Extranets as they have come to be termed are revolutionizing supply chains and their management. Companies and organizations with quite different internal information systems can now access data from other supply chain members. Information can be shared easily and at relatively low cost. A major benefit that flows from this greater transparency is that internal operation of the business can become more efficient as a result. This thesis studies extranet in development of supply chain from case company’s perspective. Finnsementti Oy was chosen as a case company because they had a desire to improve the operation of their supply chain by developing an extranet. Finnsementti Oy is a Finnish cement manufacturer since 1914. At the moment Finnsementti produces 85% of the cement needed in Finland. Most of company’s business is B-to-B.Finnsementti actively develops its operation and this thesis also supports that goal by aiming to improve the efficiency of Finnsementti’s supply chain which again is assumed to have a positive impact on competitive advantage and profitability. Based on a CRM study conducted in spring 2005 Finnsementti Oy decided to develop its existing rarely used customer forum into an efficient customer-oriented extranet. Finnsementti aims to improve its customer service, improve supply chain performance and make its order and delivery process more efficient. In advance extranet was assumed to enable all this. Extranet project was initiated in early fall 2005 and this study was initiated simultaneously. The starting-point of this thesis was Finnsementti’s desire to implement a supply chain improving extranet, and in order to do that, the implementation had to be successful. Due to the fact that supply chains are currently evolving towards networked e-supply chains there is quite lot of existing literature about how a supply chain performance can be improved by using electronic tools. This study concentrates on these facts, related assumption and expectations. It was also evaluated from case company’s perspective how likely these expected improvements are going to realized; is there something unexpected and additional that Finnsementti has not been able to predict? In order to find this out extranet was studied at first from literature and then from case company’s and their employee’s perspective. One of the goals of this study was to determine what is the actual condition for completing this extranet project successfully because only that can enable the realization of supply chain improvements. How to make employees and customers adopt this new extranet and so that they will start to use it actively in their daily activities? The foundation for this part of the study was the comprehensive literature review conducted on supply chain improvements. Based on that, observations and interviews, an expectations theory was built. According to this theory user’s realistic and accurate expectations make a good foundation for accepting a new information system. If the user’s expectations are fulfilled, user will perceive the new system easy to use and useful which on the other hand leads to acceptance of the system. This expectations theory can be used as a starting point for almost any information system implementation where user acceptance is considered critical.

To satisfy the transportation service request of clients and to control the associated costs are the main targets of marine container transportation industry. To achieve the transportation service for clients, plenty of participants and procedures are involved in the Marine Supply Chain (MSC), leading to the need of exchanging a huge amount of information. This study is focused on how and what kind of information sharing should be exchanged in these participants and procedures of Maritime Supply Chain. We use UMM (UN/CEFACT Modeling Methodology of ebXML business process) to investigate the business processes between participants in Marine Supply Chain. We also conducted a case study in an important location of maritime supply chain, i.e., Port Container Terminal to discuss about the information sharing content and sharing pattern in MSC processes. The result shows that in the marine cargo delivery process, Port Container Terminal is responsible for Berth Schedule Planning, Berth Planning, Yard Planning and Gate Planning to achieve the container transport service for the clients. Therefore, plenty of participants and procedures have to be involved in the Marine Supply Chain, and plenty of information have to be interchanged. However, beside Customs Clearance procedure, there are no common information technology platform and standard for information interchange in marine container transportation industry. To improve the service quality of domestic marine cargo delivery, we have to establish an information sharing system. Moreover, I personally hope this study can be used as a reference of information system analysis and design. Improving the information sharing standardization and building information sharing pattern can simplify and improve the procedures of marine cargo delivery system.

The Electronic Government (E-Government) is via the information network systems, connecting the government agencies, the citizen, and the information, establishing a real-time interactive system, which leads to the convenient and faster access to government information and services, making the convenient services to the citizen a reality. Based on the E-Commerce application models, there are four types of E-Government. They are Government to Citizen (G2C), Government to Business (G2B), Government to Government (G2G) and Government to Employee (G2E). The purpose of the G2G application model is to establish the information exchanges and integration application among the agencies so that the government can provide faster and convenient services to the citizen. This study uses the property management of the lands owned by the City of Kaohsiung as an example. The property management agency of Kaohsiung municipal government desperately needs the shared information provided by other agencies to resolve the complicated issues of property management. However, the municipal government does not have a standard process for the agencies to follow. If the negotiation between the information supplier and information consumer falls through, or there is no negotiation channel at all, the information cannot be shared among the agencies. Currently because of the following reasons: (1) no central mechanism in charge of the planning and management of the whole information business for the municipal government, (2) self-centered and conservative attitude of the agencies which own the information, (3) no mechanism for negotiation and assessment, (4) no sufficient budget and man power, the information integration and resources circulation is not a reality just yet. The municipal government does not take advantage of the available Internet resources and, therefore it is not able to provide the services of better quality to the people. In the continuing development stages of the E-Government, information sharing and integration application is the goal for the current important administration overhaul of the government. How to effectively execute information sharing among the government agencies is, as a matter of fact, the centerpiece of this study. The purpose of this study is through the exploration of shorter work flow due to the land information management and the current inter-agencies information sharing integration services, to provide an innovative thinking direction, hoping the execution can achieve the following: (1) Establish a standard work flow for the operation of information sharing among the municipal government agencies so that the information supplier and consumer agencies can follow. (2) Speed up the information sharing and messages circulation among the municipal agencies; simplify the internal administrative procedures of the agencies reaching the goal of efficiency and effectiveness of the services to citizen. Through the in-depth interviews, research, and analysis, there are some findings. To have information sharing among the government agencies, these need to be done: (1) set up a commission for propelling information sharing, (2) implement a standard work flow of information sharing for the City of Kaohsiung, (3) build up a mechanism for the inter-agencies negotiation. These conclusions will integrate the service flows of different agencies, making the execution of E-Government closer to a reality.

Supply chain management involves inter-organizational interactions and integration as a whole, sharing operational resources and information among supply chain members, and an objective to optimize the supply chain performance. Among the management processes exists uncertainty that disrupts operational performance. The uncertainty occurs when supply chain members have insufficient information for decision making. The lack of information transparency leads to a rise in each member¡¦s cost and inventory level, inefficiency in capacity utilization, reduction of business values, etc. For these reasons, this study holds that information sharing can effectively deal with uncertainty and improve the performance of the whole supply chain. This research mainly studies information sharing in a supply chain and proposes a theoretical framework of information sharing. It investigates by a case study the uncertainty that the focal company faces in demand, supply, and manufacturing process, explores the company¡¦s current status of information sharing, and researches the factors that may influence information sharing. The results show that PCB (Printed Circuit Board), a highly customized product with a short life cycle and a simple combination of raw materials, has a supply chain of divergent differentiation. PCB has a higher demand uncertainty, but that uncertainty can be effectively reduced by information sharing and process coordination with demand side customers. Besides, the order fulfillment process may be improved as a result. Based on inter-organizational coordination, information sharing through vendor managed inventory mechanism will facilitate supply chain collaboration, and ease the significant influence of bullwhip effect on upstream PCB manufacturers. In this way, PCB manufacturers can share risks and profits with customers. Furthermore, the extent of trust and risk may influence the process of information sharing. A greater extent of trust helps members to share information with each other. Nevertheless, it is considered risky to share sensitive information, which is regarded as a bargaining power.

There are numerous 100% continuous casting process steel making plants planning to build in the coming years, and therefore competitions in-between are to be more severe. To be competitive in the future , the on-the-time-being steel making furnace plant must be agile and responsive to changing market, yet also able to operate efficiently. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is necessary for the present enterprise to retain valuable customers and to acquire valuable potential customers rather than to merely achieve market share. In the data based marketing area, customer response model with characters of targeting and predicting customers is gradually important than the past. Further more, supply chain management (SCM) is another important competitive trend in industry, in which information is one of the active performance factors. The company of this case study has abundant transactions data and relies heavy on information communicating with customers. This study following the rule of CRM 10C model, gathering customers relationship data in the first place, distinguishing customers with customer¡¦s value and customer¡¦s response model, can hopefully extract customerized needs of implicit information sharing knowledge on the purpose of CRM by improving SCM efficiency. There are four distinct clusters from analyzing 414,651 customer¡¦s transaction data of two years which are ¡§The right Stuff¡¨ , ¡§ Fatal Attractions¡¨ ,¡¨Odd Couples¡¨ and ¡§Ghosts¡¨ , and clustering were verified by the ¡§K-means¡¨ method commonly used in Clustering analysis. By analyzing the questionaries collected from customers, subjected to the aspect of needs of information sharing levels, types , qualities and extents came out different cluster¡¦s needs vary in information levels, qualities and extents. As more study on information sharing and customer¡¦s loyalty, results of customer loyalty affected by information sharing were found and would be more dominant if trust is add in between information sharing and customer¡¦s purchasing will .

Supply Chain Management involves the cross-organizational interaction and integration, sharing of resources and information, supply chain to optimize the overall goal. In this process there are many interference performance of the uncertainty factors, instead of the uncertainty generated, the extent of the supply chain members unable to obtain the information needed for decision-making. The lack of transparency of information, it will cause the supply chain every member of inventory cost and increase productivity without the use of efficiency, reduce the competitiveness of enterprises. Based on the study that through information sharing, process reengineering and the establishment of performance appraisal system can be an effective supply chain operation of the uncertainty facing the problems and improve the performance of the supply chain and business performance. The results showed that backlight module manufacturing industries belong to industry, labor-intensive, highly customized products. short product life cycles and frequent changes in the demand for the supply chain characteristics, its own high demand uncertainty, through with the customer demand for information-sharing and coordination process, which can effectively reduce demand uncertainty, Implement process improvement orders In cross-organizational coordination mechanism, through information sharing will help the supply chain, reduce the bullwhip effect on the supply chain significantly, and its customers and share the risks and profit sharing. In addition, the synergistic operation of the supply chain framework of analysis, cooperative enterprise in pursuit of enterprises operating information Seamlessly and the operation of the synchronization overall cooperation can play the largest comprehensive Synergy.

With rapid growth for years, Taiwan IC industry has played an important position in the world. In addition to the growth, close interaction and cooperation among firms have become the characteristics of Taiwan IC industry. Currently, time-based competition has been one of the most important factors for business success, and the competition in the 21st century relies on strategic supply chain management. Through interfirm collaboration by sharing information among supply chain partners, some activities originally performed in an individual firm are replaced by firms with core competency. In performing these activities, the competitive advantages through the supply chain information integration are gradually recognized. The objective of this article is to realize the current situation and future plan of inter-organizational information sharing (IOIS) in Taiwan IC industry. From literature, there are lots of factors that influence the success of IOIS, this paper focuses on some areas, such as benefits from IOIS, motivations of IOIS, risks from IOIS, strategic or operational reasons, IT maturity among firms, key success factors of IOIS, and the initiator of industrial IOIS. Through questionnaire survey, we collect and analyze various viewpoints from companies of Taiwan IC industry supply chain, including IC design houses, IC fabs, assembly and testing houses, assembly material and equipment suppliers. After the empirical analysis, we compare the findings with literatures. We conclude that the IOIS, namely networked IOIS, in Taiwan IC industry proceeds toward reciprocal interdependencies between organizations. The coordination mechanisms count on standards, rules, and mutual adjustment. Initially, the networked IOIS will tend to be much less structured and the potential for conflict may be higher. At present, because of lack of reliable and mature information connection among firms, the intensive information technology support is needed. Finally, based on the findings, we summarize the characteristics and present the model of IOIS for Taiwan IC industry supply chain. Then, some suggestions are arisen for industry reference, including mutual benefit realization and cooperation willingness, protection of business confidential and data security, integration of enterprise systems and industrial standard messages, proposal of IC industry association to be the coordinator or initiator of IOIS, step by step implementation according to priorities of information type, and integration of information flow with manufacturing goods flow in the supply chain.

Considerable evidence suggests that holding overly positive views of one’s own abilities is not only normal but may also be beneficial. Unfortunately, research demonstrating the consequences of holding inflated self-views remains relatively sparse, and research examining the interpersonal consequences of inflated self-views has come up with mixed results. In this dissertation I examine the interpersonal consequences of an employee’s inflated self-views. I specifically look at how an employee’s self-views influence coworker perceptions of the employee, the decision to share information with the employee, and whether coworkers will choose to help the employee. I find that making a clear distinction between inflated self-views and entitlement can help illustrate why coworkers may respond positively or negatively to a specific employee. / text

A focus group study of fourteen University of Saskatchewan second to fourth year humanities and social science undergraduate students was conducted in the fall of 2011. The purpose of the research was to determine how students learn about library resources and services. Findings indicate that the participants often use a variety of informal, self-directed and information sharing strategies. Seeking help from professors, peers, friends, and family members is a common practice. Convenience, familiarity, and perceived knowledge are key factors that determine who and how these students learn about the library. Formal instruction and seeking assistance from librarians did not resonate for participants as a typical approach for learning about the library. The author suggests that undergraduate students engage in informal learning and information sharing as many ‘adult learners’ do, similar to an employment setting. The library, within the formal educational structure, lends itself to a more informal learning context. The study concludes that libraries must continue to develop resources, services, and innovative programs that support students’ informal learning styles, while also providing formal instruction as part of the undergraduate curriculum ensuring students are exposed early on to core foundational skills that contribute to their success as informal and self-directed learners.

Currently responsible for policing over one million citizens, the Calgary Police Service (CPS) has earned its reputation as a progressive law enforcement organization in part by focusing on the early recognition and acknowledgement of evolving crime trends. To maintain essential public trust CPS remains attuned to the constant shifting of legal and moral public accountability, an issue highlighted by judicial inquiries that have illustrated a consistent lack of police interagency cooperation. Since police are restricted by geographic jurisdictional boundaries, the answer to inter-jurisdictional challenges appears to be the timely sharing of intelligence, something the CPS has proposed through its newly developed Real Time Operations Centre (RTOC). This study investigated the question of how CPS might best develop an Alberta law-enforcement collaborative based upon the paradigm of a central real-time operations centre (RTOC), feasibility of this model, and potential challenges to its implementation. This study conducted qualitative action research with the leaders of all major law enforcement organizations in the Province of Alberta. Research data generated by one-on-one interviews with each participant was thematically analyzed to produce knowledge sufficient to plant the seeds of change for both organizational transformation and future inquiry. Study findings suggest it will be incumbent upon police leaders to create and develop the organizational social awareness necessary to enhance and leverage social capital essential to inter-agency cooperation and collaboration. Identifying positive aspects of a strong organizational culture will create a culture of well-being able to address crucial communication issues and the critical alignment of resources.