Cheng-Yuan Ku

Critical factors influencing the adoption of data warehouse technology: a study of the banking industry in Taiwan

Previous literature suggests that various factors play crucial roles in the adoption of an information system; however, there is little empirical research about the factors affecting adoption of data warehouse technology, particularly in a single information technology intensive industry. In this study, we used a survey to investigate the factors influencing adoption of data warehouse technology in the banking industry in Taiwan. A total of 50 questionnaires were mailed to CIOs in domestic banks. The response rate was 60%. Discriminant analysis was employed to test hypotheses. The results revealed that factors such as support from the top management, size of the bank, effect of champion, internal needs, and competitive pressure would affect the adoption of data warehouse technology. The results and conclusions from this study may be a good reference for global banks in these aforementioned countries to establish and develop operational strategies, which in turn will facilitate the implementation in overseas branches.

Global Positioning Systems: an analysis of applications, current development and future implementations

Abstract The commercial sector is constantly looking for new ways to become more efficient and effective in their business. Researchers are always busy looking for the new technology that will create a boom in the industry. Around for a few years, Global Positioning Systems (GPS) may be the next technology that will push companies into higher productivity. We are seeing these systems become more prevalent with the passing of time. Companies are adopting this technology and merging it with their current infrastructures to improve their efficiency and create better customer service. This technology has the potential to change the way that all companies do business. As more and more companies adopt GPS to create a competitive advantage, it will become a standard for the rest to follow.

Access control to two multiserver loss queues in series

We consider admission policies to two multiserver loss queues in series with two types of traffic. Both are generated according to independent Poisson processes with constant arrival rates. The first type requires service at the first queue and with a positive probability enters the second queue; the second type requires service at only the second queue. The service time distribution is exponential at either station. We show that under appropriate conditions the optimal admission policy that maximizes the expected total discounted reward over an infinite horizon is given by a switching curve. We characterize the form and shape of this curve and its variation with system parameters.

Critical issues in CRM adoption and implementation

Customer relationship management (CRM) is a fast growing category of application software. CRM is gaining interest because of its focus on the customer and thus its potential for increasing revenue. It enhances the ability of a firm to compete and to retain key customers. Furthermore, given the rapid growth of e-business applications and the increasing need to sell to and support customers through the web, CRM provides a focal point for all customer-facing activities. This review of CRM product capabilities and key CRM vendors identifies three distinct categories of CRM vendors and finds that they are attempting to offer a rich or full set of CRM features and are rapidly integrating web access into their products. The study proposes a model to aid in the selection of CRM products and the evaluation of CRM vendors.

Access control of parallel multiserver loss queues

This paper considers access control in a target multiserver loss queue fed by a set of upstream parallel multiserver loss queues and by a stream of new customers. The target queue faces a choice of how many servers to reserve for each stream. Revenue is gained by each station when it serves a customer, but the amount of revenue at the target queue depends on the source of the customer. We prove that the policy that maximizes total discounted revenue consists of a set of monotonically decreasing thresholds as functions of the occupancy of each queue. We prove monotonicity properties with respect to system parameters. We show that there exists an ordering of the thresholds based on the relative revenue paid at the target queue. Finally, we compare this system with a tandem queue model.

A method to improve integer linear programming problem with branch-and-bound procedure

Abstract Integer linear programming (ILP) problems are harder to solve than linear programming (LP) problems. It doesn’t work if try to round off the results of LP problems and claim they are the optimum solution. The branch-and-bound (B&B) is the popular method to solve ILP problems. In this paper, we propose a revised B&B, which is demonstrated to be more efficient most of time. This method is extraordinarily useful when facing ILP problems with large differences between constraints and variables. It could reduce the number of constraint and work efficiently when handling ILP problems with many constraints and less variables. Even if the ILP problems have fewer constraints but many variables, we suggest using duality concept to interchange variables with constraints. Then, the revised B&B could be used to compute results very quickly.

Near optimal admission control for multiserver loss queues in series

This paper considers access control policies in multiserver loss queues in series such as might arise in the context of computer and telecommunication networks. Each queue is presented with both served upstream customers and Poisson arrivals from outside the network, and it may route serviced customers out of the network or to the downstream queue. Service times of each customer are i.i.d. and exponentially distributed. Revenue is earned by each station when it serves a customer, but the amount of revenue depends on whether the customer entered the network at this station or was routed from an upstream station. We propose a simple recursive method to solve the problem using dynamic programming on a set of reduced state spaces. This approach includes a rate estimation technique for upstream stations, and a revenue estimation technique for downstream stations. Numerical results demonstrate the performance of these near-optimal policies under light, moderate, and heavy traffic.

Electronic Hand-Drafting and Picture Management System

The Department of Health of Executive Yuan in Taiwan (R.O.C.) is implementing a five-stage project entitled Electronic Medical Record (EMR) converting all health records from written to electronic form. Traditionally, physicians record patients’ symptoms, related examinations, and suggested treatments on paper medical records. Currently when implementing the EMR, all text files and image files in the Hospital Information System (HIS) and Picture Archiving and Communication Systems (PACS) are kept separate. The current medical system environment is unable to combine text files, hand-drafted files, and photographs in the same system, so it is difficult to support physicians with the recording of medical data. Furthermore, in surgical and other related departments, physicians need immediate access to medical records in order to understand the details of a patient’s condition. In order to address these problems, the Department of Health has implemented an EMR project, with the primary goal of building an electronic hand-drafting and picture management system (HDP system) that can be used by medical personnel to record medical information in a convenient way. This system can simultaneously edit text files, hand-drafted files, and image files and then integrate these data into Portable Document Format (PDF) files. In addition, the output is designed to fit a variety of formats in order to meet various laws and regulations. By combining the HDP system with HIS and PACS, the applicability can be enhanced to fit various scenarios and can assist the medical industry in moving into the final phase of EMR.

The integrative role of CRM with ERP and SCM in the e-business environment

When customer relationship management becomes critical to business success, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) applications are viewed by organisations as a key vehicle to building long-term customer relationships and achieving competitive advantages. This paper focuses on discussing the role of CRM with respect to e-business, ERP and Supply Chain Management (SCM) systems. The definition, evolution, components, applications and current status of CRM will also be discussed. A brief overview of ERP, SCM systems and e-business will be presented as well.

Utilizing the interactive techniques to achieve automated service composition for Web Services

Web Service (WS) is used to support implementation of the distributed system and has already achieved interoperability with a variety of online platforms. This result is accomplished by loosely coupling many different services together. However, as the Internet environment becomes more and more complex, this objective also becomes more difficult to fulfill. For the purpose of maintaining correctness and automated WS composition, effectively managing the WSs and inter-WS interaction in the WS environment will be a major challenge for future infrastructure. In this paper, we propose a distributed infrastructure utilizing interactive techniques to achieve automated WS composition.