A Systematic Snapshot of Small Packaged Software Vendors' Enterprises

This article describes how small packaged software vendors' enterprises (SPSVEs) have played a massive role in a software environment and contributed dramatically to economies. The purpose of this article is to investigate and categorize the most recent of literature addressing small packaged software vendors' enterprises through a systematic snapshot research in order to identify current research topics and highlight some areas needing more consideration. The pattern of the authors' systematic approach is based on developing a classification scheme which targets a collection of papers published within the period of 2007-2017. The authors analysed one hundred and one papers from peer-reviewed conferences, journals, and workshops to examine the current state of SPSVE's research in order to provide systematic snapshot mapping (SSM) that includes the small packaged software life cycle, research methods used, and country of study. The systematic snapshot of 101 papers reveals that the majority of the literature has focused on the planning and implementation phases of SPSVEs. Figuring out a new model of packaged software life-cycle in SMEs will occur by applying the model of categorizations with regard to the life cycle with its factors and sub factors. Moreover, it will contribute to finding research methods, regions, top ten citation, articles type classifications, and other kinds of classifications. This research is targeted to small packaged software vendors' enterprises (SPSVEs). The authors' finding is intended for software research areas more than economic research areas. This article has presented a high degree of benefits in order to assist researchers in evidence-based decision making in terms of investigating hot research areas in line with the small packaged software vendors' enterprises (SPSVEs).

Maximizing the Value of Packaged Software Customization

Organizations that purchase packaged application software – for example, an Enterprise Resource Planning system – must make choices about customization. Packaged software vendors and practitioners recommend that organizations customize software as little as possible, and instead adapt their processes to meet the “best practices” of the software. However, organizations continue to exceed their budgets on implementing and maintaining customized software. This suggests that either these organizations are making poor decisions, or that the conventional wisdom about customization is incorrect. In this paper the author models the primary factors in the customization decision, most notably the “fit” between desired processes and the procedures inherent in the packaged software. The author then consider costs related to development, maintenance, and technical corrections due to poor integration and performance; and benefits related to increased fit, technical corrections, and user acceptance. This paper extends prior work by (1) modelling nonlinear relationships between the amount of time spent on custom development and the resulting benefits, (2) modelling nonlinear relationships between development costs and maintenance costs, and (3) modelling corrective development as a function of development related to fit and user acceptance. The author uses simulation techniques to illustrate the conditions under which customization is likely to provide value to the organization, as well as conditions under which customization should be avoided.

To Code or Not to Code

Businesses that purchase packaged application software – for example, an Enterprise Resource Planning system – must make choices about customization. Software vendors, anecdotal evidence, and practitioner-oriented research all recommend that organizations should customize software as little as possible, and instead adapt their processes to meet the “best practices” of the software. However, businesses continue to exceed their budgets on implementing and maintaining customized software, often to a significant extent. This suggests that either these organizations are making poor decisions, or that the conventional wisdom about customization is incorrect. In this paper we model the primary factors in the customization decision: “fit” between the desired business process and the packaged software; costs related to development, maintenance, integration, and performance; and benefits related to increased fit, integration, performance, and user acceptance. We use simulation techniques to illustrate the conditions under which customization is likely to provide value to the organization, as well as conditions under which customization should be avoided.

Assessment of managers’ proclivity for social dialogue in Bangladeshi Textile Industries

This study examines the relationship of two important constructs (the belief and attitude constructs) with managers’ proclivity for using Social Dialogue – a tool for managing people at work (patronised by ILO) for maintaining peace and harmony in Bangladeshi textile industries. Managers’ personal belief and attitude within an organisation might affect the managerial responses towards social dialogue. The obtained data from the questionnaires are analysed through the 1st generation statistical packaged software (SPSS) and hypotheses are tested using Smart PLS software package well known as 2nd generation data analysis software. Analyses results strongly supported the relationship of the belief and attitude construct with managers’ proclivity for using social dialogue. The research surveyed three hundred fifty-one managers at 49 textile industries. The findings of this study suggest that the belief and attitude construct have a significant positive relationship with managers’ penchant for supporting social dialogue. The result of the paper provides managers with a credible argument to continually question their employee perceptions and objectively analyse whether their beliefs and attitudes impact their intention to use social dialogue. The selected sample should have been from strategic, tactical, and operational level of management that remains as a research limitation.

Addressing Security Requirements through Onshore Agile Development When Packaging Software in the Distributed Development Domain: An empirical study

Designing software for use by multiple clients has become commonplace in the software sector and has led to many vendors focusing on developing software for a specific sector, marketing the product then modifying it to a customer’s requirements. To fit the software to the client’s needs involves a unique form of teamwork, and it is usually an offshore team that processes the requests and implements the changes to the initial infrastructure. Unfortunately, this contravenes organizations’ information security requirements, due to their multiple structures and infrastructures and their need for privacy as well as swift processing of requests at reasonable cost. This study proposes a hybrid model, the Onshore Agile Security Requirements Development (OASRD) model, which uses Agile to meet the security implications arising from the onshore team working at the client’s site while it processes the customization requirements. It investigates the impact of the model on productivity, measured by the number of security and customization requirements that are processed and the estimated cost in terms of human resources. The evaluation reveals a statistically significant increase in productivity of about 40%, accompanied by a reduction in cost of more than 48% over the entire customization process, demonstrating the advantages of customizing packaged software through distributed development.

The Examination of Teachers’ Levels of Organizational Happiness

This study aims to investigate the levels of organizational happiness of teachers working in primary, secondary, and high schools and to determine whether there is a significant difference in terms of some demographic characteristics. The screening model was employed in the study. The study population consists of teachers working in the Küçükçekmece, Bağcılar, Avcılar, and Esenyurt districts during the 2017-2018 academic year. The sample of the study comprises 297 teachers working in the Küçükçekmece, Bağcılar, Avcılar, and Esenyurt districts and selected via the convenience/incidental sampling method. In the study, the “Personal Information Form” created by the researchers and the “School Happiness Scale” developed by Bulut (2015) were used as data collection tools. The SPSS packaged software was used in the data analysis. According to the results of the data analysis, teachers’ general happiness perceptions and organizational happiness perceptions were observed to be high according to the subdimensions of management processes, attitudes towards the teaching profession, communication, commitment and economic provision of the School Happiness Scale. Teachers’ perceptions of organizational happiness differed significantly according to the level of education taught by teachers in the subdimensions of management processes and economic provision of the School Happiness Scale. Teachers’ perceptions of organizational happiness differed significantly according to professional seniority in the management processes subdimension of the School Happiness Scale. Teachers’ perceptions of organizational happiness differed significantly in the subdimensions of management processes, attitudes towards the teaching profession, commitment, and economic provision of the School Happiness Scale and according to the branch variable in the overall total. Teachers’ perceptions of organizational happiness did not differ significantly according to the variables of gender, educational status, age, and seniority in the school where they worked.

Manufacturing Companies

One of the most debated areas regarding the introduction of new technologies into companies of all sizes is ERP systems implementation. These integrated software packages normally encompass the main transaction processing and information reporting requirements of a company, spanning sales order processing, financial management, human resource management, stock movement, and inventory control. It has led to a widespread debate in the literature regarding the respective merits of procuring and implementing an ERP system or deploying individual standalone software packages. The increased take-up of packaged software also coincided with the spread of business process re-engineering (BPR) to improve efficiencies and reduce overheads. The two became closely linked as BPR projects were frequently combined with the introduction of new software solutions. In this chapter, three such cases are reviewed, all involving major new packaged software implementations in manufacturing companies and all associated with varying degrees of process change.

Examination of the Attitudes of Adanaspor’s and Adana Demirspor’s Supporters Relevant to Fanaticism

The purpose of this research is to examine the behaviors of Adanaspor’s and Adana Demirspor’s supporters relevant to fanaticism, and to reveal factors causing partisanship and identification levels of partisanship with psycho-social aspects in the context of football fanaticism and supporter identity. The model of this study is screening. 160 supporters in total, as being 80 Adanaspor’s supporters and 80 Adana Demirspor’s supporters, are constituting the study group. In this study, Football Supporters Fanaticism Scale developed by Taşmektepli et al. (2014) has been used as data collection tool. The analysis of data has been performed by SPSS 22 packaged software. First, percentage and frequency analysis have been performed for age, educational background and profession information of each participant, and distribution (Sample K-S) and homogeneity (ANOVA) analyses have been performed in the determination of difference. As per the results of the research, while they are definitely agreeing with the judgments of “I get very angry at the comments of the speaker during live broadcasts which are against the team”, “I go to the stadium for watching my team’s matches”, “I go to the match with clothing and materials indicating the symbols of my team”, “I join all the cheering at the stadium”, “I try to make the individuals or children—who don’t support a team—the supporters of my team”, they are definitely not agreeing with the judgments of “I may throw foreign bodies to field when I get angry during the match”, “My team should try all the means including exceptions in order to win the match”, “I may sometimes enter the field if the game has gone off the rails”. The comparison of the teams that the supporters support and of their fanaticism attitudes has been made, and significant difference has been determined in favor of Adanaspor in the judgments of “I get very angry at the comments of the speaker during live broadcasts which are against the team” and “I go to the match with clothing and materials indicating the symbols of my team”.

Reviewing assertiveness level of elite male and female Athletes in Different Sports Branches

The purpose of this research was to review the assertiveness levels of elite level athletes who study in İstanbul Aydın University and play different sports. For this purpose, the survey model was used in the study. A total of 121 students including 36 female (age average x=20,11±1,83) and 85 male (age average x=20,34±2,47) volunteered for this study. Rathus Assertiveness Schedule (RAE) that was developed by A.S Rathus (1973) was used as data collection tool to determine the assertiveness levels of participants (Voltan 1980). Adaption works for Turkish of this schedule was performed by Nilüfer Voltan Acar (1980). Independent T-test and One Way ANOVA Test in SPSS 24.0 packaged software were used in statistical analyses of the data obtained. It was found at the end of the research that the assertiveness level of 19 students is at timidity level, the assertiveness level of 102 students is at an aggressive level. While there were no statistically significant differences in variables of gender, branch, income level and educational background of the parent; there was found statistically significant difference by evaluation based on age ranges.