Enterprise Information Management Research Articles

Management by Action: How We're Embracing New Cataloging Work at Tufts

SUMMARY Preparing for new cataloging such as metadata beyond MARC and thesauri beyond LCSH, is an exciting and daunting challenge for university libraries. Advancing technologies, as well as a growing demand for quality information with rapid access is fueling the need for technical services departments to restructure their work to accommodate the evolving world of information management. Catalogers who have been following the same procedures and practices for many years may find this change particularly difficult. Team leaders are often faced with breaking through skepticism and resistance to this new work in order to enable necessary progress. We found that discussions and gradual introduction of new directions is important to acceptance by team members. However, just as important is the implementation of an action plan to ensure that progress is ongoing. Reengineering Acquisitions and Cataloging into Current Processes and Information Management Initiatives, along with forming several focus groups to investigate and evaluate cataloging work, is proving successful for embracing new cataloging at Tufts University.

INFORMATION NETWORKS OF SMALL AND MEDIUM-SIZED ENTERPRISES

Information networks are established by communication links between firms, their business partners, personal friends, authorities, universities etc. The value of the information exchanges, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises, depends on the individual position in the information network. The paper discusses existing measures to evaluate network positions and proposes a new one. Extensive case study evidence indicates that the network position of startups and small enterprises is subject to constant changes which the individual firm cannot control completely. The paper develops a dynamic model for the development of network positions over time and indicates what firms can do to improve them. Information management in small and medium-sized enterprises can best be described as the management of dynamic information networks. Calculating position measures and development paths helps start-ups and small businesses to assess their current network position and to increase the efficiency of their information management.

The composite health care system of tripler army medical center

This paper will briefly discuss the Composite Health Care System (CHCS) at Tripler Army Medical Center. It will define the system configuration of CHCS and show how CHCS provides a clinical application information system to support health care delivery to armed service personnel, retirees and beneficiaries, ensure medical readiness of military forces and support quality managed care. The paper will give an analysis of the challenge Tripler faced with the increasing number of calls for prescription refills and explain how the CHCS Executive Committee established a set of contingency policies to support and provide guidance during periods of planned and unplanned downtime. It will also discuss how CHCS was leveraged for the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) Information Management Initiative. Finally, it describes the automated security features designed to provide access control to the overall system of CHCS.

Information management in production planning for a virtual enterprise

The information management of a virtual enterprise is a current research challenge. X-CITTIC, a production planning and control system for semiconductor manufacturing virtual enterprises, is an on-going ESPRIT project. A concept for an information management component is proposed for the project, based on object-oriented technology. Its architecture and detailed design are presented in the paper according to Rumbaugh's OMT (Object Modelling Technique). To capture all of its important aspects, three kinds of model object, dynamic and functional are presented to describe it from different viewpoints.

Know your company

Describes how enterprise information management systems (EIMS) allow information about all the business activities of a company to be managed. The system should integrate a very wide range of business activities. Desirable features are listed. The advantages of the system are set forth. Its modules, and their functional division, are discussed. The market for such systems is briefly described. System developments are discussed. SCADA systems are considered.

Information Management in South African Manufacturing Enterprises

In the research on which this paper is based, an attempt was made to determine whether South African manufacturing enterprises used information to their competitive advantage. To investigate if the competitive position of enterprises can be strengthened on the strategic level if the information resources are efficiently managed, South African manufacturing enterprises were grouped according to the strategic types identified by the Miles and Snow management typology. It was found that information management is applied in the enterprises but that it is not used to the competitive advantage of these enterprises. It is recommended that South African manufacturing enterprises should improve their information management functions and that information management becomes a strategic management function towards reaching a competitive advantage.

Demand chain management in a global enterprise-information management view

The strategy and role of Information Management as an enabler and contributor to successful business strategy is discussed. Global Demand Chain Management is used as an example. Basic principlesand differences of Supply Chain Management and Demand Chain Management are explained, focusing on the perspective of Information Management. Key drivers and criteria for Information Management system design are outlined. The gaps of current application software platforms are discussed.

Managing Environmental Information in Small States: collaboration can make a difference

Reports on a collaborative information management initiative developed by the European Centre for Development Policy Management (ECDPM) and the Caribbean Conservation Association (CCA). Presents the origins of the collaboration, the motivations and aims of the two agencies, and the main activities that were undertaken. The final section identifies some lessons and conclusions that can be drawn.

The model-assisted global query system for multiple databases in distributed enterprises

Today's enterprises typically employ multiple information systems, which are independently developed, locally administered, and different in logical or physical designs. Therefore, a fundamental challenge in enterprise information management is the sharing of information for enterprise users across organizational boundaries; this requires a global query system capable of providing on-line intelligent assistance to users. Conventional technologies, such as schema-based query languages and hard-coded schema integration, are not sufficient to solve this problem. This article develops a new approach, a “model-assisted global query system,” that utilizes an on-line repository of enterprise metadata—the Metadatabase—to facilitate global query formulation and processing with certain desirable properties such as adaptiveness and open-systems architecture. A definitional model characterizing the various classes and roles of the required metadata as knowledge for the system is presented. The significance of possessing this knowledge (via a Metadatabase) toward improving the global query capabilities available previously is analyzed. On this basis, a direct method using model traversal and a query language using global model constructs are developed along with other new methods required for this approach. It is then tested through a prototype system in a computer-integrated manufacturing (CIM) setting.

Information systems security and the multinational enterprise (1)

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems represent a quantum leap in integrated, entity-wide information systems. Managers are implementing these enterprise-wide systems in organizations of all sizes and types. Ironically, by implementing such all-encompassing and prespecified systems, organizational managers in effect lose control of the strategic and operational processes and models that frame and instantiate the enterprise's management information system and ultimately their actions. These systems are designed and developed by the software vendor and the “best-practices” are embedded in the standardized software by the vendor's system developers. We develop a framework grounded in Habermas’ theory of communicative action that provides a description of the context within which ERP systems are developed and implemented. The framework also facilitates a critique of the underlying ideologies and assumptions associated with, and incorporated into, the ERP system design. The presentation opens with a discussion of ERP systems and the extent of their proliferation over the organizational landscape. The implications for the management and control of work organizations are also considered. Next, a Habermasian framework is developed and used in analyzing the cultural and social context within which ERP systems are developed and implemented. The efficacy of the system is illustrated using a reported system implementation.

Bounded Rationality and Organizational Learning

Abstract : If organization theory finds it useful to draw upon some of the ideas that have emerged in cognitive psychology, it will be advantageous to borrow also the terminology used in discussing these ideas. Without working toward a higher level of consistency in terminology than prevails in organization theory today, it will be difficult or impossible to cumulate and assemble into a coherent structure the knowledge we are gaining from individual case studies and experiments. We will be continually reinventing wheels. That is a luxury we cannot afford. The happy band of researchers on organization theory is sufficiently small to be kept fully occupied discovering and verifying the theory just once. (Author) (kr)

Systems of information management in enterprises

Systems of information management in enterprises