The teaching and research unit 'Business Computing 2 (Information Management & Office Systems)' with its head Prof. Dr. Ludwig Nastansky is operating in a joint know-how environment with partners from higher education and business focusing on groupware related issues. The unit is part of the Faculty of Business Administration, Business Computing, Economics, and International Business Studies, the largest faculty at the University of Paderborn.
The core of the 'Business Computing 2'-team consists of some 12 permanent professional staff, some 15 research and teaching assistants (mainly graduate level), some 12 Ph.D. students, and some 40 master students. The professional staff and assistants are to be considered high-end Lotus Notes/Domino groupware experts. The students are performing research and project work during their thesis assignment phase with emphasis on a variety of topics. These topics are related to evaluation, design, development, deployment, technology transfer, coaching and assessment of groupware based information management systems in industry and public organizations. Due to the programs at the hosting Faculty of Business Administration, Business Computing, Economics, and International Business Studies the students' expertise typically covers issues as wide as ranging from business management, economics, virtual learning spaces, and international management to business computing and computer science. Specifically, this academic background is augmented by three more full-fledged teaching and research units focusing on Business Computing (Business Information Systems, Computer-Integrated Manufacturing, Decision Support & Operations Research Laboratory), and a computer science department with outstanding reputation on a national as well as international level.
The complementary part of this groupware know-how environment at the University of Paderborn is formed by co-operating partners from German and international businesses and organizations. The specific co-operation patterns are ever changing due to the nature of the respective affiliated partnerships, character of projects, and industries involved. Currently, a strong focus is 1) with joint projects directed toward architecture and development of groupware application systems and related tools (PAVONE Informationssysteme GmbH., Paderborn, and NotesWare Ltd., UK), and 2) projects exploiting the strategic options of a groupware based worldwide operating intranet platform in the banking industry (Deutsche Bank, Frankfurt). The Groupware Competence Center Paderborn is bringing together some 120 experts in the context of comprehensive system engineering and application projects around the Lotus Notes Groupware platform, and some 20 people currently working on information management issues in the banking industry.
In addition to relations with commercial partners ties are held up with a variety of higher education institutions on a national as well as international level with emphasis on sharing experience and challenges in innovative uses of groupware on campus. Common fields of interest are ranging from know-how generation, management and dissemination issues in the research area, over building up and maintaining virtual learning spaces in higher education as well as corporate training to academic administration issues.
2. Groupware Focus in Projects and Training
The Groupware Competence Center Paderborn at the University of Paderborn is member of the worldwide operating LEC (Lotus Education Consortium, Lotus Development, Cambridge) and LEAP (Lotus Education Academic Partner Program) infrastructures, the Lotus Business Partner Program, is partner of the academic branch of DNUG (Notes User Group, Germany), and is embedded in the German branch of the association of Business Computing Chairs at German Universities.
The Groupware Competence Center Paderborn has been operating for 8 years. Currently, the primary activities have pertained to:
3. Specific Areas of Lotus Notes/Domino Groupware Know-how and Services
The Groupware Competence Center @University of Paderborn has been the prototyping and testbed environment for a variety of Notes-based application systems deployed on the market of Lotus Business Partners.
Here is an overview of the areas of expertise related to Notes / Domino core competencies:
Working Areas and Know-how Transfer
Business Computing; Workgroup Computing; Workflow Management; Office Systems, Paperless Office, Mobile Office; Project Management; Enduser Computing; Client Server Computing; Information Management; Multimedia; Vocational Training Systems, Distance Learning, Lotus Notes Learning Space; Tele Working.
Specific IT Product Focus
Groupware: Lotus Notes / Domino, including professional development environments (API, LotusScript, C++, Components, Java [Beans]); All-purpose Office Systems; UniOffice 2000 - Comprehensive campus Intranet solutions supporting a variety of services (lecture management, credit-point system platform); Wide Area Workflow Management (WAGS - Wide Area GroupFlow System prototype); Project Management; Customer Support Systems; Document Management in Public Administration; Integrated Intranet - Internet/World Wide Web Solutions; PAVONE product frameworks: GroupConnect Macroware - Connecting Mainstream Productivity Software to Lotus Notes, GroupConnect TableBridge - Maintaining Consistency and Integrity of Data across Database Platforms, Espresso ProcessModeler - A Workflow Modeler and Simulator for Lotus Notes, GroupFlow Runtime - The GroupFlow runtime system for Lotus Notes, GroupFlow Analyzer - The GroupFlow Analysis System for Lotus Notes, GroupProject Connect - PM Synchronization between Lotus Notes and CA SuperProject, GroupProject ProjectBuilder - A GUI Frontend-shell for direct PM Task-package Manipulation, Espresso - Integrated Office System including Organization Modeling and Process Management - TimeSheet..
4. Spin-offs of The Groupware Competence Center @University of Paderborn
The Groupware Competence Center @University of Paderborn has been direct source and breeding environment for start-up companies and job creation in the Paderborn urban area since its foundation in 1990. Part of this impact is documented in the 'family tree' in the table below.