Background:Nordicfeel is an E-commerce company based in Vaxjo. Nordicfeel has recently approved theimplementation of a new checkout-system called “Ingrid”. The SaaS-application Ingrid is adelivery options module applied to a company’s checkout page. This module enablescompanies to customize available delivery options for the consumers based on rules andparameters associated with the consumer’s order, which the company presents. The objectivewith the implementation is to increase the net freight revenue without reducing the existingconversion rate.Purpose:The purpose of this study is to investigate how the implementation of Ingrid can increaseNordicfeel’s net freight revenue by improving the offering of delivery options. Furthermorethe purpose is to analyze whether the conversion rate of the customers is influenced by thenumber of available delivery options and by limitations in the delivery information. Finalobjective is to identify Nordicfeel’s balance between a high net freight revenue and and ahigh conversion rate between the consumers.Method:The study consists of a case study of Nordicfeel, grounded in both a qualitative andquantitative approach. The analysis method is based upon comparing expected patterns withexisting patterns. Existing patterns are gathered through interviews, focus groups and datacollection from Nordicfeel, to then analyze and identify an expected pattern.Results:The study confirms that limitations in delivery information and delivery options offered toconsumers will not significantly affect Nordicfeel’s conversion rate. By prioritizing profitabledelivery options and through small adjustments to freight prices and delivery times,Nordicfeel can increase their freight net revenue and maintain a stable conversion rate.Keywords: Checkout- System, Conversion rate, Delivery information, Delivery options,Freight Net, INGRID, Saas-Application

The thesis deals with an analysis of approach methods, that can be used in integration of SaaS model applications into business information systems. To this end it presents business information systems. Description of these was performed from a general viewpoint. A description of what business information systems are was provided as well as a description of their architecture and service-oriented architecture. Business information sysstems were then described from a development/operation point of view, particular phases of the corelation between business and ICT were summed up, as well as ICT service supply models and development and operation alternatives. At the end of the chapter, a description of business information system components was performed. Services were described in the next chapter - first generally, with special interest in service characteristics and categorization. Furthermore I explored the concept of 'Anything as a Service' (XaaS), providing a summary of what can be provided as a service. Then a distribution model for Software as a Service (SaaS) was described along with its characteristics, parameters, benefits and limitations. At the end of the chapter cloud computing, its characteristics and models of implementation were described and the most notable providers were presented. The next chapter contains a description of integration and is targetted mostly on the description of system integration, on the system integrator as a person, on a description of technological means, usable in the integration itself. The next chapter is dedicated to a description of integration scenarios of business IS using SaaS applications. In the next chapter, an approach to the analysis of integration scenarios is defined, based on various viewpoints. The last chapter contains an assesment of particular integration scenarios and a consequential evaluation performed along evaluation criteria.

A recent trend in software industry is to provide enterprise applications in the cloud that are accessible everywhere and on any device. As the market is highly competitive, customer orientation plays an important role. Companies therefore start providing applications as a service, which are directly configurable by customers in an online self-service portal. However, customer configurations are usually deployed in separated application instances. Thus, each instance is provisioned manually and must be maintained separately. Due to the induced redundancy in software and hardware components, resources are not optimally utilized. A multi-tenant aware application architecture eliminates redundancy, as a single application instance serves multiple customers renting the application. The combination of a configuration self-service portal with a multi-tenant aware application architecture allows serving customers just-in-time by automating the deployment process. Furthermore, self-service portals improve application scalability in terms of functionality, as customers can adapt application configurations on themselves according to their changing demands. However, the configurability of current multi-tenant aware applications is rather limited. Solutions implementing variability are mainly developed for a single business case and cannot be directly transferred to other application scenarios. The goal of this thesis is to provide a generic framework for handling application variability, automating configuration and reconfiguration processes essential for self-service portals, while exploiting the advantages of multi-tenancy. A promising solution to achieve this goal is the application of software product line methods. In software product line research, feature models are in wide use to express variability of software intense systems on an abstract level, as features are a common notion in software engineering and prominent in matching customer requirements against product functionality. This thesis introduces a framework for feature-based configuration management of reconfigurable cloud applications. The contribution is three-fold. First, a development strategy for flexible multi-tenant aware applications is proposed, capable of integrating customer configurations at application runtime. Second, a generic method for defining concern-specific configuration perspectives is contributed. Perspectives can be tailored for certain application scopes and facilitate the handling of numerous configuration options. Third, a novel method is proposed to model and automate structured configuration processes that adapt to varying stakeholders and reduce configuration redundancies. Therefore, configuration processes are modeled as workflows and adapted by applying rewrite rules triggered by stakeholder events. The applicability of the proposed concepts is evaluated in different case studies in the industrial and academic context. Summarizing, the introduced framework for feature-based configuration management is a foundation for automating configuration and reconfiguration processes of multi-tenant aware cloud applications, while enabling application scalability in terms of functionality.

A recent trend in software industry is to provide enterprise applications in the cloud that are accessible everywhere and on any device. As the market is highly competitive, customer orientation plays an important role. Companies therefore start providing applications as a service, which are directly configurable by customers in an online self-service portal. However, customer configurations are usually deployed in separated application instances. Thus, each instance is provisioned manually and must be maintained separately. Due to the induced redundancy in software and hardware components, resources are not optimally utilized. A multi-tenant aware application architecture eliminates redundancy, as a single application instance serves multiple customers renting the application. The combination of a configuration self-service portal with a multi-tenant aware application architecture allows serving customers just-in-time by automating the deployment process. Furthermore, self-service portals improve application scalability in terms of functionality, as customers can adapt application configurations on themselves according to their changing demands. However, the configurability of current multi-tenant aware applications is rather limited. Solutions implementing variability are mainly developed for a single business case and cannot be directly transferred to other application scenarios. The goal of this thesis is to provide a generic framework for handling application variability, automating configuration and reconfiguration processes essential for self-service portals, while exploiting the advantages of multi-tenancy. A promising solution to achieve this goal is the application of software product line methods. In software product line research, feature models are in wide use to express variability of software intense systems on an abstract level, as features are a common notion in software engineering and prominent in matching customer requirements against product functionality. This thesis introduces a framework for feature-based configuration management of reconfigurable cloud applications. The contribution is three-fold. First, a development strategy for flexible multi-tenant aware applications is proposed, capable of integrating customer configurations at application runtime. Second, a generic method for defining concern-specific configuration perspectives is contributed. Perspectives can be tailored for certain application scopes and facilitate the handling of numerous configuration options. Third, a novel method is proposed to model and automate structured configuration processes that adapt to varying stakeholders and reduce configuration redundancies. Therefore, configuration processes are modeled as workflows and adapted by applying rewrite rules triggered by stakeholder events. The applicability of the proposed concepts is evaluated in different case studies in the industrial and academic context. Summarizing, the introduced framework for feature-based configuration management is a foundation for automating configuration and reconfiguration processes of multi-tenant aware cloud applications, while enabling application scalability in terms of functionality.