Plenary Lecture

Problems of Social Business Information System and a Solution Proposal

Professor Yutaka Funyu
Software Collaboration Research Institute
Iwate Prefectural University
Japan
E-mail: y-funyu@wave.plala.or.jp

Abstract: Industrial business information systems like a bankingsystem, ERP, SCM have grown as a big software business in Japan. But now,their main partsbecome maintenance works.On the other side,social business information systems such as medical healthcare, environment, education and regional community are rapidly growing according toincreasing social demands.This social business area is mainly a target of mediumsize software companies.In this area, three kinds of hard problems exist. The first is a great gap between strategic goals of user companies and objectives of information systems such as quality, cost anddelivery.Secondly, there is difficulty to integrate the software functionsdeprived from requirement specificationsand the functions of installed system components like smart phone,tablets, robots and sensors. As a result, this difficulty brings about a large man-month cost and increase software defects.
Thirdly, end users in this area are not professionals,but mainly novices. Their skills to utilize new information systems are comparatively low.Therefore, it takes more cost and time to improve their ITliteracy.
I first propose that we must build up a new value chain between the business strategic goals and the objectives ofinformation systems. Secondly, it is necessary to develop a new methodology for systematic management of every functionalinteraction between the system components and applicationsoftware.At last, higher interoperability among systemcomponentsare needed in order to enhance user interface usability.

Brief Biography of the Speaker: Yutaka Funyu graduated from Department of Electronics,Tohoku University in 1962. During 1962-1998 he worked in JFE(KawasakiSteel Corp.),CSKand Yokogawa Electric Corp.He received Ph.D. degree from Tohoku University in 1987.He was a professorof Faculty of Information and Software Science, Iwate Prefectual University(IPU)during 1998-2008,and vice president also during 2006-2008.He is now a professor emeritus of IPU and CEO of Software CollaborationResearch Institute.His main research area is information system developmentand software engineering.