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Modern life and society are heavily reliant on technology. Technology has the potential to revolutionize educational access by transcending geographical barriers and catering to diverse learning needs, paving the way for equitable and inclusive education for all. Various studies have confirmed that use of technology tools in education would democratize access, personalize learning experiences, enhance engagement and promote learning opportunities. Background digital infrastructure is a critical enabler of educational technology tools. This study is such an attempt. It tries to systematically evaluate the digital infrastructure ecosystem, needed to advance technology in education. Specifically, the study tries to assess the status of digital infrastructure for online learning in higher education. We focused this study on India, which has the third largest higher education system in the world. A composite index was developed with the use of Principal Component Analysis (PCA) to evaluate the IT infrastructure by relying on relevant secondary data. Based on this index score, digital infrastructure status of various States of the country was determined. Results suggested regional disparities in digital infrastructure and areas to focus to strengthen digitally enabled higher education. The study's findings have implications for reducing the digital divide by improving digital infrastructure and designing policy interventions, particularly in developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Information technology (IT) is a critical resource and asset for a firm's internal operations and external interactions with outside stakeholders. This paper explores IT capabilities that enable a retailer's value chain activities and interfaces with suppliers and customers. IT capabilities that enable the value chain activities of logistics and operations as well as those of marketing and sales are identified to examine how they influence a retailer's implementation of value chain interfaces. Through the lens of organizational information processing theory (OIPT), we find that both IT capabilities and IT infrastructure play a pivotal role in implementing value chain interfaces but in distinctive ways. On the supplier-facing side, a retailer's IT infrastructure and IT capabilities enabling logistics and operations are essential to its vendor-managed inventory (VMI) system. On the customer-facing side, a retailer's e-commerce website requires IT infrastructure and IT capabilities that enable marketing and sales. Moreover, synergies are found downstream for e-commerce website that benefits from the integration of IT infrastructure and IT capabilities enabling logistics and operations while such synergies are not found upstream for VMI. This partial complementary effect is explicated by the sequential asymmetric information dependency of value chain activities. Finally, we discuss the implications of our findings for the research and practice of IT enablement and integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper proposes a process model approach to enhance the economic efficiency of production systems driven by the transformation of their IT infrastructure under the dynamics of the external environments. To achieve the goal, a new notation is suggested that allows to formalize processes in organizational systems, allocate the management subject in an explicit form, simulate the work of the process model for the decision support system in order to study its performance and efficiency. As a result of the study, an algorithm has been developed to estimate how the changes of the IT infrastructure parameters affect the efficiency of the production system performance; in addition, this algorithm can be used to determine the key performance indicators of the organizational system through scheduling development plans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study suggests a novel progression to the current research endeavor by investigating the influence of information technology capabilities on organizational agility. More specifically, this study aims to fill the gaps found in previous studies and contribute to the current state of knowledge of this domain by focusing on the mediating role that IT capabilities play between dynamic capabilities and organizational agility. Toward that end, 270 Jordanian professionals working in supply chain management and operational departments were approached. Data were collected via distrusting a structured questionnaire that includes items assessing dynamic capabilities, IT capabilities, and organizational agility. The results demonstrated that IT capabilities significantly and positively mediated the relationship between resource-based dynamic capability and organizational agility. The study has also discussed several theoretical along with managerial implications of the research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In confronting the sudden epidemic of COVID-19, China and other countries have been under great deal of pressure to block virus transmission and reduce death cases. Fangcang shelter hospital, which is converted from large-scale public venue, is proposed and proven to be an effective way for administering medical care and social isolation. This paper presents the practice in information technology support for a Fangcang shelter hospital in Wuhan, China. The experiences include the deployment strategy of IT infrastructure, the redesign of function modules in the hospital information system (HIS), equipment maintenance and medical staff training. The deployment strategy and HIS modules have ensured smoothness and efficiency of clinical work. The team established a quick response mechanism and adhered to the principle of nosocomial infection control. Deployment of network and modification of HIS was finished in the 48 hours before patient admittance. A repair hotline and remote support for equipment and software were available whenever medical workers met with any questions. No engineer ever entered the contaminated areas and no one was infected by the coronavirus during the hospital operation. Up to now, Fangcang shelter hospital is adopted by many regions around the world facing the collapse of their medical systems. This valuable experience in informatization construction and service in Wuhan may help participators involving in Fangcang shelter hospital get better information technology support, and find more practical interventions to fight the epidemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Monatsschrift Kinderheilkunde is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

A methodology is proposed for designing an IT infrastructure under constrained resources. The methodology is based on properties of graph algebra, genetic algorithms, Petri nets, and peculiarities of constraints. Two approaches to solving load balancing problems in the IT infrastructure are considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In only ten years, Google has achieved remarkable success from online search-based advertising. Its search engine is dominant, and its IT infrastructure is the most powerful computing system in the world running on over one million computers and serving more than one billion users globally. Google makes money by using its search engine to deliver online advertising alongside responses to user searches for information, goods, maps, directions, and a host of other services. Its capabilities make it likely to become the world’s first information utility – a concept similar to electric utilities that provide services to many corporations and individuals alike. Constant innovation is the key to Google’s success and offers lessons for other companies: hire talented people, have them work in small teams, and give them freedom to excel, but use a rigorous data-based approach to evaluating results and making course adjustments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Wirtschaftsinformatik -- Zeitschrift Der Angewandten Informatik is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Decisions to invest in information technology (IT) infrastructure are often made based on an assessment of its immediate value to the organization. However, an important source of value comes from the fact that such technologies have the potential to be leveraged in the development of future applications. From a real options perspective, IT infrastructure investments create growth options that can be exercised if and when an organization decides to develop systems to provide new or enhanced IT capabilities. We present an analytical model based on real options that shows the process by which this potential is converted into business value, and discuss middleware as an example technology in this context. We derive managerial implications for the evaluation of IT infrastructure investments, and the main findings are: (1) the flexibility provided by IT infrastructure investment is more valuable when uncertainty is higher; (2) the cost advantage that IT infrastructure investment brings about is amplified by demand volatility for IT-supported products and services; (3) in duopoly competition, the value of IT infrastructure flexibility increases with the level of product or service substitutability; and (4) when demand volatility is high, inter-firm competition has a lower impact on the value of IT infrastructure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Next Generation Enterprises (NGEs) rely on automation, mobility, real-time business activity monitoring, agility, and self-service over widely distributed operations to conduct business. It is important to study and analyze such enterprises because they will drive the future industry and job markets. This paper gives a quick overview of NGEs and proposes a conceptual framework for analyzing the IT infrastructure needed to support the NGEs. A systematic discussion and analysis of key building blocks, their interrelationships, and main trends is presented with an emphasis on monitoring and split-second reaction times needed across widely distributed business units of such enterprises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As business imperatives change and new high-capability information technologies (IT) appear, organizations recognize the need to remain at the forefront of change by reengineering their business processes and implementing enabling responsive IT infrastructures. However, experience in this context indicates a lack of comprehension of essential elements and their mutual relationships that can contribute to the success of business-process change-implementation efforts. This article proposes a framework for managing IT for effective business-process redesign (BPR) implementation. After establishing BPR principles, components, and the relationship of BPR to some organizational and technological approaches, it presents the role and benefits of IT in BPR. The article then discusses in detail the core elements of the framework. Its theme is that an IT infrastructure that covers issues of BPR strategy development, IT strategic alignment, IT infrastructure development, IT sourcing, legacy systems reengineering, IS integration, and IS function competence is essential and critical for effective implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]