This book assesses whether, and to what extent, senior logistics executives use performance information when making logistics-related decisions. The research examines the performance management and measurement systems and processes within three major government organizations; determines what conditions, if any, affect logistics processes and how the organizations measure them; and explores whether senior officials use this information in their decisionmaking. Case studies were conducted on the United States Department of Defense (DOD), the United States Postal Service (USPS), and the United States Department of Energy (DOE). Based on 12 critical practices that the United Stated General Accounting Office has identified for federal agencies to use in assessing compliance with the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993 (GPRA), 28 evaluation factors were used to assess the use of performance information at four logistical levels within each agency.

The Ministry of Defence faces considerable challenges ensuring front line personnel get the 'materiel' they need. Despite these challenges, the MoD made 130,300 deliveries to Afghanistan in 2010. Indeed, the amount of time troops wait for supplies has declined since the NAO's 2009 report on support to high intensity operations. However, the MoD is still not meeting its own performance targets. Highest priority items sent by air should arrive in theatre within five days. However, in 2010, this was achieved in only around a third of cases. Failure to deliver the right item on time is primarily due to items being unavailable for transport. This means that either the MoD is not accurately forecasting usage and repair rates; or suppliers are unable to respond to demand. Moreover, the MoD is unable to reconcile coherently the information it does possess on the location of its assets and its inventory and supply chain costs. One consequence of this lack of information is that more material than necessary is being sent by air, including many items which have predictable demand. While surface routes are not suitable for all types of equipment and can carry greater security risks, at least 90 per cent of total transport costs to Afghanistan comes from air deliveries - transferring just 10 per cent of items sent by air to Afghanistan to surface delivery routes would save an estimated £15 million per year.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the Third International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management in Mediterranean Countries, ISCRAM-med 2016, held in Madrid, Spain, in October 2016. Information systems and technologies can play a key role in crisis management in order to support preparation, response, mitigation and recovery processes. Yet technology is not enough to guarantee a better management process, and therefore the conference does not only focus on engineering technologies, but also on their application and practical experiences. The 12 full and 8 short papers presented in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 36 submissions. They are organized in topical sections on mobile apps for citizens, modeling and simulation, development of information systems, information and knowledge management, collaboration and coordination, social computing, and issues in humanitarian crisis.

The adoption of Information Technology (IT) and Information Systems (IS) represents significant financial investments, with alternative perspectives to the evaluation domain coming from both the public and private sectors. As a result of increasing IT/IS budgets and their growing significance within the development of an organizational infrastructure, the evaluation and performance measurement of new technology remains a perennial issue for management. This book offers a refreshing and updated insight into the social fabric and technical dimensions of IT/IS evaluation together with insights into approaches used to measure the impact of information systems on its stakeholders. In doing so, it describes the portfolio of appraisal techniques that support the justification of IT/IS investments. Evaluating Information Systems explores the concept of evaluation as an evolutionary and dynamic process that takes into account the ability of enterprise technologies to integrate information systems within and between organisations. In particular, when set against a backdrop of organisational learning. It examines the changing portfolio of benefits, costs and risks associated with the adoption and diffusion of technology in today's global marketplace. Finally approaches to impact assessment through performance management and benchmarking is discussed.

Concentration tendencies, globalization, increasing cost pressure and well-informed customers all make up the hard competition faced by today's businesses. The "right" products, a successful market image, a strong positioning between suppliers and customers, efficient logistics and optimum organization structures contribute to a company's survival. Achieving this goal requires flexible information and communication systems that are fully adaptable to the specific situation. Modern retail information systems are not bound by organization borders but support both business partner cooperation and electronic commerce. This book presents the architecture of retail information systems, as well as the functions of SAP Retail, and in so doing links modern retail management with the implementation strategies based on innovative software systems.

This book contains selected Computer, Management, Information and Educational Engineering related papers from the 2014 International Conference on Management, Information and Educational Engineering (MIEE 2014) which was held in Xiamen, China on November 22-23, 2014. The conference aimed to provide a platform for researchers, engineers and academic

This book focuses on port collaborative operation, an important emerging topic in the port and shipping industry, and deeply analyzes the high-quality collaborative mechanism of port groups from the perspectives of port groups’ supply chain cooperative operation mechanism, port groups’ logistics network optimization, port groups’ collaborative scheduling optimization of resources, etc. Based on the combination of qualitative and quantitative analysis on China’s cases, this book makes comprehensive use of game theory, network optimization, multi-dimensional resource cooperative scheduling optimization, and other theories and methods, and promotes the update and innovation of current research methods in related research areas. The feasible policy insights for optimization of port groups’ collaborative operation are suggested at the end of book, which will help with the improvement of economic, environmental, and social benefits of port groups, and promote the port industry’s innovation, upgrading, and transformation. The translation was done with the help of artificial intelligence. A subsequent human revision was done primarily in terms of content. The present version has been revised technically and linguistically by the authors in collaboration with a professional translator.