Economy Informatics Vol VII/No. 1/2007

SUMMARY

The Importance of an Accounting Ontology
Florin APARASCHIVEI 5

Abstract: Many people use accounting terms in their daily activity, without always knowing their exact meaning. Accounting information is the foundation for almost every decision that a company’s manager takes. Accounting knowledge is also a concern for developers of knowledge management systems and accounting intelligent systems.
The goal of this paper is to emphasize the importance of accounting knowledge in an organi-zation and the benefits from building an accounting ontology, for the company as well as for the domain itself.
Keywords: accounting, knowledge, knowledge modelling, ontology.

Business Rules – Important Artefacts of Software Development
Anca Ioana Adreescu, Adina Ileana Uţǎ 11

Abstract: In today’s business environment, characterized by competition enhancement, it is very important for an organization to be able to face changes. Therefore, the need for achieving and maintaining some competition advantages, led to the situation where the identification, specification and formalization of business politics and objectives became major concerns for many organizations. Literature refers to such politics and objectives as business rules. This article aims to analyze various business rules definitions and classifications schemas, from both business and information systems perspectives.
Keywords: Business Rules, Software Development, Classification Schema

The Franchise Deductible Policy
Constanţa-Nicoleta Bodea 15

Abstract: The paper presents applications of credibility theory dealing with real life situations, and implemented on real insurance portfolios. Though more examples could be given, we limit ourselves to the introduction of a franchise deductible policy. In this example we try to demonstrate what kind of data is needed to apply credibility theory. The example shows that credibility theory is really a useful tool-perhaps the only existing tool-for such insurance ap-plications.
Mathematics Subject Classification: 62P05.
Keywords: the risk premium, the credibility calculations, tariff structure.

Insurance Problems Obtained Using the Software Package Crac 2.0
Virginia Atanasiu 20

Abstract: The paper analyses some practical problems of health insurance that can be solved by means of credibility theory. All numerical results in this paper were obtained using the software package CRAC 2.0, which uses Jewell’s hierarchical model. Examples of the output of the program will be given and discussed. This will give more insight and understanding of the theoretical aspects and will point the way to the practical possibilities of the credibility models.
Mathematics Subject Classification: 62P05.
Keywords: the risk premium per employee insured, the sectorial premium, the global pre-mium, an example in health insurance.

Quality Planning and Innovation for Competitive Design of a Software Tool
Stelian BRAD 27

Abstract: Developing new software products brings into equation a lot of challenges because a software product is characterized by invisibility, flexibility and complexity per unit effort. To set up a reliable business plan in new software product development, an accurate evaluation of product market utility, of the expected quality and of the necessary budget to support ap-propriately the development process is required. Because software products are “invisible” during the analysis, design and implementation phases, innovative approaches are required to handle properly both product and related-budget formulation. This paper describes a novel methodology for software product innovation, planning and control, capable to manage at superior levels the development process of complex software products. The exemplification on a software application for quality cost management is afterwards presented.
Keywords: software innovation, software development, software quality planning, quality cost management

E-Service – Customer Service on the Web
Cristea Boboila 39

Abstract: The Internet has impacted the business arena dramatically, creating a world in which the customer is in command and the only constant is change. To succeed in the new world of e-business requires an infrastructure that gives one maximum performance, real-time respon-siveness, application flexibility, and simplified management.
The right system for electronic business (e-business) is the one that enables good practices, rapid integration through fewer “moving parts” and variables, as well as 24-hour, 7-day cus-tomer service. A successful system for e-business must therefore be modular, distributed, and absolutely reliable.
In order to be competitive in e-commerce, the online business must be capable of solving business problems, have a proven record of engineering excellence, have access to a sizable customer base and display the ability to guarantee comprehensive customization to fit unique and changing business conditions.
This paper explores some of the implications for both business and business computing with an emphasis on the continuing evolution of e-business. The paper also discusses decision points and the fundamental importance of something even more critical to e-business success: ease of integration. Finally, the article makes recommendations for certain good practices for effective e-service.
Keywords: Internet, World Wide Web, e-business, e-commerce, e-service, XML.

The E-business Strategy Management
Bogdan GHILIC-MICU, Marinela MIRCEA 45

Abstract: The intensive use of Information and Communication Technology and that of knowl-edge leads the organization towards another method of doing business (electronic business, mobile business, i-business) and towards new organizational patterns (virtual organizations, network organizations). Within this context, each organization must assure an adequate man-agement for each phase of the transformation. Taking into account the diversity of electronic business patterns, the theory at the base of each of them, the different patterns of measuring performance and also the strategic control instruments, we present a development environ-ment of an evaluation and control system to assist managers in formulating, optimizing and implementation of e-business strategies, in operations management and monitoring of per-formance.
Keywords: e-business, e-strategy, performance measurement, Balanced Scorecard, control system.

Theoretical Framework for Quality Evaluation of Tourism-Related Websites Services
Cristian Valentin HAPENCIUC, Iulian CONDRATOV 52

Abstract: Recent developments in the realm of information technology (IT) have brought the Internet to the attention of marketers, who have quickly acknowledged this new, powerful marketing medium and gradually realised its strategic importance. The unique capability of the Web to blend text, pictures, sounds and video clips into multimedia documents has pre-determined the extensive use of the Internet beyond its traditional academic boundaries and made it a popular marketing medium globally.
The area of e-SQ in tourism appears to have been understudied, and there is clearly a need for further research. With growing role of websites as a customer contact point and virtual company office, tourism businesses are realising the strategic importance of a website as a tool for addressing consumers in electronic business environment.
Keywords: Internet marketing, electronic service quality (e-SQ), tourism, website, online con-sumer behaviour, online customer needs.

Financial Diagnosis Expert System
Claudia Isac  59

Abstract: Specialists consider a financial diagnosis necessary for measuring the profitable-ness of invested capital and for estimating the economic and financial equilibrium, which has a certain influence on the economic, financial, and bankruptcy risk rate. Thus, the main pur-pose of any financial diagnosis is to point out the financial state of the company in order to identify possible causes and effects. A financial diagnosis starts with determining and inter-preting a set of economic- financial indicators, which are calculated based on the financial balance sheet.
Keywords: expert system, database, rule base, fact base, financial diagnosis.

Certification of Distributed Informatics Applications
Ion IVAN, Florentin Schiopu, Dragoş Palaghita 64

Abstract: The distributed application concept is defined. The efficiency of distributed applications is strictly dependent on their level of quality. The quality requirements and the way to point out the effective levels that the traits distributed applications have are stated. The certification of distributed applications is validated by passing through stages with detailed and well-defined tasks.
Keywords: certification, distributed application, software quality

Securing the Organization with Network Behavior Analysis
Jack Timofte 73

Abstract: To protect from the ever-growing number of security threats, organizations are look-ing to implement more and more sophisticated security solutions. This is a normal path, since the traditional means of protecting the enterprise, by using firewalls, cannot offer the desired protection level. Tools like intrusion detection systems and intrusion prevention systems are such examples. Another such technology is the Network Behavior Analysis (NBA), which can be implemented as a stand-alone system or included in IDS/IPS or other security tools. The article outlines the NBA technology with its features and limitations and presents the current situation and the possible uses of this technology.
Keywords: Network security, NBA, network behavior analysis, network monitoring.

Feedback from Research and Teaching Functions of Higher Education
Lucia Rusu, Daniel Mican, Monica Vancea 77

Abstract: In the continuous process of expansion, higher education tend to interpret these chal-lenges differently and tries to offer several master degree programs for level of degrees and life long learning. This paper show a model for a feedback from research and teaching func-tions, based on several master degrees programs and students’ opinions about level of mas-ter degrees educations and job perspective. Our proposal is focused on Jakarta Struts Framework since this solution offers more flexibility, portability and interoperability in other applications. This framework validate knowledge management proposal for academia.
Keywords: Education Programme, Struts Framework, Knowledge Management Framework.

Network-Based Modelling and Geographic Information Systems
Luiza Nicoleta RADU, Daniela-Luminita CONSTANTIN 84

Abstract: One of the latest developments of the location theory envisages the territorial net-works, which are considered the most complex type of clusters (compared to pure agglomera-tion and industrial district), more and more researchers concentrating on the systemic ap-proach of these networks and the possibilities to develop adequate models for their analysis. The Geographic Information Systems represent one of the most useful tools in this respect. This paper proposes an inquiry into the network definition and typology, pointing out the pos-sibilities to use the neural network- based models in order to study the territorial relation-ships. The role of Geographic Information System (GIS) as one of the instruments that can provide valuable information in data analyses is also considered.
Keywords: network typology, neural networks, GIS.

Reducing Software Projects Duration Using C#
Marius Vetrici 91

Abstract: This paper analyzes the impact of using the C# language on project development du-ration. A set of duration estimation techniques are explained, the difficulties of estimating software project duration are enumerated and the factors that negatively impact the duration of a software project are analyzed. The technical advantages of C# language are presented as factors that reduce project complexity and duration.
JEL classification: l86 computer software, o22 project analysis
Keywords: Project duration, estimation models, influence factors.

Internet Data Validation
Loredana Mocean 96

Abstract: In Business Information Systems, data validation is the process of ensuring that a program operates on clean, correct and useful data. It uses routines, often called validation rules, that check for correctness or meaningfulness of data that are input to the system.
This paper presents the main aspects in data validation. In the paper is exemplified some functions and methods for data validation in JavaScript. It is exemplified the usage of the theoretical tools by applying them on a few examples chosen from real applications.
Keywords. Data Validation, XML document, JavaScript

Business Intelligence Support Systems and Infrastructures
Mihaela MUNTEAN, Claudiu BRÂNDAŞ 100

Abstract: Business Intelligence (BI) is the most popular concept in today’s Decision Support Technologies. BI offer sophisticated information analysis and information discovery tech-nologies (Data Warehouse, OLAP, Data Mining) that are designed to handle and process the complex business information associated with today’s business environment. Only a revolu-tionary Business Intelligence solution, like the proposed portal-based, can solve the complex issues faced when evaluating decision support applications and ensure the availability of any business-critical information. In this paper we recommend some BI solutions in order to cre-ate a collaborative business environment.
Keywords: Business Intelligence, Collaborative Business Infrastructure, Data Warehouse, Enterprise Portal, Federated Portals, OLAP, Data Mining.

Regional e-Barometer
Mihaela MUREŞAN 105

Abstract: The regional development as main pillar of the European cohesion policy is a very important pole of creativity and innovation, contributing to the increase of the competitive-ness, goal of the Lisbon strategy. In this view, the regional development strategy and the con-crete measures of its implementation represent the frame for the regional and sectoral pro-jects development. The real impact of the implementation of the regional strategy could be evaluated only by a wide process of gathering the regional actors’ views and opinions. A very efficient tool for the evaluation process is the integrated democratic-centric driver for the re-gional development, which offers the virtual frame for a large access to regional strategies implementation and for the wide expression of the regional actors’ satisfaction, related to the regional projects and their implementation. The development of such an integrated frame-work needs to merge different viewpoints and technologies in order to create a regional por-tal for the wide dissemination of the regional programmes according to the development strategy, to ensure their transparency, to increase the opportunities to implement more inno-vative projects, and to collect the regional actors’ opinions on the effectiveness of the pro-jects implementation and the regional strategy objectives fulfillment.
Keywords: e-democracy, e-Government, regional projects quality, virtual public service, ser-vice oriented architecture (SOA), simple object access protocol (SOAP)

IT Projects Performance Indicators
Paul POCATILU 113

Abstract: Many software and IT projects fail or succeed in achieving theirs objectives because dif-ferent causes of which the management of the projects has a high weight. In order to have suc-cessfully projects, lessons learned have to be used, historical data to be collected and metrics and indicators have to be computed and used to compare them with past projects and avoid fail-ure to happen. This paper presents some indicators that can be used for the measurement of IT project management performances.
This paper is based on result of the research project CEEX, Module 2, Code ET 67
Keywords: IT projects, project management, metrics, validation.

Virtualization: an Old Concept in a New Approach
Logica Bănică, Doina Roşca, Cristian Ştefan 118

Abstract: Virtualization technology is transforming today’s IT community, offering new possi-bilities to improve the performance and efficiency of IT infrastructure by a dynamic mapping of the PC resources, enabling to run multiple applications and operating systems on a single physical system. Virtualization also offers high availability and error recovery solutions by encapsulating entire systems into single files that can be replicated and restored on any desti-nation machine.
This paper brings new elements related to the concept of virtualization, presenting the princi-ples, the new architectures and the advantages of the virtualization. We make also a brief comparison between the PC’s functional structure before and after the virtualization. Finally, we present licensed software to create and run multiple virtual machines on a personal com-puter.
Keywords: Virtualization, hypervisor, partitioning, virtual machine

Crisis and Military Conflict Management an Econometric Approach
Stelian STANCU, Tudorel ANDREI 124

Abstract: The paper proposes to study the theoretical aspects concerning the management of crisis and military conflicts.
The indices selected for crisis management are further highlighted and classified into those related to the global, continental, and regional level (mainly focusing on the Black Sea area) as well as Indices related to the national level.
Furthermore, the paper introduces an econometric analysis of the crisis and military conflicts using such dependent variables as follows: military expenses, Gross Domestic Product, rate of interest, inflation rate, size of the population occupied, number of inhabitants, migration rate, birth rate, death rate and the number of terrorist attacks.
Mention should be made that the econometric analysis is based on the data valid for Romania against the regional and international background.
Keywords: crisis management, military conflicts management, specific indices, econometric analysis, dependent variable, trend.

Designing Electronic Learning
Cristian Uscatu 131

Abstract: The success of electronic learning depends on many factors, one of them being the quality of the design of the learning system. In order to achieve its objectives and goals, electronic learning needs a rigorous design process. This may solve challenges like performance level, adaptation issues, dropping school. Also, a rigorous design leads to lower development costs, consistent quality control and standardization. The instructional design is a process that analyzes the needs and goals in the development of a training system.
Keywords: electronic learning, instructional design, ADDIE, Dick and Carey model.

Medical Virtual Public Services
Manole VELICANU, Iulia SURUGIU 136

Abstract: The healthcare enterprises are very disconnected. This paper intends to propose a so-lution that will provide citizens, businesses and medical enterprises with improved access to medical virtual public services. Referred medical services are based on existing national medical Web services and which support medically required services provided by physicians and supplementary health care practitioners, laboratory services and diagnostic procedures, clinics and hospitals’ services. Requirements and specific rules of these medical services are considered, and personalization of user preferences will be supported.
The architecture is based on adaptable process management technologies, allowing for vir-tual services that are dynamically combined from existing national medical services. In this way, a comprehensive workflow process is set up, allowing for service-level agreements, an audit trail and explanation of the process to the end user. The process engine operates on top of a virtual repository, providing a high-level semantic view of information retrieved from heterogeneous information sources, such as national sources of medical services.
The system relies on a security framework to ensure all high-level security requirements are met. System’s architecture is business oriented: it focuses on Service Oriented Architecture - SOA concepts, asynchronously combining Web services, Business Process Management – BPM rules and BPEL standards.
Keywords: Business Process Management, Service Oriented Architecture, Application Inte-gration, Web services, information technologies, virtual repository, database.

CAMUCRA - A Polynomial Clearing Algorithm for Multi-Unit Combinatorial Reverse Auction
Sidonia Otilia VULTUR, Delia Adriana MARINCAS 139

Abstract: In this paper, we debate the resource allocation problem of the multi-unit combinatorial auctions and we use a solution based on polynomial algorithms for clearing rules. These types of algorithms are called polynomial because they have polynomial complexity and they seem to be optimum.
Our approach of the polynomial clearing algorithms is related to reverse auctions only, in which there is just one buyer and multiple sellers. This algorithm determines the winner for a general case, thus having a large application and allowing the exploitation of the combinatorial auctions advantages in real-life online auctions.
Although the algorithm does not guarantee to find the best allocation solution, it provides a method for the determination of an acceptable, profitable solution closed to the optimum solution for the resource allocation problem of the multi-unit combinatorial auctions.
Keywords: electronic reverse auction, polynomial algorithms, clearing rules, multi-unit combinatorial auctions