approach in real-life scenarios in the context of an international telecommunication provider.
IT departments within enterprises often utilize incident management and ticketing systems. While performance data from such systems is often stored in logfiles it is rarely evaluated extensively. In this work we assess the applicability of an approach for extended evaluation of logged data from such systems. Our evaluation is focused on Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and aims to discover more in-depth insights as compared to typical data visualization and dashboard techniques.
We also present a practical case study where we demonstrate the feasibility of the approach using real-life logfiles from an international telecommunication provider. Our modeling methodology is based on the approach of System Dynamics.
When optimizing IT operations organizations typically aim to optimize resource usage. In general, there are two kinds of IT resources - IT infrastructures and IT staff. An optimized utilization of these resources requires both quantitative and qualitative analysis. While IT infrastructures can offer raw data for such analyses, data about IT staff often requires additional preparation and augmentation. One source for IT staff-related data can be provided by incident management and ticketing systems. While performance data from such systems is often stored in logfiles it is rarely evaluated extensively. In this article we propose the usage of such data sources for IT staff behavior evaluation and also present the relevant augmentation techniques. We claim that our approach is able to provide more in-depth insights as compared to typical data visualization and dashboard techniques. Our modeling methodology is based on the approach of system dynamics. We also provide formal models and simulation results where we demonstrate the feasibility of the approach using real-life logfiles from an international telecommunication provider.
Cloud Computing is emerging as a predominant paradigm for obtaining and providing computing functionality in the enterprise. Organizations that are planning to use cloud computing offerings struggle with the question “How do I choose the right offering?” Cloud offerings exhibit a variety of pricing models and different levels of service and functionality. In this article the authors define first Cloud Computing in the context of IT Governance. Then they set criteria to compare different offerings at the level of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS). This is an important precondition for the reduction of the verifiable information asymmetry and uncertainty in the cloud market. Besides deficiencies on the supply side, regarding configuration, display and communication of service bundles, the limited knowledge of potential buyers is main reason for the modest adoption. The authors apply strategies derived from information economics to reduce this asymmetry by integrating information substitutes in the service marketplace description, thereby transforming experience and credence qualities into search qualities.
Dependability should be considered throughout the phases of the SOA life cycle. This article proposes the application of a service level management approach to address dependability and presents dependability-related activities for every stage (Model, Assemble, Deploy, and Manage) of the SOA life cycle. Furthermore, we describe the concepts and the formalisms that are behind these activities. Following these activities service providers and aggregators can offer optimized levels of dependability from their existing services and thus better meet user requirements.
Knowledge of behavioral patterns of a system can contribute to an optimized management and governance of the same system, or of similar systems. While human experience often manifests itself as intuition, intuition can be notoriously misleading, particularly in the case of quantitative data and subtle relations between different data sets. This article augments managerial intuition with knowledge derived from a specific byproduct of automated transaction processing performance and log data of the processing software. More specifically, the authors consider data generated by incident management and ticketing systems within IT support departments. The authors’ approach utilizes a rigorous analysis methodology based on System Dynamics. This allows for identifying real causalities and hidden dependencies between different datasets. The authors can then use them to derive and assemble knowledge bases for improved management and governance in this context. This approach is able to provide more in depth insights as compared to typical data visualization and dashboard techniques. In the experimental results section, the authors demonstrate the feasibility of the approach. It is applied on real life datasets and log files from an international telecommunication provider and considered different improvements in management and governance that result from it.
Enterprises today often strive to keep up with the paces of technological development. A particular case in point is the IT function where traditional governance approaches are often questioned by technology trends. Examples for such trends in the last ten years are the service-oriented architecture (SOA) and cloud computing. The introduction of SOA in the enterprise was one of the key enablers for cloud computing. Therefore, it can serve as a natural fit for bringing traditional IT governance approaches forward to the challenges of cloud governance. This article presents an approach for extending IT governance mindsets to the areas of SOA and cloud governance. It allows an IT organisation the adaptation and the continuous usage of already established governance knowledge and models during the adoption of cloud computing solutions. The authors also present an application case study where they demonstrate the feasibility of the approach in real-life scenarios in the context of an international telecommunication provider.
The purpose of this work is to provide a representative survey of current trends in the perception, assessment and adoption of cloud computing within the enterprise. Cloud computing can be regarded as the general principle for using and providing web and grid services. First, we provide a meta-study, where we evaluate existing and published empirical studies. Furthermore, we conduct and evaluate an own empirical study with a representative group of European and International enterprises. Key findings of the work include the significantly higher importance of Business Drivers for the adoption of cloud computing, as compared to Technical Drivers.
A key point that remains to be addressed is the assurance of service levels for end-user applications that rely on these provider models. This chapter describes an approach for addressing non-functional properties (NFPs) of services in service-oriented architectures (SOA). The approach is based on reference models such as the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) and the SOA life cycle model. It has been applied in several industrial settings in the telecommunications sector.
Purely knowledge-based activities are of an increasing importance for modern enterprises. Moreover, innovative companies are focusing entirely on such high-profile activities and outsourcing the supporting tasks. In this work we focus on university spin-outs as an example. Such companies often enjoy the provision of administrative infrastructure (e.g., accounting, facilities) within an ”incubator” area and can focus exclusively on innovation.
The transfer of research ideas to the marketplace typically involves selection and targeted prioritization of these ideas. Project Portfolio Management (PPM) can be a viable framework for this prioritization. The necessary structuring of project ideas can be provided by a standardized process with defined functions (data repository, project assessment, selection, reporting, and portfolio reevaluation).
While PPM is generally regarded as beneficial for large organizations, we show that similar benefits can be expected within innovative SMEs. In this work we discuss such benefits and related knowledge and learning strategies.
Cloud Computing is emerging as a predominant paradigm for obtaining and providing computing functionality in the enterprise. Organizations that are planning to use cloud computing offerings struggle with the question “How do I choose the right offering?” Cloud offerings exhibit a variety of pricing models and different levels of service and functionality. In this article the authors define first Cloud Computing in the context of IT Governance. Then they set criteria to compare different offerings at the level of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS). This is an important precondition for the reduction of the verifiable information asymmetry and uncertainty in the cloud market. Besides deficiencies on the supply side, regarding configuration, display and communication of service bundles, the limited knowledge of potential buyers is main reason for the modest adoption. The authors apply strategies derived from information economics to reduce this asymmetry by integrating information substitutes in the service marketplace description, thereby transforming experience and credence qualities into search qualities.
Objectives/rationale: Healthcare systems all over the world are facing difficult challenges that have a direct impact and influence the delivery of healthcare services. As a response healthcare institutions are relying in the implementation of Information and communication technologies (ICTs) to overcome difficulties and satisfy patients’ demands in a cost-effective way adopting new technologies capable to innovate, extend, and redefine the way healthcare has been delivered for decades. New technological innovations such as Internet of things (IoT), Smart item technology, and cloud computing can improve the traditional e-healthcare system and extend service provision beyond the hospital facilities by using wireless sensor networks (WSN) and radio frequency identification devices (RFID), providing a new type of services advertised as “smart.” This type of services, enable doctors to treat patients remotely and allows people to do their normal daily routines, occupations, and activities while receiving appropriate, timely, and high-quality ubiquitous healthcare services.
Methods: An exploratory study is performed to review the route towards smart healthcare services, emphasizing the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) and smart item technology as enhancers for smart healthcare services provision.
Results/findings: A new technological infrastructure promises to transform medical practice and disease prevention by empowering healthcare institutions with smart items for remote patient monitoring eliminating time-wasting procedures, reducing health costs, improving quality of service and patients satisfaction.
Implications/conclusions: Traditional e-healthcare system is transitioning into an interconnected smart-healthcare system potentiated by new technological advances capable to extend healthcare service provision and offer smart healthcare services.
Information overload is becoming bigger as internet grows. This entails several problems such as difficulty in finding information and redundancy of knowledge. In this paper, a solution of these problems is presented as a global representation of knowledge based on human perception, and modelled by means of ontologies. In this study we present the approach with several advantages as well as some drawbacks related to state of the art technologies.
In this article we argue that smart items and cloud computing can be powerful enablers of servitization as business trend. This is exemplified by an application scenario in healthcare that was developed in the context of the OpSIT-Project in Germany. We present a three-level architecture for a smart healthcare infrastructure. The approach is based on a service-oriented architecture and extends established architectural approaches developed previously at our group. More specifically, it integrates a role model, a layered cloud computing architecture, as well as a fog-computing-informed paradigm in order to provide a viable architecture for healthcare and elderly-care applications. The integration of established paradigms is beneficial with respect to providing adequate quality of service and governance (e.g., data privacy and compliance). It has been verified by expert interviews with healthcare specialists and IT professionals. To further demonstrate the validity of this architectural model, we provide an example use-case as a template for any kind of smart sensor-based healthcare infrastructure.
Interactions among people have substantially changed since the emergence of social networks, the expansion of the Internet and the proliferation of connected mobile devices, and so have the possibilities of collaborative learning, with the inclusion of new e-learning platforms. From this point, assessing human knowledge in these virtual environments is not a trivial task. This work presents a novel cloud-computing-based service which relies on advanced artificial intelligence mechanisms to infer knowledge and interest from users considering the aggregated data presented from/to these users in different social networks. This way it is possible to assess with a certain degree of confidence the user knowledge level in different topics as well as recommend additional specific education related to his/her former studies in order to get a better/desired job.
The present paper introduces a hybrid technique to measure the expertise of users by analyzing their profiles and activities in social networks. Currently, both job seekers and talent hunters are looking for new and innovative techniques to filter jobs and candidates where candidates are trying to improve and make their profiles more attractive. In this sense, the Skillrank approach is based on the conjunction of existing and well-known information and expertise retrieval techniques that perfectly fit the existing web and social media environment to deliver an intelligent component to integrate the user context in the analysis of skills confidence. A major outcome of this approach is that it actually takes advantage of existing data and information available on the web to perform both a ranked list of experts in a field and a confidence value for every professional skill. Thus, expertise and experts can be detected, verified, and ranked using a suited trust metric. An experiment to validate the Skillrank technique based on precision and recall metrics is also presented using two different datasets: (1) ad hoc created using real data from a professional social network and (2) real data extracted from the LinkedIn API.
The complexity of providing medical care in a high-tech environment with a highly specialized, limited labour force makes hospitals more crisis-prone than other industries. An effective defence against crises is only possible if the organizational resilience and the capacity to handle crises become part of the hospitals’ organizational culture. To become more resilient to crises, a raised awareness — especially in the area of human resource (HR) — is necessary. The aim of this paper is to contribute to the process robustness against crises through the identification and evaluation of relevant HR crises and their causations in hospitals.
Qualitative and quantitative methods were combined to identify and evaluate crises in hospitals in the HR sector. A structured workshop with experts was conducted to identify HR crises and their descriptions, as well as causes and consequences for patients and hospitals. To evaluate the findings, an online survey was carried out to rate the occurrence (past, future) and dangerousness of each crisis.
Six HR crises were identified in this study: staff shortages, acute loss of personnel following a pandemic, damage to reputation, insufficient communication during restructuring, bullying, and misuse of drugs. The highest occurrence probability in the future was seen in staff shortages, followed by acute loss of personnel following a pandemic. Staff shortages, damage to reputation, and acute loss of personnel following a pandemic were seen as the most dangerous crises.
The study concludes that coping with HR crises in hospitals is existential for hospitals and requires increased awareness. The six HR crises identified occurred regularly in German hospitals in the past, and their occurrence probability for the future was rated as high.
Information overload is becoming bigger as internet grows. This entails several problems such as difficulty in finding information and redundancy of knowledge. In this paper, a solution of these problems is presented as a global representation of knowledge based on human perception, and modelled by means of ontologies. In this study we present the approach with several advantages as well as some drawbacks related to state of the art technologies.
The aim of this paper is to investigate the motivations that lead higher education students to replace several Learning Management Systems (LMS) services with cloud file hosting services for information sharing and collaboration among them. The research approach is based on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). More specifically, the model is devoted to identifying barriers and enablers to the acceptance of these technologies. A questionnaire comprising three factors (Attitude toward using technology, Perceived ease of use and Perceived usefulness) was applied to a sample consisting of 121 higher education students. Results show that the
perceived ease of use of cloud file hosting services is above that of LMS tools and services and that cloud file hosting services presented higher levels of perceived usefulness than standard learning management tools. In addition, attitude toward using cloud file hosting services is well above that of using LMS tools.
Use of cloud computing in healthcare is a promising trend, particularly in utilization of smart items. Access, affordability and quality to proper healthcare is a great challenge in world society. With the utilization of smart sensors, there are possibilities to improve the quality of healthcare services whenever needed. Hence, such smart items services lead to economic advantages for the whole healthcare system. Keeping in mind these opportunities as well as challenges such as security or legal issues, it is important to bring healthcare and IT together. As a result, healthcare business processes need to be modeled in order to provide IT solutions tailored for practice-oriented applications. In this paper, we present a three-level architecture for a smart healthcare infrastructure. Our approach is based on recent literature work and results from conducted expert interviews with healthcare specialists and IT professionals. To demonstrate the applicability of this architecture model, we provide an example use-case as a template for any kind of smart sensor-based healthcare infrastructure.
In German hospitals there is a need for optimized crisis- and risk management. About one third of all hospital-acquired patient damages are due to medication errors. The aim of our interdisciplinary project “Risk Management in Hospitals” is to analyze the behavior of the various key players in the fields of medical care, human resources, supply and IT-systems in the context of various simulated risk scenarios as well as to develop adequate risk management tools. In this abstract, the first Results on medication errors are presented.
Assessment of Continuing Educational Measures in Software Engineering: a View from the Industry
(2016)
In a field like Software Engineering, highly dependent on knowledge, continuing education is key to warrantee business sustainability. In this scenario, relying on continuing educational measures is crucial to support organizations in their competence management programs. In order to validate a set of measures, in this paper an interview study regarding continuing education measures is reported. The study was carried out in late 2014, early 2015 with some of the most experienced SE professionals from the consulting company BearingPoint. Study findings suggest an increasing relevance of such educational measures. Furthermore, authors provide insights about relevant educational measures, improvement areas in employees’ training, commonly experienced problems, as well as instruments for control and evaluation.
Loyalty in tourism is one of the main concerns for tourist organizations and researchers alike. Recently, technology in general and CRM and social networks in particular have been identified as important enablers for loyalty in tourism. This paper presents POST-VIA 360, a platform devoted to support the whole life-cycle of tourism loyalty after the first visit. The system is designed to collect data from the initial visit by means of pervasive approaches. Once data is analysed, POST-VIA 360 produces accurate after visit data and, once returned, is able to offer relevant recommendations based on positioning and bio-inspired recommender systems. To validate the system, a case study comparing recommendations from the POST-VIA 360 and a group of experts was conducted. Results show that the accuracy of system’s recommendations is remarkable compared to previous efforts in the field.
Due to an unsatisfying demographic development in most European states, companies have to solve a trade-off between a needed increase of productivity on the one hand and fewer highly skilled employees on the other hand. In this paper, authors propose factors for different layers of a framework to manage scarce resources in IT-departments. These layers aim for different relevant dimensions of employee satisfaction like wages, psychological development of employees and work life balance. Authors present a structured literature review to screen relevant publications on the topic. This paper offers white range of different factors regarding the management of labour shortage and highly skilled employees in companies which can be used to build a holistic model or framework to solve the challenges of the upcoming demographic change in Europe. Although the topic is quite popular in scientific literature, there is not a study devoted to identify these factors in organizational contexts. This paper is aimed to bridge this gap.
In this work a tailored approach for requirements engineering for risk management solutions is presented. The approach focuses on cross-disciplinary risk paradigms in inpatient healthcare and aims to provide a novel methodology that accounts for specific viewpoints of relevant expert groups. The presented results demonstrate the feasibility and usefulness of the approach in the context of the current evaluation within the German market.
Adjustment and cost-effectiveness are key elements of a successful Information Security Management System (ISMS). ISMS-Processes, as basic elements of every ISMS, need to be aligned to the organization and its mission. As of today, a specific ISMS process framework does not exist. ISMS processes are not in focus of current research. This article aims to fill this research gap by presenting results of a process mapping study regarding ISMS processes in the most important and widely accepted international standards for Information Security Management. Authors propose a set of ISMS processes within an ISMS process framework which should be implemented at an individually appropriate maturity level.
Purpose – The purpose of this study is to analyze how embedding of self-powered wireless sensors into cloud computing further enables such a system to become a sustainable part of work environment.
Design/methodology/approach – This is exemplified by an application scenario in healthcare that was developed in the context of the OpSIT project in Germany. A clearly outlined three-layer architecture, in the sense of Internet of Things, is presented. It provides the basis for integrating a broad range of sensors into smart healthcare infrastructure. More specifically, by making use of short-range communication sensors (sensing layer), gateways which implement data transmission and low-level computation (fog layer) and cloud computing for processing the data (application layer).
Findings – A technical in-depth analysis of the first two layers of the infrastructure is given to provereliability and to determine the communication quality and availability in real-world scenarios. Furthermore, two example use-cases that directly apply to a healthcare environment are examined,concluding with the feasibility of the presented approach.
Practical implications – Finally, the next research steps, oriented towards the semantic tagging and classification of data received from sensors, and the usage of advanced artificial intelligence-based algorithms on this information to produce useful knowledge, are described together with the derived social benefits.
Originality/value – The work presents an innovative, extensible and scalable system, proven to be
useful in healthcare environments.
ISMS core processes: a study
(2016)
Adjustment and cost-effectiveness are key elements of a successful Information Security Management System (ISMS). ISMS-Processes, as basic elements of every ISMS, need to be aligned to the organization and their mission. Actually a specific ISMS process framework which clearly differentiates between ISMS processes and security measures controlled by ISMS-processes does not exist. ISMS processes itself are not focused in current research. This article will fill this research gap while containing the results of a study to identify criteria for ISMS core processes as well as to identify relevant ISMS core processes.