Paul G. Fitzpatrick

Successful predictors of business process reengineering (BPR) in financial services

Abstract Business process reengineering (BPR) has been a popular business improvement strategy for the past decade. However, Holland and Kumar (Getting past the obstacles to successful reengineering, Business Horizons, 1995, p. 79) noted that 60–80% of BPR initiatives have been unsuccessful. An extensive review of the literature revealed significant gaps in research in this area of technology and innovation management. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to report on a cross-sectional study based on a survey questionnaire sent to strategic business units within the Australian Financial Services Sector that have implemented BPR. A response rate of 32% was obtained. The central finding of the study is that the proactive implementation of BPR as part of the organisations business strategy, coupled with focusing BPR efforts on core-customer business processes are the most significant predictors of BPR success. Using multiple regression analysis, these BPR practices were found to explain more than 30% of the variance in organisational performance. On the other hand, there was no significant and positive relationship between the increased use of information technology and process cycle time reduction. The implication of these results is that managers must reengineer their core processes from a customer perspective. The paper concludes that the key challenges for successful BPR implementation are changing attitudes and culture, ensuring extensive communications and dealing with resistance to change from middle management.

IT governance and management in large Australian organisations

Abstract This paper presents the result of a study on the governance and management of information technology (IT) in large Australian organisations. The study consisted of a questionnaire survey that was mailed to the most senior IT officer within the organisation. The respondents were categorised into three groups based on the intensity with which the company uses information, namely high tier, medium tier and low tier industries. The findings are compared between these three groups and show some interesting differences. The results are also compared with the findings from two other recent studies. Based on the results, the paper presents recommendations for companies in the high, medium and low tier industries.

User-perceived quality of service in wireless data networks

For so long, the term quality of service (QoS) has been a pursuit area for network engineers trying to dimension wireless networks to run in the most efficient way possible. Of late, there has been a trend reversal, looking at the user perceptions of the network performance to decide where dimensioning can have the greatest impact. This paper demonstrates the importance of defining the concept of user-perceived QoS and linking this to specific wireless data network parameters for some anticipated valuable applications. It has been shown that a quantitative rating can be obtained for a variety of important factors in the assessment of service quality, and mapped to specific values of multiple network parameters. We found QoS to be application-specific, where various applications require different levels of network performance to satisfy users. The role of physical location was also examined, investigating the influence of being indoors versus outdoors on the user perception of QoS.

Performance between circuit allocation schemes for half- and full-rate connections in GSM

This paper considers three circuit allocation schemes for half- and full-rate connections in the Global system for Mobile Communications (GSM): best fit, repacking, and fair repacking. Analytic numerical methods are used to investigate each schemes blocking probability behavior. The analysis is based on a reduction of the state space to a manageable size. Fair repacking is found to be the fairest and most efficient. However, the best-fit scheme, while being somewhat less efficient and fair, is simpler to implement. The effect on quality of service (QoS) of voice dropouts related to intracell handover (repacking) was found to be negligible.

A longitudinal study of a flexible manufacturing cell operation

Presents the experiences of a medium‐sized Australian manufacturer with cellular manufacturing over the past ten years. The case study reveals that careful planning and implementation are not the only component of ongoing success in a flexible cell environment and that effective management of inputs, layouts and human resources is required to ensure strategic benefits over a long period of time. Provides a summary of the initial planning and implementation of the flexible manufacturing cell (FMC), which was considered by management to be successful. The subsequent decisions taken by the company are then described, which resulted in the poor utilisation of the system. The recent actions taken by the manufacturing manager to enhance the performance of the FMC are then discussed. Concludes with a list of the lessons learned and the critical success factors in implementing and managing FMC.

The Effect of Timing Jitter on High-speed OFDM Systems

Timing jitter is emerging as an important factor in determining the performance of high-speed Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) systems, particularly in optical OFDM systems where bit rates reach 100 Gbit/s and beyond. In this paper, we propose a novel timing jitter matrix which is used to study the rotational effect and intercarrier interference (ICI) caused by timing jitter in high-speed OFDM systems. This work shows that timing jitter greatly degrades the performance of high-speed OFDM systems. Further, ICI is the dominant effect. When timing jitter is correlated it is shown that the ICI depends on the subcarrier frequencies. Finally, the theoretical analysis of ICI power using the timing jitter matrix has been compared with simulation with the results showing very good agreement.

Models for pre-emption of packet data by voice in slotted cellular radio networks

Cellular radio networks supporting both circuit switched voice and packet switched data services aim to maximise the resource utilisation through efficient sharing of the resource. These sharing algorithms can use pre-emption to give voice service priority over data, thus preserving the grade of service for voice at the expense of delaying data calls. This paper develops models for a pre-emptive voice and data system, with a particular focus on GPRS. The model is based on an assumption of independence between the voice and data traffic. These models allow estimates of (i) the probability that a voice call causes pre-emption of a data call, as well as (ii) the probability that a data call will be delayed due to either being pre-empted by a voice call while in progress or due to not finding free resources at its initial attempt. The results show that a Poisson model for data traffic gives the best results for pre-emption probability when compared with measurements taken from a GSM/GPRS network.

Channel allocation methods for half and full rate connections in GSM

This paper considers five circuit allocation schemes for half and full rate connections in GSM. Analytic numerical methods are used to investigate each schemes blocking probability behaviour. Two members of the repacking family of schemes, repacking with perpetual half slot reservation and repacking with random reservation, are found to be the fairest in terms of blocking probability, and have the highest network utilisation (efficiency). However, the best fit scheme, while being somewhat less efficient and fair, is simpler to implement and does not incur voice dropouts related to intracell handover.

Intelligent Automated Diagnosis of Client Device Bottlenecks in Private Clouds

We present an automated solution for rapid diagnosis of client device problems in private cloud environments: the Intelligent Automated Client Diagnostic (IACD) system. Clients are diagnosed with the aid of Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) packet traces, by (i) observation of anomalous artifacts occurring as a result of each fault and (ii) subsequent use of the inference capabilities of soft-margin Support Vector Machine (SVM) classifiers. The IACD system features a modular design and is extendible to new faults, with detection capability unaffected by the TCP variant used at the client. Experimental evaluation of the IACD system in a controlled environment demonstrated an overall diagnostic accuracy of 98%.

Performance analysis of a layered wireless network serving different user classes

This paper analyses the performance experienced by different user classes that offer traffic to a layered wireless network. The impact of the proportion of each user type on the blocking probability experienced by the three classes and the network capacity in Erlangs for a given grade of service (GOS) are analysed for networks of one macrocell with 25 and 50 microcells respectively. The classes describe different users in a general sense and could equally apply where users are distinguishable either by multimode terminals, multiband terminals, by subscription options or where coverage defines distinct classes. The results give valuable insight into system performance and network capacity with the different user classes.