Large organizations in the United States endure a 30%-50% failure to achieve profitability. Senior executives' lack of strategies to ensure profitability diminish performance and economic growth. The purpose of this qualitative single case study was to explore strategies senior executives use to ensure profitability in large tax preparation organizations. The conceptual framework for this study was the resource-based view theory. The sample consisted of 2 board members and 3 senior leaders from a large tax preparation organization located in the United States. Study site participants had at least 15 years of experience in enhancing organizational profitability and 5 years of experience using strategies to ensure profitability in tax preparation organizations. Data were collected using semistructured interviews and organizational documents. Data were analyzed using a thematic analysis. Five themes emerged, including effective planning, risk management, the use of unique resources, development of training and skill for strategic leaders, and organizational performance. Findings derived from this study may contribute to social change as senior executives use efficient strategies to increase economic viability and employment opportunities through improved business growth while ensuring profitability.

There is a growing need to understand and identify overarching organizational requirements for cybersecurity defense in large organizations. Applying proper cybersecurity defense will ensure that the right capabilities are fielded at the right locations to safeguard critical assets while minimizing duplication of effort and taking advantage of efficiencies. Exercising cybersecurity defense without an understanding of comprehensive foundational requirements instills an ad hoc and in many cases conservative approach to network security. Organizations must be synchronized across federal and civil agencies to achieve adequate cybersecurity defense. Understanding what constitutes comprehensive cybersecurity defense will ensure organizations are better protected and more efficient. This work, represented through design science research, developed a model to understand comprehensive cybersecurity defense, addressing the lack of standard requirements in large organizations. A systemic literature review and content analysis were conducted to form seven criteria statements for understanding comprehensive cybersecurity defense. The seven criteria statements were then validated by a panel of expert cyber defenders utilizing the Delphi consensus process. Based on the approved criteria, the team of cyber defenders facilitated the development of a Comprehensive Cybersecurity Defense Framework prototype for understanding cybersecurity defense. Through the Delphi process, the team of cyber defense experts ensured the framework matched the seven criteria statements. An additional and separate panel of stakeholders conducted the Delphi consensus process to ensure a non-biased evaluation of the framework. The comprehensive cybersecurity defense framework is developed through the data collected from two distinct and separate Delphi panels. The framework maps risk management, behavioral, and defense in depth frameworks with cyber defense roles to offer a comprehensive approach to cyber defense in large companies, agencies, or organizations. By defining the cyber defense tasks, what those tasks are trying to achieve and where best to accomplish those tasks on the network, a comprehensive approach is reached.

System integration is a challenging task for large organizations since they must manage complex IT infrastructures, and utilize hundreds of applications that cause a myriad of complications as a result of rapidly evolving systems and technologies. Over time customer requirements and the automation of internal business functions forced the gigantic service providers to develop and buy applications for different purposes. Not many years before, the applications in an organization were usually separated silos, specifically designed to answer a particular problem. However, this way of working was not efficient. It is not impossible to design one application that runs the total business, however, in reality it can't respond to all the needs inside an organization. In most cases the applications need to interact with each other and to reuse functionalities or data. At this point the concept of integrating systems first came to existence.The progress in computer science and information technology has also affected the way that integration between applications was developed and designed over the years. This shows that there's always some new method that should be studied and investigated. In recent years, the Enterprise Service Bus has come to the market and there are many vendors in the market claiming that they have produced the exact solution needed for requirements of organizations.In this work, the attempt was to construct an understanding of the Enterprise Application Integration practices and methods which have been utilized over the years. Mixed methods research a combination of interviews and questionnaire, and Design Science Research methods were used to generate empirical results. While the first two methods was used to supply the input for challenges of system integration, the DSR build and evaluate method was employed to test the ESB product. The criteria for the test were developed mostly as the outcome of interviews and the questionnaire as the main challenge. The aim was to verify efficiency and effectiveness of the selected and proposed ESB under special designed DSR build and evaluate phases.As a result of both theoretical and empirical studies in combination with selection of different methods in Information System research, the work presents a knowledge foundation for organizations with the aim to make a change in their current system integration practices and patterns utilizing approaches facilitated by ESB products.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-12-01T19:18:47Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Natalia1.pdf: 16809943 bytes, checksum: 2bb8688fd4d196f3bcc1567d429ca2aa (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009-08-06 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / Globalization and technological revolution changed the dynamics of organizational competition. The global competitive environment has become increasingly dynamic in recent decades. Some aspects of globalization, and the constant technological change, high volatility of capital, high level of innovation in the field of communications and the increasing competition in different market segments require new attitudes of business and strategic choices have to ensure their competitiveness and survival. Thus, business administration moved to require more complex management models, with the adoption of strategies to deal with the threats and opportunities of the external environment because the environment in which companies compete is dynamic and rapid changes require constant strategies and operations change that may reflect these circumstances. Given this trend, this research seeks to identify the organizational strategies adopted by companies of large size of Santa Catarina. In order to know the strategies, it was used, then the types of Mintzberg (1987), Porter (1999), Miles and Snow (1978) and Wright, Kroll and Parnell. We chose to have a quantitative approach to population and survey the field as a method of procedure. The organizations surveyed are located in the large state of Santa Catarina, which totals 137 companies. The collection of primary data was conducted by sending questionnaires that included the identification of respondents, organizational profile, the authors selected types of strategic and external environment of the characterization and identification of competitive forces. The analysis and interpretation of data collected were analyzed and correlated in order to answer the question previously drawn, considering all the research objectives / A globalização e a Revolução Tecnológica alteraram a dinâmica da competição organizacional. O ambiente competitivo global tem se tornado cada vez mais dinâmico nas últimas décadas. Alguns aspectos relacionados à globalização, como a constante evolução tecnológica, elevada volatilidade dos capitais, alto nível de inovações na área de comunicações e, o aumento da concorrência nos diferentes segmentos de mercado exigem das empresas novas posturas e escolhas estratégicas para garantir sua competitividade e sobrevivência. Assim, a administração de empresas passou a exigir modelos de gestão mais complexos, com a adoção de estratégias para enfrentar as ameaças e oportunidades do ambiente externo, pois o ambiente no qual as empresas competem é dinâmico e as rápidas transformações requerem constantemente estratégias e operações de mudança que possam refletir estas circunstâncias. Diante desta evolução, a presente pesquisa busca identificar as estratégias organizacionais adotadas pelas empresas de grande porte de Santa Catarina. Com a finalidade de conhecer as estratégias, utilizou-se, então, as tipologias de Mintzberg (1987), Porter (1999), Miles e Snow (1978) e Wright, Kroll e Parnell. Optou-se por uma abordagem quantitativa haja vista a população e o levantamento de campo como método de procedimento adequado. As organizações pesquisadas são de grande porte localizadas no estado de Santa Catarina, sendo que totalizam 137 empresas. A coleta de dados primários foi realizada através do envio de questionários que contemplou a identificação dos respondentes, perfil organizacional, as tipologias estratégicas dos autores selecionados e, a caracterização do ambiente externo e identificação das forças competitivas. A análise e interpretação dos dados coletados foram analisados e correlacionados de modo a responder à pergunta previamente traçada, considerando todos os objetivos da pesquisa

IT-system är något som finns nästan överallt, även i myndigheter. Dessa system har många gånger en betydande roll för verksamheten, och kravhanteringsprocessen är central för att systemen ska stödja verksamheten som tänkt. IT-system som används inom Försvarsmakten ska uppfylla ett stort antal säkerhetskrav, vilka många härstammar från styrdokumentet Krav på Säkerhetsfunktioner (KSF). Dessa krav är på hög nivå och ger utrymme för tolkning. Denna uppsats syftar till att studera hur kunskap från kravhanteringsprocessen kan återanvändas; till exempel krav, kravtolkningar, eller arbetssätt. Studien har utförts genom att intervjua konsulter på Lüning Consulting, vilka jobbar nästan uteslutande mot Försvarsmakten, och analyserats med en modell för återanvändning inom kravhantering. Studien visade att kontext, organisation och sekretess är tre nyckelfaktorer som måste tas hänsyn till för att myndigheter ska kunna införa återanvändning. Den tydliga byråkratin, med lagar och styrdokument, kan både möjliggöra och hindra återanvändning, och att återanvända utan kontext i åtanke kan få konsekvenser. Då många myndigheter hanterar sekretessbelagd information, må det vara personuppgifter eller försvarshemligheter, är det också av stor vikt att förstå när återanvändning helt enkelt inte är möjlig. / IT systems are present almost everywhere, even in government authorities. These systems have a significant role for the business, and the requirement management process is an important part in making sure that systems are supporting the business as intended. IT systems used in the Armed Forces must meet a large amount of security requirements, many of which derive from the Krav på Säkerhetsfunktioner (KSF) document. These are high level requirements, which allow for interpretation. This essay seeks to examine how knowledge from the requirements engineering process can be reused; e.g. requirements, requirements interpretations, or work methods. The study was conducted by interviewing consultants at Lüning Consulting, which work almost exclusively with the Armed Forces. The data is analyzed by using a model for reuse in requirements engineering. The study shows that context, organization and confidentiality are three key factors that must be taken into account in order for authorities to reuse knowledge from the requirements engineering process. The bureaucracy, with laws and control documents, can both enable and prevent reuse, and reuse without context in mind can have negative consequences. Since many authorities handle confidential information, may it be personal data or defense secrets, it is also important to understand when reuse is simply not possible

Framväxten av molntjänster är en trend som påverkar organisationer i allt större utsträckning vilket anses vara framtiden inom informationsteknik. Idag migrerar stora organisationer i allt större grad sina affärskritiska affärssystem till molnet, trots att det är en av de mest riskabla, kostsamma och tidskrävande IT-investering som en organisation någonsin kan göra. Molnbaserade affärssystem kan medföra fördelar men också säkerhetsrisker som exempelvis att lagra organisationens data hos tredjeparts-leverantörer. Säkerhetsrisker kan inte elimineras, utan de behöver hanteras och reduceras. Denna studie har undersökt hur stora organisationer hanterar säkerhetsrisker som kan uppstå vid nyttjandet av molnbaserade affärssystem. Studien har identifierat tre tillvägagångssätt att hantera säkerhetsrisker på. Det första tillvägagångssättet att hantera säkerhetsrisker är genom formella avtal med molntjänst leverantören. Det andra tillvägagångsättet att hantera säkerhetsrisker på är genom interna processer som exempelvis datakryptering. Det tredje tillvägagångsättet är att medvetandegöra och utbilda användare i verksamheten. / The emergence of cloud services is a trend that is increasingly effecting organizations which is considered the future of information technology. Today, large organizations are increasingly migrating their business-critical ERP-system to the cloud, despite being the one of the most risky, costly and time-consuming IT-investment that an organization can ever make. CloudbasedERP-system can bring several benefits, but also several security risks, such as storing organizational data with third-party suppliers. Security risks cannot be eliminated, but they need to be managed and reduced. This study has examined how big customer organizations handle security risks that may arise when using cloud-based ERP-systems. The study has identified three approaches to managing security risks. The first approach is to manage security risks through formal agreements with the cloud provider. The second approach to managing security risks is through internal processes such as data encryption. The third approach is to raise awareness and educate users in the organization.