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Institute
The Internet of Things (IoT) is a network of addressable, physical objects that contain embedded sensing, communication and actuating technologies to sense and interact with their environment (Geschickter 2015). Like every novel paradigm, the IoT sparks interest throughout all domains both in theory and practice, resulting in the development of systems pushing technology to its limits. These limits become apparent when having to manage an increasing number of Things across various contexts. A plethora of IoT architecture proposals have been developed and prototype products, such as IoT platforms, been introduced. However, each of these architectures and products apply their very own interpretations of an IoT architecture and its individual components so that IoT is currently more an Intranet of Things than an Internet of Things (Zorzi et al. 2010). Thus, this thesis aims to develop a common understanding of the elements forming an IoT architecture and provide high-level specifications in the form of a Holistic IoT Architecture Framework.
Design Science Research (DSR) is used in this thesis to develop the architecture framework based on the pertinent literature. The development of the Holistic IoT Architecture Framework includes the identification of two new IoT Architecture Perspectives that became apparent during the analysis of the IoT architecture proposals identified in the extant literature. While applying these novel perspectives, the need for a new component for the architecture framework, which was merely implicitly mentioned in the literature, became obvious as well. The components of various IoT architecture proposals as well as the novel component, the Thing Management System, were combined, consolidated and related to each other to develop the Holistic IoT Architecture Framework. Subsequently, it was shown that the specifications of the architecture framework are suitable to guide the implementation of a prototype.
This contribution provides a common understanding of the basic building blocks, actors and relations of an IoT architecture.
Enterprise Resource Planning Systeme (ERP) bilden für viele Unternehmen eine wertvolle informationstechnische Unterstützung in der täglichen Wertschöpfung. Sie repräsentieren eine Klasse von hoch-integrierten und standardisierten betrieblichen Anwendungssystemen, deren Nutzenpotential für ein Unternehmen wettbewerbsentscheidend sein kann. Trotzdem muss eine Einführung von den verantwortlichen CEOs und CIOs sorgsam abgewogen werden, denn zu voreilige oder schlecht geplante ERPProjekte können ein erhebliches finanzielles Risiko darstellen, so dass am Ende sogar die Existenz eines Unternehmens bedroht ist. Bereits bestehende Systeme können aufgrund von einer unzureichenden Integrationsfähigkeit oder veralteten Technologie zusätzliche Wartungskosten verursachen, die in keinem Verhältnis zu den initialen Lizenzkosten mehr stehen. Wie kann man nun eine Vorstellung davon erhalten, welches ERP-System für ein Unternehmen geeignet ist? Gibt es bereits Standardpakete, deren Wartung und Pflege deutlich einfacher ist? Oder ist eine Mietlösung ein zu gewagtes Risiko? Diese Fragen haben den Anstoß zu der folgenden Arbeit gegeben. Die Aufgabe besteht darin, ein möglichst umfassendes Bild der kurz- bis mittelfristigen Zukunft des deutschen ERP-Marktes zu zeichnen. Dafür wurden in einer längeren Zeitperiode zahlreiche in Deutschland tätige Softwarehäuser hinsichtlich wichtiger Aspekte ihres ERPSystems befragt und die Antworten ausgewertet. Welchen Herausforderungen und welchen Anforderungen sich deutsche Anbieter in den kommenden drei bis fünf Jahren stellen müssen, werden die folgenden Kapitel erläutern.
The World Wide Web (WWW) has become a very important communication channel. Its usage has steadily grown within the past. Interest by website owners in identifying user behaviour has been around since Tim Berners-Lee developed the first web browser in 1990. But as the influence of the online channel today eclipses all other media the interest in monitoring website usage and user activities has intensified as well. Gathering and analysing data about the usage of websites can help to understand customer behaviour, improve services and potentially increase profit.
It is further essential for ensuring effective website design and management, efficient mass customization and effective marketing. Web Analytics (WA) is the area addressing these considerations. However, changing technologies and evolving Web Analytic methods and processes present a challenge to organisations starting with Web Analytic programmes. Because of lacking resources in different areas and other types of websites especially small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) as well as non-profit organisations struggle to operate WA in an effective manner.
This research project aims to identify the existing gap between theory, tool possibilities and business needs for undertaking Web Analytic programmes. Therefore the topic was looked at from three different ways: the academic literature, Web Analytic tools and an interpretative case study. The researcher utilized an action research approach to investigate Web Analytics presenting an holistic overview and to identify the gaps that exists. The outcome of this research project is an overall framework, which provides guidance for SMEs who operate information websites on how to proceed in a Web Analytic programme.
The principles of project management are due to the influences of economic conditions and technological development in transition [Wills 1998 & Jonsson et al. 2001]. The increasing in-ternationalization, shortened time to market, changing labor costs and the increasing involve-ment of professionals distributed geographical locations are drivers of the transformations of the project landscape [Evaristo/van Fenema 1999]. Resulting from this, the use of collabora-tive technologies is a crucial factor for the success of a project. [Romano et al. 2002]. Previous research on the use of collaborative technologies for project management purposes focuses especially the development of model-like, universal system architectures to identify the requirements for a specially designed collaborative project management system. This thesis investigates the challenges and benefits that arise when an organisation imple-ments business software for the purpose of collaborative project management.
Massenprozessmanagement
(2015)
This dissertation answers the research question which basically suitable approaches and which necessary information technologies are to be considered for the management of business processes in large amounts (Mass Business Process Management, MBPM) in service companies. It could be shown that for the execution of mass processes a special approach that uses methods of the manufacturing industry is necessary. The research aim to develop an MBPM approach for service companies was accomplished by using the Design Science Research approach and is explained in this dissertation in consecutive steps. For the development of the MBPM approach a longitudinal indepth case study was conducted with a business process outsourcing provider to gain insights from his approach. Outsourcing providers have to produce their services in a very efficient and effective way, otherwise they will not be able to offer their products at favorable conditions. It was shown that the factory-oriented approach of the out-sourcing service provider in the observation period of ten years was suitable to execute mass processes of highest quality, at constantly decreasing prices with less and less people.
The assumed need for research concerning MBPM was verified on the basis of an extensive literature research based on the Journal Rating VHB-Jourqual and other literature sources. As many approaches for the introduction of BPM were found, a selection of BPM approaches was analyzed to gain further insights for the development of the MBPM approach. Based on the analysis and the comparison of the different BPM approaches as well as the comparison with the approach of the process outsourcing provider it was found, that BPM and MBPM differ in many aspects. MBPM has a strong operational focus and needs intensive IT support. The operative focus mainly shows in the operative control of processes and people as well as in the corresponding high demands on process transparency. With detailed monitoring and fine grained process measurements as well as timely reporting this process transparency is achieved. Information technology is needed for example to conduct process monitoring timely but also to give internal as well as external stakeholders the desired overview of the current workload and of the invoicing of services.
Contrary to the approach of the process outsourcing provider it could also been shown, that change management can influence the implementation, the continuous operation and the constant change associated with MBPM in a positive way.
Regarding the rapidly growing amount of data produced every year and the increasing acceptance of Enterprise 2.0 enterprises have to care about the management of their data more and more. Content created and stored in an uncoordinated manner can lead to data-silos (Williams & Hardy 2011, p.57), which result in long search times, inaccessible data and in consequence monetary losses. The "expanding digital universe" forces enterprises to develop new archiving solutions and records management policies (Gantz et al. 2007, p.13). Enterprise Content Management (ECM) is the research field that deals with these challenges. It is placed in the scientific context of Enterprise Information Management. This thesis aims to find out to what extent current Enterprise Content Management Systems (ECMS) support these new requirements, especially concerning the archiving of Enterprise 2.0 data. For this purpose, three scenarios were created to evaluate two different kinds of ECMS (one Open Source - and one proprietary system) chosen on the basis of a short marketrnresearch. The application of the scenarios reveals that the system vendors actually face the industry- concerns: both tools provide functionality for the archiving of data arising from online collaboration and also business records management capabilities but the integration of those topics is not, or is only inconsistently solved. At this point new questions - such as, "Which datarngenerated in an Enterprise 2.0 is worth being a record?" - arise and should be examined in future research.
In dieser Forschungsarbeit wird eine Methode zur anwendungsbasierten Verknüpfung von Anforde-rungen und Enterprise Collaboration Softwarekompenten vorgestellt. Basierend auf dem etablierten IRESS Modell wird dabei ein praxistaugliches Mappingschema entwickelt, welches Use Cases über Kol-laborationsszenarien, Collaborative Features und Softwarekomponenten mit ECS verbindet. Somit las-sen sich Anforderungen von Unterhemen in Form von Use Cases und Kollaborationsszenarien model-lieren und anschließend über das Mappingschema mit konkreten ECS verbinden. Zusätzlich wird eine Methodik zur Identifikation von in Softwarekomponenten enthaltenen Collaborative Features vorge-stellt und exemplarisch angewandt.
Anschließend wird ein Konzept für eine Webapplikation entworfen, welches das vorgestellte Mapping automatisiert durchführt, und somit nach Eingabe der Anforderungen in Form vom Use Cases oder Kol-laborationsszenarien, die ECS ausgibt, die eben diese Anforderungen unterstützen.
The flexible integration of information from distributed and complex information systems poses a major challenge for organisations. The ontology-based information integration concept SoNBO (Social Network of Business Objects) developed and presented in this dissertation addresses these challenges. In an ontology-based concept, the data structure in the source systems (e.g. operational application systems) is described with the help of a schema (= ontology). The ontology and the data from the source systems can be used to create a (virtualised or materialised) knowledge graph, which is used for information access. The schema can be flexibly adapted to the changing needs of a company regarding their information integration. SoNBO differs from existing concepts known from the Semantic Web (OBDA = Ontology-based Data Access, EKG = Enterprise Knowledge Graph) both in the structure of the company-specific ontology (= Social Network of Concepts) as well as in the structure of the user-specific knowledge graph (= Social Network of Business Objects) and makes use of social principles (known from Enterprise Social Software). Following a Design Science Research approach, the SoNBO framework was developed and the findings documented in this dissertation. The framework provides guidance for the introduction of SoNBO in a company and the knowledge gained from the evaluation (in the company KOSMOS Verlag) is used to demonstrate its viability. The results (SoNBO concept and SoNBO framework) are based on the synthesis of the findings from a structured literature review and the investigation of the status quo of ontology-based information integration in practice: For the status quo in practice, the basic idea of SoNBO is demonstrated in an in-depth case study about the engineering office Vössing, which has been using a self-developed SoNBO application for a few years. The status quo in the academic literature is presented in the form of a structured literature analysis on ontology-based information integration approaches. This dissertation adds to theory in the field of ontology-based information integration approaches (e. g. by an evaluated artefact) and provides an evaluated artefact (the SoNBO Framework) for practice.
Enterprise Collaboration Systems (ECS) have become substantial for computer-mediated communication and collaboration among employees in organisations. As ECS combine features from social media and traditional groupware, a growing number of organisations implement ECS to facilitate collaboration among employees. Consequently, ECS form the core of the digital workplace. Thus, the activity logs of ECS are particularly valuable since they provide a unique opportunity for observing and analysing collaboration in the digital workplace.
Evidence from academia and practice demonstrates that there is no standardised approach for the analysis of ECS logs and that practitioners struggle with various barriers. Because current ECS analytics tools only provide basic features, academics and practitioners cannot leverage the full potential of the activity logs. As ECS activity logs are a valuable source for understanding collaboration in the digital workplace, new methods and metrics for their analysis are required. This dissertation develops Social Collaboration Analytics (SCA) as a method for measuring and analysing collaboration activities in ECS. To address the existing limitations in academia and practice and to contribute a method and structures for applying SCA in practice, this dissertation aims to answer two main research questions:
1. What are the current practices for measuring collaboration activities in Enterprise Collaboration Systems?
2. How can Social Collaboration Analytics be implemented in practice?
By answering the research questions, this dissertation seeks to (1) establish a broad thematic understanding of the research field of SCA and (2) to develop SCA as a structured method for analysing ac-tivity logs of ECS. As part of the first research question, this dissertation documents the status quo of SCA in the academic literature and practice. By answering the second research question, this dissertation contributes the SCA framework (SCAF), which guides the practical application of SCA. SCAF is the main contribution of this dissertation. The framework was developed based on findings from an analysis of 86 SCA studies, results from 6 focus groups and results from a survey among 27 ECS user companies. The phases of SCAF were derived from a comparison of established process models for data mining and business intelligence. The eight phases of the framework contain detailed descriptions, working steps, and guiding questions, which provide a step by step guide for the application of SCA in practice. Thus, academics and practitioners can benefit from using the framework.
The constant evaluation of the research outcomes in focus groups ensures both rigour and relevance. This dissertation employs a qualitative-dominant mixed-methods approach. As part of the university-industry collaboration initiative IndustryConnect, this research has access to more than 30 leading ECS user companies. Being built on a key case study and a series of advanced focus groups with representatives of user companies, this dissertation can draw from unique insights from practice as well as rich data with a longitudinal perspective.
Enterprise collaboration platforms are increasingly gaining importance in organisations. Integrating groupware functionality and enterprise social software (ESS), they have substantially been transforming everyday work in organisations. While traditional collaboration systems have been studied in Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) for many years, the large-scale, infrastructural and heterogeneous nature of enterprise collaboration platforms remains uncharted. Enterprise collaboration platforms are embedded into organisations’ digital workplace and come with a high degree of complexity, ambiguity, and generativity. When introduced, they are empty shells with no pre-determined purposes of use. They afford interpretive flexibility, and thus are shaping and being shaped by and in their social context. Outcomes and benefits emerge and evolve over time in an open-ended process and as the digital platform is designed through use. In order to make the most of the platform and associated continuous digital transformation, organisations have to develop the necessary competencies and capabilities.
Extant literature on enterprise collaboration platforms has proliferated and provide valuable insights on diverse topics, such as implementation strategies, adoption hurdles, or collaboration use cases, however, they tend to disregard their evolvability and related multiple time frames and settings. Thus, this research aims to identify, investigate, and theorise the ways that enterprise collaboration platforms are changing over time and space and the ways that organisations build digital transformation capabilities. To address this research aim two different case study types are conducted: i) in-depth longitudinal qualitative case study, where case narratives and visualisations capturing hard-to-summarise complexities in the enterprise collaboration platform evolution are developed and ii) multiple-case studies to capture, investigate, and compare cross-case elements that contribute to the shaping of enterprise collaboration platforms in different medium-sized and large organisations from a range of industries. Empirical data is captured and investigated through a multi-method research design (incl. focus groups, surveys, in-depth interviews, literature reviews, qualitative content analysis, descriptive statistics) with shifting units of analysis. The findings reveal unique change routes with unanticipated outcomes and transformations, context-specific change strategies to deal with multiple challenges (e.g. GDPR, works council, developments in the technological field, competing systems, integration of blue-collar workers), co-existing platform uses, and various interacting actors from the immediate setting and broader context. The interpretation draws on information infrastructure (II) as a theoretical lens and related sociotechnical concepts and perspectives (incl. inscriptions, social worlds, biography of artefacts). Iteratively, a conceptual model of the building of digital transformation capabilities is developed, integrating the insights gained from the study of enterprise collaboration platform change and developed monitoring change tools (e.g. MoBeC framework). It assists researchers and practitioners in understanding the building of digital transformation capabilities from a theoretical and practical viewpoint and organisations implement the depicted knowledge in their unique digital transformation processes.
