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Since the mid‐1990s, organisations have spent quite a bit of time, money and effort developing new “e”‐channels and routes to market. With the advent and rapid adoption of e‐commerce in the late 1990s, organisational efforts were largely geared toward customer acquisition with little to no thought given to customer retention and post‐sale service. As the e‐commerce matures, and in the wake of numerous high‐profile business failures, it is time for savvy managers to use the information that is contained within their systems to gain and sustain competitive advantage. Adapted from its original use in software measurement, the GQIM approach has proved effective in helping managers to identify critical business information. Coupled with the five maxims of satisfaction, managers are provided with a complete framework for the development of an e‐commerce customer satisfaction programme.

The purpose of this paper is to approach the issue of taxation of robotic process automation (RPA) through an interpretive lens provided by both Adam Smith and Karl Marx. Both scholars have affected the understanding and attitudes of generations of economists, and their ideas have considerable influenced modern economic policy. It will be argued that Smith and Marx have much to offer to help contemporary economists understand the taxation of RPA, and their writings on machines, automation, and their impact on the human labor force will be discussed from their primary texts.

The paper interprets the works of Marx and Smith in relation to contemporary debates on automation, particularly, proposals to tax technological innovations to offset the social costs of automation’s displacement effects.

In the case of Adam Smith, there is not enough evidence to suggest that he would support a specific taxation of RPA; however, he very well might agree with a modest taxation of capital goods. Marx would very likely support a taxation in the short-run, however, would be inclined to caution that the ownership of robots should in the long run be transferred to society.

This paper uses primary texts from the discipline of history of economic thought to spark a discussion about compensating the externalities of technological innovation.

The technical support team at a small European software firm was in virtual revolt. The product that they supported was error‐prone and after three rounds of redundancies morale was at an all time low. With the arrival of a new management team, the support manager was given the remit to drastically improve productivity and increase the revenue potential of the department. Through a case‐based approach, both qualitative and quantitative methods are used to evaluate the applicability of the goals, questions, indicators, measures (GQIM) approach in a field environment, illustrating the practical application of the conceptual work on goal‐based methodologies that was previously presented in this journal (2002).

To validate the use of fuzzy control systems for information channel optimisation.

The research presents findings from a multi‐year case‐based study of an international software organisation. At the outset of the study, baseline log‐file data were collected from the organisation's customer relationship management and financial systems. As part of a business process reengineering effort, a fuzzy control system model was created and implemented to optimise the software support communication channels. After the first year, data were recollected to determine the effectiveness of the model. The log‐file analysis was augmented with individual interviews of stakeholders within the business.

The optimisation strategy based on the fuzzy control system allowed the organisation to focus on answering more queries from higher value customers and cut the support resolution time nearly in half, in less than a year. By focusing on higher value customers and more productive information channels, staff efficiency increased and costs were reduced. This research indicates that customers using synchronous communication channels such as the telephone seem to get better service than those using asynchronous channels such as e‐mail or web. Additionally, the research also indicates that several geographic factors such as proximity and language proficiency could influence information channel choice affecting the level of service received.

The case findings could be specific to the observed organisation or to the software service industry. Additional research is necessary to determine the universality of the method and ancillary findings.

Methods outlined in this case provide both practitioners and researchers with new tools to explore and react to the challenges of information channel proliferation.

With the proliferation of new information channels such as the Web, e‐mail and wireless, it is becoming increasingly important to understand the impact of these technologies within information‐seeking and retrieval contexts. This issue of Aslib Proceedings presents research that begins to address the notion of “information disparity”. It aims to weave a common thread between the challenges of reconciling disparate information needs in an environment complicated by fragmented or disparate data sources. This article lists several emerging trends that should begin to challenge traditional notions of our research field.

Information seeking is a fluid and situation dependent activity where a seeker's actions are influenced by access to information, perceived quality (or information fit) and trust in the information source. All of these factors combined create an ever‐changing information‐seeking environment. Generally, traditional models and survey methodologies capture a “snapshot in time” of a particular information‐seeking activity, but fail to capture the multivalent influences of things such as chance, frequency of encounters, strength of source or the introduction of new or multiple influencers. Using the tool of fuzzy control systems, a new conceptual model is introduced that not only diagrams the influences on the information seeker, but also provides a framework to devise (or refine existing) communications strategies.

Software development projects are notoriously poorly managed. It is not uncommon for projects to be delivered late and over budget by a factor of 50% to 100% ‐‐ in fact, in some software development organisations it is expected or even regarded as normal. The paper aims to fuse traditional project management theory with customer satisfaction principles most often applied within marketing disciplines. By thoroughly understanding the motivations of stakeholders and adopting a customer‐focused approach, a project manager can begin to effectively manage expectations and reduce overall stakeholder dissatisfaction.

The first in a series on goal‐based information modelling, this paper presents a literature review of two goal‐based measurement methods. The second article in the series will build on this background to present an overview of some recent case‐based research that shows the applicability of the goal‐based methods for information modelling (as opposed to measurement). The third and concluding article in the series will present a new goal‐based information model – the goal‐based information framework (GbIF) – that is well suited to the task of documenting and evaluating organisational information flow.

Following a literature review of the goal‐question‐metric (GQM) and goal‐question‐indicator‐measure (GQIM) methods, the paper presents the strengths and weaknesses of goal‐based approaches.

The literature indicates that the goal‐based methods are both rigorous and adaptable. With over 20 years of use, goal‐based methods have achieved demonstrable and quantifiable results in both practitioner and academic studies. The down side of the methods are the potential expense and the “expansiveness” of goal‐based models. The overheads of managing the goal‐based process, from early negotiations on objectives and goals to maintaining the model (adding new goals, questions and indicators), could make the method unwieldy and expensive for organisations with limited resources. An additional challenge identified in the literature is the narrow focus of “top‐down” (i.e. goal‐based) methods. Since the methods limit the focus to a pre‐defined set of goals and questions, the opportunity for discovery of new information is limited.

Much of the previous work on goal‐based methodologies has been confined to software measurement contexts in larger organisations with well‐established information gathering processes. Although the next part of the series presents goal‐based methods outside of this native context, and within low maturity organisations, further work needs to be done to understand the applicability of these methods in the information science discipline.

This paper presents an overview of goal‐based methods. The next article in the series will present the method outside the native context of software measurement. With the universality of the method established, information scientists will have a new tool to evaluate and document organisational information flow.

As with many professional programmes, nursing students in the United Kingdom spend a significant proportion of their time ‘on placement’ – applying their theoretical learning to the clinical area.While off campus and at a distance from their peers and university staff, however, they must continue to study and complete assessments. This creates enormous complexities for nursing students; issues of retention and success, anxiety and isolation are well documented in the research literature relating to this particularly diverse group. Emerging technologies offer opportunities to increase engagement between nursing students and faculty, thus potentially eliminating many of these difficulties. At Glasgow Caledonian University, a blog was developed to provide new students with remote support and a virtual community while on their first placement. The open access resource offered a link between faculty and students and a forum for peer support among the cohort. Student produced materials, such as ‘talking head’ videos and placement diaries, were posted alongside assessment-specific learning resources developed by staff. The blog was fully interactive and participants were encouraged to comment on and respond to posts in order to increase engagement. A thorough evaluation of the continuing initiative highlighted the success and further potential of the resource but also suggested limitations in terms of interactive engagement and issues of digital literacy among some learners. This chapter will discuss the use of technologies such as blogs in providing remote support to learners, using the student nurse blog as a case study.