TY - JOUR A1 - Czarnecki, Christian A1 - Spiliopoulou, Myra T1 - A holistic framework for the implementation of a next generation network JF - International Journal of Business Information Systems N2 - As the potential of a next generation network (NGN) is recognised, telecommunication companies consider switching to it. Although the implementation of an NGN seems to be merely a modification of the network infrastructure, it may trigger or require changes in the whole company, because it builds upon the separation between service and transport, a flexible bundling of services to products and the streamlining of the IT infrastructure. We propose a holistic framework, structured into the layers ‘strategy’, ‘processes’ and ‘information systems’ and incorporate into each layer all concepts necessary for the implementation of an NGN, as well as the alignment of these concepts. As a first proof-of-concept for our framework we have performed a case study on the introduction of NGN in a large telecommunication company; we show that our framework captures all topics that are affected by an NGN implementation. KW - next generation network KW - telecommunication KW - NGN KW - IP-based networks KW - product bundling Y1 - 2012 U6 - http://dx.doi.org/10.1504/IJBIS.2012.046291 SN - 1746-0972 VL - 9 IS - 4 SP - 385 EP - 401 PB - Inderscience Enterprises CY - Olney, Bucks ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Ferrein, Alexander A1 - Meyer, Thomas T1 - A Brief Overview of Artificial Intelligence in South Africa JF - AI Magazine N2 - South Africa in recent years is the establishment of a number of research hubs involved in AI activities ranging from mobile robotics and computational intelligence, to knowledge representation and reasoning, and human language technologies. In this survey we take the reader through a quick tour of the research being conducted at these hubs, and touch on an initiative to maintain and extend the current level of interest in AI research in the country. Y1 - 2012 U6 - http://dx.doi.org/10.1609/aimag.v33i1.2357 SN - 0738-4602 VL - 33 IS - 1 SP - 99 EP - 101 PB - AAAI CY - Menlo Park ER -