Jens Strüker

Personalization in privacy-aware highly dynamic systems

Enabling novel ways to personalize the relationship with customers without sacrificing their privacy.

Evaluation of RFID applications for logistics: a framework for identifying, forecasting and assessing benefits

As with all information technologies, there is a necessity to determine the profitability of investments in Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) ex ante. A particularly important aspect is the challenging task of evaluating the multi-faceted benefits of RFID deployments. While a large body of research on RFID benefits exists, our literature review indicates the absence of a comprehensive approach. We introduce a framework that combines the benefit evaluation steps of identification, forecasting and assessment. Based on insights gained in a 3-year research project with case studies in logistics, we refine a process-based IT-benefits classification and subsequently derive six types of RFID benefits that support the systematic identification of benefits, as well as the selection of forecast and assessment methods. We discuss how our framework can facilitate and enhance RFID investment decisions and guide future research activities.

Energy Informatics - Current and Future Research Directions

Due to the increasing importance of producing and consuming energy more sustainably, Energy Informatics (EI) has evolved into a thriving research area within the CS/IS community. The article attempts to characterize this young and dynamic field of research by describing current EI research topics and methods and provides an outlook of how the field might evolve in the future. It is shown that two general research questions have received the most attention so far and are likely to dominate the EI research agenda in the coming years: How to leverage information and communication technology (ICT) to (1) improve energy efficiency, and (2) to integrate decentralized renewable energy sources into the power grid. Selected EI streams are reviewed, highlighting how the respective research questions are broken down into specific research projects and how EI researchers have made contributions based on their individual academic background.

The potential of smart home sensors in forecasting household electricity demand

The aim of this paper is to quantify the impact of disaggregated electric power measurements on the accuracy of household demand forecasts. Demand forecasting on the household level is regarded as an essential mechanism for matching distributed power generation and demand in smart power grids. We use state-of-the-art forecasting tools, in particular support vector machines and neural networks, to evaluate the use of disaggregated smart home sensor data for household-level demand forecasting. Our investigation leverages high resolution data from 3 private households collected over 30 days. Our key results are as follows: First, by comparing the accuracy of the machine learning based forecasts with a persistence forecast we show that advanced forecasting methods already yield better forecasts, even when carried out on aggregated household consumption data that could be obtained from smart meters (1-7%). Second, our comparison of forecasts based on disaggregated data from smart home sensors with the persistence and smart meter benchmarks reveals further forecast improvements (4-33%). Third, our sensitivity analysis with respect to the time resolution of data shows that more data only improves forecasting accuracy up to a certain point. Thus, having more sensors appears to be more valuable than increasing the time resolution of measurements.

ERP On Demand Platform

Platforms for SaaS-based enterprise applications are prospering and the number of on-demand ERP vendors is increasing. We combine both phenomena for the first time and illustrate how the integration of a sustainability benchmarking service into an on-demand ERP platform provides added value beyond pure cost savings. By applying a qualitative system dynamics approach we identify self-reinforcing mechanisms which allow a faster and more comprehensive market penetration compared to providing these services separately.

RFID adoption and the role of organisational size

Purpose – There is no doubt about the economic importance of small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) in industrialised countries. The amount of research on organisational size as a factor of radio frequency identification (RFID) adoption, however, is as yet, minimal. This paper aims to fill that gap by first determining firm‐size specific characteristics of RFID and then using organisational inertia theory to derive the hypothesis that the size and structure of SMEs can be advantageous for the adoption of RFID.Design/methodology/approach – This paper is based on organisational inertia theory and survey data.Findings – A survey conducted among German enterprises already deploying RFID is used to test our hypothesis. It confirms that smaller enterprise size can make RFID adoption and exploitation of the productivity potential easier. Accordingly, it recommends that SMEs avoid adopting a wait‐and‐see position or restricting themselves to easy‐to‐conduct RFID automation applications.Originality/value – The...

Maintaining Privacy in Data Rich Demand Response Applications

The paper introduces the privacy problem of demand response applications performed with the OpenADR standard. A simple usage control focused solution and its limitations are shown.

ERP-On-Demand-Plattform

ZusammenfassungPlattformen für SaaS-basierte Unternehmensanwendungen beginnen sich im Markt zu etablieren und das Angebot an ERP-On-Demand-Anbietern nimmt zu. Der vorliegende Beitrag führt beide Phänomene erstmals zusammen und zeigt, welche Vorteile die Integration eines Softwaredienstes für Nachhaltigkeits-Benchmarking (NBM) in eine ERP-On-Demand-Plattform jenseits von Kosteneinsparungen bietet. Mittels eines qualitativen System-Dynamics-Ansatzes werden selbstverstärkende Effekte identifiziert, die im Vergleich zu einem getrennten Anbieten der Dienste eine schnellere und umfassendere Marktdurchdringung versprechen.AbstractPlatforms for SaaS-based enterprise applications are prospering and the number of on-demand ERP vendors is increasing. We combine both phenomena for the first time and illustrate how the integration of a sustainability benchmarking service into an on-demand ERP platform provides added value beyond pure cost savings. By applying a qualitative system dynamics approach we identify self-reinforcing mechanisms which allow a faster and more comprehensive market penetration compared to providing these services separately.

Password Management for EPC Class 1 Generation 2 Transponders

RFID systems compliant to the widely-used standard EPC class 1 generation 2 lack effective security mechanisms. We show that passwords used to protect critical functionality can be obtained by attackers with only moderate effort. Since more capable systems are not likely to replace the current standard in the medium term, it is crucial to embed the deployment of RFID technology into IT-ecosystems that ensure a minimization of the potential damage caused by an attack. This objective can be achieved by using transponder-individual passwords. The associated challenge of an efficient and scalable password management remains one of most pressing problems of an enterprise-spanning RFID deployment, however. In this paper, we present two approaches for a password management infrastructure and describe their integration into a retailers processes.

Targeting customers for an optimized energy procurement

This research paper investigates consumer-specific costs on power spot markets. We use real-world smart meter data and market prices to analyze an energy procurement strategy based on the newsvendor model. The outcome displays a segmentation into an ordinal array of different costs-per-customer, which allow for a sensitivity analysis to examine appropriate measures and policy implications. We find the most relevant customer class to be the costliest one percent. These prime targets’ share of total costs is 1.5 times as high as the respective share of total consumption. Reallocating the targets into incentive based contracts may allow for a significant reduction of utilities’ costs while remaining on a relatively steady service provision level.