Rapidly changing business environment, increasing and fluctuating customer demand, the recent development and employment of technology are crucial reasons for companies to strive for better quality, shorter lead time and lower costs. The supplier evaluation and selection process is an increasingly important activity in the supply chain in order to enhance the company’s competitiveness by reducing the costs and simultaneously maintaining the same quality of products. The focus of this thesis is on the supplier evaluation and selection process for public procurement in Swedish electricity industry. Specifically, the work combines the literature and the empirical findings gathered from the case company Växjö Energy (VEAB) to develop a supplier evaluation and selection process for the public procurement in Swedish electricity industry. It was concluded that the supplier evaluation and selection process for public procurement has basically four steps. The steps are 1. Identifying the needs and the sourcing method; 2. Setting the pre-requirements; 3. Supplier evaluation and 4. Supplier selection. In addition, the developed supplier evaluation tool innovatively combines the advantages of the value-added model with the advantages of AHP model. Moreover, this developed supplier evaluation and selection process would help the public procurement departments in Swedish electricity industry to improve their current practices in selecting the suppliers by highlighting the important steps and developing the evaluation model in a way that enhance its credibility to provide a more precise and reliable results.

The thesis has been devoted to the topic of preparation and evaluation of commercial developer's projects. Theoretic section of the thesis describes all the phases of preparation and realization of projects based on their chronological sequence; special attention is paid to evaluation of economic efficiency of the projects. The topic dealt in the practical section is based on results of survey carried out among relevant entities at the developers' market. Analysis of results of the survey carried out among multiple developer companies has revealed imperfections within their work. This thesis is trying to specify guidelines to eliminate them. Questioning among the other entities was aimed at analysing the view of a bank, a construction company and a facility management regarding the issue of developer projects and at making use of the findings to set some recommendations for the developer. Goal of the thesis is integration of attitudes of all the entities involved aimed at making use of the findings to specify a set of recommendations that should improve developer's work.

This study is a qualitative evaluation of the impact of the Certificate for Distance Education Practitioners, a collaborative staff development programme for open and distance learning practitioners in the five southern African countries of Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa and Swaziland. It aims to inform the stakeholders of this programme on its impact and to add to the limited research on open and distance learning in Africa. It is the first southern African systematic evaluation of the impact of a staff development collaboration programme delivered through open and distance learning methods. The study evaluates the impact of the programme on the 1997 - 2000 learners and on the organisations where these learners worked. Parlett and Hamilton’s (1975) illuminative evaluation methods were combined with McAnany’s (1975) five criteria impact evaluation model to produce an expanded and innovative design of programme impact evaluation. Postal questionnaires and interviews provided biographical data and direct views of the programme’s participants. Progressive focusing illuminated the key issues emerging from the programme’s delivery and McAnany’s (1975) evaluation criteria were used to analyse and interpret the programme’s impact. One of the key findings from this study is that the conceptions informing the delivery of the Certificate for Distance Education Practitioners are based on notions of openness, flexibility, learner-centredness and collaboration and that the programme’s implementation endeavoured, in varying degrees, to match these notions. The second finding is that the participants regarded the programme highly as a sound introduction to open and distance learning approaches and practices and felt it contributed to the application of learner-centred ideas in their organisations. However, the programme’s low enrolment numbers and progressively declining throughput rates contradicted this high regard and did not match the providers’ original projections. Lack of resources impacted negatively on participants’ application of open and distance learning approaches while organisations’ implementation of new policies and mergers created job insecurity for some participants. As in Perraton and Lentell (2004) other key issues emerging from this study include the absence of enabling staff development policies, lack of recognition, currency and/or reward after completion of the programme, limited marketing, level and national focus of the programme, and management and administration issues. These findings suggest that it is possible to deliver a regional collaboration staff development programme through open and distance methods but that the issues raised in this study need to be addressed to make such programmes sustainable, effective and financially viable.

Do you find it hard to envision the future when you are struggling to keep up with the present? A reality in many libraries is high demand but limited resources. In this session, participants will develop a menu of current services offered in their position or department. After group discussions on criteria for evaluating services and shortening workflows, participants will eliminate one service and/or shorten its prep time in order to add a forward thinking service.

Due to the ongoing globalisation and fast changes within the business environment companies are forced to adapt more quickly to customer needs. Therefore, they depend on reliable suppliers which provide them with the necessary goods and services. As a consequence, finding suitable suppliers is of utmost importance for companies. To be able to choose those suppliers companies need to establish criteria on which basis potential suppliers can be evaluate and select afterwards. Against this background, this master thesis researches the supplier selection process from the end manufacturer’s point of view. Hereby, the focus is laid on theoretical supplier evaluation criteria and methods. Due to the lack of investigations in this branch of industry the authors have chosen the sporting goods manufacturing industry within Sweden and Austria as their field of study. They have been supported in their research by the companies the Arctic City Counting House AB, the ATOMIC Austria GmbH, and the HEAD Sports AG which provided them with the essential empirical data. Keeping the above mentioned fact in the back of one’s mind, the authors deduce the following research question: On which basis and how do manufacturers of sports equipment in Sweden and Austria evaluate and select their suppliers? Within the theoretical part the reader of this thesis first of all gets an overview of supplier-buyer relationships and afterwards is informed about the structure of the supplier selection process, starting with the preparation step, followed by prequalification and evaluation steps and resulting in the final selection and the continuous controlling of the suppliers. In addition, common criteria which are necessary to evaluate suppliers are presented. Furthermore, the reader is provided with an insight into general evaluation models whereby four common theoretical methods are explained in detail (AHP, TCO, DCA, and DEA). Out of this theoretical data a conceptual model was created. The empirical part consists of practical information which was provided by the three researched companies mentioned above through questionnaires and interviews. The analysed data concludes that the evaluation criteria which are given in theory are also used in practice. In addition, it was discovered that a further criteria category is applied within the researched companies. The values of the evaluation criteria depend on the goals of the respective company. The theoretical evaluation models on the other hand are not used by the examined sporting goods manufacturers. All of them use their own methods which are presented in the empirical as well as in the analytical part of this thesis. Finally, this thesis ends with a conclusion and with the answer of the research question. Based on this thesis sporting goods manufacturers get an insight in specific supplier evaluation methods and thus gain the chance to learn how other companies within this industry evaluate and select their suppliers.

<p>Due to the ongoing globalisation and fast changes within the business environment companies are forced to adapt more quickly to customer needs. Therefore, they depend on reliable suppliers which provide them with the necessary goods and services. As a consequence, finding suitable suppliers is of utmost importance for companies. To be able to choose those suppliers companies need to establish criteria on which basis potential suppliers can be evaluate and select afterwards.</p><p>Against this background, this master thesis researches the supplier selection process from the end manufacturer’s point of view. Hereby, the focus is laid on theoretical supplier evaluation criteria and methods. Due to the lack of investigations in this branch of industry the authors have chosen the sporting goods manufacturing industry within Sweden and Austria as their field of study. They have been supported in their research by the companies the Arctic City Counting House AB, the ATOMIC Austria GmbH, and the HEAD Sports AG which provided them with the essential empirical data.</p><p>Keeping the above mentioned fact in the back of one’s mind, the authors deduce the following research question:</p><p>On which basis and how do manufacturers of sports equipment in Sweden and Austria evaluate and select their suppliers?</p><p>Within the theoretical part the reader of this thesis first of all gets an overview of supplier-buyer relationships and afterwards is informed about the structure of the supplier selection process, starting with the preparation step, followed by prequalification and evaluation steps and resulting in the final selection and the continuous controlling of the suppliers. In addition, common criteria which are necessary to evaluate suppliers are presented. Furthermore, the reader is provided with an insight into general evaluation models whereby four common theoretical methods are explained in detail (AHP, TCO, DCA, and DEA). Out of this theoretical data a conceptual model was created.</p><p>The empirical part consists of practical information which was provided by the three researched companies mentioned above through questionnaires and interviews. The analysed data concludes that the evaluation criteria which are given in theory are also used in practice. In addition, it was discovered that a further criteria category is applied within the researched companies. The values of the evaluation criteria depend on the goals of the respective company. The theoretical evaluation models on the other hand are not used by the examined sporting goods manufacturers. All of them use their own methods which are presented in the empirical as well as in the analytical part of this thesis. Finally, this thesis ends with a conclusion and with the answer of the research question.</p><p>Based on this thesis sporting goods manufacturers get an insight in specific supplier evaluation methods and thus gain the chance to learn how other companies within this industry evaluate and select their suppliers.</p>

E-health is an emerging field in the intersection of information systems, healthcare and business management, referring mainly to healthcare services delivered and enhanced through the use of information and communication technologies (ICT). In a broader sense, the term characterizes not only a technical development, but also a wider way of thinking, an attitude, and a commitment for a network to improve and connect provider, patients and governments. Such a network will be used to educate and inform healthcare professionals, managers and healthcare users; to stimulate innovation in care delivery and health system management; and to improve the healthcare system locally, regionally, and globally. The evaluation of e-health services in both theory and practice has proved to be important and complex. E-health evaluation will help achieve better user services utilization, justify the enormous investments of governments on delivering e-health services, and address the aspects that are hampering healthcare services from embracing the full potential of ICT towards successful e-health initiatives. The complexity of evaluation is mostly due to the challenges faced at the intersection of three areas, each well-known for its complexity; healthcare services, information systems, and evaluation methodologies. However, despite the importance of the evaluation of e-health services, literature shows that e-health evaluation is still in its infancy in terms of development and management. The aim of this research study is to develop, and assess a cross disciplinary evaluation framework for e-health services and to propose evaluation criteria for better user’s utilization and satisfaction of e-health services. The evaluation framework is criteria based, while the criteria are determined by an evaluation matrix of three elements, the evaluation rationales, the evaluation timeframes, and the evaluation stakeholders. The evaluation criteria have to be multi-dimensional as well as grounded in, or derived from, one or more specific perspectives or theories. The framework is designed to deal effectively with the challenges of e-health evaluation and overcome the limitation of existing evaluation frameworks. The cross disciplinary evaluation framework has been examined and validated by adopting an interpretive case study methodology. The chosen case study is NHS direct which is currently one of the largest e-health services in the world. The data collection process has been carried out by using three research methods; archival records, documentation analysis and semi-structured interviews. The use of multiple methods is essential to generate comparable data patterns and structures, and enhance the reliability of conclusions through data triangulation. The contribution of the research study is in bridging the gap between the theory and practice in the evaluation of e-health services by providing an efficient evaluation framework that can be applied to a wide range of e-health application and able to answer real-world concerns. The study also offers three sets of well-argued and balanced hierarchies of evaluation criteria that influence user’s utilization and satisfaction of e-health services. The evaluation criteria can be used to help achieve better user services utilization, to serve as part of e-health evaluation framework, and to address areas that require further attention in the development of future e-health initiatives.

The diploma thesis is focused on the public participation in the municipality development through the community planning methods. The main goal is the evaluation of processes of public participation in the municipal planning documents preparation for some selected municipalities in the region of South Bohemia. These documents have been created on the principles of community planning. Among the documents belong strategic town plans, community plans for health and quality of life, and community plans of social services. The theoretical part is primarily focused on the issue of local development, community planning including its principles, historical links and legal foundations. Last but not least, there is a public participation process described in the theoretical part as well. At the end of the theoretical part, there is a theory of evaluation of the successful public participation in the planning process. The empirical part relates to the mentioned theory of the evaluation of the public participation methods. The empirical part contains the analysis of the public engagement in creating documents in three particular towns: Třeboň, Dačice and Český Krumlov. The analysis aims to the approach of mentioned towns in the case of public participation, measuring related costs, assessing the success of the process according to the assigned evaluation criteria and eventually on the mistakes identification. On the basis of this analysis there are the key, determining the successful community planning implementation, defined. According to the analysis new procedures are suggested.

This thesis offers a method that informs on the most appropriate sites for successful tree establishment and provides protection to the planted trees in CDM forestry projects. It also offers a method that can accurately and precisely estimate woody biomass in CDM forestry projects established on an agricultural landscape. The thesis has established a set of evaluation criteria that are defined and generally agreed upon by a panel of local forestry experts in Malawi. These criteria express the degree of appropriateness of particular locations to support successful tree establishment and growth, and protect the planted trees from deforestation and forest degradation. They also influence farmers’ decision-making to allocate land for either tree planting or other competing land use options, e.g. crop cultivation. The thesis uses these evaluation criteria to functionally identify priority sites on the landscape of Central Malawi for the establishment of CDM forestry projects. The priority sites are identified using trade-off analysis tools of the GIS-based MCA protocols. Besides site identification, the thesis has established a magnitude of discrepancy that can result from the use of imported allometric models in estimating woody biomass in CDM forestry projects. Imported allometric models consistently under-estimate the woody biomass of the growing trees in the study area with a mean prediction error of as high as 50%. Local allometric models are therefore developed and they are found to be both accurate and precise in estimating woody biomass. These results imply that identification of priority sites, and accurate and precise estimation of woody biomass in CDM forestry project activities are likely and can be attained. In turn, successful establishment of CDM project activities lead to enhanced productivity that will attract expanded investments in CDM forestry projects. The thesis uses Malawi as a case study. The findings of this thesis can be scaled out to other countries whose socio-ecological characteristics are similar to Malawi. These are mostly tropical countries of the Sub-Saharan Africa. In so doing, the thesis contributes to improving productivity and estimation of carbon in CDM forestry project.

Extensive solutions of Business Intelligence consist of wide range of projects. One of them is generating of reporting layer whose part is setting of dashboards. This diploma thesis deals with dashboards and tools serving to their formation. In the first part of the thesis there is explained the theory of dashboards in current company informatics. Consequently there is created a set of evaluative criteria helping with mutual comparison of the tool for the forming of dashboards, which is the primary aim of the thesis. In the last part of the thesis there is a presentation and evaluation of one selected tool (Dashboard Designer) according to the criteria stated in the thesis. During the evaluation of the tool it is possible to verify some of the criteria on the basis of practical experience. That is why the demonstrative implementation of Dashboard Designer over the test data is shown. Thus the second aim of the diploma thesis is completed. Aforementioned targets are achieved on account of pieces of knowledge about dashboards coming especially from the literature published by authorities in the line of business and from background research concerned with contemporary approach to the evaluation of tool for the forming of dashboards. In addition to formed criteria this diploma thesis can be instrumental to further discussion about dashboards and their role in current company informatics.