beSMART

A REVISED MODEL FOR THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE ITIL INCIDENT MANAGEMENT PROCESS IN BROADCAST TECHNOLOGY OPERATIONS

Tristan K. O’Dwyer

IT service management frameworks seek to provide and specify a set of tools and best practices for the successful delivery of quality information technology services. The Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) is probably the best known ITSM framework, and it is widely implemented across public sector bodies in the UK. This paper discusses the implementation of the ITIL incident management process at BBC Technology Operations within the conceptual framework of relevant operations theory. It argues that the process is unsuitable for use in broadcast organisations with heterogeneous user-bases and divergent technological needs. It proposes a revised model and a modified process.

ITIL, IT Service Management, Operations Management, Broadcast Technology, Incident Management

THE IMPACT OF NON-TECHNICAL SECURITY MANAGEMENT FACTORS ON INFORMATION SECURITY MANAGEMENT IN HEALTH INFORMATICS

Abbas Habib Imam and Mohamad Saleh Hammoud

Complexity of information security has become a major issue for organizations due to incessant threats to information assets. Healthcare organizations are particularly concerned with security owing to the inherent vulnerability of sensitive information assets in health informatics. While the non-technical security management elements have been at the center of information security activities for many years, often only the technical management components (i.e., firewall, anti-virus) have been the main area of interest for many practitioners. The problem addressed in this quantitative study was the dearth of non-technical security management perspectives in the management of information security in health informatics. This quantitative, non-experimental study examined the impact of non-technical security management factors including organizational culture, security policy, and human actions on information security management. The survey instrument was hand delivered to healthcare practitioners at Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, as well as to technocrats at the Ministry of Health in Ghana. Respondents returned one hundred seventy-seven usable surveys out of two hundred surveys. Survey data were analyzed using correlation and regression analyses. The results indicated a significant positive relationship between information security management and security policy (r=.612, p<.001), organizational culture (r=.751, p<.001), and human behavior actions (r=.646, p<.001). Findings from this study confirmed that organizations who better appreciate, and thus incorporate non-technical factors into the organizations’ overall security strategy at the onset, ensure effective management of information security. Given the seriousness of the threats to the security environment today and the lack of effective control mechanisms in place, findings from this study could offer important and potentially new perspective on information security management issues; the growing recognition of the influences of non-technical factors for developing comprehensive information security management.

security, security management, non-technical security, organizational culture, security policy, human behavior, security strategy

EVALUATION FRAMEWORK FOR SERVICE CATALOG MATURITY IN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ORGANIZATIONS

Carlos Moreno Martínez

Today, Information Technology services are a fundamental part of the success of enterprises and allow the development of the Information Society. Every IT service provider should deliver services aligned with the changing needs of their customers to an agreed level of quality.
The IT Service Catalog is a list of these services and represents the value proposition of the IT Service provider. Many Service providers have based their Catalog on industry and academic best practices such as ITIL V3©. However these best practices do not include a specific maturity assessment model, do not advise about how to adapt the Service Catalog to organizational and business changes or how to make the best use of innovations in technology.
This article proposes an evaluation framework (ECAT) to measure the maturity level of an IT Service Catalog, which should help service providers understand their value proposition and how it fits with the current situation and business needs of their customers. It also allows a periodic alignment review of the Service Catalog with the continual changes in the organization and business strategy.

IT Service Catalog, IT maturity, Assessment framework, Business and IT alignment

INFLUENCE OF EMPLOYEE ASSISTANCE PROGRAMMES ON COMMITMENT IN MANUFACTURING
COMPANIES IN LAGOS STATE.

Adigun, A. O. and Bello, B. A.

This study identified the Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) organized by selected manufacturing companies in Lagos State. It analyzed the extent to which EAP has influenced commitment. The study relied on both primary and secondary data. Primary data were obtained through the administration of structured questionnaire on three hundred and eighty (380) purposely selected respondents from ten (10) manufacturing Companies located at Ikeja, the industrial hub of the state. The result revealed the following EAP in the selected manufacturing companies; EAP intervention on health, marital challenges, family issues, alcohol, use, financial issues, crisis management, inadequate infrastructure, work-life balance, stress management and absenteeism reduction. The study also indicates that EAP positively influences employee commitment in the manufacturing companies. The study concluded that EAP is a decisive factor on workers commitment. The study recommended that superior in organization must understand the needs of the employees in order to function effectively and that work environment should be adequately modified to help the employees have better working conditions

Employee Assistance Programme (EAP), Commitment, )

CREATING A MODEL OF BUSINESS ARCHITECTURE

Kamelia Shoylekova, Katalina Grigorova

The paper is designed to display the essence of the business architecture. On the basis of the various definitions of business architecture, it can be defined as a guide for software professionals. The other objective of the report is to present a reference model, which is a step towards removing the obstacles between business architecture and software architecture.

Business architecture, enterprise architecture, software architecture, reference model

ENTROPY DENSITY MAXIMIZATION WITH APPLICATION TO INCOME DISTRIBUTION

Elemary, B. R. , Ali, A. H.

                       This paper considers the application of maximum entropy principle in estimating the income distribution when the data is in grouped format.  A method of maximum entropy density estimation is used to estimate the distribution, when only limited information about intervals or ranges is available. The behavior of different forms of maximum entropy function and their relation with the conventional distributions is considered. Generalized entropy Inequality indices and Theil Index also are used.The results indicate that the Maximum Entropy formalism can provide good estimates of income distribution with high degree of accuracy.

Maximum Entropy, Characterizing Moments, Income Distribution, Grouped Data, Goodness of Fit Measures, Inequality Measures

THE CAREER PLANS OF THE GRADUATING STUDENTS OF THE COLLEGE OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

Rosemarie Cruz-Español

Career planning is one of the highly thought of activity of the students and getting into the best position in the society is their main objective. In attaining this goal, one has to consider factors and these include determining job preferences and the reasons for these preferences, the types of organizations where the graduates will be planning to apply and its justification, the factors considered in applying for jobs, as well as the strengths and weaknesses of the of the business administration students. This study utilized content analysis and data are presented in simple percentage and ranking. It is likewise found out that: (1) business administration graduates plan to become management trainees in finance and entrepreneurship, and to become new accounts personnel; (2) graduates consider interest, availability or job openings, and the compensation package; and the organization’s provision for the employees’ career advancement; (3) graduating students’ strengths include inclination for hard work, ability to work with minimum supervision, trustworthiness, determination to succeed, computer literacy, commitment to the profession, self-confidence, ability to comply with the rules, honesty, and determination; and weaknesses include lack of communication skills, lack of mastery of the major field of specialization, lack of exposure to people, and insufficient knowledge of office routine.  

career planning, job preferences, career advancement, management trainees

Boris Bučko, Matilda Drozdová

The development of information systems (IS) has scored multiple developmental stages which are characterized both in terms of their use as well as in the approach to the solution. Many types (classes) of information systems aimed for various usage were created. But one thing in the development of IS is still missing. It is a definite connection from the user requirements to the design and then to the implementation of the system. Methodologies of IS development start the development mainly with functional specification without necessary knowledge in a field of implementation environment. That is why there are not always sufficiently accepted such implementation environment requirements that could enable organizational innovation.

information system; model driven development, modeldriven architecture; model transformations; ontology

ASSESSMENT OF CAPITAL MARKET POTENTIALS: UNLOCKING FINANCIAL INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITIES IN RWANDA
(A CASE STUDY OF CAPITAL MARKET AUTHORITY)

Dr. Kerosi josephat Bosire, Mr. Rwangarinde Evode

This research entitled paper  “Assessment of Capital market potentials to unlock financial investment opportunities in Rwanda” was conducted mainly in Capital Market Authority  with the main aim of assessing the investors understanding of the functioning of capital market in Rwanda, identifying the extent to which capital market can contribute to financial investment in a country and play a crucial role in economic development as envisaged in Rwanda vision 2020 to transform the financial sector and open opportunities to local and international investors,

To achieve the research objectives, the population under this research consisted of capital market beneficiaries totaling to 50 potential investors from the different institutions and the research was conducted by based on both exploratory and descriptive designs. Data was gathered by means of a structured self-administered questionnaires and the respondents to be interviewed to supplement on information gathered with questionnaires. The stratified random sampling technique was used to select respondents. The researcher considered the secondary and primary data using triangulation approach which consisted of both qualitative and quantitative tools to explore and present data and the emerging relationships among the variables studied.
The result which were arrived at based on review, description and analysis of the existing literature (theories and empirical studies). Despite different thoughts as to the capital market as a financial and investment opportunity, a well-developed capital market can lead a country to the economic growth and prosperity provided that the it is backed by well organised and regulated capable institutions of various sorts (rules,laws,social values and norms, financial, political…..etc.) and domestic resources(smaller households savings)mobilized through strengthening the formal sector like banks and the informal financial institutions.
The researcher ended with recommendations to different actors in a country development on how capital market boost economic development and prosperity and  provide easy access to long term financing, attract foreign direct investment  that has been the missing link and impetus in Rwanda’s economic enablers. To unlock Rwanda’s capital market, a lot of lessons and benchmarking needs to be made and lessons learn from globally comparable best practices.

Capital market, CMA,vision 2020, Capital market potentials, Financial investment opportunities

IMPACT EVALUATION OF THE BACHELOR OF SCIENCE IN
TOURISM CURRICULA FROM 1977 TO 2003: BASIS FOR
A PROPOSED CURRICULUM ENRICHMENT

Cecilia Clara – Uncad, Ph.D.

            The goal of this research is to analyze the development of Bachelor of Science in Tourism curriculum through the assessment of graduates and their employers which will serve as the basis for a proposed curriculum enrichment that may be used as model or framework specifically by the Centro Escolar University in Manila, Philippines. The findings revealed that there are more female students enrolled in Tourism course and they want to eventually be engaged in airline industry as flight attendants. Graduates of BS Tourism do not ding difficulty in being gainfully employed and that their internship in travel agencies plays a very important role in their preparation for employment. The findings also revealed that there is a need to re-evaluate the major and professional subjects in terms of relevance and responsiveness to current industry needs.

Tourism, curriculum, enhancement, development, enrichment

PREPARATION OF DATA FOR KNOWLEDGE BASE

Marian Švalec, Juraj Branický, Vladimír Hanušniak and Katarína Zábovská

Knowledge bases are developed for the needs of access to consolidated data. They contain data along with their relationship and semantics, in the understandable form for computer, allowing higher degree of automation. Not only data stored in relational databases are of great importance for knowledge bases, also metadata and unstructured data sources need to be processed. This article covers possible approaches towards filling the knowledge base from unstructured data sources using text and data mining methods and also processing of extensive sets of data with aid of decomposition and parallelism.

knowledge base, data mining, unstructured data, large volumes of data, data decomposition