System Management Books

This book is a collection of essays that cover the full spectrum if IS/IT management challenges and practices. The essays are grouped into three Part and further subdivided into topic sections within their respective parts. Although the main audience is IS/IT management, this book should also be read by business process owners who are the consumers of IS/IT services.

Part I is brief and sets the context by discussing the larger issues of competing with information and how to use information to create business value. This is the foundation of the rest of the book and is aimed at IS/IT managers and [in my opinion] business process owners. Part II (Putting Information to Work) begins with Section A's four chapters that tie information as processed and provided to the business to business goals and objectives. The value of these chapters is they educate the IS/IT manager in the business value of the services and products that they are providing and showing them the bigger picture of their roles in supporting business objectives. Section B (Creating New Reality) consists of two chapters that touch upon knowledge management issues to a degree, and certainly illustrate how information can be leveraged into actionable knowledge. Section C's two chapters address cost reduction, while Section D devotes two chapters to risk management and control.

The most interesting portion of this book is Part III, which is focused on how to use information as a competitive advantage. The five chapters in this Part starts with the basics of competing with information, and ends with a look at building e-commerce capabilities.

Overall, this book will provide IS/IT managers with a good foundation in business uses of information, which promotes a better understanding of IS/IT's role as a service provider and information manager. This is important because, from what I've observed at many clients, IS/IT is focusing more and more on tools and technology, or infrastructure building. The direct result of this focus is a growing chasm between what's important to the business and what IS/IT perceives its role to be. The essays in this book will go a long way towards educating IS/IT management and refocusing them on what is really important.

I have being reading the most important literature about Innovation Management and I have found this book extremelly practical. Christiansen is the first author I have read that gives you advise on how to implement change to improve the innovation capability of your company and gives you a clear research-based approach about which management systems should be changed first and why. For me, something very revealing was the chapter on how innovation systems should be different depending on the industry and/or company you are. This book offers a great value.

I haven't read the book, just proof-read some parts of it. Rainer Michaeli is one of the most respected professionnals in the field of Competitive Intelligence, and the best known in Germany.
This book is great because it brings a typical German approach to the field: thorough, systematic, rational, based on firm theory and practice.
I think this book is a "must have" reference for all the professionals in the field. Even if you don't read German, the book is worth it because of the great diagrams.
Yves-Michel Marti, CEO, Egideria.

This is an excellent book for three main types of readers - those studying for an MBA or a higher qualification, those who want to get an in-depth understanding of strategic management, and those who simply want a management reference book.

This is the only book in the market place that can seriously compete with Johnson and Scholes Exploring Corporate Strategy. It contains all the literature that an MBA text book should contain, but what makes this book different is that it explains the influence and relevance of strategic management to todays service industry, instead of a focus on manufacturing. It includes both theory and case studies, and is well organised, making this book an excellent read and value for money.

I have completed studying MBA and am now studying for DBA, but keep referring to this book, it remains my favourite, I would strongly recommend this book to any one who is interested in management or business knowledge

The Service Scorecard comprehensively explores the service environment and how performance measurement framework needs to be different given the challenges in measuring services. Most literature on performance measurement has focused on products which are tangible (and can more easily be subjected to quality testing), while service is largely an intangible. The book does an excellent job at creating a modified framework using seven categories of measures acronymed GLACIER and consolidating all the measures into a single performance index.

Tyagi and Gupta have shared their view on a spectrum of measurement systems - from Balanced Scorecard, Performance Prism, Six Sigma Business Scorecard to quality models like EQFM and Baldridge. Through their comparative analysis they have tried to build on the strengths of these systems to develop their framework.

The chapter on Best Practices provides a variety of examples from service-oriented companies on how they have used one or more of the service performance measures to excel and create a competitive advantage. It was facinating to read examples on how choosing the right measure is critical - depending on the measure you could be focused on cost reduction and miss the opportunity for greater value addition. I would highly recommend this book to all executives involved in enhancing corporate performance - particularly for those focused on the service industry.

***This is a big book full of a lot of facts and figures.*** (Yes a very big book, not a cover to cover book.) 824 pages, 5 chapters and by no means a read it from cover to cover book. The first two chapters, the "Introduction" and "the What's and Whys of Metrics" are the authors interesting and quite knowledgeable overview of the world of operational, personal, physical and IT security metrics. After, the remaining chapters get in-depth. Chapter 3 "Measuring Compliance" goes into great detail about relating the different acts, bills, regulations and directives with various Metrics. Chapter 4 "Measuring Resilience" provides numerous worksheets and questionnaires as well as an abundance of information regarding threats, asset protection, mission protection, audit trails and others. Finally Chapter 5 "Measuring ROI" covers cost, benefits, some case studies and comparative analysis as well again some great worksheets.
A very useful and well organized guide. (Although a bit on the expensive side)

Trapping is probably the least-understood portion of desktop publishing today. Lawler's book goes through just about every single bit of information you need - with easy-to-understand illustrations. Whether you're trapping in your application, or by using your RIP, this is an invaluable guide that will help put your knowledge right up there with the best pressmen.

After years of suffering and going from one doctor to another I finally obtained the needed guidance from this book. Through its pages you are offered much information and the possibility of finding the proper avenue to health. Not all headaches are the same or stem from the same cause, therefore a cautionary but educated approach is the best route to take, and the authors with their experts (including a Naturopathic Physician)do so admirably. If one's objective is to rid or at least ameliorate their condition I strongly recommend the information compiled in this book.

Mark Minasi wrote the book, The Complete PC Upgrade and Maintenance Guide and it was a proven winner. Now we have the perfect addition to that book and hands-on lab manual that makes learning easier and fun and will help even the most experienced technician.

The manual includes 41 labs that have you working on memory, hard and floppy drives, modems, irq conflicts, troubleshooting, upgrading and everything in between. Also included are lab reports, which will help you, track your progress along the way.

The appendix included covers the four essential upgrades, the power supply, the hard drive, the floppy drive and the scsi card. Missing from this book is a cd-rom with utilities and questions. Also the book should have been tailored around the A+ Certification.

Overall a good value for the money and the authors are very complete and thorough in the lab they give you. As with any lab manual there is only so many ways to do things, you can substitute your own problems for those in the book if you need to. A handy book for computer schools as well.

Compiled and edited by Marco A. Janssen (Associate Research Scientist, Center for the Study of Institutions, Population, and Environmental Change, Indian University - Bloomington), Complexity And Ecosystem Management: The Theory and Practice Of Multi-Agent Systems is a scholarly, college-level collection of learned articles and essays from an extensive roster of experts focusing on a "multi-agent" approach to the complex field of ecosystem management. Theory, application, graphical and mathematical models fill the pages of this solid, scientific, scholarly resource which is a very highly recommended, core addition to professional, governmental, and academic Environmental Studies reference collections.