Siemens Nixdorf Research Articles

METHODICAL APPROACHES TO BUSINESS PROCESSES REENGINEERING AT MODERN ENTERPRISES

The research task is the improvement of scientific principles and development of a methodical approach to the modelling of enterprises’ development scenarios that apply business process reengineering in order to increase the level of competitiveness. The urgency of the research. The relevance of further researches is determined by the fact that the practical implementation of scientific approaches in Ukraine has not become popular, and the aspects of business process reengineering have been implemented only fragmentarily. Target setting. The development and discussions of procedural, systemic, and synergetic approaches to enterprise development have determined the concept of business process reengineering. Therefore, the further development of methodical principles for the realization of business process reengineering in the practice of business management is urgent and relevant. Uninvestigated parts of general matters defining. The justification of the expediency of using the tools for business process reengineering through the modelling of the future results at Ukrainian enterprises requires further scientific development. Materials and methods. The historical-evolutionary method was used to investigate the essence and origin of the category of reengineering and to distinguish its main features. By means of analysis and synthesis, the conceptual bases of business processes reengineering are determined. Implementation of complex, systemic, and synergetic approaches as a basis for application of business process reengineering allowed developing a modelling methodology for forecasting scenarios of the level of competitiveness of a business unit. The application of a systematic approach is reflected in the consideration of the impact of external and internal factors on the enterprise, complex factor – in combination of factors with the criteria of the enterprises managing that are able to compete in the world market, as well as the application of method at different levels – macro, meso, and micro. Methods of economic modelling and forecasting were used for forming a model of forecasting of the level of enterprise competitiveness. Results. The main features are segregated and a method for modelling of the results of its implementation is formulated. The algorithm of modelling of development scenario as a result of the application of reengineering is developed. A model for predicting of the level of competitiveness for the Ukrainian economy is constructed as well. Practical implications. The brilliant examples of corporations that received the “second breath” as a result of the introduction and reengineering of processes were General Electric, Toyota and Chrysler, Kodak, Siemens Nixdorf Service, IBM Credit. The proposed methodological approach can be applied by enterprises to predict the level of competitiveness of an enterprise as a result of the introduction of business process reengineering, depending on possible costs and target commodity output. Value/originality. Such a method of forecasting the competitiveness of an enterprise as a result of business process reengineering is important and can be used to predict the level of competitiveness at all levels of management.

Experiences with Metal at the Belgian Ministry of the Interior

In this paper we describe our experiences with Siemens Nixdorf's METAL system at the Belgian Ministry of the Interior. In the first part (sections 1,2,3 and 4) we report on the tuning phase during the pilot project. The second part (section 5) describes a prototypical real-life METAL translation session.

Change agents at work: Lessons from Siemens Nixdorf

This paper describes a major Change Agent Programme conducted by Siemens Nixdorf (and later Siemens AG). This programme was part of a larger, sophisticated culture change initiative. Details of the programme are provided and the benefits accruing to the company are carefully assessed. It was found that impact should be considered at the levels of (a) the participant, (b) the business unit and (c) the corporation and that evaluation requires a longitudinal perspective. A number of lessons are extracted from the analysis – the requirement for serious senior management commitment, the creation of realistic programme expectations, providing a road map for post-programme implementation, and so on. Finally, recommendations are made for future work on this very important topic.

Reaching Business Excellence Through Sound People Management

Nowadays companies have to cope not only with the increase of knowledge and complexity, but also with continuous change outside and inside the organization. Thus, sound people management is required. During the last couple of years the staff function ''Personnel and Organizational Development" of Siemens Nixdorf lnformationssysteme AG has developed a modular concept encouraging personal and organizational development. The article outlines the essential elements of the concept (e.g. skills model, staff dialogue MAGplus) pointing out the process of identifying and developing high potentials.

Evaluation of Workflow Management Systems - A Meta Model Approach

The automated enactment of processes through the use of workflow management systems enables the outsourcing of the control flow from application systems. By now a large number of systems, that follow different workflow paradigms, are available. This leads to the problem of selecting the appropriate workflow management system for a given situation. In this paper we outline the benefits of a meta model approach for the evaluation and comparison of different workflow management systems. After a general introduction on the topic of meta modeling the meta models of the workflow management systems WorkParty (Siemens Nixdorf) and FlowMark (IBM) are compared as an example. These product specific meta models can be generalized to meta reference models, which helps to specify a workflow methodology. Exemplary, an organisational reference meta model is presented, which helps users in specifying their requirements for a workflow management system.

The roadmap to success: How gerhard schulmeyer changed the culture at Siemens Nixdorf

In 1994 Siemens Nixdorf Informationssyteme (SNI), the PC-to-IT services group formed from the merger of two leading German computer companies, was suffering heavy losses in a highly competitive global market and also faced intractable internal problems. The arrival as president and chief executive of Gerhard Schulmeyer, a dynamic former head of ABB America, signalled the beginning of a corporate transformation notable for its speed: Schulmeyer aimed to compress what normally takes a year into a quarter, with all stages being completed in 24 months. His first priority was to mobilise the then 37,000 employees behind a cultural and behavioural change that would make the company an entrepreneurial “ideas factory” focused on the customer. Restructuring the businesses into an ABB-style matrix and changing work processes came later. The four main stages of the transformation were each marked by an interactive event held in Hanover, with results cascaded back into the company via trained change agents and selected opinion leaders. Change processes are now firmly embedded in the business, with “action teams” responsible for devising business process improvements. Ideas are exchanged and problems solved through the intranet and manager-employee meetings called Friday Forums. The two-year programme turned SNI's losses into profit in 1996 and growth has been strong enough in 1996/97 in both segments of the business—IT products and technology services and IT solutions and business services—for a forecast that global sales will surpass DM30bn (they are currently DM15bn) by the middle of the next decade.

5521690 Pneumatic toner transport device for an electrographic printing or copying machine: Taffler Jurge; Rumpel Peter, Germany, assigned to Siemens Nixdorf Information Systems Aktiengesellschaft

5521690 Pneumatic toner transport device for an electrographic printing or copying machine: Taffler Jurge; Rumpel Peter, Germany, assigned to Siemens Nixdorf Information Systems Aktiengesellschaft

SESAME: The solution to security for open distributed systems

This paper describes SESAME (Secure European System for Applications in a Multivendor Environment), a security architecture for open distributed systems developed by Bull, ICL and Siemens Nixdorf. The concepts behind the architecture, what properties it has and what features it provides are presented. Particular emphasis has been given to flexibility, management and openness. An outline of the design of the SESAME components is also included, showing its efficiency with regard to performance and administration and its security qualities.

Test chips, test systems, and thermal test data for multichip modules in the ESPRIT-APACHIP project

This paper presents details of four multichip module cooling techniques using common test chips and test methods in the ESPRIT Project 2075, APACHIP. The project was concerned with the development of technology and manufacturing capabilities for single-chip packages and multichip modules. The paper presents descriptions and test results of cooling techniques investigated for multichip modules. These include heat pipes (Bull), immersion in inert fluid (GEC-Marconi), water-cooled thin membrane (GEC-Marconi), and direct-chip on water-cooled cold plate (Siemens Nixdorf Informationssysteme AG). Two 12 mm square thermal test chips are described that have been developed (NMRC) for characterization of thermal demonstrators. Test systems, established at four partner sites for diode temperature sensor calibration and thermal characterization of demonstrators, are described and compared. Statistical errors amounted to less than /spl plusmn/1%. Systematic errors were less than /spl plusmn/10%. The thermal rest data have enabled the project partners to compare the various cooling methods in terms of current and future system designs and to make decisions as to which system is most appropriate from both a technical and an economic viewpoint.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

Development of reusable software for business information systems

One of the problems in developing business information systems is, that existing applications and products are compounded of project-specific and and common components, which are not separable and therefore commonly not reusable. A strategy to treat this problem by strict use of the object-oriented paradigm in developing new applications and the state of a corresponding joint project of Siemens Nixdorf (Munich) and Siemens Austria are presented.

The Metal system

Siemens Nixdorf Information Systems has created a machine translation system called Metal that supports the following language pairs: German-English; English-German; German-Spanish; French-Dutch; Dutch-French. (Work on other language pairs is underway.