Mid-market and high-end market organizations request for a business management system of high quality that satisfies the enterprise needs, has a convenient user interface, and allows to gain information in usable form promptly and with expedition. Every mid-market enterprise faces changes daily. Although the changes witness success, they can weaken efficiency and critical situation control. Therefore it’s important that the enterprise’s business management tools would help working in volatile business world. In the study a comparative analysis of business management systems was carried out and Navision Attain package was chosen. It is distinguished for wide range of functional capabilities and flexibility conforming to the particular enterprise requirements. In this study the potential of Navision system is analysed, the system’s functionality is presented. The implementation process is executed using a well-tried and certified methodology of information systems implementation – Navision Implementation Methodology TM. Enterprise process analysis was performed, functional requirements for the information system were identified, and solutions to these requirements were presented. In the study a fully integrated information system is implemented. It’s designed for administrating and managing enterprise activity processes. The system is also adjustable to enterprise business processes. Modern data analysis tools – OLAP cubes – were chosen for enterprise data analysis. An MS... [to full text]

Background: Moving knowledge into healthcare practice and the implementation of innovations in healthcare organizations remain significant challenges. The objective of this study was to examine the key interpersonal-, organizational-, and system-level factors that influenced the implementation and use of an innovation – synoptic reporting tools – in three specific cases of cancer care. Methods: Using case study methodology, this study examined three cases in Nova Scotia, Canada, wherein synoptic reporting tools were implemented within clinical departments/programs. Three theoretical perspectives guided the design, analysis, and interpretation of the study. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with key informants across four units of analysis (individual user, implementation team, organization, and larger system), document analysis, nonparticipant observation, and examination/use of the synoptic reporting tools. Analysis involved production of case histories, an in-depth analysis of each case, and a cross-case analysis. Results: Numerous factors – which existed at multiple levels of the system and which were often related – were important to the implementation and use of synoptic reporting tools. The cross case analysis revealed five common factors that were particularly influential to implementation and use across the three cases studied: stakeholder involvement, managing the change process, administrative and managerial support, the presence of clinical champions, and attributes of the tools themselves. Key factors distinct to one or two of the cases were: implementation approach, project management, resources, culture, leadership, monitoring and feedback mechanisms, and components of the healthcare system (e.g., care delivery structures, system infrastructure, and socio-historical context). The analyses suggested that several contextual factors, including the timing of implementation and technical requirements of the tool, contributed to the differences across cases. Discussion: This study contributes to our knowledge base on the multi-level factors, and the relationships amongst factors in specific contexts, that influence implementation and use of innovations such as synoptic reporting tools in health care. Importantly, the findings add to our understanding of several important issues that are under-developed in the existing literature in this area: organizational management; healthcare system components; interpersonal aspects of implementation, including stakeholder involvement; and the complex nature of implementation processes.

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This research aims to show the impact that consultants have on the creation of IS knowledge assets as well as the impact that they have on the development of IS competencies in SMEs. Exploratory case studies involving SMEs and consultants are used to investigate the impact consultants have on SMEs. IS knowledge and IS competencies are important themes that emerge from the exploratory stage of the study. This research further investigates the types of IS knowledge assets and IS competencies that consultants impact in SMEs by conducting further case studies with consultants and SMEs. Several propositions about the types of IS knowledge assets and IS competencies impacted by consultants are developed and tested using a longitudinal single-case study. The results are analysed using resource-based theory and knowledge-based theory and reveals that consultants contribute to the development of experiential knowledge assets like know-how and experience, routine knowledge assets and systemic knowledge assets by influencing the knowledge creation processes of implementing SMEs. Consultants enhance and contribute to the development of the Management of IT competence which relates to the SME’s ability utilise IS. However, the results also show that consultants compensate for other IS competencies: strategy and vision; sourcing and alignment; and systems and infrastructure. These competencies relate to the SME’s ability to integrate IT with business processes, to source and alignment IT/IS and to engage in business and IS strategic thinking. It is proposed that in addition to overcoming the knowledge barrier in SMEs, consultants are an essential part of the IS knowledge-creation process. Additionally, consultants compensate for IS competencies which are abilities; however, it is noted that if an on-going relationship develops between the consultants and SMEs then SMEs may, over time, develop IS competencies related to business and IS strategic thinking, management of IT and, sourcing and alignment.

In recent decades, the international community has made a concerted effort to develop the international Anti-Money Laundering Standards (AMLSs) and enhance their implementation at a national level. It is submitted that the AMLSs serve various laudable aims and States should adequately implement those standards. In fact, most States, including Vietnam, have been striving for the highest level of compliance with the AMLSs. This thesis suggests that external pressure and State socialization has compelled developing States to implement and comply with the international AMLSs, and Vietnam is an obvious case study. This thesis examines concisely the development and underlying rationales of a number of key categories of international AMLSs, and the difference in national implementation of each category. The implementation of such multifaceted standards in a transitional State, like Vietnam, requires substantial legal and administrative reform, which often faces numerous domestic hurdles. The examination of Vietnamese AML legislation has revealed that while significant deficiencies remain, certain categories of AMLSs have been transformed wholesale into Vietnamese law. As a part of the objectives of this study, suggestions for law reform have been made to close the gaps between the AML laws of Vietnam and the international standards. It is likely that Vietnam, within a short time, will revise the laws in order to obtain a better degree of compliance. However, given the political, economic and legal factors of Vietnam, this thesis argues that the enforcement of the laws in practice will be still limited. In other words, in the near future Vietnam can achieve what appears to be a high level of compliance with the international AMLSs, but only on paper.

The current socio-economic and political landscape of Sudan and South Sudan can be described as one that is war-ridden and deeply divided by religion, culture, ethnicity and ownership over oil. It has been more than twelve months since the secession of Southern Sudan from the North (See Map 1). Despite the secession, general instability continues. To deal with this turmoil, Sudan declared a so-called “state of emergency” in 2012 along its border with South Sudan. The reason for this was the on-going tension between North Sudan and South Sudan over ownership of the oil-rich Abyei area. This conflict over oil is furthermore fuelled by diverse internal divisions among the Sudanese population (North and South). Sudanese diversity is characterized by two opposing antagonistic religious groupings, namely the Arabic North, whose main religious belief is Islam, and the so-called “black Africans” in the South, whose religious belief is mainly Christianity or Animist. In addition to this primary division there are also over 570 ethnic groups in Sudan (North and South). Conflicts and tension between the different ethnic groups is furthermore caused by disputes over natural resources such as water, livestock and land as well as political power and economic gains. Despite the continued conflict the assumption in this study was that the signing and implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) (2005–2011) represented a potential step towards eventual stability. This dissertation therefore focuses, as a case study, on an analytical description of the CPA and its outcomes. Specific reference was made to the role and impact of political mobilization by using an instrumental approach as a framework for analysis. In the above regard, research centred on the following three themes: *Ethnic mobilization as a factor in the political destabilization of Sudan since independence and towards the implementation of the CPA; *Ethnic mobilization as a guideline in the structuring of the CPA; and *Ethnic mobilization and the eventual outcome of the CPA. By addressing the above themes, the study attempted firstly to provide a balanced perspective on the causes of continued instability and conflict in Sudan. Secondly, an attempt was made to provide a future scenario for the possible unfolding of socio-economic and political developments in Sudan and South Sudan. / MA (Political studies), North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2013

Lean är en modern verksamhetsstrategi som har sin bakgrund i bilindustrin men är idag även dominant bland svenska industriföretag samt offentlig verksamhet. Då lean anpassas utifrån varje enskild organisation finns det oändligt många definitioner av begreppet. Relativt lite forskning är idag gjord på hur strategin påverkar de anställda i organisationer som arbetar med strategin. Den forskning som har genomförts pekar på både positiva och negativa effekter av lean, där flest antal utfall är negativa. Studien har undersökt hur medarbetarna i en produktion upplevt implementeringen av lean samt utifrån vissa faktorer sett till hur de upplevt arbetet med denna strategi. De faktorer som har undersökts är: kreativitet, känslan av att kunna påverka arbetet, ansvar, arbetsmiljö (monotont arbete, arbetsskador) och stress. Resultatet av studien blev att medarbetarna var positiva till implementeringen av lean, främst baserat på faktorerna: känslan av att kunna påverka arbetet, ansvar och arbetsmiljö i bemärkelse minskade antal arbetsskador samt bättre ordning och struktur på arbetsplatsen. Bland de övriga faktorerna som undersöktes hade de intervjuade olika uppfattning, både positiva och negativa. Dock var samtliga intervjuade positiva till organisationens arbete med lean i stort och även om inga generella slutsatser dras i denna studie kan detta ses som ett bidrag till de studier som visar på positiva effekter hos medarbetarna vid arbete med lean.

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The purpose of this study was to advance our understanding of the original legislative intents of the Instructional Facilities Allotment (IFA) and to evaluate the IFA policy in achieving its goals. The study seeks to identify the original legislative intents of the bill that led to the creation of this program. The study also describes the evolution of the program from the passing of the bill through inception of the program to gauge whether the policy satisfied those intents since its inception. Interviews were conducted with state-level officials, leaders, and legislators, as well as those affiliated with the litigation that led to the drafting of this legislation. These interviews were conducted to identify the original legislative intents of the bill that led to the formation of the policy. More specifically, this study sought to address the following questions: 1) What is the social political history of school finance in Texas in context with which the Instructional Facilities Allotment (IFA) policy was developed? 2) What were the legislative intents of the IFA? 3) Were the legislative intents achieved? A mixed method approach, employing both qualitative and quantitative research methodologies, was used in this study to evaluate the IFA policy. The data analysis yielded two over-arching themes from the interview responses relating to the research question “what were the original legislative intents of the IFA?” A policy that was both legally defensible and politically responsible were two emerging themes identified in this study. Legislators aimed to keep the state out of court or have a policy that would be considered constitutional should facilities funding be challenged again through litigation. In addition, there was a desire among legislators to act in a manner that satisfied both their moral responsibility and political obligation. While the themes are two separate ideas, the analysis seems to support that one was possibly dependent on the other. The theme of politically responsible seems to be in response to, or in conjunction with, the notion that the primary motivator was to introduce a facilities funding program that was ultimately legally defensible. Furthermore, responses and data collected in regards to the third research question illustrated how both legislative intents seemed to be achieved initially, but the efforts deteriorated over time leading to a decline in it continuing to meet the intents.

This exploratory case study investigated the ways non-Aboriginal teachers of Biology conceive of incorporating Aboriginal perspectives into their delivery of the Biology curriculum in Alberta. The participants in this study were non-Aboriginal Biology teachers teaching in schools with predominantly non-Aboriginal students. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with each of the teacher participants and explored issues and challenges that they face infusing Aboriginal contexts into their teaching. The qualitative data generated were coded using themes developed from a conceptual framework for curriculum implementation. The majority of the teachers saw value in incorporating Aboriginal perspectives but shared concerns due to: unclear definitions of Aboriginal and Aboriginal perspectives; an inadequate knowledge base; and lack of material resources and professional development opportunities. Recommendations to help non-Aboriginal teachers include: better access to and targeted professional development and resources; greater clarification on the definitions of Aboriginal and Aboriginal perspectives; and greater amounts of administrative and governmental support.