About ISEing

The discipline of eBusiness/eGovernment/eLearning has emerged in recent years as the most pervasive and fastest growing field in Business Schools nationally and internationally. It includes all aspects of organisational information systems, knowle3dge, technology and communications to improve business efficiency, effectiveness and performance of individuals, organisations and society. These systems have had a significant impact upon knowledge management, processes, innovation and systems evaluation.The last decade has seen an unparalleled increase in the adoption and diffusion of these new systems and technologies which have fundamentally transformed organisational structures and behaviour. The vision and core rationale for ISEing is to investigate, evaluate and communicate solutions to managerial issues within these complex environments.

The research areas most readily identified relate to the ‘alignment’ of systems and technology with business structures. These include ‘planning’ for strategic success and potential competitive advantage. Other areas involve aspects of eBusiness/eLearning which may support electronic processes through online, web based, processes. In addition, Knowledge management systems play an important role through opportunities to extend the manipulation of information to real practical solutions which consequently improve business performance. All systems and technologies necessitate a consideration of change management issues due to their complex implementation and the subsequent alteration in organisational structures. A critical aspect of recent systems developments in this respect also relate for the need to attend to issues of ‘security’ and ‘business continuity’. All the features of eGovernment are included in this research with important implications for democratic processes.

Members of ISEing are actively engaged in the research areas noted with extensive publications in a many high level journals. There are also currently three ‘in-house’ journals edited by colleagues including, Transforming Government, People Process and Policy, Enterprise Information Management, Electronic Government Research.

Recent grant success include, UbiPOL, eGovPoliNet, LiveCity, OASIS, I-MEET and CEES all through a variety of funding bodies including, EU 7th Framework, CIP, Qatar Foundation and Marie Curie Actions.

The group provides a forum for academic and practitioner research at the interface between eBusiness/eGovernment and management processes. This also includes modelling and eLearning approaches through software development and exploitation.

The discipline of eBusiness/eGovernment in particular has emerged in recent years as the most pervasive and fastest growing field in Business Schools nationally and internationally. It includes all aspects of business information systems, technology and communication to improve the efficiency, effectiveness and performance of individuals, organisations and society. These systems have had a significant impact upon knowledge management, business processes, innovation and systems evaluation.

The ISEing research group supports a number of Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) funded networks and projects. The last decade has seen an unparalleled increase in the adoption and diffusion of these new eBusiness/eGovernment systems and technologies which have fundamentally transformed organisational structures and behaviour. The core rationale for ISEing, is to investigate, evaluate and communicate solutions to managerial issues in these complex environments.

Shaping UK Climate Change Policy to 2020
Developing national environmental policy is a multifaceted task which involves a deep understanding of how complex biological systems interact within a wider ecosystem – which includes humans. Specifically, the UK is committed to reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 3 million tonnes of CO2 by 2020. To meet this objective, the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) has been seeking to use a wider range of evidences to try and better understand those factors that can lead to the reduction of these emissions from agriculture and on-farm practices. This research has improved the design, implementation and review of the stated policy as well as the policy-making process within the department through a transfer of knowledge. As a result the research has increased the capability and capacity of DEFRA to model and develop environmental policy scenarios by adding to their toolkit of policy modelling techniques.

Product and Service Innovation through Inclusive Design
This research has led to a shift in products and service design addressing the challenges raised by the unprecedented demographic changes cause by longevity. By focusing commercial design effort on inclusive design practices, the research has impacted directly the older consumers by providing socially inclusive products and services (e.g. product details here), which in turn enhance their quality of living (e.g. product benefit here).
In addition to the impact on the end-users, the research represents the knowledge base that Age UK has exploited to attract and grow AGE UK business network -Engage- and to underpin the principles of the AGE UK Products and Service Accreditation schemes launched in 2012.

CEES project helps Turkey, Qatar and Lebanon governments to increase citizen satisfaction of using their eGovernment services
CEES project, funded by EU FP7 People program, delivered a new evaluation model, called COBRA, for benchmarking eGovernment services from citizen’s perspective. The model has been successfully applied to identifying services for further improvement by Turkish eGovernment service provider (Turkat) who has 12 million citizen users. It turned out that the citizen satisfaction of using their eGovernment system was improved by 30% after the improvement based on COBRA framework. Also, the research outcome enabled the launch of a new project, called I-MEET, that extended COBRA framework to apply it in Qatar, Lebanon, and the UK. eGovernment service providers such as ictQATAR and OMSAR (Office of the Minister of State for Administrative Reform) decided to adopt the COBRA framework to evaluate and improve their eGovernment services in Qatar and Lebanon respectively.

Electronic Government Research in the UK – A roadmap towards implementation of e-Governments
e-Government is widely perceived as fundamental to the reform, modernisation and improvement of public services. Although significant benefits have arisen from wiring-up-Government, progress towards achieving e-Government in the broader sense has been slower than expected. This research consolidated existing and developed new themes in e-Government and delivered these benefits:

• Stakeholder-agreed structure/framework defining all relevant e-Government issues
• Defined and agreed specific details of e-Government terminology
• Full recommendations for an integrated e-Government programme
• Priorities for e-Government research

Together, these created a body of knowledge that enabled delivery of novel and effective change in society and is contributing to making the UK a world leader on e-Government.