[pt] O termo e-commerce designa o modelo de negócio no qual as transações comerciais de compra e venda são feitas através de meios digitais. Essa variedade de comércio on-line tem aumentado significativamente no Brasil. Dados recentes revelam um crescimento de 267% no setor, cujo número de usuários do comércio eletrônico passou de 31,3 milhões em 2013 para 83,7 milhões em 2022. Quando se compara ao número de encomendas, o aumento foi de 88 milhões no ano de 2013 para 368 milhões em 2022. Esse crescimento trouxe inúmeros desafios logísticos, especialmente para alcançar a satisfação do cliente do e-commerce e sua fidelização. Com isso, a qualidade do serviço logístico no processo de distribuição de produtos no last mile ganhou relevância no processo de distribuição Business to Consumer (B2C). Corresponder a uma expectativa de compra satisfatória é um fator crítico para as empresas do e-commerce que buscam obter vantagem competitiva. Com esse propósito, a melhoria logística de distribuição desempenha um papel preponderante; entretanto, é necessário definir exatamente o que o cliente valoriza e espera desse tipo de serviço, dado que as expectativas do mercado são elevadas e boa parte das empresas não estão em condições de atender a esse padrão. Nesse contexto, este estudo de caso tem por objetivo geral identificar as expectativas de last mile delivery dos clientes de uma empresa brasileira do e-commerce B2C ao realizar uma compra, no segmento de móveis e decoração, em uma empresa que atua em todo o território nacional. A metodologia utilizada foi o estudo de caso único, os clientes responderam um survey que foi utilizado como base de dado para o desenvolvimento do trabalho e melhoria da operação, com abordagem qualitativa e empregou o método Net Promoter Score (NPS). Participaram desse estudo os clientes da empresa estudada e citada no trabalho. Quinze dias após o recebimento da mercadoria, era enviado para o cliente um questionário on-line com duas perguntas, as respostas eram analisadas sobre a expectativa relacionada ao serviço logístico, ao nível de lealdade, à satisfação e à fidelização de compras. Os resultados obtidos nesse trabalho apontam cinco fatores críticos para satisfazer a necessidade do cliente. A expectativa mais relevante para os consumidores em relação à distribuição de produtos por meio do e-commerce B2C é ter um prazo menor ofertado pela empresa relacionado a entrega, seguido de não receber produto danificado, receber produto com material de melhor qualidade, melhor atendimento e entrega dentro do prazo. Conclui-se que existe uma expectativa do consumidor intimamente associada a uma oportunidade de melhoria na logística de distribuição no e-commerce. Isso significa que a qualidade do serviço de entrega logística tem o impacto direto sobre uma experiência satisfatória para os clientes do e-commerce. O presente trabalho oferece um framework como ferramenta para a aplicação do método NPS e, consecutivamente, para a melhoria do nível de serviço e da excelência operacional nas atividades logísticas. Dessa forma, contribuir para retenção, fidelização e satisfação da experiência de compra dos clientes. / [en] The term e-commerce refers to the business model in which commercial transactions of buying and selling are conducted through digital means. This variety of online commerce has significantly increased in Brazil. Recent data reveals a growth of 267% in the sector, with the number of e-commerce users increasing from 31.3 million in 2013 to 83.7 million in 2022. When comparing the number of orders, it increased from 88 million in 2013 to 368 million in 2022. This growth has brought numerous logistical challenges, especially in achieving customer satisfaction and loyalty in e-commerce. Therefore, the quality of logistics services in the last mile distribution process has gained relevance in the Business to Consumer (B2C) distribution process. Meeting satisfactory purchase expectations is a critical factor for e-commerce companies seeking a competitive advantage. With this purpose, logistic distribution improvement plays a significant role; however, it is necessary to precisely define what the customer values and expects from this type of service, as market expectations are high, and many companies are unable to meet this standard. In this context, this case study aims to contribute to a better understanding of the last mile delivery expectations of customers of a Brazilian B2C e-commerce company when making a purchase in the furniture and decoration segment, operating nationwide. The methodology used was a single case study, customers completed a survey that was used as a database for developing the work and improving the operation, with a qualitative approach and using the Net Promoter Score (NPS) method. The clients of the company studied and mentioned in the work participated in this study. Fifteen days after receiving the merchandise, an online questionnaire with two questions was sent to the customer, the answers were analyzed regarding expectations related to the logistics service, the level of loyalty, satisfaction and purchase loyalty. The results obtained in this study point to five critical factors for meeting customer needs. The most relevant expectation for consumers regarding the distribution of products through B2C e-commerce is to have a shorter delivery time offered by the company, followed by damaged products, products with better quality materials, better customer service, and on-time delivery. It is concluded that there is a customer expectation closely linked to an opportunity for improvement in e-commerce distribution logistics. This means that the quality of the logistic delivery service directly impacts a satisfactory experience for e-commerce customers. This study suggests the application of the Framework as a tool for implementing NPS and, consequently, for improving the level of service and operational excellence in logistics activities. This can contribute to customer retention, loyalty, and satisfaction in the shopping experience.

To solve the bottleneck problem of resource utilization and user experience quality in mobile communication networks, 5G introduces network slicing to cope with the huge resource demand of users. To further improve the quality of service for users with different needs, a new fairness definition based on service level objective is introduced. On this basis, a network slicing dynamic resource scheduling strategy based on the greedy algorithm is designed, and the actual application scenarios of slicing scheduling and user scheduling are simplified into a two-layer model, namely the slicing-user model, and combined with the greedy algorithm to make the service weight value. Combine the largest slice and the user with the highest priority, and complete the matching service. The advantage of this method is various system resources can be fairly allocated according to the same proportion to users. Through the optimal combination of each slice and user, the resources of the entire system can be fairly allocated to users with different needs. Python simulation results showed that the newly proposed network slicing dynamic resource scheduling mechanism based on the greedy algorithm can meet the different needs of users and achieve short term fairness, where the users get a fair share of the resource by each missing their SLO by a similar percentage, so as to better meet the needs of users. / För att lösa flaskhalsproblemet med resursanvändning och användarupplevelsekvalitet i mobilkommunikationsnät introducerar 5G nätverksskivning för att klara användarnas enorma resursbehov. För att ytterligare förbättra servicekvaliteten för användare med olika behov införs en ny rättvisedefinition baserad på servicenivåmål. På grundval av detta utformas en dynamisk resursplaneringsstrategi för nätverksskivning baserad på den giriga algoritmen, och de faktiska applikationsscenarierna för skivningsplanering och användarschemaläggning förenklas till en tvåskiktsmodell, nämligen skivningsanvändarmodellen, och kombineras med girig algoritm för att göra tjänstens viktvärde. Kombinera den största delen och användaren med högsta prioritet och slutför motsvarande tjänst. Fördelen med denna metod är att olika systemresurser kan fördelas rättvist enligt samma andel, och genom den bästa kombinationen av varje segment och användare kan hela systemets resurser fördelas rättvist till användare med olika behov. Pythons simuleringsresultat visar att den nyligen föreslagna nätverksskärningsdynamiska resursplaneringsmekanismen baserad på den giriga algoritmen kan tillgodose användarnas olika behov och uppnå kortsiktig rättvisa där användarna får en rättvis andel av resursen genom att var och en saknar sin SLO med en liknande procentsats , för att bättre möta användarnas behov.

In the increasingly frequent distribution of the Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) industry, there is an evident need of improving supply chain operations to ensure sustainability. As part of the supply chain, the distribution of goods often accounts for a major part of costs and resources. Therefore, focus needs to be directed toward ensuring a continuously functional distribution network. Performance measures of high asset utilization and high customer service level are often contradictory to some extent, making the improvement work even more complex. One way of increasing the performance of distribution operations is to take part in an interorganizational collaboration. The purpose of this master thesis is to investigate how the distribution operations of a FMCG company connected to a collaborative distribution network could be improved. Through a single case study, the researchers identify shortcomings in the distribution operations of a cross-docking network with a focus on a specific customer segment flow. By using concepts of demand management, supply chain collaboration, and customer satisfaction, the findings are analysed to highlight shortcomings in the distribution. Researchers discuss how distribution performance consequences could be related to certain managerial actions by presenting three different scenarios. The scenarios show a distinct effect on the number of shipments conducted towards cross-dock. As the number of shipments are reduced, economic benefits could be realized. However, these benefits must be carefully compared with the potential reduction in the level of customer service. The conclusion of this study suggests that managerial action is necessary to increase the economic sustainability of the distribution. / Med den allt mer ökande distributionsfrekvensen inom dagligvaruhandeln finns det ett tydligt behov av att av att förbättra värdekedjeoperationerna för att säkerhetsställa hållbarhet. Distribution av det fysiska varuflödet är en viktig del av värdekedjan och står för en stor del av de totala kostnaderna och resursanvändningen. Det är därför väsentligt att fokusera på att säkerhetsställa ett funktionellt distributionsnätverk som presterar kontinuerligt. Hög nyttjandegrad samt hög kundnöjdhet är två prestationsgrundade objekt som är svåra att uppnå parallellt vilket försvårar ett förbättringsarbete. En metod för förbättring är att flera dagligvaruhandelsbolag går in i ett distributionssamarbete. Syftet med denna masteruppsats är att undersöka hur distributionsverksamheten i ett dagligvaruhandelsbolag som är kopplat till ett kollaborationsdistributionsnätverk kan förbättras. Genom en fallstudie identifierades flera tillkortakommanden i distributionsverksamheten i en del av varuflödet kopplat till en kundgrupp. Resultaten analyserades med hjälp av koncept från kundnöjdhet, kollaborationsvärdekedjor samt hantering av efterfrågan för att belysa tillkortakommanden inom distributionsverksamheten. Genom tre olika scenarion diskuteras olika konsekvenser på distributionsverksamheten som kan kopplas till olika åtgärder. Scenarierna visar att antalet genomförda leveranser till mellanlager har en stor inverkan på hur väl distributionsverksamheten presterar ekonomiskt. Studien föreslår sammanfattningsvis att olika beslutsåtgärder är nödvändiga för att öka den ekonomiska hållbarheten i distributionen.

Information technology has become increasingly important to individuals and organizations alike. Not only does IT allow us to do what we always did faster and more effectively, but it also allows us to do new things, organize ourselves differently, and work in ways previously unimaginable. However, these advantages come at a cost: as we become increasingly dependent upon IT services, we also demand that they are continuously and uninterruptedly available for use. Despite advances in reliability engineering, the complexity of today's increasingly integrated systems offers a non-trivial challenge in this respect. How can high availability of enterprise IT services be maintained in the face of constant additions and upgrades, decade-long life-cycles, dependencies upon third-parties and the ever-present business-imposed requirement of flexible and agile IT services? The contribution of this thesis includes (i) an enterprise architecture framework that offers a unique and action-guiding way to analyze service availability, (ii) identification of causal factors that affect the availability of enterprise IT services, (iii) a study of the use of fault trees for enterprise architecture availability analysis, and (iv) principles for how to think about availability management. This thesis is a composite thesis of five papers. Paper 1 offers a framework for thinking about enterprise IT service availability management, highlighting the importance of variance of outage costs. Paper 2 shows how enterprise architecture (EA) frameworks for dependency analysis can be extended with Fault Tree Analysis (FTA) and Bayesian networks (BN) techniques. FTA and BN are proven formal methods for reliability and availability modeling. Paper 3 describes a Bayesian prediction model for systems availability, based on expert elicitation from 50 experts. Paper 4 combines FTA and constructs from the ArchiMate EA language into a method for availability analysis on the enterprise level. The method is validated by five case studies, where annual downtime estimates were always within eight hours from the actual values. Paper 5 extends the Bayesian prediction model from paper 3 and the modeling method from paper 4 into a full-blown enterprise architecture framework, expressed in a probabilistic version of the Object Constraint Language. The resulting modeling framework is tested in nine case studies of enterprise information systems. / Informationsteknik blir allt viktigare för både enskilda individer och för organisationer. IT låter oss inte bara arbeta snabbare och effektivare med det vi redan gör, utan låter oss också göra helt nya saker, organisera oss annorlunda och arbeta på nya sätt. Tyvärr har dessa fördelar ett pris: i takt med att vi blir alltmer beroende av IT-tjänster ökar också våra krav på att de är ständigt tillgängliga för oss, utan avbrott. Trots att tillförlitlighetstekniken går framåt utgör dagens alltmer sammankopplade system en svår utmaning i detta avseende. Hur kan man säkerställa hög tillgänglighet hos IT-tjänster som ständigt byggs ut och uppgraderas, som har livscykler på tiotals år, som är beroende av tredjepartsleverantörer och som dessutom måste leva upp till verksamhetskrav på att vara flexibla och agila? Den här avhandlingen innehåller (i) ett arkitekturramverk som på ett unikt sätt kan analysera IT-tjänsters tillgänglighet och ta fram rekommenderade åtgärder, (ii) ett antal identifierade kausalfaktorer som påverkar IT-tjänsters tillgänglighet, (iii) en studie av hur felträd kan användas för arkitekturanalys av tillgänglighet samt (iv) en uppsättning principer för beslutsfattande kring tillgänglighet. Avhandlingen är en sammanläggningsavhandling med fem artiklar. Artikel 1 innehåller ett konceptuellt ramverk för beslutsfattande kring IT-tjänsters tillgänglighet som understryker vikten av variansen hos nertidskostnaderna. Artikel 2 visar hur ramverk för organisationsövergripande arkitektur (s.k. enterprise architecture -- EA) kan utvidgas med felträdsanalys (FTA) och bayesianska nätverk (BN) för analys av beroenden mellan komponenter. FTA och BN är bägge etablerade metoder för tillförlitlighets- och tillgänglighetsmodellering. Artikel 3 beskriver en bayesiansk prediktionsmodell för systemtillgänglighet, baserad på utlåtanden från 50 experter. Artikel 4 kombinerar FTA med modelleringselement från EA-ramverket ArchiMate till en metod för tillgänglighetsanalys på verksamhetsnivå. Metoden har validerats i fem fallstudier, där de estimerade årliga nertiderna alltid låg inom åtta timmar från de faktiska värdena. Artikel 5 utvidgar den bayesianska prediktionsmodellen från artikel 3 och modelleringsmetoden från artikel 4 till ett fullständigt EA-ramverk som uttrycks i en probabilistisk version av Object Constraint Language (OCL). Det resulterande modelleringsramverket har testats i nio fallstudier på verksamhetsstödjande IT-system. / <p>QC 20120912</p>

The recent emergence and rapid advancement of Cloud Computing (CC) infrastructure and services have made outsourcing Information Technology (IT) and digital services to Cloud Providers (CPs) attractive. Cloud offerings enable reduction in IT resources (hardware, software, services, support, and staffing), and provide flexibility and agility in resource allocation, data and resource delivery, fault-tolerance, and scalability. However, the current standards and guidelines adopted by many CPs are tailored to address functionality (such as availability, speed, and utilization) and design requirements (such as integration), rather than protection against cyber-attacks and associated security issues. In order to achieve sustainable trust for cloud services with minimal risks and impact on cloud customers, appropriate cloud information security models are required. The research described in this dissertation details the processes adopted for the development and implementation of an integrated information security cloud based approach to cloud service models. This involves detailed investigation into the inherent information security deficiencies identified in the existing cloud service models, service agreements, and compliance issues. The research conducted was a multidisciplinary in nature, with detailed investigations on factors such as people, technology, security, privacy, and compliance involved in cloud risk assessment to ensure all aspects are addressed in holistic and well-structured models. The primary research objectives for this dissertation are investigated through a series of scientific papers centered on these key research disciplines. The assessment of information security, privacy, and compliance implementations in a cloud environment is described in Chapters two, three, four, and five. Paper 1 (CCIPS: A Cooperative Intrusion Detection and Prevention Framework for Cloud Services) outlines a framework for detecting and preventing known and zero-day threats targeting cloud computing networks. This framework forms the basis for implementing enhanced threat detection and prevention via behavioral and anomaly data analysis. Paper 2 (A Trusted CCIPS Framework) extends the work of cooperative intrusion detection and prevention to enable trusted delivery of cloud services. The trusted CCIPS model details and justifies the multi-layer approach to enhance the performance and efficiency of detecting and preventing cloud threats. Paper 3 (SOCaaS: Security Operations Center as a Service for Cloud Computing Environments) describes the need for a trusted third party to perform real-time monitoring of cloud services to ensure compliance with security requirements by suggesting a security operations center system architecture. Paper 4 (SecSLA: A Proactive and Secure Service Level Agreement Framework for Cloud Services) identifies the necessary cloud security and privacy controls that need to be addressed in the contractual agreements, i.e. service level agreements (SLAs), between CPs and their customers. Papers five, six, seven, and eight (Chapters 6 – 9) focus on addressing and reducing the risk issues resulting from poor assessment to the adoption of cloud services and the factors that influence such as migration. The investigation of cloud-specific information security risk management and migration readiness frameworks, detailed in Paper 5 (An Effective Risk Management Framework for Cloud Computing Services) and Paper 6 (Information Security, Privacy, and Compliance Readiness Model) was achieved through extensive consideration of all possible factors obtained from different studies. An analysis of the results indicates that several key factors, including risk tolerance, can significantly influence the migration decision to cloud technology. An additional issue found during this research in assessing the readiness of an organization to move to the cloud is the necessity to ensure that the cloud service provider is actually with information security, privacy, and compliance (ISPC) requirements. This investigation is extended in Paper 7 (A Practical Life Cycle Approach for Cloud based Information Security) to include the six phases of creating proactive cloud information security systems beginning with initial design, through the development, implementation, operations and maintenance. The inherent difficulty in identifying ISPC compliant cloud technology is resolved by employing a tracking method, namely the eligibility and verification system presented in Paper 8 (Cloud Services Information Security and Privacy Eligibility and Verification System). Finally, Paper 9 (A Case Study of Migration to a Compliant Cloud Technology) describes the actual implementation of the proposed frameworks and models to help the decision making process faced by the Saudi financial agency in migrating their IT services to the cloud. Together these models and frameworks suggest that the threats and risks associated with cloud services are continuously changing and more importantly, increasing in complexity and sophistication. They contribute to making stronger cloud based information security, privacy, and compliance technological frameworks. The outcomes obtained significantly contribute to best practices in ensuring information security controls are addressed, monitoring, enforced, and compliant with relevant regulations. / Graduate / 0984 / 0790 / fahd333@gmail.com

The research initiatives addressed in this thesis are geared towards improving the performance of passive optical networks (PONs) through the development of advanced dynamic bandwidth allocation (DBA) protocols. In particular, the aim of the research undertaken is to enhance the quality of service (QoS) offered by standard PONs by means of providing subscribers with service level agreement (SLA) to fulfil applications and associated bandwidth requirements on demand. To accomplish the research objectives, a novel service and bandwidth focused DBA protocol is developed for standard time division multiplexing (TDM), gigabit-capable PONs (GPONs) by flexibly assigning a guaranteed minimum bandwidth to each optical network unit (ONU),terminated at subscribers premises. Modelling and simulation of the developed algorithms have displayed a tenfold enhancement in network performance, showing a superior performance to other published DBA protocols, in terms of mean packet delay. To accomplish protocol optimisation, the ONU upstream transmission properties of TDM-PONs have been further analysed and subsequently the ONU data transfer order in each communication cycle has been dynamically configured to increase the network upstream throughput by overlapping the upstream transmission period with parts of the bandwidth request-allocation process between OLT and ONUs. In addition, with the objective of extending the application of the developed protocol to long-reach PONs by means of reducing the augmented propagation delays due to the network’s extensive reach, the concept of virtual communication cycles has been incorporated into the optimised DBA algorithm. This approach demonstrates comparable transmission efficiency in the context of subscriber throughput and packet delay as in a standard PON but at much longer distances from the network exchange. To overcome the inevitably limited communication capacity of single wavelength TDM protocols and with the transportation of the ever increasing, time-sensitive, multi-media services in mind, a novel multi-wavelength DBA protocol is then developed to be applied to a wavelength division multiplexing–PON. With this protocol, both the downstream and upstream network capacity is dynamically adjusted according to subscribers’ service level and bandwidth demand in each polling cycle as opposed to a fixed upstream network capacity in TDM-PONs. It therefore also demonstrates improved upstream transmission efficiency.

La presente tesis tiene como objetivo identificar si existe correlación alguna entre los costos evitables en operaciones de importación marítima y la prestación de nivel de servicio mostrando resultados sobre la implementación realizada en una de las principales empresas en el rubro de importación y distribución de equipamiento gastronómico profesional de la ciudad de Lima. Luego de realizar la implementación aprobada para el 2017, los costos evitables en operaciones de importación marítima fueron reducidos en un 13.85% con respecto al periodo anterior. Se demostró que los costos evitables (r=0.75) tiene una relación alta y positiva con el nivel de servicio, es decir que a medida que se disminuyan y la empresa deje de asumir estos podrá ser mejor su nivel de servicio. Para la presentación se tiene una estructura de cinco capítulos: En el primer capítulo, el marco teórico, se detalló conceptos relacionados a los costos evitables en operación de importación marítima, nivel de servicio, cantidad óptima a ordenar, inventario de seguridad, punto de reorden y costos totales de gestión de inventarios. Además, se mostró información sobre la empresa donde se implementaron las mejoras. En el segundo capítulo, se explicó temas en relación al plan de investigación, dando a conocer el problema, la formulación de la hipótesis, el objetivo general y los específicos. En el tercer capítulo, se trató la metodología de la investigación, donde se determinó el enfoque y diseño, la población, la definición de variables y la recolección de datos. En el cuarto capítulo, se desarrolló la investigación calculando los costos evitables en 3 niveles de servicio. Se estableció dos escenarios (con costos evitables y sin costos evitables) a los sub-variables niveles de servicio, cantidad óptima a ordenar, inventario de seguridad, punto de reorden y costos totales de gestión de inventarios. Finalmente, en el quinto capítulo se mostró el análisis de resultados respondiendo al problema si existe correlación entre los costos evitables en operación de importación marítima y la prestación de nivel de servicio, y brindaremos conclusiones y las recomendaciones sobre la investigación desarrollada. / The objective of this thesis is to identify if there is any correlation between the avoidable costs in maritime import operations and the level of service provision, showing results on the implementation carried out in one of the main companies in the import and distribution of professional gastronomic equipment category from the city of Lima. After implementing the approved implementation for 2017, avoidable costs in maritime import operations were reduced by 13.85% compared to the previous period. It was shown that the avoidable costs (r = 0.75) has a high and positive relationship with the service level, that is to say that as they decrease and the company stops assuming these, their level of service may be better. For the presentation there is a structure of five chapters: In the first chapter, the theoretical framework, detailed concepts related to avoidable costs in maritime import operation, service level, optimal quantity to order, safety inventory, reorder point and total inventory management costs. In addition, information was shown about the company where the improvements were implemented. In the second chapter, topics were explained in relation to the research plan, making known the problem, the formulation of the hypothesis, the general objective and the specific ones. In the third chapter, the methodology of the research was discussed, where the approach and design, the population, the definition of variables and the data collection were determined. In the fourth chapter, the research was developed calculating avoidable costs in 3 levels of service. Two scenarios were established (with avoidable costs and no avoidable costs) to the sub-variables service levels, optimal quantity to be ordered, security inventory, reorder point and total inventory management costs. Finally, the fifth chapter showed the analysis of results answering the problem if there is a correlation between the avoidable costs in maritime import operation and the level of service provision, and we will provide conclusions and recommendations on the research developed. / Tesis

Uma das principais características dos sistemas de informação e de comunicação é permitir que os usuários finais utilizem e disponibilizem serviços interativos com conteúdo multimídia a qualquer hora, em qualquer lugar, com qualquer dispositivo e em movimento, independentemente da tecnologia de rede utilizada. Um desafio que surge face a essa nova característica dos serviços é como identificar os requisitos de QoS (Qualidade de Serviço) fim-a-fim sob a ótica do usuário final em um ambiente convergente e heterogêneo com o intuito de evoluir as relações entre o usuário final e o Provedor de Serviços para o estabelecimento de um contrato com níveis de serviço personalizado. Este trabalho apresenta uma pesquisa para a elaboração de uma ferramenta genérica e aberta para mapear a qualidade percebida pelo usuário em requisitos técnicos de QoS através da captura do fluxo de pacotes gerado entre as aplicações que compõem um serviço e simula atrasos, jitter, perdas e banda percebida com o objetivo de permitir ao usuário final identificar e expressar os valores desses parâmetros tornando transparente os aspectos tecnológicos que envolvem esta identificação. A definição de um ambiente de simulação que hospeda o serviço, o desenvolvimento de um simulador de QoS específico e uma nova relação entre o usuário e o Provedor de Serviços também são abordados. / One of the main characteristics of communication and information systems is to allow final users to use and make available multimedia content interactive services at any time, anywhere, in motion and using any device regardless of network technology. Under this perspective a challenge arises on how to identify the QoS (Quality of Service) requirements in a convergent and heterogeneous environment end-to-end user centric way, in order to evolve the relationship between users and service providers aiming the establishment of personalized demands through personalized agreements. This work presents a study for the development of an open and generic tool for mapping the user perceived quality in QoS requirements through the capture of the packet flow generated between the applications of a service and simulates delays, jitter, loss of packets and bandwidth in order to allow the end user to identify and express the values of these parameters making transparent all the technological aspects involved in this identification. The definition of a service simulation environment, the development of a QoS simulator and a new relationship between users and services providers are also addressed.

Coreografias de serviços Web representam uma forma mais escalável e flexível de compor serviços do que uma abordagem centralizada como a orquestração, e seu papel na integração e comunicação de sistemas de larga escala é vital para os objetivos da SOC (Computação Orientada a Serviços) e da Internet do Futuro. Atualmente coreografias de serviços Web possuem vários desafios de pesquisa, dos quais a qualidade de serviço (QoS) e o monitoramento de coreografias de serviçosWeb são linhas importantes. O objetivo deste trabalho é propor e implementar um mecanismo de monitoramento não intrusivo de coreografias de serviços Web baseado em SLAs (Acordos de Nível de Serviço) que especificam as restrições de atributos de QoS de maneira probabilística. Esta dissertação propõe um mecanismo para coreografias de serviços Web que: (1) define requisitos de QoS; (2) especifica contratos probabilísticos sobre parâmetros de QoS usando SLA; e (3) realiza um monitoramento não intrusivo de coreografias de serviços Web para detectar violações de SLA. / Web services choreographies are a more scalable and flexible way to compose services than a centralized approach like orchestrations, and its role in the integration and communication of large-scale systems is vital for the goals of SoC (Service Oriented Computing) and Future Internet. Currently,Web services choreographies have several research challenges. From all challenges, quality of service (QoS) and monitoring of Web services choreography are important research lines. The goal of this work is to propose and implement a mechanism for non-intrusive monitoring of Web services choreography based on SLAs (Service Level Agreements) that define constraints of QoS attributes in a probabilistic way. This thesis proposes a mechanism for Web services choreographies that:(1) defines QoS requirements; (2) specifies probabilistic contracts on QoS parameters using SLAs; and (3) monitors, non-intrusively, the enactment of Web services choreographies to detect SLA violations.

One of the key processes of IS/IT service provider is Service Level Management. IT service provider faces a problem how the services should be defined, how a balanced service portfolio should be set up and how the processes covering the service management should be designed to meet strategic goals of the organization. The thesis focuses on IS/IT service portfolio design and management with a particular focus on infrastructure services. General goal of the thesis is to support IS/IT service provider's activities directly linked with service level management, IT financial management and IT service portfolio design. The thesis puts together theoretical sources in the area of IT Governance, generally accepted methodologies and best practices, actual market trends and author's experience. The theoretical part maps current development in the field of IS/IT service management, summarizes relevant theoretical inputs, categorizes IS/IT services, gives an overview of the most commonly used pricing models and presents actual IS/IT market trends, such as SaaS or Utility Computing. The application part, which follows the theoretical part of the thesis, is built upon fundaments of key findings and conclusions of the theoretical part. Application section introduces a method of service level management transformation and a business model suitable for IS/IT service provider. Furthermore a process of IS/IT service portfolio design is introduced. The process is supported by an analytical tool, which enables analysis of provider's financial and infrastructure data. The output of the analysis is a set of scenarios of IS/IT service portfolio including revenue, costs and utilization of resources and technologies. Academic benefit is seen not only in the consolidation of relevant theoretical sources dealing with IT service design and management. The thesis also introduces frameworks for optimization of service level management process and a concept of a IT service provider's business model. A practical contribution of the thesis is seen in a process of IT service portfolio design supported by an analytical tool for provider's real data processing, covering demand, capacity, utilization and financials.