ABSTRACT BUSINESS MANAGEMENT

Hari Sastrawanto

Efficient management of business processes is a key element of enterprise information systems for
organizations operating in a competitive business environment. Despite methodology introduced to
enhance the effectiveness of Business Process Management, research on the initial phase of system
implementation has typically focused on the accurate execution of processes, not efficiency. The
enhancement of process efficiency in various manufacturing applications, however, has received much
attention over the past several decades. Unfortunately, due to the dissimilarities between business and
manufacturing processes, optimized manufacturing processes cannot be applied directly to business
processes. This study introduces a methodology for incorporating business process semantics and
alternative paths in the Business Process Management structure. The approach entails mixed integer
programming (MIP) formulation for a business-process execution plan and a meta-heuristic algorithm to
obtain good solutions for multi-activity processes. © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
(http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ins.2013.12.061)

Business process management is usually treated from two different perspectives: business administration
and computer science. While business administration professionals tend to consider information
technology as a subordinate aspect for experts to handle, by contrast computer scientists often consider
business goals and organizational regulations as terms that do not deserve much thought but require the
appropriate level of abstraction.Mathias Weske argues that the communities involved need to share a
common understanding of the principles underlying business process management. To this end, he
develops an overall picture that describes core BPM concepts and technologies and explains their
relationships. This picture covers high-level business aspects like business goals, strategies, and value
chains, but it concentrates on process modeling techniques and process enactment platforms, taking into
account the different stakeholders involved.After starting with a presentation of general foundations,
process orchestrations and process choreographies are covered. Based on control flow patterns, concrete
process languages are introduced in a concise manner, including Workflow nets, Event-driven Process
Chains, Yet Another Workflow Language, and the Business Process Modeling Notation. The various stages
during the design and implementation of process choreographies are discussed. Different soundness
properties are investigated in a chapter on formal aspects of business processes. Finally, he investigates
concrete architectures to enact business processes, including workflow management architectures, case
handling architectures and service-oriented architectures. He also shows how standards like SOAP, WSDL,
and BPEL fit into the picture.This textbook is ideally suited for classes on business process management,
information systems architecture, and workflow management. It is also valuable for project managers and
IT professionals working in business process management, since it provides a vendor-independent view
on the topic. The accompanying website www.bpm-book.com contains further information, such as links
to references that are available online, exercises that offer the reader a deeper involvement with the
topics addressed, and additional teaching material. (http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-73522-9)

This paper explores the co-evolution between societal sustainability transitions and fundamental shifts
within individuals businesses.We argue that there is an emergent trend of businesses and industries that
move beyond optimizing the organization's individual performance by mitigating negative environmental
and social impacts, to fundamentally restructuring and rethinking existing businesses in light of broader
societal changes. Arguably, the frontrunner businesses that orient themselves towards sustainable market
transitions develop a competitive advantage by co-creating these sustainable markets and on the short
term develop renewed ambition and enthusiasm. By means of the transition framework, we argue that
the fundamental societal changes emerging lead to a new phase in corporate responsibility, implying
fundamental transitions within businesses. Based on this perspective and the transition management
approach we explore how businesses might proactively engage with sustainability transitions in their
direct context and link these to internal business transitions. We illustrate this framework of business
transition management in a number of interlinked activities based on an experimental participatory case
study of the transition in the Dutch roof sector. © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
(http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2012.11.002)

New technologies, notably service-oriented architectures and Web services, are enabling a third wave of
business process management (BPM). Supporters claim that BPM is informed by complexity theory and
that business processes can evolve and adapt to changing business circumstances. It is suggested by BPM
adherents that the business/IT divide will be obliterated through a process-centric approach to systems
development. The evolution of BPM and its associated technologies are explored and then coevolutionary
theory is used to understand the business/IT relationship. Specifically, Kauffman's NKC model is applied
to a business process ecosystem to bring out the implications of coevolution for the theory and practice
of BPM and for the relationship between business and IT. The paper argues that a wider view of the
business process ecosystem is needed to take account of the social perspective as well as the human/non-
human dimension. (http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.jit.2000076)

Without a sound business case, securing resources for knowledge management is difficult. When
organizations do not devote the necessary resources to knowledge management efforts, it is often not
due to a lack of resources, but rather because managers have not made an appealing business case. In
this article, the author outlines guidelines on how to tie knowledge management efforts to an
organization’s goals, objectives and key performance indicators.
(http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0266382110376475)