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Many software firms, especially mobile app providers, offer perpetually free basic products to users, but premiums are charged for access to the additional features or functionalities. While the free offering helps capture potential customers, it might cannibalize the sales of premium goods or services. This paper adopts a game theoretical approach to examine the impact of free offering on the competition between two firms in the presence of network effects. The firms can either offer a free core product and a paid service or offer them as a bundle. The core product has stand-alone value and can be used separately but the value-added service has no value without the core product. We derive the market equilibria and present conditions under which the free offering strategy outperforms the bundling strategy. We show that when a firm’s core product has a sufficient advantage in product quality, it is better for this firm to sell the bundle but for the other to use free strategy. However, if the core products are similar in terms of quality, it is optimal for them to use the same strategies. Whether to offer a free product depends largely on the core products’ quality. We also show that the firms may be caught in a prisoner’s dilemma when both adopt the free strategy. Finally, we find that the profitability of the firm that offers a free product always increases in network effects intensity and market size, but this is not the case for the firm that sells the bundle. This study contributes to understanding the behavior of feature-limited free offering in a duopoly setting. Our findings also provide insights into the design of free product and the impact of network effects on the firms’ offering decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The surrounding context information of business processes is unpredictable and dynamically changing over time. Therefore, they should dynamically adapt themselves to different changes in context information such as business rules or computational changes in available resources. For example, we may add a particular delivery service for golden customers, or provide new payment services in case of unavailability of service providers, or change a service invocation based on available bandwidth. Unlike other methods which provide a context Meta model or a shallow context taxonomy in a specific limited scope of the business domain, we focused on ontology engineering methods not only to propose a general multipurpose context ontology but also to present our proposal as an underlying ontology for other researchers to extend and customize it for their applications. In this paper, the business process adaptation knowledge is modelled in the form of concepts, relations, and axioms which comprises time, resources, performers, locations, environment, and rules to model and record whole context information of adaptation mechanism. We characterized our work in comparison with related studies to show its completeness and demonstrated it by using an online learning management system and virtual class case studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents an analysis of the use of Value-Add Resellers (VARs) by Cisco Systems to provide customized computer network solutions to customers with specific requirements. It focuses on the question of how to optimally manage and incentivize such a sales channel. Cisco is described as using a value-based approach to ensure that its VARs would focus on adding value rather than volume. Statistics are cited which indicate that this approach has been successful. Information on the development of Cisco's method is presented.

The article examines reorganization of educational services and what do providers have to consider. It notes that the legislature wanted the VAT exemption for educational services comprehensively regulate. It explores the impact of the deletion in the government bill and the draft of the federal government for a law on tax incentives for electromobility and amending further tax legislation.

Purpose Business process modeling has been given great attention due to its crucial role in developing computer-based systems that support (and automate) organizational processes. In information systems, building the right process architecture is vital, since a poor division of organizational processes can lead to complex designs or incoherent structure. Moreover, process architecture acts as a “big picture” of what the organization does, and represents dynamic relationships between the existing processes, which, in turn, helps understand how the organization works (Ould, 2005). The paper aims to discuss these issues.Design/methodology/approach This paper discusses the derivation of a process architecture diagram (PAD) using the Riva method in detail, in contrast to the PAD developed using Architecture of Integrated Information Systems (ARIS). The information system selected as an example for this comparative study is in the context of academic libraries, embedding various yet generic library processes.Findings Organizational process architecture provides a basis for business management, based on specific framework supported by integrated tools and methods (Kozina, 2006). ARIS and Riva process architecture methods can be used to visualize and document organizational processes. Understanding the merits and weaknesses of each method is essential to identify possible areas of application.Research limitations/implications The processes selected were generic in most academic libraries not taking into consideration special personalized processes. These can be added though.Practical implications Both techniques are feasible and can be used to view and analyze library processes, allowing bridging the gap between theory and practice.Originality/value A number of process architecture methods are available, however, few studies focused on assessing these methods, and comparing some of them to find out how easy they are to be used in particular contexts, and whether they can be standardized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

More people have access to Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS, a.k.a. mobile picture messaging) than to the Internet, but mobile education markets have yet to adopt MMS as a content delivery mechanism. This paper investigates the role of carrier interoperability as an enabler of MMS in mobile multimedia distance learning. Using instructor reuse of content and learner access to content as feasibility criteria, we empirically evaluate the performance, user adoption, and commercial market of MMS-based mobile education. This study deployed a value-added service that broadcasts videos via MMS to cell phones, and conducted a 9-month public education campaign with weekly broadcasts on breast cancer. We selected a video format and markup language that is compatible with domestic carriers and cell phones, and supports existing educational material. To contrast behaviors between participants with and without access to the Internet, we offered participants the same content via MMS, email and the Web. 277 participants enrolled in the campaign; 120 opted to receive the videos via mobile messaging, and 157 had Internet access and opted to receive videos via email or the Web. Campaign analytics reveal that all participants without Internet access successfully received the MMS video broadcasts, and significantly, one-third of participants with Internet access opted to receive the videos via MMS as well. We conclude with a discussion of why participants with Internet access may have chosen MMS over Internet-based alternatives. We also estimate the size of the market for MMS-based mobile education, and distinguish it from the person-to-person messaging market. This research is beneficial to educators targeting diverse demographics and education disparities, and to mobile commerce economists evaluating emerging markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An authentication scheme is inevitable for providing secured communication in high-speed networks like Vehicular Ad-hoc Networks (VANETs), where node speed varies between 10 and 40 m/s. The existing authentication schemes providing value-added services in VANETs face many issues such as invalid service requests, Denial of Service (DoS) attacks, verification failures, high transmission overhead and high verification delay. To deal with the exiting issues, an Extended Three Party Password based Authenticated Key Exchange (E-3PAKE) scheme is proposed in the paper. The E-3PAKE has priority based application services that addresses the security and performance issues in existing schemes. The scheme renders a server-client authentication process and batch message dispatch to improve the efficiency of value-added services. The formal analysis done ensures the security enhancement of the scheme and the simulation results prove that the proposed scheme outperforms the existing schemes with respect to transmission overhead, verification and service response delay. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Foreseen 5G verticals hold the promise of being true value-added services, hence bringing significant income to their respective providers. However, the nature of these verticals are very demanding in terms of both economic and technical requirements, such as multi-operator cooperation, end-to-end quality assurance, and the unified orchestration of network and cloud resources. Existing systems fall short of satisfying these requirements, but emerging network softwarization and resource virtualization technologies, such as SDN and NFV, show promise for being key enablers in this context. In this article, we introduce the 5G Exchange (5GEx) concept that builds on SDN and NFV, and facilitates the provisioning of multi-operator 5G services by means of inter-operator management and orchestration of virtualized network, compute, and storage resources. We present potential 5GEx use cases, conceptual architecture, and value proposition. We also outline open research questions on how to exchange information in such a coopetitive environment, and provide an outlook on the impact of 5GEx on a network service provider's business and operation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Introduction. Many projects on information retrieval systems have been reported. This paper, however, reports on the use of value-added features and services available from proprietary databases for example, Researcher ID, sharing references with others, case studies and curricular recommendations that can contribute to effective task completion. The question, however, arises: to what extent are academics (faculty, lecturing staff) aware of these, and how are they using these for academic tasks? Method. The paper reports on an exploratory case study at a South African university in 2015 with 37 staff members from all ranks, within the three academic departments teaching on facets of information: Information Science, Informatics and Computer Science. A mixed methods approach was used to collect quantitative data (semi-structured electronic questionnaire) and qualitative data (individual interviews and one focus group interview). Analysis. Descriptive statistics revealed the use of proprietary databases and selected features. A thematic analysis of the qualitative data revealed perceptions, opinions, experiences, barriers and motivators. Wilson's information behaviour model guided the study. Results. What stood out was the use of proprietary databases to complete academic tasks associated with perceptions of what is expected at various academic ranks, the impact of curriculum content, personal preferences and habits, and the value of the study to raise awareness. Conclusion. Considering changes in for example, tasks, disciplinary content and continuing career growth, it is recommended that reciprocal mapping of value-added features and services against academic tasks is used at regular intervals to raise awareness of the value of such features and services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Firms have to analyze, monitor and make improvements of their existing Supply Chain Management (SCM) processes in order to beat market competition and stay competitive. In this regard, the Six Sigma is a methodology that enables the firms to review their existing SCM practices and guide them in making improvements. Six Sigma focuses on reducing variation, measuring defects and improving the quality of products, processes and services. Six Sigma-based SCM effectively manages typical disruption issues in supply chain as it ensures the delivery of the most appropriate product, in right time, in right place with the least cost to the customer. This paper develops an integrative framework and the business value-added framework and financial matrix to measure and evaluate the impact of Six Sigma on SCM. As identified and emphasized in this paper, efficiency and effectiveness drivers of SCM and accompanying business values generated by Six Sigma deployment in SCM positively influence an organization's overall business performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Significant advancement in mobile devices coupled with high speed networks have shifted personal computing towards pervasive environments. Mobile devices currently offer many value-added applications and services such as emailing, messaging, navigation, social networking, finance, and entertainment. Typically, such value-added applications have access to users’ personal information and are capable of gathering and transmitting trust sensitive information, hence posing security risks and/or privacy concerns. In this paper, we propose a context-based analytic hierarchy process (AHP) framework for eliciting context information and adapting this information with network access control measures for mobile devices. The framework enforces the execution of mobile applications inside security incubators to control the communication between mobile applications and mobile device resources. Mobile applications’ access requests are analyzed based on user's context information collected from the mobile device sensors and the application network access control configuration. We use the Facebook mobile application, as a test case, to evaluate our proposed framework. Evaluation results have demonstrated the efficacy of the framework in providing network access control measures based on real-time assessment of user's context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The creation of value-added services by automatic composition of existing ones is gaining a significant momentum as the potential silver bullet in service-oriented architecture. However, service composition faces two aspects of difficulties. First, users' needs present such characteristics as diversity, uncertainty and personalisation; second, the existing services run in a real-world environment that is highly complex and dynamically changing. These difficulties may cause the emergence of nondeterministic choices in the process of service composition, which has gone beyond what the existing automated service composition techniques can handle. According to most of the existing methods, the process model of composite service includes sequence constructs only. This article presents a method to introduce conditional branch structures into the process model of composite service when needed, in order to satisfy users' diverse and personalised needs and adapt to the dynamic changes of real-world environment. UML activity diagrams are used to represent dependencies in composite service. Two types of user preferences are considered in this article, which have been ignored by the previous work and a simple programming language style expression is adopted to describe them. Two different algorithms are presented to deal with different situations. A real-life case is provided to illustrate the proposed concepts and methods. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Integration is currently a key factor in intelligent transportation systems (ITS), especially because of the ever increasing service demands originating from the ITS industry and ITS users. The current ITS landscape is made up of multiple technologies that are tightly coupled, and its interoperability is extremely low, which limits ITS services generation. Given this fact, novel information technologies (IT) based on the service-oriented architecture (SOA) paradigm have begun to introduce new ways to address this problem. The SOA paradigm allows the construction of loosely coupled distributed systems that can help to integrate the heterogeneous systems that are part of ITS. In this paper, we focus on developing an SOA-based model for integrating information technologies (IT) into ITS to achieve ITS service delivery. To develop our model, the ITS technologies and services involved were identified, catalogued, and decoupled. In doing so, we applied our SOA-based model to integrate all of the ITS technologies and services, ranging fromthe lowest-level technical components, such as roadside unit as a service (RSUAAS), to themost abstract ITS services that will be offered to ITS users (value-added services). To validate our model, a functionality case study that included all of the components of our model was designed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Cities and countries all over the world are currently in the process of developing large-scale broadband projects in order to upgrade their Internet access infrastructure. They justify this costly endeavor of rolling out fiber to the home (FTTH) networks in believing that state-of-the-art ICT infrastructure will function as a growth engine, bridge the digital divide and increase quality of living. In the meantime, they believe it to be simply indispensable because an ever increasing demand for bandwidth-intensive applications is anticipated. The former goals, however, can only be achieved if citizens and companies alike migrate to this new technology. Hence, it is essential to consider the utility of fiber networks for future users and to explore applications that can convince end-users to migrate from their current connections to high-bandwidth networks. By means of an international expert survey, this paper tries to identify value-added services that benefit from fiber’s network potential and that can stimulate users to switch to fiber. Health monitoring, online content storage and management services, and desktop sharing were identified as the most promising fiber applications in the short term based on a combination of technological feasibility, time to reach the mass market and overall persuasiveness. Augmented video applications such as health monitoring and virtual classrooms on the other hand were deemed very persuasive but long-term oriented. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: With all the controversy about Cloud computing reality, its promising benefits and enduring challenges, service provisioning remains the heart of this contentious Internet phenomenon. In this paper, we solidify the description of the Sky model that aims to facilitate the provisioning of composite Cloud services by promoting collaboration among Cloud vendors and through the adoption of the social networking infrastructure. The proposed Sky model introduces a novel social-based approach towards federation of Clouds by providing Cloud vendors with the means to advertise their services, form interconnections, synergize, and provide value-added services to the end users. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Interactive tables (tactile, tangible and mixed tables) are mainly used as support of interaction to design applications and value-added services. Indeed, new collaborative applications emerged from theses new supports using classical interaction (through keyboard, mouse and screen devices). Nowadays, new sensory entries enable users using their hands to manipulate different objects. This article is indented to propose a global interaction model that associates multiagent system concepts to interactive table entities. The model proposes two types of entities that can be used simultaneously: virtual and tangible entities. The virtual entities can result from video projection or from screen use on the interactive table. The tangible entities are physical objects that can be manipulated by one or several users. These are detected through dedicated sensors. At the end of this article, a case study is presented. It illustrates the management of a road traffic simulator using the TangiSense interactive table. The illustrations show mainly the communication between the different agents. In addition, the simulator presents the advantages of the proposed model in order to facilitate the implied users’ decision during the simulation process. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

We can now outsource data backups off-site to third-party cloud storage services so as to reduce data management costs. However, we must provide security guarantees for the outsourced data, which is now maintained by third parties. We design and implement FADE, a secure overlay cloud storage system that achieves fine-grained, policy-based access control and file assured deletion. It associates outsourced files with file access policies, and assuredly deletes files to make them unrecoverable to anyone upon revocations of file access policies. To achieve such security goals, FADE is built upon a set of cryptographic key operations that are self-maintained by a quorum of key managers that are independent of third-party clouds. In particular, FADE acts as an overlay system that works seamlessly atop today's cloud storage services. We implement a proof-of-concept prototype of FADE atop Amazon S3, one of today's cloud storage services. We conduct extensive empirical studies, and demonstrate that FADE provides security protection for outsourced data, while introducing only minimal performance and monetary cost overhead. Our work provides insights of how to incorporate value-added security features into today's cloud storage services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the motivations of six Australian organizations, the authors propose an analytical model to help decision makers identify the complex relationships between their internal goals and targeted users when deploying mobile data services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The appropriation of the new technologies is a key aspect to maintain high competitiveness in a globalized economy for telecom carriers. The benefits provided by these new technologies allow them to easily adapt to the market conditions and to satisfy the changing needs of increasingly demanding users. One of these technologies is the JAIN SLEE specification, which presents a highly robust platform for rapid development and deployment of new value-added services. However the high degree of complexity of this technology limits the exploitation of its benefits and capabilities. In this paper, we propose a set of guidelines for value-added service development on JAIN SLEE environments based in the principles and guidelines for service creation defined in SOA, in order to facilitate this process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the mobile communication market increasingly moving towards value-added services, the network cost will need to be included in the service offering itself. This will lead service providers to optimize network usage based on real cost rather than simplified network plans sold to consumers traditionally. Meanwhile, today's mobile devices are increasingly containing multiple radios, enabling users on the move to take advantage of the heterogeneous wireless network environment. In addition, we observe that many bandwidth intensive services such as video on demand and software updates are essentially non real-time and buffers in mobile devices are effectively unlimited. We therefore propose EMUNE, a new transfer service which leverages these aspects. It supports opportunistic bulk transfers in high bandwidth networks while adapting to device power concerns, application requirements and user preferences of cost and quality. Our proposed architecture consists of an API, a transport service and two main functional units. The well defined API hides all internal complexities from a programmer and provides easy access to the functionalities. The prediction engine infers future network and bandwidth availability. The scheduling engine takes the output of the prediction engine as well as the power and monetary costs, application requirements and user preferences into account and determines which interface to use, when and for how long for all outstanding data transfer requests. The transport service accordingly executes the inferred data transfer schedule. The results from the implementation of EMUNE's and of the prediction and scheduling engines evaluated against real user data show the effectiveness of the proposed architecture for better utilization of multiple network interfaces in mobile devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the last few years, many value-added applications (such as Payment services) in Vehicular Ad hoc NETworks ( VANETs) have emerged. Although these applications offer great business opportunities they also introduce new concerns regarding security and privacy. Moreover, the wide range of scenarios (with or without connectivity restrictions) arising from vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-roadside communications have opened up new security challenges which must be considered by Payment system designers to achieve the same security capabilities independent of the scenario where Payment occurs. We designed and implemented a lightweight (using symmetric-key operations which requires low computational power) secure Payment protocol for those scenarios in VANETs and other mobile environments where the Merchant cannot communicate directly with the Acquirer (the Merchant's financial institution) to process the Payment Request. We also present practical performance results that can be achieved with the proposed Payment protocol. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: An interactive innovation can be defined as an end-user application which is subject to network effects at both the demand and supply sides. As a result of network effects, the diffusion of such an innovation is predicted to follow a take-off curve coinciding with the advent of a critical mass of adopters. The current literature on innovation diffusion, mainly focusing on the demand-side dynamics, such as information cascades and herding behaviors among potential adopters, is not sufficient to explain the take-off (or the failure) of interactive innovations. In this paper, we present and examine a case study of the take-off of an interactive innovation, namely the caller-ring-back-tone (CRBT) and mobile music – mobile value-added services (MVAS) – in China. We find that supply-side dynamics, such as choices of platform strategies, helped drive the take-off of this innovation within China''s institutional boundaries. The paper makes a contribution in two ways: first, it presents an ‘inside-out’ view of a unique case of take-off phenomenon; and, second it provides an integrated view combining factors from both the demand and supply sides to explain the take-off phenomenon, which is rare in empirical studies. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: A huge amount of web services are deployed on the Web, nowadays. These services can be used to fulfill online requests. Requests are getting more and more complicated over time. So, there exists a lot of frequent request that cannot be fulfilled using just one web service. For using web services, composing individual services to create the added-value composite web service to fulfill the user request is necessary in most cases. Web services can be composed manually but it is a too tedious and time consuming task. The ability of automatic web service composition to create a new composite web service is one of the key enabling features for the future for the semantic web. There are some successful methods for automatic web service composition, but the lack of standard, open, and lightweight test environment makes the comparison and evaluation of these composition methods impossible. In this paper we propose an architecture for a light weight and scalable testbed to execute, test and evaluate automatic web service composition algorithms. The architecture provides mandatory components for implementing and evaluation of automatic web service composition algorithms. Also, this architecture provides some extension mechanisms to extend its default functionalities. We have also given reference implementations for web service matchmaking and composition. Also, some scenarios for testing and evaluating the testbed are given. We have found that the performance of the composition method will dramatically decrease as the number of web services increases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Since the mid-1990s, the mobile phone industry has sought widespread adoption of mobile data services, envisioning a new “mobile Internet” with its own complex value network delivered through smartphone terminals. With its iPhone, Apple rapidly gained smartphone market share while spurring widespread adoption of mobile data services in the United States. Here it is argued that the success of the iPhone was based on Apple''s conception of the mobile Internet as being another modality of the existing wired Internet, and its leveraging of existing systems competencies. It is demonstrated how a promise to deliver the “real Internet” was a core part of Apple''s original strategy, and that iPhone users quickly showed an interest in web browsing disproportionate to any other mobile phone in the US or Europe. From this, implications for the development of the mobile Internet in other countries are identified, as well as for future value creation and capture in mobile phone value networks. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The article reports on the significance of PB&J Challenge to supply chain managers. It states that PB&J is an interactive exercise as a means of help for managers in learning important value-stream mapping skills. It infers that it could be used as an improvement of value-added processes and incalculate both the mindset and practice of constant learning.

Agent Technology is an emerging and promising research area in software technology, which increasingly contributes to the development of value-added information systems for large healthcare organizations. Through the MediMAS prototype, resulting from a case study conducted at a local Swiss hospital, this paper aims at presenting the advantages of reinforcing such a complex E-health man-machine information organization with software agents. The latter will work on behalf of human agents, taking care of routine tasks, and thus increasing the speed, the systematic, and ultimately the reliability of the information exchanges. We further claim that the modeling of the software agent layer can be methodically derived from the actual "classical" laboratory organization and practices, as well as seamlessly integrated with the existing information system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract  Vehicular networks have attracted extensive attention in recent years for their promises in improving safety and enabling other value-added services. Most previous work focuses on designing the media access and physical layer protocols. Privacy issues in vehicular systems have not been well addressed. We argue that privacy is a user-specific concept, and a good privacy protection mechanism should allow users to select the levels of privacy they wish to have. To address this requirement, we propose an adaptive anonymous authentication mechanism that can trade off the anonymity level with computational and communication overheads (resource usage). This mechanism, to our knowledge, is the first effort on adaptive anonymous authentication. The resources used by our protocol are few. A high traffic volume of 2000 vehicles per hour consumes about 60kbps bandwidth, which is less than one percent of the bandwidth of DSRC (Dedicated Short Range Communications). By using adaptive anonymity, the protocol response time can further be improved 2∼4 times with less than 20% bandwidth overheads. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When continuous development becomes the norm on the social web, finding a way to put forward new development ideas to your audience and get their feedback at an early stage is the natural result. This article discusses how one major medical journal created a 'beta' site to support new online development and gather user feedback, speeding development initiatives and creating intrinsic value in the experimental environment. The goals of the site, organization of the teams, and practical and brand benefits are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many libraries are using co-browsing chat products to provide reference services to their patrons, whilst their patrons are online and using the internet. The concept of such an online service is highly desirable, but many libraries are concerned that they will never be able to afford such a system. This may have changed: Instant Messaging (IM) can provide a very cost-effective way to offer an online reference service with an improved level of communications flexibility that can attract a new group of information seekers, especially those using mobile communications devices. How was this conclusion reached? How effective a solution can IM be, and what types of libraries can best utilise an IM-based solution? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As players in the delivery of services and online information, libraries are in the best position to use staff expertise and the technology they have developed to foster community awareness of social, professional and commercial interactions on the internet. Historically, libraries have been progressive institutions, undertaking constant reassessment to stay relevant. As clients become used to the nuances of virtual transactions and the technology for participation on the internet becomes widely available, the provision of value-added services, such as virtual reference, e-reserves and WiFi networking further contribute to transactions and services traditionally provided by institutions such as libraries. These services and transactions use business models to justify funding and ongoing support. It can be argued that libraries must keep abreast of new models of e-commerce to provide relevant services and develop input where necessary, to predict changes and suitably adapt their way of interacting online or doing business, whether it is free, fee-for-service or cost-recovery. Such is the competitive nature of the World Wide Web that libraries are being challenged to justify their existence and budgets against this context. By using e-commerce models, for example, the buying and selling of information, products and services via the internet, and developing new models, libraries are well placed to promote their own successful futures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An enterprise is represented by its process model that is constructed by the integration of smaller processes corresponding to value-added contributors. Replacing the sub-processes can modify the super-process. Component processes are represented in task systems in order to discover how process attributes will be preserved after integration. This approach is especially versatile if virtual enterprises are formed over the Internet through integrating the published processes of core competencies. The virtually constructed super-process can be exercised as a simulation before the real process is enacted. A final process is thus a composition of core-competency processes that is believed to yield an optimal enterprise operation. Core-competency processes from individual organizations are expected to be available to form value-added chains. Once matured, such a market of processes will offer alternatives by different organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

E-marketplaces are an important phenomenon in today's e-business environment. Given the uncertainties of Internet e-business, this paper examines the role of facilitating conditions and IT in e-marketplaces. In doing so, we draw upon the lessons learned from traditional EDI via Value-Added-Networks, namely (a) IT connectivity, (b) standards, (c) security, (d) uniform product descriptions and (e) coercive power. The lessons learned serve as facilitating conditions for creating initial technology trust that later evolves into relationship trust in e-marketplaces. Technology trust is derived from institutional structures, which means that one believes that there are impersonal structures that enable one to act in anticipation of a successful future endeavor. Relationship trust is derived from the interpersonal component reflecting behaviors such as the partner's reliability, integrity, and dependability as well as their knowledge and understanding of the e-marketplace systems. We conclude the paper with implications for theory, research, practices and suggest directions for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Enterprises and residential customers increasingly take advantage of more sophisticated applications and evolve their business model. At the same time service providers face declining revenues from existing connectivity services. SPs responds to these trends and start to offer highly customized, high-bandwidth network services that complement and interwork with their existing leased line, ATM, or frame relay offerings. Ethernet is quickly becoming the customers UNI of choice. Ethernet, being a packet-based technology, complements IP-based services such as content, voice, data, video, and additional value-added services over a high-speed connection to the SP network and eliminates access bottlenecks. Using Ethernet as the common access interface, provides can employ flexible transport services that enable additional value-added services that enable additional value-added services at layer 3 and above. At the same time the rollout of Ethernet service also challenge the installed base, given that bandwidth per customer is usually much higher and additional attributes for tight SLAs apply. This calls for an updated approach to network need to be planned and built in a service-centric fashion. Starting with a brief look at the driving forces for Ethernet-based public communication services, this article identifies five generic services for Ethernet MANs/WANs and discusses related deployment issues of the different service options, such as the degree of customization, geographic reach and bandwidth profile of the service, as well as evolution aspects of the installed base. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A 78 organization study in USA, Europe and Australasia throughout 1999-2001 finds a variety of practices in sourcing the development and running of technology and e-businesses in value networks. The paper points to trade-offs in e-sourcing decisions, not least between speed to the net, cost, and organizational learning. Leading and lagging practices are identified and the evolutionary paths organizations take are described and assessed. Outsourcing emerges as highly useful for specific purposes, but other ways of using the external market for e-business development can be more suitable for certain identifable activities. The paper further discusses how external sourcing and partnering practices are increasingly being extended into the customer resource life-cycle, into supply chains and throughout value networks. Case examples are discussed and the strengths and weaknesses of their practices identified. The need to clarify core capabilities is demonstrated, and two matrices that facilitate effective e-sourcing decisions are developed to summarize the findings from the research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents a study which focused on the value-added services in the converged network. Technology and economic factors behind network convergence; How service providers exploit convergence to become service integrators; Approach to service creation in converged networks.