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Dear Colleagues around the world:
It is my pleasure to present the second 2019 JITCAR issue. The
contents of this issue are: Editorial Preface article by Dr.
Edward Roche; Research Case article one co-authored by Dr.
Nikolaus Obwegeser, Mr. Peter Danielsen, Mr. Kenneth Hansen, Mr.
Mads Helt, and Mr. Lasse Nielsen; Research Case article two
co-authored by Dr. Fernando Almeida, Mr. Emanuel Miranda, and Mr.
Joćo Falcćo; Expert Opinion report by Dr. Jack Becker and Dr.
Daniel Peak; and Book Review by Dr. Vijay Vemuri. Summary
information of these items is as follows.
In the editorial preface article titled, "The Search for Global
Cyber Stability", the author focuses on how the world is moving
away from traditional arms or nuclear conflicts to cyber
conflicts. Nations are increasingly striving to build cyber arms
for defensive as well as offensive purposes. Such cyber security
measures will clearly impact individual privacy in spite of
"norms" being developed by United Nations to minimize such impact.
Civil society, corporations and nations will have a huge role in
the future conflicts among nations.
First research article is titled, "Selection and training of
super-users for ERP implementation projects." This article
explores the role of super-users in implementation of ERP
projects. How should these super-users be selected and trained is
the focus of this article. In the context of a case study at
Vestas, the world's largest manufacturer of wind turbines, the
authors improve an existing widely accepted skill measurement
model to develop a systematic process of super-user selection and
training. The article goes on to highlight the specific skills
required in different phases of the selection and training
process.
Second research is titled, "Challenges and Facilitators Practices
for Knowledge Management in Large-Scale Scrum Teams." It is a
study addressing challenges faced by large-scale scrum teams in
sharing and managing knowledge. Widely known knowledge management
practices typically address only team level collaboration, which
are not easily scalable to multiple scrum teams. This article
conducts an empirical study at one of the largest information
technology companies operating in Portugal, in which multiple
scrum teams working locally and in remote offices develop
e-commerce solutions for the African market.
The Expert Opinion report documents interview by Dr. Jack Becker
and Dr. Daniel Peak with Mr. Rich Giuss, VP and CIO of Atmos
Energy Corporation, headquartered in Dallas, is country's largest,
fully-regulated, natural-gas-only distributor, serving over three
million natural gas distribution customers in over 1,400
communities in eight states. His responsibilities include leading
Atmos' enterprise-wide information technology strategy,
architecture, project delivery, and operations/service delivery
functions. He also focuses on company's strategic initiatives,
including service excellence and operational effectiveness. Before
joining Atmos Energy, Rich spent more than two decades at Baxter
International, Allegiance Healthcare and Cardinal Health and rose
through the career path to senior leadership roles. In 2003, he
was named by Computerworld Magazine as a Premier 100 IT Leader. At
Allegiance Healthcare, his IT team developed its ValueLink JIT
supply chain business application which was recognized in 1997 by
CIO Magazine's Application Hall of Fame as one of the 12 most
influential business applications of the past decade. Before
joining Baxter, he held positions in both marketing and technology
at Boise Cascade Corporation from 1979 to 1982. Mr. Gius earned a
BS in computer science from Northern Illinois University and an
MBA in Finance and Operations Management from the University of
Chicago - Booth School of Business. Questions posed to Mr. Rich
Gius are: (a) Would you please describe your role as VP and CIO at
Atmos Energy Corporation? (b) You have held the top IT/IS
leadership position at Atmos Energy for nearly 12 years, which
speaks volumes to your success as a VP and CIO; during this time,
have you reported to the CEO (or other C-level officers) and how
has this relationship changed and evolved over this time? (c) What
are the challenges you face in meeting the higher customer demands
in the very competitive energy industry? (d) Please elaborate on a
few of the most successful projects you have overseen or
initiated. (e) Can you expound on examples of the geospatial
information system (GIS)? (f) We note that you have managed IT
services in the office products industry, the health care
industry, and now the energy distribution business across the
United States - how has your IT management role evolved during
your career? (g) Toward what is IT management evolving? (h) What
were some of the most important lessons learned during each period
of your career in different industries? (i) In what areas of your
firm are you using Big Data analytics? (j) What tools have you
found to be most beneficial for Data Analytics? (k) What have been
your major challenges with Big Data? (l) Can you please discuss
some of the performance improvement and cost saving benefits from
your Business-data analytics applications? (m) Can you please
share some of the lessons learned from the new role of Business
Intelligence (BI)? (n) Which IT developments have been the most
disruptive to your role, to employees, and to clients since you
assumed the role of CIO? (o) How is social media affecting
customer relations with your firm? (p) How does Atmos integrate
social media with employee responsibilities? (q) Often, the energy
industry is seen as posing a nation-wide cyber-security danger;
what experiences can you share of potential threats and the means
by which the industry deterred these threats in the past? (r) You
have done some fairly innovative things during your career, as
evidenced by the prestigious CIO awards you have received; we
understand that you are now delving into the area of Artificial
Intelligence (AI) and machine learning to improve customer service
- can you please elaborate on some of those projects? (s) can you
think of any other important IT/IS issues that you would like to
raise for our readers? (t) From an IT perspective, where do you
see the Atmos Energy Corporation in five years?
Book review report by Dr. Vijay Vemuri provides a detailed
critique of the 2016 book titled, "Pattern Recognition and Machine
Learning," authored by Christopher M. Bishop
<https://smile.amazon.com/Nicholas-D.-Evans/e/B001IYVE4I/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?qid=1492661110&sr=8-1>
and published in 2006 by Springer Science+Business Media. Even
though published nearly 12 years ago, this comprehensive book
still remains relevant, as it is either required, or a recommended
textbook in many machine learning, and related courses in leading
universities. Though PRML is primarily targeted for engineering
and computer science programs, it is potentially useful for
management information systems (MIS) and decision support systems
(DSS) instructors. Because of its thorough and rigorous coverage
of machine learning concepts and algorithms, this book should be
studied with care and rejoiced in its details. The book covers
various aspects of this theme in 14 chapters and four appendices
that provide prerequisite mathematical background. The fourteen
chapters focus on (a) elementary statistical concepts, decision
theory and information theory, and Bayesian estimation; (b)
several probability distributions relevant in frequentist and
Bayesian statistics, and an introduction to nonparametric
statistics; (c) linear methods for regression including penalty
function methods, and Bayesian regression; (d) linear models of
classification (also known as discriminant analysis), Bayesian
logistic regression; (e) neural networks; (f) kernel methods; (g)
sparse kernel machines; (h) graphical models, Bayesian networks,
conditional independence, and Markov random fields; (i) mixture
models and Expectation Maximization (EM) algorithm; (j)
Approximate inference; (k) Monte Carlo Markov Chain (MCMC) method
of estimating posterior densities in a Bayesian context; (l)
continuous latent variables using principal component analysis;
(m) Hidden Markov models (HMM) and linear dynamic systems; and (n)
methods to integrate all regression and classification models into
one overall model.
Routledge, in line with the ongoing trends, has published this
journal online for the last five years since 2014. The website to
find all JITCAR issues is:
http://www.tandfonline.com/utca. All
authors and reviewers are encouraged to start using Routledge's
online manuscript submission and reviewing system
http://www.editorialmanager.com/jitcar/. I urge all our current
and future authors and reviewers to familiarize themselves with
this system. I hope you all know that JITCAR is included in the
SCOPUS index.
I hope you will enjoy reading all the items in this issue. With
best regards,
Sincerely
Dr. Shailendra Palvia
Fulbright-Nehru Senior Scholar 2016-17
Professor of MIS, College of Management
Long Island University Post, Brookville, NY 11801.
Lifetime Scholarly Achievement Nomination from LIU Post in 2012
and 2016
http://liu.edu/CWPost/Academics/Faculty/Faculty/P/Shailendra-Palvia?rn=Faculty+Profiles&ru=/CWPost/Academics/Faculty/Faculty
Editor-in-Chief, Journal of IT Case and Application Research
(JITCAR)
Phone #: 732-983-7034
Thou shall not hurt anybody by action, speech or thought directly
or indirectly, consciously or subconsciously and if you do, ask
for forgiveness.
Please consider well being !
Of not just human beings !!
But all living beings !!!
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