Browsing by Subject "information technology"
Now showing 1 - 5 of 5
Results Per Page
Sort Options
Item A decision support system for income-producing real estate development feasibility analysis and alternative assessment(Texas A&M University, 2005-08-29) Leelarasamee, YosapornThe purpose of this study is to design, develop, and evaluate a prototype scenarioassisted decision support system (DSS) for use in venture and alternative assessment during the predevelopment stage of income-producing real estate development. This research examines theoretical underpinnings and associated advancements related to income-producing real estate development and decision support systems. Particular emphasis was placed on synthesis of relating disciplines?? models and advancements that support design and development of the decision support system. The result of the system design and development are embodied in a prototype scenario-assisted decision support system for income-producing real estate development (DSSVenture). The design and development of the program are documented in this dissertation. Following the design and development stage, the validation of DSSVenture??s data and logic models was conducted based on two case studies from well-known real estate development publications. The system was then tested on a group of graduate students who enrolled in an advanced real estate development course at Texas A&M University to examine whether its facilitation objective had been achieved. Since this research hypothesized that the decision support system would facilitate developers?? decision making during predevelopment stage of income-producing real estate development, three operational variables were tested, namely number of alternatives examined, time to reach decisions, and coefficient of projected net present value variations. The testing results indicate that DSSVenture system significantly enhances comprehensiveness of the decision context by increasing the number of alternatives for developers. Since the use of the system significantly reduces developers?? time to reach decisions, the efficiency of decision making is improved. Finally, the results of the study confirm that the use of DSSVenture system substantially diminishes variation of profit projection among decision makers. Therefore, the facilitation objective is achieved.Item Business-to-business electronic marketplaces: membership and use drivers(Texas A&M University, 2004-09-30) Koch, Hope ArleneBusiness-to-business (B2B) electronic marketplaces (e-marketplaces) are one of the most heralded developments in recent years. These marketplaces bring together businesses buying and selling goods and services in an online buying community. E-marketplaces promise to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of procurement activities by replacing traditional manual processes with automated electronic procedures and by expanding the number of available trading partners. Despite the technology availability and the high potential benefits, very few e-marketplaces have succeeded. This three-year study identifies and investigates two major B2B e-marketplace stumbling blocks: attracting a sufficient number of members, and then influencing these members to use the e-marketplace. This investigation uses a variety of qualitative techniques to solicit information from nearly fifty executives representing four B2B e-marketplaces with contrasting membership and use levels. Within each e-marketplace, the study solicited information from high and low use organizations, buying and selling organizations, and a nonparticipant organization. The interview data was analyzed using line-by-line analysis from grounded theory. The analysis involved assimilating the unique stories of each manager into drivers that affect e-marketplace membership or use. These drivers were then compared to membership levels and/or use levels. The analysis resulted in three research models. Each research model is a data-driven representation of factors driving B2B e-marketplace membership, B2B e-marketplace use, and a particular organization's B2B e-marketplace use. Each model contains several unique drivers and offers a comprehensive picture of what is happening in e-marketplaces. These findings enhance management's understanding of e-marketplaces, their role in business, their challenges, and ways of overcoming these challenges in order to reap the benefits of e-marketplace participation. This study brings one of the first grounded theory investigations of B2B e-marketplace membership and use to the limited academic research in this area. This research offers insights to a number of theories, including transaction cost economics, institutional theory, resource dependency theory, and public goods theory.Item Conceptualizing and implementing a webinar series: lessons learned from the Mountain West Digital Library Webinar Series(2014-03-14) Cummings, Rebekah; University of UtahWebinars are a low-cost and efficient training model that allow librarians to disseminate valuable information, connect with colleagues, and build and expand their communities beyond geographic and institutional boundaries. Yet, while many information specialists attend webinars on a regular basis, the task of hosting a webinar series may seem like a daunting and opaque challenge, even for enthusiastic webinar participants. In this poster session, Rebekah Cummings, Outreach Librarian at the Mountain West Digital Library, will demystify the process of implementing a successful webinar series including content creation, recruiting guest speakers, software selection, promotion, hosting the webinar, and follow-up. This session will include practical advice on how to host a webinar or webinar series, the costs and benefits associated with hosting webinars, and lessons learned from the Mountain West Digital Library’s Webinar Series.Item TDL Infrastructure within Amazon Web Services(2016-05-26) Bradley, Effie; Texas Digital LibraryTexas Digital Libraries(TDL) is a consortium of libraries from twenty-two Universities within the State of Texas. In 2010, TDL was among the first in Digital Libraries to move to cloud based infrastructure. TDL has over one hundred servers running within Amazon Web Services(AWS), providing online publishing and preservation services. AWS is a secure cloud services platform, offering compute power, and flexible storage solutions. In a traditional model of buying hardware, the resources needed must be determined ahead of time, with a lengthy purchasing process. This process would need to be repeated if demands on resources grow, and as the hardware ages. AWS gives TDL and it’s members the flexibility to choose the appropriate mix of resources for our applications, and allows us to quickly scale up or down when application requirements change. TDL continues to explore the ever evolving landscape of cloud technologies. In this presentation we’ll take a look at the TDL Infrastructure within AWS, and what new possibilities lie on the horizon.