[AISWorld] CFP: Engineering and Management of IT-based Service Systems: A Systems Approach, CFP of IJITSA

[mmora at securenym.net]

********************** CALL FOR PAPERS **********************
International Journal of Information Technologies and the Systems Approach
(IJITSA). Website: http://www.igi-global.com/ijitsa
Published Semi-Annually since 2008 (both in Print and Electronic form)

SPECIAL ISSUE ON:
Engineering and Management of IT-based Service Systems: A Systems Approach

Guest Editors:
*Dr. Ovsei Gelman, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, México
*Dr. Mahesh S. Raisinghani, Texas Woman’s University, USA
*Dr. Miroljub Kljajic, University of Maribor, Slovenia
*Dr. Manuel Mora, Autonomous University of Aguascalientes, Mexico

INTRODUCTION:

While services –as a type of business classification (Quinn, 1992)- and
service systems have been engineered, managed and studied from early past
century (Chase and Apte, 2007), their core re-foundations can be tracked
recently (Cook et al. 1999). Furthermore, the economic relevance of service
systems (or service sector in general) in the modern worldwide economy is
totally recognized. As Sheenan (2006) reports “business organizations
focused on delivering help, utility, experience, information or other
intellectual content 
 account for more than 70% of total value added in
the OECD”. Thus, service systems and service concept - as opposed to the
product concept or the single post-sale business activity - have
experienced fundamental changes, and acquired a high-practical business and
theoretical relevance. In this special issue, we pursue to advance our
scientific knowledge on the processes, methodologies, techniques and tools
for engineering and managing IT-based service systems under a Systems
Approach. The service-oriented paradigm has permeated several disciplines
(Chesbrough and Spohrer, 2006). IT-based service systems can be defined as
“
 a value coproduction configuration of people, IT, other internal and
external service systems, and shared information (such as language,
processes, metrics, prices, policies, and laws.” (adapted from Spohrer et
al., 2007).  Accordingly, a service can be defined –in general- as “
 the
application of resources (including competences, skills, and knowledge) to
make changes that have value for another (system)” (idem, 2007). Service
paradigm has been identified as one of the relevant themes for IT in the
last decade (Demirkan and Goul, 2006; Rai and Sambamurthy, 2006; Beachboard
et al. 2007; Zhao et al. 2008). In particular, in this track we are
interested in advancing the scientific knowledge on how to design IT-based
service systems, as systems which comprise hardware, software, network
infrastructure, data, environment and people components (Gallup et al.,
2009). While models of processes for engineering and managing IT-based
service systems (like ITILv2, ITIL v3, CMMI-SVC, CobIT, ITUP, MOF 4, ISO
20000) have been posed, their specific practices are still unclear and few
used by most IT practitioners. We consider such a topic to be mandatory to
foster a cost-effective and trustworthy engineering and management of
IT-based service systems (Buede, 2000). Additionally, since IT-based
service systems are also systems (Tien, 2008; Alter, 2008; Mora et al.,
2009) their essential and shared attributes for general systems (Ackoff,
1971; Gelman and Garcia, 1989) should be considered.  Based on
aforementioned issues for systems, service systems, and IT-based systems,
we believe that a Systems Approach (Ackoff et al., 1962; Checkland, 2000)
and a Systems Engineering view (Sage, 2000; Buede, 2000) can be helpful for
this aim.  A Systems Approach can be defined as an answering and
problem-solving system comprised of: (i) systemic philosophical paradigms
(P’s: an ontological, epistemological and axiological stance on the world):
(ii) systemic theoretical frameworks (F’s: ideas-constructs, theories, and
models); (iii) systemic methodologies (M’s: methods, techniques, and
instruments), and (iv) situational areas identified as systems (A’s: 
natural, artificial or social objects, artifacts and subjects under
study). Similarly, a Systems Engineering discipline, can be briefly
defined as “the
interdisciplinary approach and means to enable the realization of
successful (cost-efficient and trustworthy) systems”. *

References

*Ackoff, R. (1971). Towards a system of systems concepts. Management
Science, 17(11), 661–671.*

*Alter, S. (2008). Service Systems Fundamentals: Work Systems, Value Chains
and Life Cycle, IBM Systems Journal, 47(1), 71-85.*

*Beachboard, J. et al. (2007). AMCIS 2007 Panel on IT Service Management:
IT Service Management in the IS Curriculum. Communications of the AIS,
20(35), 555-566.*

*Buede, E. (2000). The engineering design of systems. (Wiley Series in
Systems Engineering, A. Sage (Ed)). New York: Wiley.*

*Chase, R. and Apte, U. (2007).  A history of research in service
operations: What’s the big idea? Journal of Operations Management, 25,
375–386.*

*Chesbrough, H. & Spohrer, J. (2006). A research manifesto for services
science. Communica-tions of the ACM. 49(7). 35-40.*

*Cook, D., Goh, C. and Chung, C. (1999). Service Typologies: a State of the
Art Survey. Production and Operation Management, 8(3), 318-338.*

*Demirkan, H. & Goul, M. (2006). AMCIS 2006 Panel Summary: Towards the
Service Oriented Enterprise Vision: Bridging Industry and Academics.
Communications of the AIS, 18(26), 546-556.*

*Gelman, O.  and Garcia, J. (1989). Formulation and axiomatization of the
concept of general sys-tem. Outlet of the Mexican Institute of Planning and
Systems Operation, 19(92), 1-81.*

*Gallup**, S., Dattero, R., Quan, J. & Conger, S. (2009). An Overview of IT
Service Management. Communications of the ACM, 52(5), 124-127.*

*Gelman, O.  and Garcia, J. (1989). Formulation and axiomatization of the
concept of general sys-tem. Outlet of the Mexican Institute of Planning and
Systems Operation, 19(92), 1-81.*

*Meiren, T. (2008). Theory and Application Focus in Services Research. In:
 D.
Spath and W. Ganz (Eds). The Future of Services: Trends and Perspectives.
Hanser: Germany. (37-48).*

*Mora, M., Raisinghani, M., O’Connor, R., & Gelman, O. (2009). Toward an
Integrated Conceptualization of the Service and Service System Concepts:  a
Systems Approach.  International Journal of Information Systems in the
Service Sector (IJISSS), 1(2), 36-57.*

*Quinn, J.B. (1992). Intelligent Enterprise. New York: The Free Press.*

*Sage, A. (2000). Systems engineering education. IEEE Transactions on
Systems, Man and Cybernetics – Part C: Applications and Reviews, 30(2),
164-174.*

*Sheehan, J. (2006). Understanding Service Sector and Innovation.
Communications of the ACM, 49(7), 43-47.*

*Spath, D., Ganz, W. & Tombell, A. (2008). Forward-looking Service Research
to serve the Future Service Economy. In:  D. Spath and W. Ganz (Eds). The
Future of Services: Trends and Perspectives. Hanser: Germany. (1-13).*

*Spohrer, J. (2007). Service Sciences, Management and Engineering website:
www.research.ibm.com/ssme/.*

*Spohrer, J. (2008). The Service Systems as the Basic Abstraction of
Service Science. (in press). *

*Tien, J. and Berg, D. (2003). A case for service systems engineering. 
Journal
of  Systems Science and Systems Engineering,  12(1), 13–38.*

*Tien, J. (2008). Services: A System’s Perspective. IEEE Systems Journal,
2(1), 146-157.*

*Zhao,  J. et al. (2008). ICIS 2007 Panel Report: Bridging Service
Computing and Service Management: How MIS Contributes to Service
Orientation. Communication of the AIS, 22(22), 413 – 428..  *

OBJECTIVE OF THE SPECIAL ISSUE:

This special issue aims to increase our scientific theoretical and applied
knowledge on the engineering and management of IT-based service systems
from a Systems Approach view.*

RECOMMENDED TOPICS:

Topics to be discussed in this special issue include (but are not limited
to) the following:



*Systems Foundations of IT-based Service Systems*

*Determination of the Role of Service Systems in Super-systems
such as Economical, Environmental, Social and Political that is making it a
Service System*

*Definition of Sub-systems that are forming a Service System in
order to assure the fulfillment of its Mission and Objectives*

*The specificity of the organization and management of the
service systems, which assure their productivity as well as their
development*

*Conceptual comparative studies of ITSM standards and models (ISO
20000, ITIL, CMMI-SVC, ITUP, MOF 4, CobIT) *

*Empirical studies on implementations of ITSM standards and
models (ISO 20000, ITIL, CMMI-SVC, ITUP, MOF 4, CobIT) *

*Applied cases of implemented engineering practices for IT-based
Service Systems*

*Applied cases of implemented management practices for IT-based
Service Systems*

*Applied cases in real Data Centers*

*Applied cases of adaptations of ITSM Processes for specific SMBs*

*Application of IT-based Service Systems in Critical domains
(health care, international security, international financial stock
markets, green initiatives, gap e-education) *

*Classification of IT-based Service Systems *

*Value models for IT-based Service Systems (how can it be valued
a priori (designs) and a posteriori (evaluations of real systems))*

*Innovative applications of IT-based Service Systems *


SUBMISSION DUE DATE:  June  30, 2013
PUBLISHING DATE: * July, 2014**


SUBMISSION PROCEDURE:

Researchers and practitioners are invited to submit papers for this special
theme issue *Engineering and Management of IT-based Service Systems: a
Systems Approach **on or before June 30, 2013 to Dr. Manuel Mora (
ijitsa at gmail.com)*. All submissions must be original and may not be under
review by another publication. INTERESTED AUTHORS SHOULD CONSULT THE
JOURNAL’S GUIDELINES FOR MANUSCRIPT SUBMISSIONS at:

http://www.igi-global.com/development/author_info/guidelines%20submission.pdf.


All submitted papers will be reviewed on a double-blind, peer review basis.
Papers must follow APA style for reference citations.


ABOUT International Journal of Information Technologies and the Systems
Approach (IJITSA): ** **The Journal of Information Technologies and Systems
Approach (IJITSA) is an academic and practitioner journal created to
disseminate and discuss high quality research results on Information
Systems and related upper and lower level Systems as well as on its
interactions with Software Engineering, Systems Engineering, Complex
Systems and Philosophy issues, through rigorous Theoretical, Modeling,
Engineering or Behavioral studies in order to explore, describe, explain,
predict, design, control, evaluate, interpret, intervene and/or develop
organizational systems where Information Systems are the main objects of
study and the Systems Approach –any variant- is the main research
methodology and philosophical stance used. **This journal is an official
publication of the Information Resources Management Association (**
http://www.igi-global.com/ijitsa* <http://www.igi-global.com/ijitsa>*), and
it is semi annually published (both in print and electronic form).*

Editors-in-Chief:
Frank Stowell, University of Portsmouth, UK
Manuel Mora, Autonomous University of Aguascalientes, Mexico


International Journal of Information Technologies and the Systems Approach
(IJITSA)*
*http://www.igi-global.com/ijitsa

-- 
Dr. Manuel Mora
Information Systems
Autonomous University of Aguascalientes
Mexico, 20131