This dissertation presents a case study in user-centered design completed at the University of Central Florida. Leadership in the College of Graduate Studies at UCF realized the need for an advisement tool to assist advisors in the academic colleges to track the success of their students. After an advisement product was selected, the user-centered design approach started to be implemented. End-users were shown the basic functionality and known benefits of the product. Then they were asked how they could make it standardized across programs. The users selected the order in which information and degree requirements should display. The users asked for additional information to be shown on the new advising report called the Graduate Plan of Study (GPS). This information would assist them in advising students and certifying that the students' had met requirements to earn their degree. With the help of the end-users, a prototype was developed and delivered to computer services. End users assisted with the testing of current and additional functionality. After attending focus groups, the end-users had a better understanding of the need for testing. They assisted in providing ideas for training and a deployment plan to the university. The use of the user-centered design approach helped to keep our end-users engaged in the project. They were the central cause of the successful implementation of a new advisement module for graduate students at UCF.

Införandet av ett informationssystem är en vanlig strategi för att kunna öka konkurrenskraften i företagets verksamhet med syftet att stödja och effektivisera verksamheten. En typ av informationssystem är ett Treasury Management System som kan effektivisera företagets hantering av finansiell information. Att införa ny teknik är dock en utmaning och införandeprocessen kan vara kritisk för att systemet ska vara möjligt att användas framgångsrikt. Införandet av ett Treasury Management System är inget undantag, det är ofta en komplex process med omfattande finansiella data där kritiska affärsprocesser hos kundföretaget behöver bearbetas. Även brist på utbildning, kunskap och kommunikation är vanliga problem som kan kopplas till relationen mellan kundföretaget och systemleverantören. Avsaknaden av en god relation mellan kund–systemleverantör kan i många fall resultera i att införandet misslyckas. För att nå ett framgångsrikt införande av Treasury Management System är det därför viktigt att förstå vilka faktorer i relationen mellan kund–systemleverantör som kan bidra till en framgångsrik införandeprocess. Syftet med denna kandidatuppsats i informatik är att identifiera och beskriva faktorer i en kund–systemleverantörsrelation som bidrar till en framgångsrik införandeprocess av ett Treasury Management System. Fallstudiemetoden har tillämpats och en litteraturstudie har genomförts. Utifrån litteraturstudien har en analysmodell upprättats. Primära empiriska data har samlats in genom utförda semistrukturerade intervjuer via Google Meet. Fem intervjuer har utförts med anställda på fallföretaget Nordkap och tre av dess kundföretag. Uppsatsstudiens tre viktigaste slutsatser är: kommunikationen mellan kund– systemleverantör är avgörande för att införandeprocessen ska bli framgångsrik. Kundens engagemang spelar stor roll för att användarutbildning och kommunikationen ska fungera och därmed bidrar det även till en framgångsrik införandeprocess. För att uppnå en framgångsrik införandeprocess är det av stor vikt att etablera en tydlig och gemensam målsättning som omfattar hela införandeprocessen och som återspeglar kundföretagets förväntningar på både systemet och införandet. Kunskapsbidraget från denna genomförda studie är en variabel: Engagemang, samt tre indikatorer: Grad av engagemang, Omfattning av tillgängliga resurser och Grad av gemensamt språk, som har lagts till i en modifierad analysmodell under studiens slutsatskapitel.

In this thesis, a complete localization system using asynchronous time difference of arrival (A-TDOA) technique has been thoroughly studied from concept to implementation. The work spans from a proposal of a new A-TDOA system deployment and modeling, through a derivation of the achievable estimation bound, to estimation algorithms development, to a hardware realization, and ultimately to measurements conducted in realistic radio environments. The research begins with a new deployment of an A-TDOA localization system. Compared to the conventional time of arrival (TOA) and time difference of arrival (TDOA) systems, it does not require clock synchronization within the network, which enables a flexible and fast deployment. When deployed in the simplest form, it can effectively reduce system complexity and cost, whereas if all anchor nodes are equipped with full transmit and receive capability, the A-TDOA system can achieve superior performance using a novel receiver re-selection technique. Determining the physical position of a target node in a noisy environment is critical. In this thesis, two novel algorithms, namely, a two-step and a constrained least squares (CLS) algorithms, are proposed offering excellent accuracy and the best trade-off between complexity and precision respectively. The two-step algorithm exploits the advantages of the semi-definite programming (SDP) and the Taylor method, i.e., global convergence and high precision, to achieve superior performance. The CLS algorithm significantly reduces the computation complexity while achieving good accuracy. Despite extensive research efforts on ranging and localization modeling and simulation, knowledge about practical implementations is limited. For the first time, a complete prototype based on A-TDOA technique is implemented in hardware. All sub-systems are developed from scratch and undergone significant modifications for improved reliability. The design objective is low cost and low complexity, and therefore a non-coherent receiver architecture was adopted. The target node design is based on receive and re-transmit technique and is prototyped in analog domain to avoid clock offset and skews. The implemented system has been extensively tested in an outdoor and indoor radio environments. The accuracy obtained are 20.7 cm and 15.2 cm respectively. Comparison with the literature published up to date proves the excellent quality of the design and implementation. To better understand the localization accuracy, the error sources due to thermal noise, hardware limitation, radio propagation channel and clock jitter are identified and investigated. Mitigation methods are proposed to reduce errors. / Graduate

The research objective is to demonstrate that a game-implementation process can serve as a means of solving some key implementation problems and for integrating the components associated with developing a quantitative based system. Thus, the study has the following objectives: 1. To demonstrate by means of a case study example that gaming can be successfully employed as a systems implementation tool. 2. To identify a game-implementation approach which would be useful in developing and implementing a quantitative based system.

The fluctuations in the demand for construction work have often resulted in skills shortages. This has led to the need for effective construction labour market planning strategies, which enable the construction industry to meet its skills requirements, particularly in periods of peak demand. Existing approaches to construction labour market planning have several limitations. They do not shed light on the socio-economic and spatially influenced issues within which the industry's skills shortages are rooted. There is, therefore, a need for more appropriate decision-support mechanisms that can take account of spatial problems in terms of skills demand and supply influences. Through industry involvement, this research has explored how GIS can enhance the labour market planning process in construction. The research briefly reviews the nature of labour market planning in construction, introduces geographic information systems, and highlights the opportunities they offer for overcoming the limitations of existing approaches. The implementation of the GIS-based system and its application to a specific labour market planning initiative is then presented. The evaluation of the system by prospective end-users reveals the enablers, barriers and benefits of the system implementation. Organisational issues that had a bearing on the implementation are also examined and recommendations made for further research.

Background: Today also smaller companies (SME) are implementing enterprise resource planning systems. One difference is that the SME have smaller resources regarding people and finance which can cause some problems if they are not aware of this. The company we have studied have undergone an organizational change and simultaneously implemented an ERP. Two parts of the implementation of the ERP worked just as intended and the third and last part experienced some major difficulties. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to examine the situation in which a small company undertake two major changes almost simultaneously, one of which is the implementation of an ERP. This matter when an SME is implementing an ERP is not well researched since it is only in the more recent years that this type of organization feel the need for it and therefore have ventured into this. The aim of this thesis is to add to the theoretical field of small organizations introducing enterprise information systems. Method: This is a qualitative study conducted in the form of a case study. The main data sources have been semi structured interviews, combined with observations and a document study. The data have been analyzed inductively. Conclusion: The implementation of this ERP has gone bad in one area due to several cooperating mistakes. SME’s have some circumstances that does not apply to the larger organizations. In a SME every person carries greater importance in the success or failure of the implementation. Preparation is equally important in an SME as in larger organizations. Suggestions for further research: The field of ERP in SME's have not been very thoroughly studied since it is a comparatively new field. Further research in this matter would be of some value.

Abstract Implementing an ERP system has become the primary consideration for many enterprises during processing E-commerce. It has also become the data platform of information foundation construction in many enterprises. Among these implementation cases, however, some are facing failures due to the following reasons: the organization business flow is unable to make changes coordinately, the consultant companies lack of experience, or the user sites are being resisted while implementing an ERP system. All the mentioned reasons have caused their ERP project delay by deadline. This, therefore, results in the huge increase of the cost and even an abnormal operation system during the implementation. Eventually the enterprises would have to make an announcement to fail. The management and control of implementing an ERP system decides the success of the system. The subject of this study is to probe into the process of implementing an ERP system. Beginning with the sort-out of Chinese and foreign documents to find out the key success factors during the process of implementing an ERP system and then collecting the realistic data from the software company¡¦s viewpoints to understand the concrete methods of key success factors. The software consultant company, therefore, plays an important role during the process of implementing an ERP system. We, hereto, generalize the viewpoints of high-level administrators, the project manager, the senior consultants and the technicians about the key success factors during the process of implementing an ERP system from the software consultant company¡¦s angle. After that, the practical perspectives of the software consultant company are being discussed and analyzed to verify if there is any difference with the results which were generalized from probing the documents. Results of this study have shown that the most important key success factors are ' the commitment and support of high-level administrators ', ' the integration degree of other systems' and ' the procedure innovation'. The secondary key factors are ' the production operation characteristic 'and ' the interdepartmental characteristic '. The key factor that is not important is ¡¥the methods of systems implement¡¦. In spite of the existing large number of researches about ERP, the ones discussed from the software consultant company¡¦s point of views are quite few. This study probes into from software consultant company¡¦s viewpoints and to collect related key success factors while hoping to be a reference for other consultant companies and relevant units in implementing ERP system. Keyword: Enterprise Resource Planning ( ERP )¡AKey Success Factor¡ASystem Implementation¡A Flow Change

<p>Background: Today also smaller companies (SME) are implementing enterprise resource planning systems. One difference is that the SME have smaller resources regarding people and finance which can cause some problems if they are not aware of this. The company we have studied have undergone an organizational change and simultaneously implemented an ERP. Two parts of the implementation of the ERP worked just as intended and the third and last part experienced some major difficulties.</p><p>Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to examine the situation in which a small company undertake two major changes almost simultaneously, one of which is the implementation of an ERP. This matter when an SME is implementing an ERP is not well researched since it is only in the more recent years that this type of organization feel the need for it and therefore have ventured into this. The aim of this thesis is to add to the theoretical field of small organizations introducing enterprise information systems.</p><p>Method: This is a qualitative study conducted in the form of a case study. The main data sources have been semi structured interviews, combined with observations and a document study. The data have been analyzed inductively.</p><p>Conclusion: The implementation of this ERP has gone bad in one area due to several cooperating mistakes. SME’s have some circumstances that does not apply to the larger organizations. In a SME every person carries greater importance in the success or failure of the implementation. Preparation is equally important in an SME as in larger organizations.</p><p>Suggestions for further research: The field of ERP in SME's have not been very thoroughly studied since it is a comparatively new field. Further research in this matter would be of some value.</p>

Svevia is a company working with installation, occupancy and operation of infrastructure. They are currently testing and developing a new system called dynamic route optimization (DynOpt) in cooperation with B and M Systemutveckling. This system is able to contribute to a series of improvements for the company, such as automatization of certain processes, conclude demand on a more local level and create dynamic optimized routes which in the best way handles the determined local demands. Svevia sees great potentials of profits with the system, thereby has an interest of a support for decision-making regarding what may or may not be problematic during a potential implementation of such a system. This report regards a case study of the affects that DynOpt can have on its future users and what impact such effects might have on Svevia, with the goal of determining the drivers and barriers of DynOpt related to soft parameters. The soft parameters in this case study relate to how the changes DynOpt entails may affect the users and why or why not they may desire or be willing to accept these changes. The method used to conclude these drivers and barriers is to firstly gather information from the users by interviews and surveys, which then is analyzed in order to determine what advantages and disadvantages the users see with the system. The second step of the data processing consists of a SWOT-analysis execution. The strategic effects are determined through consultation with insight personnel. Lastly the remaining significant results are converted into drivers and barriers by firstly eliminating the information that may not pan out in any driver or barrier and secondly lumping together result describing similar effects into drivers and barriers. Eleven drivers and six barriers are concluded. Such results are for example the driver that the potential future users’ interest in technology may ease the implementation since DynOpt is a technological implementation. One of the barriers on the other hand is that the total driving distance will be reduced through optimization, which results in less available work for the chauffeurs which worsens their working conditions and can result in resistance to the implementation. This driver and barrier as well as the others in conjunction with a discussion, constitute the final result of the report and describe aspects that may hinder or make it easier to successfully implement DynOpt.

Abstract A trivial information system consists of three components: a user, a container for the information and a tool to manage the information. The focus of this research is more complicated with several users and organisations, with several databases in those organisations and with an inter-organisational information system. In inter-organisational information systems information flows across boundaries and the boundaries as well as information itself must be carefully taken into account. This research takes seriously the users who represent different professions and who were more or less involved in the information system implementations. In a distributed project, also the container is under special attention. That is discussed in the dissertation, as well. The approach in the research is mainly interpretative and subjective. The empirical material comes from several cases but three of them acted as a background for the main case that was conducted in an academic environment. The case appeared to be versatile due to its many stakeholders and it offered several topics to be explored. The goal of the research was introduced in a meeting to the attendees: "The aim of the thesis is to describe how a joint information system of different universities was finally implemented or why it wasn't." This introduction predicted challenges that were to be overcome during the subsequent years. In addition to the versatile case, also the information system implementation offered fruitful viewpoints for the research. Inter-organisational information system projects are described in literature to some extent. This case contributes the research with the many organisations and users that were involved in the development project. Furthermore, the information system was planned to be built on ready-made specifications and it increased the challenges to succeed. This led to the lesson that a new model to be used in information system developments is needed because existing models do not support this kind of development process. The research supports the concept that action research and design science complement each other especially in development projects when the output is an information system that has been implemented in collaboration with several users and stakeholders. The results of this thesis emphasise the need to manage potential competition between participating organisations, lack of interaction between parties and security and user authentication. Proper project management is needed with active and confidential terms between all project members. In addition, flexible working routines are found workable.