Collaborative IT Research Articles

Organisation agility: a literature review and proposed conceptual framework

The notion of organisation agility has gained prominent attention from scholars and practitioners since 1991. Over the years, the idea of organisation agility has evolved, becoming a managerial paradigm applicable to various functional units across different industries with accomplished results. However, the heterogeneity and diversity in the studies make the recent organisation agility literature diverse and fragmented, and an extensive analysis of the contributions in this field is lacking. To address this gap, the authors propose an integrative literature review. Furthermore, to trace the knowledge taxonomy, this will be the first bibliometric study for the concerned subject matter, thus, adding to its relevance and uniqueness. The scrutiny of the studies unveiled that agility has been investigated across different dimensions, with managers striving to identify the relevant elements and assessment models for agility. Besides, three significant themes, including organisation agility, the role of IT and integration and collaboration in enhancing agility, and workforce agility, emerged through bibliometric analysis.

A multi-method study on the barriers of the blockchain technology application in the cold supply chains

PurposeThe cold supply chain industry is still emerging and digital transformation is in the nascent stage in this industry. This paper argues that there are various barriers to implementing blockchain technology in the cold supply chain and aims to develop and validate a model for overcoming key barriers to implementing blockchain technology in the cold supply chain.Design/methodology/approachThe adoption of blockchain technology was proposed through interpretive structural modeling (ISM) and further it is validated using structural equation modeling (SEM).FindingsIn this study, ten key barriers to implementing blockchain technology in the cold supply chain were identified, modelled and analysed. Poor leadership style of top management was found to be the most important barriers to implementing blockchain technology in the cold supply chain. The results of SEM indicate that all the paths are supported. The findings showcase the barriers responsible for the lack of blockchain technology infrastructure that ultimately impacts the cold supply chains.Practical implicationsThis study highlights the fact that the fate of blockchain technology infrastructure development depends on the leadership style of top management. Demonstrating good leadership style by top management can help overcome the barriers. A good leader pulls the entire team instead of pushing the team. A good leader can guide the entire team to improve IT governance, financial investment, digital footprint, digital readiness, skills and collaboration with service providers to implement blockchain technology. Not only that, a good leader provides mental strength to the team and helps overcome the fear of implementing blockchain in the cold supply chain. A good leader demonstrates good administrative skills and focus on security and privacy policies.Originality/valueThis is a novel contribution towards analysing the key barriers to implementing blockchain technology in the South African cold supply chain using the integrated ISM–MICMAC and SEM approach.

Geospatial Information Technologies for Mobile Collaborative Geological Mapping: The Italian CARG Project Case Study

A collaborative open-source IT infrastructure is designed and implemented to optimize the process of geological field data collection, integration, validation, and sharing. Firstly, field data collection is carried out by multiple users using free and open-source GIS-based tools for mobile devices according to a predefined database structure; then, data integration is automatically performed in a central server, where the collected geological information is stored and validated; finally, data are shared over the Internet, providing users with up-to-date information. The IT infrastructure is currently being employed to accomplish surveys for the realization of the “Brescia” geological map within the New Geological Map of Italy, scale 1:50,000 (CARG Project). Users are only required to run the field data collection application on their mobile devices, add different geometric features to predefined thematic layers and fill in the dialogue forms with the required information to store the new structured and georeferenced data in the central database. The major advantage of the proposed IT infrastructure consists of guaranteeing the operational continuity between field surveys and the finalization of geological or geothematic maps leveraging field data collection tools that are operational both online and offline to ensure the overall system resilience.

Adopting Technology Environment Organization Framework in Virtual Learning through Cloud Computing of Higher Education Institution

Purpose–This study intends to adopt the Technology Environment Organization framework in virtual learning through cloud computing in a higher education institution that will streamline the operation of education. Method–A systematic review using descriptive research was presented highlighting the model of the TEOframework in adopting cloud-based computing implementation in the educational system of the HEIs. The study features the critical success factor affecting cloud computing implementation which can be a key point as guidelines and step to embrace technological advancement in the field of education in the Philippines.Results–The study is appeared to contribute to the organization of higher education institutions in the Philippines to make informed decisions relevant to the advancement of cloud technology service selection and deployment processes. The migration of cloud computing implementation in developing countries is proven successful in achieving the benefits of reducing IT cost, scalability, business continuity, collaboration efficiency, easy management and access, complexity, and compatibility. Thus, the Philippines is admissible to a strategic implementation to widen and improve adopting cloud services. Conclusion–Adoption of cloud computing in higher education institutions is an alternative solution in streamlining and managing the educational system infrastructure. Recommendation–Considering the critical success factor affecting cloud computing implementation the TEO framework is a strategic approach to embrace technological advancement in the Philippines.Practical Implication–The use of cloud computing in the virtual learning of the HEIs has been proven effective in the educational operation considering the critical success factor with the Technology Environment and Organization methods. This alignswith new educational system development in improving the infrastructure of the learning platform of the HEIs into more advance and accessible features of the learning delivery through its stakeholders.

An Evolving Model of Knowledge Management in Education and the South African Reality

Concepts of Knowledge Management struck three educators in Gauteng, South Africa, and inspired them to devise a Knowledge Management model for education and schools. The model is focused on how Knowledge Management is sandwiched between the country’s educational policies and the bedrock of literacy and reading. It encompasses the Constitution, common value systems, common leadership/management skills and professional values, inherited language skills and cultural knowledge and lifestyles, general knowledge, information/literacy/digital/IT skills, Intellectual Capital and collaboration between educational entities, school librarians and colleagues, communities and stakeholders. The model highlights the many challenges existing in South African education and further inspired the three educators to consider their own achievements as School Librarians – one at a Public/Government High School and the other at a Public/Government Primary School. The High School Librarian has used IT to promote reading to great effect, while the Primary School Librarian has made important strides in helping her subject/learning area colleagues to teach Information Literacy.

The effectiveness of GitHub cloud services for implementing a programming training project: students’ point of view

In today’s IT industry, it is important to develop the ability of IT students to collaboratively develop software, professional and personal skills. An effective method for developing such skills in future IT specialists is to organize different types of educational projects related to different programming technologies during the execution of mini projects, group and individual project assignments, term papers, academic training within the academic disciplines. The paper summarizes the results of a pedagogical study involving 29 expert students who study Computer Science and Software Engineering and used cloud service for GitHub collaborative IT development projects. The research findings testify, the most effective characteristics of this service, according to experts, identified the possibility of collaborative development of software (i1), the convenience of bug tracking (i3) and the convenience of the code editor (i7). It offers examples and results of using GitHub cloud service in the process of executing educational projects by future IT specialists.

Improving company-wide logistics through collaborative track and trace IT services

Under the objective of improving intra-organisational logistics processes, this paper investigates the use of collaborative IT applications-based on track and trace technology. We report on company-wide logistics improvements attained through the introduction of a collaborative track and trace IT solution. In a chemical company, we considered the dependent processes of truck arrivals at the main gate and loading operations at stations inside the site. Without track and trace assistance, uncertainties in processing steps and driving times as well as space limitations lead to uncontrolled truck inflow to stations. To achieve a controllable situation, we developed an online IT application where at gate and station real-time data is collected. Based on the data, we employed a site entry control ensuring smooth station operations. Logistics performance indicators such as the average and maximum truck number at the station and site sojourn times of trucks were reduced significantly.

Improving company-wide logistics through collaborative track and trace IT services

Under the objective of improving intra-organisational logistics processes, this paper investigates the use of collaborative IT applications-based on track and trace technology. We report on company-wide logistics improvements attained through the introduction of a collaborative track and trace IT solution. In a chemical company, we considered the dependent processes of truck arrivals at the main gate and loading operations at stations inside the site. Without track and trace assistance, uncertainties in processing steps and driving times as well as space limitations lead to uncontrolled truck inflow to stations. To achieve a controllable situation, we developed an online IT application where at gate and station real-time data is collected. Based on the data, we employed a site entry control ensuring smooth station operations. Logistics performance indicators such as the average and maximum truck number at the station and site sojourn times of trucks were reduced significantly.

Translation and Adoption: Exploring Vocabulary Work in Expert-Layperson Encounters

An advisory service encounter brings together a domain expert with a layperson in a complex life situation. Because of the different backgrounds and expertise levels, the interlocutors and meanings is an essential part of advisory services and, generally, of expert-layperson collaboration. Establishing and maintaining a common lexicon is a specific and, at the same type, frequent type of collaborative work. Nevertheless, it remains unclear what efforts this collaborative work involves and what role collaborative IT applications play in this regard. A collaborative application can well support the maintenance of a common lexicon by providing a way to externalize terms or definitions. Or it can generate additional work by providing further terms and definitions to be incorporated in the common lexicon. That puzzle gets reflected in specific design dilemmas: should the system use expert or conventional terms, what is the source of the adequate terminology, to what extent should the system adapt to the individual lexical choices, etc. This manuscript explores the work involved in establishing and maintaining a common lexicon in advisory services between an expert and a layperson. In particular, it demonstrates how external material, a dedicated collaborative application developed for supporting advisory services, impacts the maintenance of a common lexicon. First, the manuscript depicts practices involved in translation and adoption of terminology from the system into the conversation. Second, it characterizes the system’s impact on interlocutors’ vocabulary. Overall, the study contributes to the discourse on expert-layperson collaboration by characterizing an important type of work, the vocabulary work, and by depicting the role of collaborative applications for this type of work.

IT governance in collaboration mode: building IT collaboration network using a socio technical approach based on actor network theory

IT governance of projects needs collaboration among several organisms. Collaboration is ensured by building network of collaboration between the collaborating entities; IT collaboration between organisations can play an important role to achieve business objectives. In order to build such networks of collaboration at a real scale need modelling social interactions between different actors in order to share, analyse, and suggest improvements for a collaborative perspective. This paper describes a new tool for collaboratively modelling based on actor network theory. *CollabANT system is based on actor network theory and game theory algorithm that efficiently provides abstract models of collaboration between different actors aiming at uncovering cost allocations concerns. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach with a real case study. The analyse of *interessement phase reveals that we are able to increase the cost saving objectives within a collaborative mode. We also present a what-if simulation feature to assess the impact of scenarios related to future collaboration evolution. Furthermore, we provide a live deployment of the *CollabANT system that allows users to explore the dynamics of collaboration networks in place as well as their involvement over time.

Impact of Firms’ Capabilities on Outsourcing Success (Evidences from Pakistan)

This study is going to analyze the impact of Firm’s Capabilities on Outsourcing Success; Evidences from Pakistan. A conceptual framework has been composed determinants of Outsourcing success. A questionnaire survey was conducted to obtain data from selected Organizations of about 180 respondents and their responses were further tested on SPSS software by applying different statistical techniques. Results concluded that IT Capabilities, Collaboration Participation, and Information Sharing have a significant positive impact on Outsourcing Success. Whereas, Vendor Management Capabilities has not significant impacted on Outsourcing Success. It is recommended that supplier visibility as well as control of information sharing would enhance the vendor’s performance

Smart, simulation-based resource sharing in federated production networks

The rise of Industry 4.0 and the convergence of the digital and physical worlds increasingly, where not radically, transforms the production networks. The paper presents the preliminary results of a distributed collaboration framework developed with the aim to facilitate the cooperation of various production sites. The objective is to manage a network of manufacturers who can dynamically re-configure and share their resources within a pre-registered community and analyze how the cardinality of the federation influences both the cooperation and the global and local production KPI-s. The novelty of the concept is the combination of the agent-based control, the matching algorithm combined with the detailed digital simulation of the distributed production systems and the collaborative IT platform.

The usability, usefulness and use of a national collaborative IT platform for the purpose of continuity of care.

In 2015, the Ministry of Health (MOH) Singapore embarked on an initiative to create a national IT collaborative platform whereby entry of and access to patient information are limited to those who have been identified as part of the patient’s Care Team, which may comprise of doctors, nurses, and allied health professionals such as social workers and therapists. This was initially used to address one of the six regional health systems (RHS) priority areas in Singapore of managing frequent readmissions which has subsequently expanded to address other national programme themes such as transition care and care-coordination. The core principle behind this IT platform is to enable information sharing between members of the care team for the purpose of continuity of care. In the current state, once patient care is handed over to community partners, there is no avenue for care coordinators in the tertiary hospital to follow up on the progress of their patients apart from direct communication via phone call or email correspondence. In addition, there are certain instances whereby community partners face difficulty in care of patients due to lack of information being flowed down to them. This IT platform aims to bridge this gap between members of the tertiary centre with community partners as well as GPs to allow for information sharing and update between both parties. Through this platform, a personalised care plan can be formulated for each patient which may comprise problems, intervention, assessment and goals. This is on top of the ability to assign care team member for the care of the patient to increase practice efficiency. There is oversight of patient into other programmes across different healthcare clusters in the nation. This is beneficial in terms of preventing duplication of care plans or tasks and accurate and timely information flow to all members of the care team. This poster aims to articulate the usability, usefulness and use of a national collaborative IT platform to formulate an individualised care plan for each patient comprising of multi-disciplinary care team members assigned with specific task to allow for continuity of care as well as efficient care delivery to improve patient health outcome.

Tuning in to More Interactivity – Learning from IT Support for Advisory Service Encounters

Abstract Advisory service encounters change their character from expertise provision to interactive problem solving, thus increasingly relying on mutual and intensive interaction between the advisor and the advisee: they turn into interactive advisory service encounters. Simultaneously, modern collaborative IT finds its way into service encounters as a method to engineer, enrich, and standardize them. An IT system equipped with interactive features may enhance the encounter’s interactivity, but it may also limit it by capturing participants’ attention. This study explores the influence of IT on the interactivity in advisory service encounters. It arrives at the conclusion that an extensive tuning in precedes a phase of enhanced interactivity in IT-supported advisory service encounters.

Data Service Platform for Sentinel-2 Surface Reflectance and Value-Added Products: System Use and Examples

This technical note presents the first Sentinel-2 data service platform for obtaining atmospherically-corrected images and generating the corresponding value-added products for any land surface on Earth. Using the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Sen2Cor algorithm, the platform processes ESA’s Level-1C top-of-atmosphere reflectance to atmospherically-corrected bottom-of-atmosphere (BoA) reflectance (Level-2A). The processing runs on-demand, with a global coverage, on the Earth Observation Data Centre (EODC), which is a public-private collaborative IT infrastructure in Vienna (Austria) for archiving, processing, and distributing Earth observation (EO) data. Using the data service platform, users can submit processing requests and access the results via a user-friendly web page or using a dedicated application programming interface (API). Building on the processed Level-2A data, the platform also creates value-added products with a particular focus on agricultural vegetation monitoring, such as leaf area index (LAI) and broadband hemispherical-directional reflectance factor (HDRF). An analysis of the performance of the data service platform, along with processing capacity, is presented. Some preliminary consistency checks of the algorithm implementation are included to demonstrate the expected product quality. In particular, Sentinel-2 data were compared to atmospherically-corrected Landsat-8 data for six test sites achieving a R2 = 0.90 and Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) = 0.031. LAI was validated for one test site using ground estimations. Results show a very good agreement (R2 = 0.83) and a RMSE of 0.32 m2/m2 (12% of mean value).

Improving collaboration between large and small-medium enterprises in automobile production

ABSTRACTInter-organisational collaboration is important for achieving qualitative and quantitative performance improvement in the global competitive environment. In particular, the extent of collaboration between the mother company and its suppliers is important for the profitability and sustainability of a company in the automobile industry, which is carried out using a customisation and order production system. As a result of the empirical analysis in this study, the collaborative information sharing cycle is shortened and the collaborative information sharing scope is widened. Therefore, the level of collaboration is improved by constructing an IT collaboration system.

Health IT Collaboration and Coordination.

Judith R. Sands, RN, MSL, BSN, CCM, CPHQ, CPHRM, LHRM, ARM, has more than 25 years of experience as a passionate case manager and risk management and patient safety professional and is a certified case manager. She has worked in academia, hospitals, managed care, specialty networks, and health IT organizations. She has successfully led multidisciplinary teams in meeting regulatory, compliance, and accrediting standards with sustainable outcomes. Judith has held various leadership roles in health IT, resource management/care transitions, risk, and quality management in public and private entities in South Florida and Raleigh, NC. She has been responsible for numerous organizational strategic initiatives, team building, and change management programs. Judith is a lifelong learner who holds a bachelor of science in nursing from the University of Florida and a master of science in leadership from Nova Southeastern University. Judith has been very active in teaching health care professionals about care transitions and resource conservation and has presented at CMSA annual conferences. She has been published in various publications, including The Case Manager and The Journal for Healthcare Quality. Address correspondence to Judith R. Sands, RN, MSL, BSN, CCM, CPHQ, CPHRM, LHRM, ARM, 8905 Deerland Grove Drive, Raleigh, NC 27615 ([email protected]). CM Matters welcomes and invites you to submit articles, stories, practice tips, reflections, and revelations. How has CM changed you and/or how have you affected the lives of others? All inquiries, questions, comments, and manuscripts should be submitted via e-mail to: [email protected] or by mail to Lynn S. Muller, P.O. Box 164, Bergenfield, NJ 07621. If you have an idea for an article but would like to discuss it, provide contact information in your e-mail and you will be contacted by your preferred method. Do you have an idea for an article but would like to discuss it, provide your contact information in an e-mail and you will be contacted by your preferred method. The author reports no conflicts of interest.

The adoption of software-as-a-service (SaaS): ranking the determinants

Purpose – Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) has the potential to provide substantial opportunities for organizations to improve their information technology without cost and management concerns. However, organizations have not utilized it to the desired level because it is very challenging for them to completely transform their basic conventional methods of running software into SaaS as a high-tech method. On the other hand, organizations have doubt which factors should be mostly considered if they want to move to SaaS. Therefore, investigating the adoption of SaaS can contribute organizations to benefit from this technology. The purpose of this paper is to provide a good insight into SaaS technology adoption. Design/methodology/approach – Considering Technology, Organization and Environment (TOE) framework and diffusion of innovation (DOI) theory as the basis, 22 university experts expressed their idea about the proposed model of SaaS adoption. Then, 30 IT professional in 15 IT enterprises that had adopted SaaS were asked to fill the questionnaire related to fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) based on linguistic preference relations (LinPreRa) in order to rank the submitted criteria. Findings – The findings demonstrate that all attributes of Technology (relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, trialability, observability and security and privacy), Organization (IT resource, sharing and collaboration culture) and environment (competitive pressure, social influence) are influential in the adoption of SaaS. Moreover, the top five influential factors are relative advantage, competitive pressure, security and privacy, sharing and collaboration culture and social influence based on adopter’s opinions. Research limitations/implications – For researchers, this study provides a useful literature, which can help them in related subject. In addition, it applies IT adoption theories in SaaS context that can be extended in future studies. For organizations, this study derives priority of factors by which they can make strong decisions about adoption of SaaS. Originality/value – This study contributes to the adoption of SaaS technology using well-known IT adoption theories. A version of Fuzzy AHP based on LinPreRa was used in order to cover the limitations of previous methodologies of ranking the criteria.

Fifty Shades of API for Business in New Networked Economy

Application Programming Interface (API) is increasingly popular and it became one of the critical vehicles of service enablement and IT collaboration in Cloud computing. Several large business enterprises invested a major portion of their IT budget into software redesign, restructuring the application architecture and their application service interfaces to decouple of the application boundary beyond limit. It will cover a detail understanding of API and its essence in the business and enterprise. It will also share a various shades and role of API in IT transformation journey in the networked economy of cloud computing and social media. The article also demonstrates how an enterprise can scale to manage the hyper growth of economy through collaboration of services by various service providers through API.

Creative Education in Japan, Taiwan and Mainland China

There are three experimental attempts in legal education of East Asia. These experiments promote creative education by introducing a new approach to innovative imagination and creative comparison in a multilingual setting. They use collaborative teaching and new IT tools in the context of “learning by doing.”