Ranjit Bose

Customer relationship management: key components for IT success

This article is directed towards information technology (IT) and marketing managers considering implementation of a customer relationship management (CRM) solution. The goal of this article is not to provide an all‐inclusive tutorial on CRM, but rather to provide a high level insight of the fundamental principles behind CRM and critical aspects of the IT development process. The article begins with an IT manager’s introduction into the basic CRM business and marketing principles. At the heart of the article is a proposed system development lifecycle that highlights the aspects unique or critical to CRM. Finally, it concludes with some final thoughts for long‐term success. After reading this article, the reader will be mindful of the major issues needed for success and be equipped to discuss primary development matters with vendors, staff and management.

Knowledge management metrics

Over several years, there have been intensive discussions about the importance of knowledge management (KM) within the business community. Effectively implementing a sound KM strategy and becoming a knowledge‐based company is seen as a mandatory condition of success for organizations as they enter the era of the knowledge economy. However, standardized metrics are needed to quantify knowledge and to fully convince management and stakeholders as to the value of KM initiatives. Development of KM metrics has begun in recent years and these metrics are being applied by some organizations, but more research is needed to better define these measures and to make them universal. The purpose of this research is to survey and report the current measures of knowledge assets or intellectual capital, as well as the methods that are popularly being followed by organizations to measure the performance of KM strategies. The research findings should: assist organizations in identifying the measures that are appropriate and suitable for them, for improving the quality of metrics they use for measuring KM effectiveness; and assist researchers in identifying future research needs toward the standardization of KM measurement metrics.

Knowledge management-enabled health care management systems: capabilities, infrastructure, and decision-support

Abstract The health care industry is increasingly becoming a knowledge-based community that is connected to hospitals, clinics, pharmacies, and customers for sharing knowledge, reducing administrative costs and improving the quality of care. Thus, the success of health care depends critically on the collection, analysis and seamless exchange of clinical, billing, and utilization information or knowledge within and across the above organizational boundaries. This research envisions a knowledge management-enabled health care management system that would help integrate clinical, administrative, and financial processes in health care through a common technical architecture; and provides a decision support infrastructure for clinical and administrative decision-making. Hence, the objective of this research is to present and describe the knowledge management capabilities, the technical infrastructure, and the decision support architecture for such a health care management system. The research findings would immensely help the health care information technology (IT) managers and knowledge based system developers to identify their IT needs and to plan for and develop the technical infrastructure of the health care management system for their organizations.

Integrative framework for assessing firms' potential to undertake Green IT initiatives via virtualization - A theoretical perspective

Green IT (information technology) has recently emerged into an active research area in the information systems (IS) discipline. A major gap that exists in the Green IT research literature today is the absence of a theoretical framework that can be used to assist organizations in assessing their potential for undertaking Green IT initiatives and implementing them via modern technological means such as virtualization. This study attempts to bridge this gap by developing and proposing an integrative framework which focuses on identifying and examining the factors that contribute to the assessment of a firms readiness to go green via IT-enabled virtualization. The framework is firmly grounded using three well-established IS theories: (a) technology-organization-environment, (b) process-virtualization, and (c) diffusion of innovation. It integrates these three theoretical lenses to utilize the strengths of each for assessing the potential for undertaking Green IT initiatives and the stages of Green IT implementation at the organizational level. The implications of the outcome of this study, both for the IS researchers and for the practicing managers are discussed. The plan for empirical testing and validation of our propositions is presented, as well as suggestions for future extensions of this study.

Advanced analytics: opportunities and challenges

– Advanced analytics‐driven data analyses allow enterprises to have a complete or “360 degrees” view of their operations and customers. The insight that they gain from such analyses is then used to direct, optimize, and automate their decision making to successfully achieve their organizational goals. Data, text, and web mining technologies are some of the key contributors to making advanced analytics possible. This paper aims to investigate these three mining technologies in terms of how they are used and the issues that are related to their effective implementation and management within the broader context of predictive or advanced analytics., – A range of recently published research literature on business intelligence (BI); predictive analytics; and data, text and web mining is reviewed to explore their current state, issues and challenges learned from their practice., – The findings are reported in two parts. The first part discusses a framework for BI using the data, text, and web mining technologies for advanced analytics; and the second part identifies and discusses the opportunities and challenges the business managers dealing with these technologies face for gaining competitive advantages for their businesses., – The study findings are intended to assist business managers to effectively understand the issues and emerging technologies behind advanced analytics implementation.

Competitive intelligence process and tools for intelligence analysis

Purpose – The purpose of this survey research is twofold. First, to study and report the process that is commonly used to create and maintain a competitive intelligence (CI) program in organizations. And second, to provide an analysis of several emergent text mining, web mining and visualization‐based CI tools, which are specific to collection and analysis of intelligence.Design/methodology/approach – A range of recently published research literature on CI processes, applications, tools and technologies to collect and analyze competitive information within organizations is reviewed to explore their current state, issues and challenges learned from their practice.Findings – The paper provides executive decision makers and strategic managers a better understanding of what methods are available and appropriate to the decisions they must make and the steps involved in CI undertaking.Originality/value – The findings of this research provide the managers of CI programs a context for understanding which tools an...

Understanding management data systems for enterprise performance management

Purpose – Managing enterprise performance is an important, yet a difficult process due to its complexity. The process involves monitoring the strategic focus of an enterprise, whose performance is measured from the analysis of data generated from a wide range of interrelated business activities performed at different levels within the enterprise. This study aims to investigate management data systems technologies in terms of how they are used and the issues that are related to their effective management within the broader context of enterprise performance management (EPM).Design/methodology/approach – A range of recently published research literature on data warehousing, online analytic processing and EPM is reviewed to explore their current state, issues and challenges learned from their practice.Findings – The findings of the study are reported in two parts. The first part discusses the current business practices of these technologies, and the second part identifies and discusses the issues and challeng...

E-government: infrastructure and technologies for education and training

National governments around the world have started committing substantial resources to creating the environment and infrastructure for doing business electronically with their citizens, businesses, and other government entities. However, to stay in tune with this internet economy, the skills and knowledge of their citizens and employees need to be continually updated and refreshed. E-learning provides the vehicle for this continuous education and training. The purpose of this research is to identify the infrastructure and e-learning technologies that are currently available for creating a comprehensive online education and training environment that supports development of government workforce. The research surveys and provides a review of the latest technological developments and practices in e-learning to help the professionals, managers, and policy makers of both profit and non-profit organisations to identify the areas of information technologies they can invest to bring about efficiency and cost savings in continuous education and training. The research also identifies several research projects within the area to further advance the field.

Green IT adoption: a process management approach

Purpose - To better understand and assist business managers to deal with green IT adoption, this paper provides a step-by-step process management approach. Design/methodology/approach - By drawing on the process management to investigate the green IT adoption, the paper analyzes and discusses four different phases: plan, design, implement, and measure the performance of the process. Findings - The likelihood that companies will successfully adopt green IT initiatives depends on several organizational and environmental factors. The primary factor is the Champion Support. Lack of implementation barriers is another important factor among others. Research limitations/implications - By comparing behavioral and technological changes derived from green IT initiatives and unveiling possible factors associated with the adoption process, this paper provides an opportunity for academics to conduct applied research based on the issues discussed. Practical implications - The paper can be an extremely useful and practical source for top-level managers, particularly IT managers, to bring greener technologies and more environmentally responsible strategies and practices to their organizations. Originality/value - The paper contends that the green IT adoption process is an ensemble of four phases: plan, design, implement, and measure the performance of the process. This paper serves as a guide and offers practical measures in terms of understanding how green IT initiatives could be more effectively and efficiently adopted by organizations.

Intelligent agents framework for developing knowledge-based decision support systems for collaborative organizational processes☆

Abstract In this paper we present a knowledge-based software framework for automating the execution of collaborative organizational processes performed by multiple organizational members. Intelligent computerized assistants or agents are used as the basis for the solution design. These assistants emulate the work and behavior of human agents; each of them is capable of acting autonomously, cooperatively and collaboratively to achieve the collective goal. Organizational processes expand in scope and evolve in time, and thus suffer from constantly changing requirements and assumptions. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our design formalism in managing change so that the software solution can adapt easily to the changing needs and situations of the organization. A knowledge-based operational prototype of the framework, using object-oriented technology and implemented using PROLOG, allowed us to examine the feasibility of having the “assistants” replace human agents in organizational process execution. These assistants proved to increase organizational productivity by effectively carrying out several tedious watchdog activities, thereby freeing humans to work on other challenging job-related responsibilities.