Torben Tambo

Knowledge-based mortgage-loan credit granting and risk assessment

Abstract This paper presents in a tutorial style an applied knowledge-based system for mortgage-loan credit granting and risk assesment, developed for the largest Danish mortgage credit institution. The knowledge representation, inference rules, and specific risk analysis as well as implementation architecture are detailed.

Enterprise Architecture in the Supply Chain

Abstract-Information systems in supply chain management (SCM) is common, bringing architecture on the agenda . The paper uses three perspectives on enterprise architecture (EA) in the supply chain: The correlation view, the remote view and the institutional view. It is shown that the EA in the domain of supply chain has to meet quite a complicated set of demands. Coherency Management (CM) for the aligning of business processes and underlying technology is used by proposing three parameters for EA: Alignment, agility and assurance. Alignment addresses the depth of business vs. technology correspondence. Agility is fighting lack of understanding on technological and social impact. Assurance is the compliance of any type: Internal, external, quality, voluntary, governmental, international, moral, social and legal. A case of an apparel company using a bespoke ERP system for its global supply chain support is presented and discussed. The case outlines potentials for an enhanced alignment and coherence between management, business processes and underlying information system; innovation is led by tighter integration with business partners, higher versatility in the adaption to formal business requirements and compliance. Local social shaping of technology is prevalent. The case study suggests EA with bespoke ERP approach can work as a platform of comprehending and planning the changes of an enterprise on its own grounds.

Business Process Management, Continuous Improvement and Enterprise Architecture: In the Jungle of Governance.

Business Process Management (BPM) is fundamental in IT/IS systems requirement specifications and is also well positioned in Enterprise Architecture (EA) frameworks and practices. Continuous Improvement (CI) relates to agendas of lean, six sigma, and incessant push for increased effectiveness of the organization. This paper is developing a position of EA-driven BPM as being long-term, strategic and “slow”, whereas CI is short-term, operational and “fast”. A case study is presented, where CI is furthermore locally based and BPM is centrally based in a larger organization. This leads to conflicts between BPM and CI where the corporate value of both is eroded as IS initiatives on ERP implementation are prolonged and CI initiatives fail to match to-be scenarios. This paper discuss EA as a mediator, where EA is communicating business opportunities to “positive” CI initiatives and aiming at stopping “negative” CI initiatives. An EA-based process tracing mechanism is suggested and demonstrated connecting business processes, ERP, and silo-based elements for CI initiatives. Furthermore, a CI project management tool is discussed to outline screening opportunities for EA-based CI reviews. An agenda is developed to ensure that CI projects are developed according to the Enterprise Architecture and developed along the organizational architecture and not as silo projects. Furthermore Enterprise Architecture is in such case not alone to induce changes and EA must develop methods to synchronise and coordinate with other change processes.

Enterprise Architecture beyond the Enterprise - Extended Enterprise Architecture Revisited.

As the most enterprises are relying on relations to other enterprises, it is relevant to consider enterprise architecture for inter-organisational relations particularly those relations involving technology. This has been conceptualised as Extended Enterprise Architecture, and a systematic review of this discipline is the topic of this paper. This paper is taking a point of departure in general theories of business-to-business relationships along with inter-organisational information systems, interoperability and business ecosystems. The general theories are applied to the Extended Enterprise Architecture to emphasize paradoxes, problems and potentials in extending EA across organisational boundaries. The purpose of this paper is to review the concept of Extended Enterprise Architecture (EEA) theoretically and empirically to identify viability of Enterprise Architecture (EA) initiatives spanning across organisational boundaries. A case is presented of an enterprise engaging in technology-based business process integration that in turn is explicated as enterprise architecture initiatives with both more and less powerful partners. This paper underlines the necessity to be able to have EA spanning initiatives across multiple enterprises, but a range of problems is illuminated related to (lack of) precision, imbalance, heterogeneity, transformation, temporality, and (operational) maturity. The concept of EEA is seemingly vague, however this paper calls for a strengthen emphasis on redefining general architectural frameworks to embrace EEA in order to handle typical and modern forms of organisational designs relying on virtual and cross-company as cornerstones.

Comparison of conventional closed-loop controller with an adaptive controller for a disturbed thermodynamic system

Non-adaptive proportional controllers suffer from the ability to handle a system disturbance leading to a large steady-state error and undesired transient behavior. On the other hand, they are easy to implement and tune. This article examines whether an adaptive controller based on the MIT and Lyapunov principle leads to a more robust and accurate regulation. Both controllers have been tested on a thermodynamic system exposed to a disturbance. The experiment shows that the adaptive controller handles the disturbance faster and more accurate.

We All Know How, Don’t We? On the Role of Scrum in IT-Offshoring

Offshoring in the IT-industry involves dual interactions between a mother company and an external supplier, often viewed with an implicit perspective from the mother company. This article review general off shoring and IT offshoring literature, focusing on the proliferation of a globally available set of routines; Scrum and Agile. Two cases are studied; a small company and short process and a large mother company with a long process. The interactions of the set ups shows that global concepts like Scrum and Agile are far from a common platform. The “well known” concepts are locally shaped and the enterprises have mixed experiences.

Utilities’ Technology Management of Smart Grid Innovation and Implementation

Sustainability in society’s energy system, power producers and consumers need smart grid technology to balance the production and consumption of units. Smart grid constitutes a host of specifications, unproven products and concepts as well as a strong and dedicated innovation process for utility companies. Few proven concepts exist, and with its extent in time, smart grid represents an excellent case of technology management. The current study uses a series of loosely related technological studies of smart grid technologies in SME electricity companies to highlight and characterise critical issues. Major findings are that the companies have limited management of technology capabilities despite both strong push and pull, and the consequences of vaguely defined objectives.

On non-trivial Nash stable partitions in additive hedonic games with symmetric 0/1-utilities

We consider the problem of computing non-trivial Nash equilibria in additive hedonic games with symmetric 0/1-utilities. Such a game can be represented by an undirected unweighted graph G(V,E) where a non-trivial Nash equilibrium corresponds to a partition of V into at least two sets such that each node has at least as many neighbours in its own set compared to any other set in the partition. We show that computing such an equilibrium is NP-complete. On the other hand, we show that such an equilibrium is computable in polynomial time if (1) G is triangle free, (2) G contains no 4-cycles sharing and edge, and (3) G is not a star. If G is not a star with girth at least 5 we show how to compute a non-trivial equilibrium in O(n)-time.