Thesis (M.B.A.)--Carleton University, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 108-116). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

The global economic environment nowadays becomes so competitive, all enterprises suffer a challenging and confronting adversity. Due to the knowledge economy era, all enterprises need to emphasize the internal information management and application. Therefore, the Business Intelligent (BI) software turns into the best solution for an enterprise. As each enterprise has different structure and behavior views, the BI definition is required to adapt to the enterprise environment. To resolve this problem, an enterprise must increase the business cost, and system managers are demanded to modify the programs repeatedly. Our research aims to assist the BI software by defining a model of Architecture-Oriented Business Intelligent (AOBI) which helps analyze and design the software with ease. The AOBI model is to describe the structure and behavior in one unity. Using this approach of structure and behavior in one unity, developers would devise and adjust the BI software more flexible and adaptable. This study distinguishes into three parts. The first part is to introduce the architecture theory. The second part is to explain how to build up an architecture model. The third part is to propose an AOBI model. Inside the thesis, BI structure elements, operations, and structure and behavior in one unity are elaborated. Also, using AOBI model assists system developers to construct the BI software for an enterprise. In the future, we would further our efforts on the implementation, testing, cost and performance management of the AOBI software. The BI software contains other software, for example, Key Performance Indicator, Data Warehouse, Data Mart, Data Mining and On-line analysis processing, etc. We may construct the above software using the architecture model, too.

This mini-dissertation reviews present literature to define ICT and SMEs and determine the current situation in South Africa with regard to the use of ICT by SMEs, including possible benefits to SMEs as well as stumbling blocks to adopting ICT. The research consists of collecting data from ten SMEs in Gauteng in South Africa using questionnaires and interviews, to determine how SMEs can use ICT to become more competitive. The mini-dissertation will have a number of chapters: the first chapter will give an overview of the subject. The second chapter will explain the research motivation and methodology while the third chapter will be the literature review, which will explore the topic of ICT and SMEs in depth, with a focus on South Africa. Chapter four will deal with data collection and analysis; the main source of data will be interviews based on structured questions. The fifth chapter will be the discussion and recommendations based on the results of the analysis and the literature review. Chapter Six will be the conclusion. / Dissertation (MIT)--University of Pretoria, 2008. / Informatics / unrestricted