M.Tech. (Information Technology) / This study conceptualises the effects of socio-organisational factors during Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) implementations and the impact these have towards ERP system security. Social Exchange Theory (SET) is applied in the study. SET is premised on the notion that there is a reward exchange between actors, the main purpose being to maximise benefits and minimise costs to the different actors involved in the ERP implementation. The study looks at SET‟s three independent socio-constructive factors: exchange relations, dependency and power in relation to ERP system security. Pertinent discourse dwells on power and exchange relations that occur during an ERP implementation and how these relations influence information security. Potential benefits and risks towards information security are examined across these relations. The research is quantitative in nature and a survey was directed to people involved in ERP implementations. The study contributes to the discipline by developing a framework for conceptualising the relationship between power, dependency and exchange relations applicable during an ERP implementation. The main goal would be for such a model to be useful for ERP system security. The main findings from this study are that some of the socio-organisational factors like Expert Power, Referent Power, Coercive Power and Exchange Relations influence the implementation of Information Security during ERP implementations. Socio-organisational factors like Reward Power, Positional Power and Dependency were found to have no influence or minimal influence on the implementation of Information Security during ERP implementations.

Organisations are seeking for an opportunity to reduce costs while they increase service delivery to their customers. In order to remain in business, companies must have proper strategies in place to reduce costs while they still deliver the same standard of service. In order to remain competitive, companies have implemented Information Communication Technology (ICT). The implementation of ICT was done to assist organisations to improve efficiency in their production processes. To achieve these objectives, companies implemented Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems. Some companies that have implemented an ERP system, however, are faced with the challenge of not fully realising the full benefits of implementing the ERP system. The Water Industry is faced with a challenge of ensuring that it manages the water value chain effectively through the use of an ERP system. The industry is also experiencing difficult times in ensuring that the business is run in a sustainable manner to manage the infrastructure assets. This has resulted in the importance of internal reporting within the Water Industry to assist management to monitor performance and take informed decisions. The implementation of an ERP system has affected all the roles in the Water Industry, especially the role of management accountants who are involved with internal reporting. Management accountants are experiencing challenges during and after the implementation of an ERP system, especially with the effective and efficient reporting of information. This study investigated the challenges that management accountants encountered after the implementation of an ERP system in the Water Industry in South Africa. The research consists of a preliminary study to identify challenges that management accountants encounter during and after the implementation of ERP system in the Water Industry. A literature review on the role of management accountants combined with the ERP system applications and framework are investigated and an ERP system implementation framework for the Water Industry is proposed. The proposed framework is evaluated and recommendations are made to those involved with the water industry that are considering upgrading or implementing an ERP system.

An increase in global competitiveness has forced manufacturing organisations to re – look at their facility from an output and quality standpoint. Leveraging a manufacturing operation into a competitive advantage must at all times support the organisation’s objectives. It is therefore vital that the operation reviews its strategy so that it fulfils the everchanging needs of its market. The main objective of this research was to identify possible approaches that Johnson Controls South Africa (JCI SA) could pursue when implementing a Lean Manufacturing model. In doing this it will improve JCI SA’s manufacturing efficiency and quality, thus giving the organisation a competitive edge over its opposition. The research presented an empirical study of how a Lean Manufacturing model should be implemented in JCI SA. A theoretical and empirical study was conducted on how to successfully implement Lean Manufacturing within an organisation. The main purpose was to establish a theoretical Lean Manufacturing model that the organisation can utilise as a strategic plan to become the global leader in its market place.

The main goal of this thesis is to introduce philosophy of PSA (Professional Services Automation) solutions, their benefits, structure and possible future and to describe, why and how were PSA systems developed. Inasmuch as PSA systems originally evolved from ERP systems and their current progress is very similar to the late progress of ERPs, I decided to focus my analyses on ERP systems and to use the relevant conclusions on PSA solutions. The opening chapter of the thesis (chapter 3) introduces and describes philosophy and history of ERP systems, chapter 4 then describes PSA solutions. The fifth part is addressed to the current ERP market, from which a picture of future PSA market can be derived. Practical part 6, which I consider as the primary contribution of this thesis, analyzes some dimensions of PSA in the light of future evolution of this kind of solution. It also defines some factors, that may help to increase positive effects of PSA solutions to service-oriented companies. The thesis is then closed with an example of a real PSA implementation on an engineering company (chapter 7).

The project elaborated proposal of comprehensive monitoring of the forklift reconditioning process at the regional refurbishment center for central and east Europe. The proposal aims to increase overall customer satisfaction. The choice of the specific form of monitoring was based on theoretical background and process analysis. Monitoring of process activities is carried out on the basis of barcodes and scanning devices, which are able to distinguish the date and specific time. The proposal results are an overall customer overview increase within process, customer satisfaction increase and support improvement of managing and decision making.

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Nowadays, employees have to work with applications, technical services, and systems every day for hours. Hence, performance degradation of such systems might be perceived negatively by the employees, increase frustration, and might also have a negative effect on their productivity. The assessment of the application's performance in order to provide a smooth operation of the application is part of the application management. Within this process it is not sufficient to assess the system performance solely on technical performance parameters, e.g., response or loading times. These values have to be set into relation to the perceived performance quality on the user's side - the quality of experience (QoE). This dissertation focuses on the monitoring and estimation of the QoE of enterprise applications. As building models to estimate the QoE requires quality ratings from the users as ground truth, one part of this work addresses methods to collect such ratings. Besides the evaluation of approaches to improve the quality of results of tasks and studies completed on crowdsourcing platforms, a general concept for monitoring and estimating QoE in enterprise environments is presented. Here, relevant design dimension of subjective studies are identified and their impact of the QoE is evaluated and discussed. By considering the findings, a methodology for collecting quality ratings from employees during their regular work is developed. The method is realized by implementing a tool to conduct short surveys and deployed in a cooperating company. As a foundation for learning QoE estimation models, this work investigates the relationship between user-provided ratings and technical performance parameters. This analysis is based on a data set collected in a user study in a cooperating company during a time span of 1.5 years. Finally, two QoE estimation models are introduced and their performance is evaluated. / Heutzutage sind Geschäftsanwendungen und technische Systeme aus dem Arbeitsalltag vieler Menschen nicht mehr wegzudenken. Kommt es bei diesen zu Performanzproblemen, wie etwa Verzögerungen im Netzwerk oder Überlast im Datenzentrum, kann sich dies negativ auf die Effizienz und Produktivität der Mitarbeiter auswirken. Daher ist es wichtig aus Sicht der Betreiber die Performanz der Anwendungen und Systeme zu überwachen. Hierbei ist es allerdings nicht ausreichend die Qualität lediglich anhand von technischen Performanzparametern wie Antwortzeiten zu beurteilen. Stattdessen sollten diese Werte in Relation zu der von den Mitarbeitern wahrgenommenen Performanz oder Quality of Experience (QoE) gesetzt werden. Diese Dissertation beschäftigt sich mit dem Monitoring und der Abschätzung der QoE von Geschäftsanwendungen. Neben der Präsentation eines generellen Konzepts zum Monitoring und der Abschätzung der QoE im Geschäftsumfeld, befasst sich die Arbeit mit Aspekten der Erfassung von Qualitätsbewertungen durch die Nutzer. Dies umfasst einerseits die Evaluation von Ansätzen zur Verbesserung der Qualität von Aufgaben- und Studienergebnissen auf Crowdsourcing-Plattformen. Andererseits werden relevante Dimensionen des Designs von Studien zur Untersuchung der QoE von Geschäftsanwendungen aufgezeigt und deren Einfluss auf die QoE diskutiert und evaluiert. Letztendlich wird eine Methodik zur Erfassung von Qualitätsbewertungen durch Mitarbeiter während ihrer regulären Arbeit vorgestellt, welche implementiert und in einem kooperierenden Unternehmen ausgerollt wurde. Als Grundlage der Entwicklung eines QoE Abschätzungsmodells, untersucht diese Arbeit den Zusammenhang zwischen Bewertungen durch die Nutzer und technischen Performanzparametern. Die Untersuchungen erfolgen auf einem Datensatz, welcher in einer Studie über 1.5 Jahre in einem kooperierenden Unternehmen gesammelt wurde. Des Weiteren werden zwei Methoden zur Abschätzung der QoE präsentiert und deren Performanz evaluiert.

This dissertation examines how trust develops in landscape level collaborative natural resource management efforts. I took a case study approach to research four projects in the Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Program (CFLRP). I conducted qualitative analysis of interviews, notes and observations from site visits and archival documents to understand the role and function of trust within my four case studies. The results are organized into five chapters: an introduction chapter, three manuscripts intended for stand-alone publication (Chapters 2-4), and a conclusion chapter. Chapter 2 reports on the development and function of trust within the four collaboratives I studied. Chapter 3 discusses the roles of facilitators and coordinators for engendering and maintaining trust. Chapter 4 examines three of the four case studies and compares the observed trust outcomes to the literature on traditional forms of public involvement. Finally, Chapter 5 synthesizes the findings from Chapters 2-4. These results provide useful information about the types of trust that contribute to successful collaborative efforts, as well as identify some of the practices and structures that engender those types of trust. / Ph. D.

Yes / Aim This aim of this scoping review was to undertake a detailed review of the pertinent literature examining strategic workforce planning in the health and social care sectors. The scoping review was tasked to address the following three questions: 1. How is strategic health and social care workforce planning currently undertaken? 2. What models, methods, and tools are available for supporting strategic health and social care workforce planning? 3. What are the most effective methods for strategic health and social care workforce planning? Methods The scoping review utilised the five-stage scoping review framework proposed by Arksey and O’Malley (2005). This includes identifying the research question; identifying relevant studies; study selection; charting the data and collating, summarizing, and reporting the results. The search included a range of databases and key search terms included “workforce” OR “human resource*” OR “personnel” OR “staff*”. Relevant documents were selected through initially screening titles and s, followed by full text screening of potentially relevant documents. Results The search returned 6105 unique references. Based on title and screening, 654 were identified as potentially relevant. Screening of full texts resulted in 115 items of literature being included in the synthesis. Both national and international literature covers strategic workforce planning, with all continents represented, but with a preponderance from high income nations. The emphasis in the literature is mainly on the healthcare workforce, with few items on social care. Medical and dental workforces are the predominate groups covered in the literature, although nursing and midwifery are also discussed. Other health and social care workers are less represented. A variety of categories of workforce planning methods are noted in the literature that range from determining the workforce using supply and demand, practitioner to population ratios, needs based approach, the utilisation of methods such as horizon scanning, modelling, and scenario planning, together with mathematical and statistical modelling. Several of the articles and websites include specific workforce planning models that are nationally and internationally recognised, e.g., the workload indicators of staffing needs (WISN), Star model and the Six Step Methodology. These models provide a series of steps to help with workforce planning and tend to take a more strategic view of the process. Some of the literature considers patient safety and quality in relation to safe staffing numbers and patient acuity. The health and social care policies reviewed include broad actions to address workforce planning, staff shortages or future service developments and advocate a mixture of developing new roles, different ways of working, flexibility, greater integrated working and enhanced used of digital technology. However, the policies generally do not include workforce models or guidance about how to achieve these measures. Overall, there is an absence in the literature of studies that evaluate what are the most effective methods for strategic health and social care planning. Recommendations The literature suggests the need for the implementation of a strategic approach to workforce planning, utilising a needs-based approach, including horizon scanning and scenarios. This could involve adoption of a recognised workforce planning model that incorporates the strategic elements required for workforce planning and a ‘one workforce’ approach across health and social care.

<p>Purpose and research questions</p><p>The purpose of this thesis is to investigate influencing factors on the choice of tailoring of ERP systems during implementation. The research questions to answer are what types of adjustments can be made to the system to make it fit with the organisation, together with what factors influence the choice of these adjustments and how?</p><p>Research methodology</p><p>To fulfil the purpose and answer the research questions the study has been carried out in line with the hermeneutic circle. This has been done in three sequences. A pre-understanding of the phenomenon has been obtained by a literature study in the first sequence. In the second sequence interviews with IFS AB and Systeam AB have been carried out, analysed together with the pre-understanding and a model has been created. During the last sequence Sogeti Sverige AB has been interviewed to verify the model.</p><p>Research findings</p><p>The different ways of tailoring an ERP system are configuration, bolt-ons, extended report-ing, screen masks, workflow programming, user exits, ERP programming, interface development, new software package and package code modification. Tailoring types 1-8 and 10 were found in the literature while new software package was found in the empirical study.</p><p>The factors influencing the choice of tailoring are coming from three domains: the customer, the consultant and the system. The factors from the customer are attitude towards customisation, costs, knowledge, process design, time and user needs. Attitude towards customisation, customisation possibility and knowledge are coming from the consultant domain. Complexity, external software, functionality and maintenance are finally coming from the system domain. All factors were derived from the literature except knowledge in the customer domain, which was found during the empirical study.</p><p>Some factors influence the choice of specific tailoring types, while others influence the choice between light and heavy tailoring types. There are also factors that do not directly influence the choice of tailoring. Instead they act as prerequisites for the tailoring types. This leads to the conclusion that the influencing factors can not be seen in isolation; it is the combined influence from all of them that decides the choice of tailoring types.</p> / <p>Syfte och forskningsfrågor</p><p>Syftet med den här uppsatsen är att undersöka influerande faktorer på valet av anpassning av ERP-system under implementering. Forskningsfrågorna att besvara är vilken typ av anpassningar som kan göras av systemet för att det ska passa med organisationen, tillsam-mans med vilka faktorer som influerar valet av dessa anpassningar och hur?</p><p>Metod</p><p>För att uppfylla syftet och besvara forskningsfrågorna har studien utförts i linje med den hermeneutiska cirkeln. Detta har gjorts i tre sekvenser. En förförståelse har erhållits genom en litteraturstudie i den första sekvensen. I den andra sekvensen har intervjuer med IFS AB och Systeam AB genomförts, analyserats tillsammans med förförståelsen och en modell har skapats. Under den sista sekvensen har Sogeti Sverige AB intervjuats för att verifiera modellen.</p><p>Forskningsresultat</p><p>De olika sätten att anpassa ett ERP-system är configuration, bolt-ons, extended reporting, screen masks, workflow programming, user exits, ERP programming, interface develop-ment, new software package och package code modification. Anpassningstyperna 1-8 och 10 påträffades i litteraturen medan new software package hittades i den empiriska studien.</p><p>Faktorerna som influerar valet av anpassning kommer från tre domäner: kunden, konsulten och systemet. Faktorerna från kunden är attitude towards customisation, costs, knowledge, process design, time och user needs. Attitude towards customisation, customisation possi-bility och knowledge kommer från konsultdomänen. Complexity, external software, functionality och maintenance kommer slutligen från systemdomänen. Alla faktorer är härledda från litteraturen, förutom knowledge från kunskapsdomänen kund som påträffades under empiristudien.</p><p>Några faktorer influerar valet av specifika anpassningstyper, medan andra influerar valet mellan lätta och tunga anpassningstyper. Det finns också faktorer som inte direkt influerar valet av anpassning. De är istället förutsättningar för anpassningstyperna. Detta leder till slutsatsen att anpassningstyperna inte kan ses isolerade; det är den kombinerade influensen från alla faktorer som bestämmer vilka anpassningstyper som kommer att väljas.</p>