The shift toward mobility have today created higher demands on companies, consultants, the right use of working methods, workplace strategies, the information sharing as well as the interaction and collaboration with different customers. If consultants are able to work effective outside the office, from everywhere and at any time regardless of location with the help of mobile technologies, companies can reduce unnecessary costs, gain market share and competitive advantages. This study examines how mobile technologies enable social interaction of IT consultants‟ mobile work. The purpose of this Master thesis is to identify IT consultants‟ mobile work and the existing implications in mobility today. The thesis will also bring up the set of problems with mobility to the surface and create a deeper understanding of IT consultants‟ mobile work and more knowledge about mobile technologies and how they can enable social interaction. The thesis‟ empirical foundation is derived from 18 interviews with representatives from; NaviPro, Sogeti and Logica. The interviews will provide the reader with a better understanding in; how mobile technologies can enable social interaction and which implications consultants face during their mobile work. The theoretical basis is composed from secondary data to receive an understanding and background to the problem area. The empirical data is then analyzed by means of presented theories which are also assumed in the preparation of the interviews. We have come to the conclusion that today‟s technology has failed to satisfy the consultants‟ social needs and that there are significant implications that can result in lack of face-to-face interaction, social and professional isolation and higher demands of constantly be reachable. However, with the access of laptops, smartphones and mobile broadband consultants can minimize following implications and perform more than 50% of their work and still be a productive and effective consultant. / Program: Masterutbildning i Informatik

The employment of the right technology in an organisation can provide major competitiveadvantages. Not only in organisations, but at a higher level, governments are seeking for newtechnologies to enhance their services while minimising the costs. Although, there might beno precise definition for cloud computing, the tremendous advantages and benefits of this newtechnology has turn cloud computing to the hottest topic in Information Technology.The remarkable effects of cloud computing in economy have already stimulated thedeveloped countries to deploy this technology in national level. Nonetheless, the adoption ofcloud computing could transform the workflow in the organisations. Therefore, in order toensure the smooth transition with minimal casualties, preparations needs to be done and aclear road map has to be followed.However, the approach to cloud adoption process in developing countries can be entirelydifferent. While it has been pointed out that cloud computing can bring more advantages todeveloping countries, it adoption can be profoundly challenging. Consequently, a set offundamental and yet vital preparation are required to facilitate the process of cloud adoption.Moreover, a definite framework that is formed based on the current state of the country isabsolutely necessary.In this research, we focus on the process of cloud adoption in Iran as a developing country.We start by providing a comprehensive background on cloud computing by studying itsaspects, features, advantages and disadvantages and continue to identify the vital cloudreadiness criteria. Next, we conduct an empirical study in order to assess the state of cloudreadiness in Iran by performing interviews, observations and discussions. Finally, after weanalyse our data from the empirical study, we present our results by presenting a clear and definitive framework for cloud adoption in Iran. / Program: Masterutbildning i Informatik

The purpose of the study was to explore the current IT-outsourcing situation in China, find out what challenges exist and figure out ways of managing these challenges with the help of ICT.To achieve the purpose of the study a case study was performed in Shanghai, China. The case study was built around several interviews with the representatives of three IT-Outsourcing companies that work globally from Shanghai, China. All of the companies that were involved in the process of conducting the study were big established companies that are experts in their respective field. All of the interviewees were either from a management part of the company or selected by the management to represent their companies in the interviews.The study was performed with a qualitative research approach and was divided into a theoretical section where the current IT-Outsourcing situation was displayed and thereby the theoretical challenges were presented. This presented a need for verification on the theoretical elements and also created information gaps that needed to be filled by conducting an empirical study.The empirical study was then built around the gaps that needed to be filled in order for ICT to become an even more efficient enabler for IT-Outsourcing. Thereby four semi-structured interviews were conducted with three different companies. With the help of the theoretical and empirical studies an analytic approach were applied to then answer the research questions that are directly connected to the purpose of the study, making it possible to identify the challenges that needed to be addressed and mapping the current IT-outsourcing situation in China. These challenges then addressed and displayed in six different tables with an explanatory text attached to each table for further validation and clarification on the table content.Based on the findings, the research could then be validated with a theoretical and empirical analysis that gave grounds for the conclusions that part take in answering the research questions that give ground for the purpose of the study. / Program: Systemvetarutbildningen

Information Communication Systems (ICT) has brought about a change in the way people handle transactions. The payment systems have undergone an incredible evolution over the passing years from physical transfer of cash to exchanging money in a digital form. Mobile Payment (mPayment) which is a branch of mobile commerce is one of the areas that is becoming more and more popular these days. In Sweden, there is a growing success of mPayment system such as SEQR, Swish amongst others. However, a huge chunk of the population is yet to adopt the system. Hence, there is a need to identify factors that influence peoples’ decisions to adopt or not to adopt the mPayment system like Swish. This study aimed at identifying the factors that influence the adoption of mPayment system amongst the consumers in Sweden. The research question was: what factors influence the adoption of Swish mobile payment app among the consumers in Sweden? A qualitative research was conducted. A semi structured interview was used as the data collection method. This data collection method was used because this research work seeks to identify the feelings, opinions and experiences of people and this method fits best into the research work. The thematic analysis approach was used for the data analysis. The study showed that impact of the system on day-to-day activities, speculation of risk and trust of the system, integration to lifestyle, speculation of user friendliness and flexibility, age and peer influence are the factors that influence the adoption of swish mobile payment app amongst the consumers in Sweden. Furthermore, the research was viewed through the lens of the UTAUT by comparing the findings of the study and how it relates to the determinants and moderating factors of the model. In conclusion, this study has contributed to the field of ICT specifically the mobile technology field. The conceptual model that was built will be useful for developers and researchers to be able to know the areas to put in more efforts and areas to keep maintaining. Furthermore, this research was conducted within a country that has experience with m-payment apps. Hence, this study can serve as an example for other countries moving towards higher smartphone and application usage.

The evolution of mobile-phone technologies such as Smartphones Applications and Services enabled the emergence of digital and smart economies, governments and nations. Many developed and developing countries, like Oman, have considerably invested in the area of Smart Technologies, and initiated countless number of projects such as Smart Governments, also known as Mobile or M-Government, to provide timely, secure, satisfactory and high quality of services for the citizens, businesses and other governmental agencies. Although many scholars have investigated this area of interest with huge amount of efforts, the adoption and actual use of M-Government applications and services, remain problematic and face many challenges. In this area of interest, two major themes of research were reported in the literature: User-centred (i.e., Human-Computer Interaction perspective) and System-centred (i.e., Software Engineering perspective). The first theme remains a hot area of interest mainly due to the importance of the role of end-users in the adoption and success of the new technologies like M-Government. Therefore, this study attempted to develop and empirically validate a novel Mobile Government Adoption Model (titled: MGAM) within the culture of Oman. The MGAM model integrates a well-known theory in this domain, the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), with other theories including Psychometric Paradigm Theory (PPT), Customer Culture Theory (CCT) and Personality Trait Theory (PTT) to identify key factors related to the end-users or citizens; those included their Perception of Risk, Culture and Personality Trait. The study adopted quantitative research with Survey method as a research strategy for data collection and quantitative methodology for data analysis. A new data collection instrument was developed for the purpose of this study and distributed through online facilities to collect data about the variables of the MGAM Model from Users in Oman using the M-Government applications and services. Around 450 samples (302 males and 148 females) were collected and considered for the purpose of data analysis in this study. Several statistical tools and means have been used to analyse the data and valuate the MGAM model including Descriptive and Inferential Statistic, Structural Equation Modelling (SEM), Comparative Fit Index Analysis, Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) with Statistical Software Applications, SPSS and AMOS Applications. The study revealed that most of the users in Oman using M-Government applications and services were very positive about the Perceived Ease of Use and the Perceived Usefulness of the technology with very positive Attitude and Behavioural Intention towards this technology. The findings also showed that the research participants have a slightly negative Perception of Risk when using the M-Government applications and services in Oman, and positive perception of Culture in this domain. With reference to the MGAM Model, the model was tested and validated, and the findings indicated that the Personality Trait moderator can strengthen the link between Behavioural Intention and Actual Use of the technology. Based on the findings, the study provided key recommendations for the governmental personnel dealing with the development of M-Government applications and services in Oman, and for public users in Oman. Among those, the study recommends for considering this initiative in Oman as a real and strategic shift in public administration, and to make easy, flexible and dynamic M-Government applications and services through taking into account cultural issues and user-related preferences. The study also recommended offering more than a service in one visit by the users, providing information prior to services and training governmental employees on this technology. The main contribution of this work is the development and validation of a new adoption model in the area of M-Government, the MGAM model. Theoretically, the MGAM Model extends the TAM Model through the integration process with with other theories including PPT, CCT and PTT to identify new key factors with impact on the adoption of M-Government infrastructure. This work also makes a novel contribution in terms of research methodology by developing and applying a new data collection tool, i.e., Mobile Government Adoption Questionnaire. This tool can be used by other researchers to collect data on the same research problem from contexts similar to the Omani one. Practically, this work attempted to identify the key prerequisites for the adoption and actual use of technology in the area of public services administration, and then making contribution towards the success of M-Government initiatives. The use of different tests and methods to statistically understand how the Omani end-users make decisions on the use of M-Government is also a novel practical contribution of this work.

In recent years ICT has gotten sustained interest in which it’s seen as a tool for development andsocial transformation. There have been a rise of ICT4D (ICT for development) initiatives in theinternational arena. The Philippine organization Foundation for Media Alternatives (FMA) isworking with the intersection of ICT and women’s empowerment to advocate women’s rights andissues in the online space as well as increasing women’s strategic use of ICT. This paper is aMinor Field Study conducted in Quezon City, the Philippines, which explores FMA’s Gender andICT program. The aim of the study is to examine the strategies and practices for womenempowerment through ICT as well as mapping the major challenges in their work. The study wasconducted through observations and interviews with the members of FMA as well as women froman assisted urban poor community. The result outlines the main practices taken in the program toreach an understanding of the work done for women’s empowerment. Furthermore, the studyportrays that the full potential of the practices can’t be fulfilled due to the current environmentFMA are operating in. The experienced challenges in their work have been characterized into fivecommon areas; funding, the political environment, the cooperation, the unsafe online space andlastly the socioeconomical divide in the society.

L’inadaptation des organisations hiérarchiques à l’émergence de la virtualité s’exprime à travers les exigences suivantes : les dirigeants modernes doivent composer entre « organisations dures » et « organisations molles », entre science quantitative et qualitative, entre flexibilité et productivité maximale, entre performance de l'entreprise et qualité de la vie au travail, entre qualité des produits et désir des clients. Nous appuyant sur l’abductivité de notre propre expérience, c'est-à-dire en faisant des allers-retours entre les cadres théoriques et les observations de terrain, cette recherche tend à montrer que la firme virtuelle est l’une des réponses organisationnelles apportée à l’adaptation au nouveau contexte économique.Face aux incertitudes entourant le concept d’entreprise virtuelle et surtout à la multiplicité des références utilisées en la matière, il nous a semblé nécessaire de le clarifier, ce qui nous a conduit à élaborer un cadre théorique spécifique faisant la synthèse des aspects divers de la littérature sur l’entreprise virtuelle, puis à nous interroger sur la disparition de l’entrepreneur pour enfin envisager l’avenir de ce type d’organisation comme business model. Ainsi, dans ce nouvel environnement, un nouveau type d'entreprise est née : mince, flexible, dont l'objectif est de limiter son activité interne à ses seules compétences stratégiques et d'externaliser toutes les autres fonctions en les confiant à des fournisseurs, des sous-traitants, ou des partenaires extérieurs. Ainsi l'entreprise se concentre sur ce qu'elle sait le mieux faire et peut croître rapidement ou lancer régulièrement de nouveaux produits avec moins de capitaux et des structures de management plus réduites. / The inadequacy of hierarchical organizations to the emergence of virtuality is expressed through the following requirements: modern leaders must compromise between « hard organizations » and « soft organizations », quantitative and qualitative sciences, flexibility and maximum productivity, company performance and quality of work life, product quality and customer’s desires. Building on the abductivity of our own experience, that is to say by going back and forth between theoretical frameworks and field observations, this research suggests that the virtual firm is one of the organizational responses adapted to the new economic environment. Facing the uncertainties surrounding the concept of virtual enterprise, and especially the multiplicity of references used, it seemed necessary to clarify it, which led us to develop a specific theoretical framework summarizing the various aspects of literature on the virtual enterprise, and to wonder about the disappearance of the head-manager to finally consider the future of this type of organization as a business model. Thus, in this new environment, a new type of company is born: thin, flexible, which aims to limit its internal activity to its own strategic competencies and outsource all other functions by entrusting them to suppliers, subcontractors or external partners. Thus, the company focuses on what it knows better and can grow quickly or regularly launch new products with less capital and smaller management structures.

Vymezení e-Governmentu, analýza jeho stavu a vývoje v ČR. Portál veřejné správy, Národní program počítačové gramotnosti a rozšiřování broadbandu. Evropská Unie koordinuje pro podporu e Governmentu Akční plány eEurope, iniciativu i2010, program IDABC a program eTEN. Rozbor využívání služeb e-governmentu obchodními firmami: elektronické podatelny, elektronická tržiště pro státní správu, transakční portály veřejné správy. Zaručený elektronický podpis jako nástroj identifikace a autentizace při využívání transakčních služeb, na portálu zdravotních pojišťoven, při elektronickém přiznání daní, elektronickém celním řízení, při on-line obchodování s cennými papíry. Výhody Internetu, intranetu, extranetu, EDI, ebXML, SCM, CRM, teleworkingu, outsourcingu pro firmy; internetový obchod, elektronická tržiště, elektronické bankovnictví, portály na podporu exportu. Výzkumy e-Governmentu: srovnání ČR s ostatními zeměmi EU.

Současné přístupy k řízení inovace CRM v nedostatečné míře akcentují řízení hodnoty portfolia vztahů se zákazníky. Přestože CRM lze dnes považovat za jednu z klíčových podnikových strategii, je podceňována role CRM jako významné složky integrovaného řízení podnikové výkonnosti. Tomu odpovídá i absence vhodného modelu pro hodnotově orientované řízení inovace CRM. Dochází tak často k nesprávnému nastavení strategií a priorit inovace CRM a následně i problematickému řízení vlastních přínosů CRM. Primárním cílem této disertační práce je přispět k rozvoji teoretické základny hodnotově orientovaného řízení inovace CRM a umožnit její následnou aplikaci v podnikové praxi a to právě prostřednictvím navrženého modelu (HOM).

Abstract : Information and communication technologies (ICTs, henceforth) have become ubiquitous in our society. The plethora of devices competing with the computer, from iPads to the Interactive whiteboard, just to name a few, has provided teachers and students alike with the ability to communicate and access information with unprecedented accessibility and speed. It is only logical that schools reflect these changes given that their purpose is to prepare students for the future. Surprisingly enough, research indicates that ICT integration into teaching activities is still marginal. Many elementary and secondary schoolteachers are not making effective use of ICTs in their teaching activities as well as in their assessment practices. The purpose of the current study is a) to describe Quebec ESL teachers’ profiles of using ICTs in their daily teaching activities; b) to describe teachers’ ICT integration and assessment practices; and c) to describe teachers’ social representations regarding the utility and relevance of ICT use in their daily teaching activities and assessment practices. In order to attain our objectives, we based our theoretical framework, principally, on the social representations (SR, henceforth) theory and we defined most related constructs which were deemed fundamental to the current thesis. We also collected data from 28 ESL elementary and secondary school teachers working in public and private sectors. The interview guide used to that end included a range of items to elicit teachers’ SR in terms of ICT daily use in teaching activities as well as in assessment practices. In addition, we carried out our data analyses from a textual statistics perspective, a particular mode of content analysis, in order to extract the indicators underlying teachers’ representations of the teachers. The findings suggest that although almost all participants use a wide range of ICT tools in their practices, ICT implementation is seemingly not exploited to its fullest potential and, correspondingly, is likely to produce limited effects on students’ learning. Moreover, none of the interviewees claim that they use ICTs in their assessment practices and they still hold to the traditional paper-based assessment (PBA, henceforth) approach of assessing students’ learning. Teachers’ common discourse reveals a gap between the positive standpoint with regards to ICT integration, on the one hand, and the actual uses of instructional technology, on the other. These results are useful for better understanding the way ESL teachers in Quebec currently view their use of ICTs, particularly for evaluation purposes. In fact, they provide a starting place for reconsidering the implementation of ICTs in elementary and secondary schools. They may also be useful to open up avenues for the development of a future research program in this regard. / Résumé : Les technologies d’information et de communication (TIC) sont devenues omniprésentes dans notre société. L’abondante panoplie de dispositifs rivalisant avec l’ordinateur, allant de l’iPad au Tableau blanc interactif, pour n’en nommer que quelques-uns, a permis aux enseignantes et enseignants ainsi qu’aux élèves de communiquer et d’obtenir de l’information avec une vitesse et une accessibilité jamais égalées jusqu’à aujourd’hui. De ce fait, il serait attendu que les pratiques éducatives traditionnelles, qui ne semblent plus compatibles avec les attentes des élèves et les besoins de main-d’œuvre d’aujourd’hui soient modifiées (Ahmed et Nasser, 2015). Malheureusement, la recherche indique que les réalités d’intégration des TIC sont toujours loin de la rhétorique. Plusieurs enseignantes et enseignants d’écoles primaires et secondaires n’utilisent pas les TIC d’une façon efficace et ce, autant dans leurs activités d’enseignement que dans leurs pratiques évaluatives. La présente étude, de type exploratoire-descriptif, vise à 1) décrire les profils des enseignantes et enseignants d’anglais langue seconde (ALS) utilisant les TIC dans leurs activités quotidiennes d’enseignement et leurs pratiques évaluatives; 2) décrire les pratiques d'intégration des TIC dans les activités d’enseignement et les pratiques d'évaluation de ces enseignantes et enseignants; et 3) décrire les représentations sociales (RS) des enseignantes et enseignants concernant l'utilité et la pertinence de l'utilisation des TIC dans leurs activités quotidiennes d'enseignement et leurs pratiques d'évaluation. Pour atteindre nos objectifs, nous basons principalement notre cadre théorique sur la théorie de la RS et nous définissons les concepts et les construits les plus étroitement associés qui sont considérés comme fondamentaux pour la thèse actuelle. Nous avons recueilli nos données auprès d’un échantillon de 28 enseignantes et enseignants d’ALS du primaire et du secondaire qui travaillent dans les secteurs publics et privés. Le guide d'entretien utilisé à cette fin comprend un nombre d’items visant à favoriser l’élucidation des RS des enseignants en matière de l’usage quotidien des TIC dans les activités d'enseignement ainsi que des pratiques d'évaluation. De plus, nous avons réalisé nos analyses dans une perspective de statistique textuelle, un mode particulier d’analyse de contenu, afin d’extraire les indicateurs sous-jacents aux représentations des enseignants. Les résultats suggèrent que, bien que presque tous les participants utilisent un large éventail d'outils de TIC dans leurs pratiques, il s’avère que la mise en œuvre des TIC n’est pas exploitée à son plein potentiel et, en conséquence, est susceptible de produire des effets limités sur l'apprentissage des élèves. En outre, aucun des interviewés affirment qu'ils utilisent les TIC dans leurs pratiques d'évaluation et ils tiennent encore à l'approche traditionnelle du papier-crayon dans l'évaluation de l'apprentissage des élèves. Le discours commun des enseignantes et enseignants révèle un écart entre le point de vue positif en ce qui concerne l'intégration des TIC, d'une part, et les utilisations réelles de la technologie pédagogique, de l'autre part. Ces résultats sont utiles pour mieux comprendre la façon dont les enseignantes et les enseignants d'anglais langue seconde au Québec perçoivent leur utilisation des TIC, en particulier à des fins d'évaluation. En effet, ils fournissent un point de départ pour reconsidérer la mise en œuvre des TIC dans les écoles primaires et secondaires. Ils pourraient également être utiles pour élaborer des pistes pour le développement d’un futur programme de recherche à cet égard.