Technological, Organisational, and Environmental drivers for enterprise systems upgrade

Gerald Feldman is a Research Associate at the Centre for Enterprise Systems in the Birmingham City University. He gained a PhD from the School of Engineering, Design and Manufacturing Systems at the Birmingham City University. His PhD research explored organisation decision making specifically focusing on enterprise systems upgrade decision processes and drivers. He obtained his Bachelor’s Degree in Computing and Information Systems from the London Metropolitan University and a Master’s Degree in Data Networks and Security from the Birmingham City University, UK. He has more than six years of experience in managing information systems and more than three years of experience of teaching practical elements of enterprise systems management. His research interests include organisational decision making, decision support algorithms, and understanding human and technology interaction.

Hanifa Shah is an Associate Dean, with responsibility for research and enterprise activities, and a Professor of Information Systems in the Faculty of Computing, Engineering, and the Built Environment at the Birmingham City University. She has a PhD from the University of Aston in Birmingham and a Masters from the Cambridge University. Over the past 25 years, she has held Lectureship, Readership, and Professorship positions in Computing and Engineering Faculties at the Aston, Staffordshire, and Birmingham City Universities, and a Visiting Professorship at the University of Manchester (Manchester Business School). Through secondments and research consultancy projects with industry, she has an in-depth understanding of business and has forged university-industry links and partnerships for research, enterprise, and teaching. She has been successful in securing significant amounts of funding for projects from industry, the public sector, UK research councils, and the EU. She has supervised 13 PhDs to completion and is currently supervising five PhD students with projects focussed on enterprise systems, sustainability and ICT and smart cities. She has published more than 70 papers in academic journals and conferences covering her interests, which include information systems and their development, knowledge management, enterprise architectures and enterprise systems, and IT professional development and qualifications through work-based learning and research methods.

Professor Craig Chapman is the Head of the Advanced Design Engineering Centre at the Birmingham City University (BCU). He has worked at an international-level working in Europe, USA, and the UK, holding positions in industry as the Director, Principal Design Engineer, Design Group Leader, and Senior Applications consultant. In Academia, Craig’s career has taken him from the Senior Research Fellow, Head of the Knowledge-Based Product Development Lab at the Warwick Manufacturing Group, University of Warwick to the Director for the Centre of Knowledge-Based Engineering at BCU. He is currently a Principle Investigator at the BCU for the Platform Independent Knowledge Model (PIKM) project as part of Technology Strategy Board (TSB)/Rolls-Royce funded Strategic Investment in Low-carbon Engine Technology 2 (SILOET2) programme and EU Clean Sky initiative, focusing on modelling product and process knowledge for advanced design automation and Knowledge-Based Engineering system development; he is also a Technical Advisor on the Energetic Algae (EnAlgae) INTERREG IVB NWE Programme and the BioenNW INTERREG IVB Programme developing knowledge-based decision support systems and semantic knowledge models. The main focus of Craig’s career has been research, development, and the application of design engineering automation and the development of knowledge-based engineering solutions, enabling companies to rapidly respond to design engineering changes and explore multiple solutions with consideration to all life cycle phases.

Ardavan Amini is the Head of Enterprise Systems Centre of Excellence at the Birmingham City University. He has worked as a Technology Transfer Consultant, delivering enterprise systems solution to SMEs and large enterprise across the region. Ardavan is currently an Advisor to Birmingham City Council on Smart Cities and the Chairman of SAP Database, Technology, and Innovation User Group in UK and Ireland. His research interests focuses on enterprise systems transformation, integration, decision, and systems engineering to address industrial demands and challenges in area of enterprise systems.