IntroductionA basic part of business management is the purchasing function. Within the purchasing function, one of the prime responsibilities is the evaluation and selection of suppliers. This is true for all types of business enterprise, both manufacturing and service firms, and for the acquisition of all types of product and service, including major materials and equipment. In today's highly competitive, global operating environment, it is impossible to produce low cost, high quality products successfully without satisfactory suppliers [1].The selection of competent suppliers has long been regarded as one of the most important functions to be performed by a purchasing department. For example, in one of the earliest purchasing texts which was published in 1943, Lewis[2] states that: "It is probable that of all the responsibilities which may be said to belong to the purchasing officers, there is none more important than the selection of a proper source. Indeed, it is in some respects the most important single factor in purchasing".The cost of raw materials, component parts and services purchased from external suppliers is significant for most manufacturing firms. On average, manufacturers' purchases of goods and services amount to 55 per cent of revenues; this is in contrast to labour costs of 6 per cent and overhead expenses of 3 per cent of revenues [3]. For high-technology firms, purchased material and services represent up to 80 per cent of total product costs [4]. The total dollar magnitude of purchases by US businesses exceeds the gross national product (GNP). In a study done on 1982 data, total purchases of goods and services from all US industries were conservatively estimated at approximately $4.211 trillion. This figure is in excess of 37 per cent above the 1982 GNP figure of $3.073 trillion. The manufacturing sector accounted for approximately $1.2 trillion of this total with materials and supplies comprising over 80 per cent of these purchases [5].Even though many organizational purchases are viewed to be simple and routine and require only the monitoring of continued satisfaction with the product's attributes (e.g. quality, delivery, price), all of a firm's purchases were at some time a "first time" purchase requiring the evaluation and selection of a supplier [6]. Commonly known as MRO (maintenance, repair, and operating supplies) items, US business spends $250 billion a year on these items and as an example of the impact, they add about $530 to the cost of a typical Ford
ost organizations use business forms to conduct daily operations and to communicate internally and externally with customers, suppliers, government agencies, and other entities. Traditionally, paper forms have been used and stored with obvious disadvantages of high retrieval and storage cost. With advances in computing technology, electronic forms have begun to supplant their paper counterparts. A number of form management systems have been developed [7,11,12,18,19]. Typically, these systems are closely integrated with a A Form-Based Approach for Database Analysis and Design 108 PHOTO February t992/VoÍ.35, No.2/COMMUNICATIONS OFTHE ACM ARCHIVE PHOTOS/CAMERIOUE r 7 oobin Choobineh
Over the past decade management of information systems security has emerged to be a challenging task. Given the increased dependence of businesses on computer-based systems and networks, vulnerabilities of systems abound. Clearly, exclusive reliance on either the technical or the managerial controls is inadequate. Rather, a multifaceted approach is needed. In this paper, based on a panel presented at the 2007 Americas Conference on Information Systems held in Keystone, Colorado, we provide examples of failures in information security, identify challenges for the management of information systems security, and make a case that these challenges require new theory development via examining reference disciplines. We identify these disciplines, recognize applicable research methodologies, and discuss desirable properties of applicable theories.
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