Nick Gehrke

A Peer-to-Peer Business Model for the Music Industry

So far, the most profound problem of the internet-based distribution of music was the ease of copyright infringements (especially due to the emergence of illegal Peer-to-Peer exchange networks) and the little interest of users in commercial music offerings. Hitherto, the music industry tries to confront copyright infringements with technical restrictions and legal sanctions — up to now with minor success. Economic incentives for users to comply with copyrights and pay right-owners have not yet been discussed. The paper on hand introduces a Peer-to-Peer-based business model, which enables the compensation of copyright owners on the basis of economic user incentives and doesn’t need technical or legal actions in order to enforce copyrights. Central in this model is the participation of users in the fees charged for the download. Therewith, the idea of Peer-to-Peer is being consequently advanced in the way that users not only participate in the process of distribution but also in the revenues generated. The user takes — besides the role of the music consumer — also the function of a merchant, enabling him to generate monetary revenues. Introducing this kind of incentive to a commercial filesharing system can be an approach to detract from the free systems’ attractiveness for users sharing their files. The number of files offered in free filesharing systems will decrease since users will move to a system that offers a monetary remuneration.

Towards Audit 2.0 - A Web 2.0 Community Platform for Auditors

Generalized Audit Software (GAS) is a certain type of data analysis software that is increasingly used by auditors to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of audits. To date, the development and distribution of GAS follows traditional ways, that is the software is developed by a single company, without the direct participation of the users, and the completed product is sold as closed-source with no rights for any modifications. We argue that this traditional model hinders the further adoption of GAS due to the artificial barriers imposed on the users (e.g. vendor lock-in, lack of flexibility). Thus, this paper proposes a new form of GAS that is built upon the principles of Web 2.0 and aims at offering auditors a more open, more flexible, and less costly alternative to traditional solutions. The main artifacts of this new form of GAS are conceptualized in the paper and possible business models are outlined.

Business Process Mining and Reconstruction for Financial Audits

In modern companies business processes and information systems are highly integrated and transactions are executed system based and automated. The data generated in the course of processing transactions commonly provides the basis for internal and external financial reporting. The financial statements are subject to audits due to regulatory requirements. Contemporary audit approaches take into account internal control frameworks over relevant business processes and underlying information systems, but they lack adequate audit procedures needed to handle voluminous data flows when business processes are highly integrated and automated. We face a discrepancy between an integrated and automated transaction processing on the one side and manual audit procedures on the other. Financial audits would be more effective and efficient if an audit approach with system based and automated procedures would be applied. This article describes how business process mining and reconstruction of mined processes can be used to overcome this discrepancy.

The ERP Auditlab - A Prototypical Framework for Evaluating Enterprise Resource Planning System Assurance

Enterprise Resource Planning Systems (ERP) are comprehensive systems used in global organizations for distributed and complex transactions. Organizations are strongly dependent on these systems since they control critical business process flows. Assurance for these systems is needed to guarantee proper functionality, being in line with compliance requirements and to prevent fraudulent activities. We present a software prototype called the ERP AuditLab for auditing so called application controls in ERP systems. A case study is presented to give an impression about important application controls. We use the case study to derive the requirements for the ERP AuditLab.

Multilevel Process Mining for Financial Audits

The relevance of business intelligence increases with the growing amount of recorded data. The research on business intelligence has led to a mature set of methods and tools that are used in many application areas, but they are almost absent in the auditing industry. Public accountants face the challenge to audit increasingly complex business processes that process huge amounts of transaction data. Process mining can be used as a business intelligence approach in the context of process audits to exploit this data. We introduce a process mining algorithm to improve such audits. Key requirements for this purpose are the reliability of the mining results, the integration of a data flow perspective and the ability to inspect data from the point of origin to the final output on the financial accounts. The presented algorithm integrates the control flow and data flow perspective. It operates on different abstraction levels to enable the auditor to follow the audit trail. The algorithm creates precise and fitting process models to prevent false negative and false positive audit results, accepts specific unlabeled event logs as input, and considers data relationships for inferring the control flow. It was evaluated by using extensive real world data.

Eine mikroökonomische Analyse des Raubkopierens von Informationsgütern — Ein Marktmodell

Informationsguter wie z.B. digitale Musik haben die Eigenschaft, dass sie von den Konsumenten raubkopiert werden konnen. Die Versorgung des Marktes mit einem Informationsgut erfolgt also nicht ausschlieslich durch legale Anbieter sondern auch durch den Tausch unter den Konsumenten selbst. Hierfur stehen inzwischen professionelle Peer-to-Peer Tauschborsen im Internet zur Verfugung,die das Raubkopieren stark vereinfachen. Dieser Beitrag stellt ein mikrookonomisches Modell vor, welches den Einfluss des Raubkopierens auf einen Markt fur ein Informationsgut abbildet. Zunachst wird diskutiert, warum ein Marktmodell speziell fur Informationsguter vor dem Hintergrund bereits existierender mikrookonomischer Marktmodelle notwendig ist. Dieses Modell trifft Aussagen uber die Marktanteile,die durch Raubkopieren bzw. durch legalen Erwerb des Informationsgutes versorgt werden. Des Weiteren zeigt das Modell eine optimale Preissetzungsstrategie des Anbieters auf. Das vorgestellte Modell wird insbesondere mit dem in der Mikrookonomie verbreiteten Cournot-Modell verglichen und die Entscheidungskalkule der Marktteilnehmer werden gegenubergestellt.

A Maturity Model for Segregation of Duties in Standard Business Software

Maturity models are widespread used in several domains ranging from business processes to complete management frameworks like CMMI, ITIL or Cobit. In the paper on hand we develop a detailed maturity model for the management of segregation of duties in ERP systems. Our model includes several aspects starting with simple access rights management of individual systems and leading to comprehensive organizational aspects of multiple systems environments. Applying this model, organizations are enabled to improve compliance regarding access rights using a step by step approach. The approach described can also be used to assess existing segregation of duties processes of an organization in order to reveal further improvement opportunities.

From conventional SME networks to CoINs — Requirements centered transition model and case study

Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) represent 90 % of all U.S. Enterprises and 99 % of all European Enterprises and are of high social and economic importance within the U.S. and Europe. Due to their limited resources, SME struggle with structural problems. A possible solution for SME is building networks to act on an extended resource base. Information and Communication Technology (ICT) can act as an enabler for SME networks to strengthen communication, collaboration and enhanced participation. Especially, Web 2.0 tools are seen as adequate tools for SMEs to increase productivity, innovation and proximity to the market. So called Collaborative Innovation Networks (CoINs) are highly innovative networks. As traditional networks often struggle with daily work life problems, they need support whilst transformation into a CoIN. Hereby, iterative phase models are an adequate approach. We develop a procedure model for Web 2.0 implementation in SME networks and evaluate it with a case study.

Divide et Impera - Ein Peer-to-Peer basiertes Geschäftsmodell für Streaming Media

Peer-to-Peer (p2p) Systeme nutzen dezentrale Ressourcen aus, um bestimmte Services innerhalb eines p2p Netzes zu erbringen. In dem vorliegendem Beitrag wird ein p2p basiertes Geschaftsmodell vorgestellt, welches die kostenpflichtige asynchrone Auslieferung von Streams ermoglicht, ohne eine zentrale contentliefernde Einheit zu benotigen. Dabei wird die Entlohung des Rechteinhabers des Streams berucksichtigt. Peers, die Teile eines Streams an andere „Konsumentenpeers“ ausliefern, werden daruber hinaus ebenfalls entlohnt, da diese Peers erstens aus betriebswirtschaftlicher Sicht Produktionsfaktoren darstellen und zweitens ein Anreiz zum Bereitstellen von Speicherplatz und Netzwerkbandbreite aus Sicht eines „Anbieterpeers “ notwendig ist. Der Beitrag stellt den konzeptionellen Aufbau eines solchen p2p Systems dar. Anschliesend wird eine Analyse zur Abschatzung der benotigten dezentralen Ressourcen (vor allem der Bandbreite) durchgefuhrt, damit genugend kritische Masse an Produktionsfaktoren fur ein sinnvolles Betreiben des p2p Systems vorhanden ist. Eine okonomische Analyse schliest den Beitrag ab.

Peer-to-Peer-Technologien — Einflüsse digitaler dezentraler Ressourcennutzung auf elektronische Märkte

Peer-to-Peer-Systeme sind in jungerer Zeit hauptsachlich durch die verbreiteten und oft kritisierten Musiktauschborsen wie Napster1 oder Gnutella2 bekannt geworden. Oftmals wird „Peer-to-Peer“sogar mit dem Austausch von Musik- und Videodateien gleichgesetzt. Diese Reduzierung des Begriffs auf das blose Austauschen von Dateien (Filesharing) wird jedoch nicht dem Peer-to-Peer-Begriff und erst recht nicht dem Potenzial des Peer-to-Peer Computing gerecht. Filesharing darf insofern nur als eine spezielle Applikation gesehen werden, die sich mit Hilfe von Peer-to-Peer-Technologien bewaltigen lasst.