This paper is focused on new trend in business process automation -- case management; main goal of the paper is proofing of concept for life insurance origination using case management. To fulfill this goal I had to analyze available reports from leading research companies such as Forrester and Gartner. The methodology of achievement the goal of the thesis is complemented with my own practical experiences. This thesis consists from theoretical and practical sections. There are characteristics of case management, general architecture of case management illustrated on IBM Case Manager, market insight of case management and typical case management use cases in theoretical section. Practical section is focused on case management utilization for life insurance origination process. To achieve this, there are defined sample insurance company and process analysis of life insurance origination, analyzed requirements for the proof of concept, its solution architecture and of course the proof of concept is implemented. The last chapter contains evaluation of the proof of concept and includes typical expected case management effects for financial sector. The main contribution of the paper to case management topic is the first complete description of the topic in Czech language and creating proof of concept for case management approach in financial sector.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Alabama at Birmingham, 2007. / Additional advisors: David G. Green, Gary J. Grimes, John L. Hartman IV. Description based on contents viewed Feb. 5, 2008; title from title screen. Includes bibliographical references (p. 110-120).

This study is aimed at investigating the effect of mergers and acquisitions on the share prices and dividends involving South African companies in the food and beverage industry. A sample of 79 mergers from 1999 to 2005 was used. The data was analysed using the event study methodology and descriptive statistics. In addition, the paired t-test was also conducted to test the significance of the results. The results were presented using graphs, tables and charts. The results showed that target companies obtained negative abnormal returns during the announcement of mergers while acquiring companies on the other hand received positive abnormal returns. The results imply that it can no longer be generalized that target companies always win and acquiring companies lose during the merger activity. On the other hand, the dividends for target companies increased significantly after the merger, while the dividends for acquiring companies remained insignificantly negative after the merger. / Graduate School of Business Leadership / MBL

This thesis deals with subject of enterprise architecture management. Topcis covered are enterprise environment integration, enterprise architecture parts description and description of shift in enterprise architecture focus point. This trend can be described as shift from IT related activity for IT management through tool for IT and business alignment to the final state as a tool for business change implementation. There are four goals of this thesis. Description of enterprise architecture, description of trend for enterprise architecture shift toward business, analysis of enterprise architecture state in Czech Republic and analysis of enterprise architecture shift to business in Czech Republic. I will reach first two goals by analysis of literature of the solution domain and the other two goals with questionnaire and its analysis.

The main goal of this thesis is to investigate the time situation of a particular entrepreneur in individual time stages of his enterprise. At the beginning the topic of time management and other relevant issues are mentioned. These issues were picked in order to help develop one's organization skills. The Theoretical Part introduces the topic of time management and shows tools which can be utilized to boost one's efficiency. Other topics like goal setting, prioritization, stress management and leadership are further discussed in this thesis. Deep quantitative interview with the entrepreneur was chosen to be the main research method. This data is accompanied by the provided documents, information from the company's website and further information the entrepreneur has shared about the company. The results of this case study are compared with the theoretical and practical information in this thesis. This study finds the entrepreneur to be a good example of dealing with time management. The entrepreneur's attitude towards modern technology is also much appreciated as are some of his core principles and values (for ex. not postponing problems). Setting goals and priorities in written form can be mentioned as a recommendation for the entrepreneur. Right kind of delegation on reliable people may also improve the situation (this is already slowly occurring in the firm).

The thesis deals with the latest trend in providing ICT service -- Cloud Computing -- and its possible application in enterprise information systems generally. The aim of the thesis is to evaluate market readiness for Cloud Computing services in order to find out to which extent it is possible to cover enterprise information system, or rather its software applications, on strategic and tactical management levels using the above-mentioned services. To achieve the aim, it is necessary to determine both the Cloud Computing services market and the enterprise information system sphere and then to decide whether Cloud Computing services are able to cover the basic needs of enterprise information systems. The evaluation of the market readiness will be executed in accordance with both the specially created methodology and the defined requirements. Thus the present market readiness rating will be possible to determine. The thesis should show to which extent it is possible to apply Cloud Computing model to the enterprise information systems issue. It will also be possible to find out the factors which support this application the most and, on the other hand, which factors limit this application the most. The thesis will also show which fields are advanced enough, which services we can consider and what we can expect of these services.

Zugl.: Marburg, Univ., Diss., 2008

Cresce o número de projetos de pesquisas tecnológicas entre universidades e empresas e, como resultado, pesquisadores procuram identificar fatores que são fundamentais para o sucesso desse tipo de projeto, denominados Fatores Críticos de Sucesso (FCSs). Existem estudos consolidados na literatura por meio de pesquisa do tipo levantamento, porém, poucos empregaram métodos de pesquisa em profundidade. Optou-se, então, por verificá-los empregando-se a observação participante como estratégia de pesquisa. Empreendeu-se uma análise empírica para identificar FCSs em projetos entre o Grupo de Engenharia Integrada e Integração (EI2), da Universidade de São Paulo, e uma empresa desenvolvedora de software. O autor desse estudo atuou como participante-observador e nele foram verificadas as presenças e avaliadas as influências dos potenciais FCSs sobre os resultados dos projetos. Os resultados foram avaliados a partir da percepção da equipe e dos coordenadores dos projetos (entrevistas) e do participante-observador (diário de campo), complementando-os com a análise de documentos. As principais conclusões foram: os fatores relacionados às práticas de gestão foram mais críticos para o sucesso dos projetos do que os relacionados ao contexto da parceria U-E; a necessidade de desenvolverem-se escalas e métricas mais sofisticadas para avaliar este tipo de colaboração, frente às encontradas nos estudos clássicos; e a necessidade de desenvolvimento de pesquisas para melhorar a definição da visão e dos objetivos de projetos. Portanto, o trabalho indica que nem todos os FCSs identificados na literatura são realmente críticos e aponta vários aspectos para o aprofundamento das pesquisas na área. / The number of technologic research projects involving universities and enterprises is growing rapidly, and as a result researchers are increasingly seeking to identify essential factors that are critical to their success, known as Critical Success Factors (CSFs). There are well established survey-type studies on this matter in the literature, but few of them employed in-depth investigation methods. Therefore, in order to contribute to the knowledge on CSFs this study makes use of participant observation as a research method. To this end an empirical analysis was carried out to identify CSFs in projects between the Integrated Engineering and Integration Group from São Paulo University and a software enterprise. The author of this study, acting as a participant observer, verified the presence of potential CSFs and evaluated their influence on the outcomes of the projects. The research results derived from interviews with the project coordinators and team and field notes, which were complemented by the analysis of documents. The main conclusions were: the factors related to management practices were more critical to success than those related to the context of university-enterprise partnership; there is a need for the development of more sophisticated scales and metrics to evaluate this type of collaboration as compared to the ones found in the seminal studies; and it is important to carry out further investigation to better define the vision and objectives of projects. Therefore, this study suggests that not all CSFs found in the literature may be considered as truly critical and points to several aspects that can lead to in-depth research in this field.

Cresce o número de projetos de pesquisas tecnológicas entre universidades e empresas e, como resultado, pesquisadores procuram identificar fatores que são fundamentais para o sucesso desse tipo de projeto, denominados Fatores Críticos de Sucesso (FCSs). Existem estudos consolidados na literatura por meio de pesquisa do tipo levantamento, porém, poucos empregaram métodos de pesquisa em profundidade. Optou-se, então, por verificá-los empregando-se a observação participante como estratégia de pesquisa. Empreendeu-se uma análise empírica para identificar FCSs em projetos entre o Grupo de Engenharia Integrada e Integração (EI2), da Universidade de São Paulo, e uma empresa desenvolvedora de software. O autor desse estudo atuou como participante-observador e nele foram verificadas as presenças e avaliadas as influências dos potenciais FCSs sobre os resultados dos projetos. Os resultados foram avaliados a partir da percepção da equipe e dos coordenadores dos projetos (entrevistas) e do participante-observador (diário de campo), complementando-os com a análise de documentos. As principais conclusões foram: os fatores relacionados às práticas de gestão foram mais críticos para o sucesso dos projetos do que os relacionados ao contexto da parceria U-E; a necessidade de desenvolverem-se escalas e métricas mais sofisticadas para avaliar este tipo de colaboração, frente às encontradas nos estudos clássicos; e a necessidade de desenvolvimento de pesquisas para melhorar a definição da visão e dos objetivos de projetos. Portanto, o trabalho indica que nem todos os FCSs identificados na literatura são realmente críticos e aponta vários aspectos para o aprofundamento das pesquisas na área. / The number of technologic research projects involving universities and enterprises is growing rapidly, and as a result researchers are increasingly seeking to identify essential factors that are critical to their success, known as Critical Success Factors (CSFs). There are well established survey-type studies on this matter in the literature, but few of them employed in-depth investigation methods. Therefore, in order to contribute to the knowledge on CSFs this study makes use of participant observation as a research method. To this end an empirical analysis was carried out to identify CSFs in projects between the Integrated Engineering and Integration Group from São Paulo University and a software enterprise. The author of this study, acting as a participant observer, verified the presence of potential CSFs and evaluated their influence on the outcomes of the projects. The research results derived from interviews with the project coordinators and team and field notes, which were complemented by the analysis of documents. The main conclusions were: the factors related to management practices were more critical to success than those related to the context of university-enterprise partnership; there is a need for the development of more sophisticated scales and metrics to evaluate this type of collaboration as compared to the ones found in the seminal studies; and it is important to carry out further investigation to better define the vision and objectives of projects. Therefore, this study suggests that not all CSFs found in the literature may be considered as truly critical and points to several aspects that can lead to in-depth research in this field.

Master’s thesis discusses the design and implementation of network infrastructure for computer laboratory in Department of Communications. Thesis focuses on VLAN definitions and deployment of server virtualization, including network monitoring station.