Mathias Klier

A Procedure to Develop Metrics for Currency and its Application in CRM

Due to the importance of using up-to-date data in information systems, this article analyzes how the data-quality dimension currency can be quantified. Based on several requirements (e.g., normalization and interpretability) and a literature review, we design a procedure to develop probability-based metrics for currency which can be adjusted to the specific characteristics of data attribute values. We evaluate the presented procedure with regard to the requirements and illustrate the applicability as well as its practical benefit. In cooperation with a major German mobile services provider, the procedure was applied in the field of campaign management in order to improve both success rates and profits.

Assessing data currency - a probabilistic approach

The growing relevance of data quality has revealed the need for adequate measurement. As time aspects are extremely important in data quality management, we propose a novel approach to assess data currency. Our metric, which is founded on probability theory, enables an objective and widely automated assessment for data liable to temporal decline. Its values are easy to interpret by business users. Moreover, the metric makes it possible to analyse the economic impacts of data quality measures like data cleansing and can therefore build a basis for an economic management of data quality. The approach can be applied in various fields of application where the currency of data is important. To illustrate the practical benefit and the applicability of the novel metric, we provide an extensive real world example. In cooperation with a major German mobile services provider, the approach was successfully applied in campaign management and led to an improved decision support.

Valuation of online social networks taking into account users' interconnectedness

Online social networks have been gaining increasing economic importance in light of the rising number of their users. Numerous recent acquisitions priced at enormous amounts have illustrated this development and revealed the need for adequate business valuation models. The value of an online social network is largely determined by the value of its users, the relationships between these users, and the resulting network effects. Therefore, the interconnectedness of a user within the network has to be considered explicitly to get a reasonable estimate for its economic value. Established standard business valuation models, however, do not account for these aspects sufficiently. Thus, we propose an economic model for the valuation of online social networks, which takes into account the users’ interconnectedness within the network. Furthermore, we analyze different centrality measures, which can be used to quantify users’ interconnectedness in online social networks and propose a measure which is based on the PageRank-algorithm. Finally, the practical application of the model is illustrated by an example of the European online social network XING.com.

Social commerce—state-of-the-art and future research directions

In recent years, social commerce evolved into an emerging phenomenon of global interest for marketers, businesses, and researchers alike. In light of this development, it is not surprising that the number of publications focusing on this phenomenon at the interplay of electronic commerce and social media has been rising substantially. The goal of this paper is to provide a structured overview of social commerce research by means of a structured literature review. Based on our literature search between 2007 and 2014 resulting in 116 published papers, we carve out and assess the knowledge and the research areas that have been predominantly addressed by the Information Systems, Electronic Commerce, and Marketing research community so far. By providing a research agenda, we hope that our results will stimulate and guide future research in this exciting field.

Metric-based data quality assessment - Developing and evaluating a probability-based currency metric

Data quality assessment has been discussed intensively in the literature and is critical in business. The importance of using up-to-date data in business, innovation, and decision-making processes has revealed the need for adequate metrics to assess the currency of data in information systems. In this paper, we propose a data quality metric for currency that is based on probability theory. Our metric allows for a reproducible configuration and a high level of automation when assessing the currency of attribute values. The metric values represent probabilities and can be integrated into a decision calculus (e.g., based on decision theory) to support decision-making. The evaluation of our metric consists of two main steps: (1) we define an instantiation of the metric for a real-use situation of a German mobile services provider to demonstrate both the applicability and the practical benefit of the approach; (2) we use publicly available real world data provided by the Federal Statistical Office of Germany and the German Institute of Economic Research to demonstrate its feasibility by defining an instantiation of the metric and to evaluate its strength (compared to existing approaches). We propose a well-founded probability-based data quality metric for currency.The metric values can be used in a decision calculus to support decision-making.The metric has successfully been applied in several real-use situations.The metric has significant advantages and can yield substantial practical benefit.

The Optimal Level of CRM IT Investments - An Economic Model and its Application at a Financial Services Provider

In light of the growing relevance of customer-oriented business strategies IT investments in the field of Customer Relationship Management have increased considerably. However, firms often could not realize sufficient returns on these IT investments. One major reason for this failure seems to be the lack of appropriate approaches to determine the economic impact of such investments ex ante. Therefore, we develop an economic model to determine the optimal level of Customer Relationship Management IT investments. Using this approach, firms can evaluate, to what extent investments in Customer Relationship Management IT are reasonable. One major result is that in most cases the “all or nothing strategy” pursued by many firms does not lead to the optimal level of investments. To illustrate the practical utility and applicability of the approach, we provide a real world example of a German financial services provider.

Automated planning of process models: Design of a novel approach to construct exclusive choices

In times of dynamically changing markets, companies are forced to (re)design their processes quickly and frequently, which typically implies a significant degree of time-consuming and cost-intensive manual work. To alleviate this drawback, we envision the automated planning of process models. More precisely, we propose a novel algorithm for an automated construction of the control flow pattern ‘exclusive choice’, which constitutes an essential step toward an automated planning of process models. The algorithm is built upon an abstract representation language that provides a general and formal basis and serves as the vocabulary to define the planning problem. As part of our evaluation, we find that, based on a given planning problem, our algorithm is not subject to potential modeling failures. We further implement the approach in process planning software and analyze not only its feasibility and applicability by means of several real-world processes from different application contexts and companies but also its practical utility based on the criteria flexibility by definition, modeling costs, and modeling time.

Special Interest Networks — eine Fallstudie am Beispiel von Netzathleten.de

ZusammenfassungenOnline Social Networks haben sich innerhalb weniger Jahre zu einem globalen Phänomen mit enormer gesellschaftlicher und wirtschaftlicher Bedeutung entwickelt. Neben allgemeinen Online Social Networks, die eine breite Masse von Nutzern adressieren (z.B. Facebook.com), hat sich eine Vielzahl von zielgruppenorientierten Special Interest Networks gebildet, die bisher kaum untersucht wurden. Im Rahmen einer Fallstudie wurden die Nutzer von Netzathleten.de charakterisiert und ihre Motivation für die Nutzung analysiert. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass sich Special Interest Networks hier zum Teil erheblich von allgemeinen Online Social Networks unterscheiden: So stellt etwa neben dem Identitäts- und Beziehungsmanagement insbesondere die Informationssuche ein zentrales Motiv für die Nutzung dar.

Metriken zur Bewertung der Datenqualität – Konzeption und praktischer Nutzen

ZusammenfassungSeit einigen Jahren gewinnt das Thema Datenqualität (DQ) sowohl in der Wissenschaft als auch in der Praxis immer mehr an Bedeutung. Dies überrascht nicht, da die Sicherstellung und Verbesserung der DQ – insbesondere im Zuge von stark wachsenden Datenbeständen, dem verstärkten Einsatz von Data-Warehouse-Systemen und der Relevanz, die dem ,,Customer Relationship Management“ (CRM) beigemessen wird – eine immer größere Rolle spielt. Mit der steigenden Bedeutung der DQ wird auch die Notwendigkeit geeigneter Mess- und Bewertungsverfahren deutlich, die für eine Planung, Steuerung und Kontrolle von DQ-Maßnahmen unabdingbar sind. Um die DQ zu quantifizieren, werden im Beitrag neue Metriken für die DQ-Merkmale Korrektheit und Aktualität vorgestellt und diskutiert. Dabei wird im Vergleich zu bestehenden Ansätzen insbesondere Wert auf fachliche Interpretierbarkeit und Praxistauglichkeit gelegt. Die Anwendung der entwickelten Metriken und damit auch die Eignung im praktischen Einsatz werden im CRM-Kontext anhand des Kampagnenmanagements eines großen deutschen Mobilfunkanbieters veranschaulicht.

Soziale Netzwerke im Web - Chancen und Risiken im CRM von Unternehmen

Fur soziale Netzwerke im Web existiert eine Vielzahl verschiedener Bezeichnungen, zum Beispiel Online Social Network, Online Community, Digital Social Network oder auch Social Networking Sites. Weitestgehend gemein ist den vielfaltigen Definitionen die Auffassung, dass soziale Netzwerke im Web eine besondere Form von Gemeinschaft sind, bei denen die Kommunikation der Mitglieder durch eine Internetplattform unterstutzt wird. Die Verbindung der Mitglieder wird durch ein gemeinsames Interesse oder Bedurfnis erreicht, das auch ohne die unmittelbare physische Prasenz der Mitglieder ein Gemeinschaftsgefuhl der Akteure ermoglicht [3, S. 263]. Im Rahmen dieses Beitrags werden soziale Netzwerke im Web (im Folgenden kurz: soziale Netzwerke) in Anlehnung an Boyd und Ellison als „web-based services that allow individuals to (1) construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system, (2) articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection, and (3) view and traverse their list of connections and those made by others within the system“ verstanden [4, S. 211]. Dabei steht das „Networking“ im Sinne des Aufbaus und der Pflege von Beziehungen im Vordergrund. Auf diese Weise entwickelt jedes Mitglied sein eigenes soziales Netzwerk. » Viele Unternehmen haben soziale Netzwerke als vielversprechendes Medium fur sich entdeckt. «