Master Thesis Topics

IS Architectures in Multinational Corporations / Global IS Design

Many Swiss companies are successfully operating in global markets, and Switzerland has become one of the most attractive locations for Multinational Corporations (MNCs) that choose to establish their worldwide or European headquarters in this country. For these companies, information systems play a major role in managing globally dispersed subsidiaries and leveraging global synergies. They frequently use ERP systems to meet their large-scale and international information needs. One of the challenges is to continuosly extend their existing IS architecture to address new business require-ments and to react to technology advances, in particular internet and mobile technologies. The specific Master thesis topic will be defined together with the student (either as academic thesis or in combination with an internship). Here are some suggestions:

• Global IS architectures – Tradeoffs between global integration and local responsiveness
• Analysis of specific requirements and evaluation of IS architecture scenarios
• IS architecture for integrating (local) mobile applications with a centralized ERP system
• Subsidiary integration in MNCs: Patterns for integrating local sales & service units
• Survey on the dynamics of globalization strategies, notably the turn to the BRIC countries, and its impact on IS architectures

Please contact Kazem Haki or Christine Legner for any further information.

The “Mechanics” of Enterprise Architecture Principles and Their Impact

The design of to-be Enterprise Architecture (EA) is a complex task which is supported by EA models and frameworks. In practice, companies oftentimes define architecture principles – such as service-orientation or technology independence – as underlying rules and guidelines to establish guidance for designing their future EA. The selected architecture principles will ultimately be used as a basis to shape EA design, as in the case of service-orientation, which emphasizes the reuse of existing (Web) services when implementing new information systems.

The purpose of this master thesis is to study the choice of architecture principles (context-specific principles) and their impact on enterprise architecture design. For a selected set of architecture principles from the existing literature and enterprise architecture frameworks, e.g. TOGAF, the student will analyze how they shape the enterprise architecture design and enable the expected outcomes out of EA. The ultimate goal is to develop an approach for explaining the “mechanics” of architecture principles on the design and effectiveness of EA. Please contact Kazem Haki or Christine Legner for any further information.

The Future of Business Software – Migration towards the Cloud

Cloud computing allows users to conveniently access computing resources as pay-per-use services. Whereas cloud offerings such as Amazon’s Elastic Compute Cloud or Google Apps are rapidly gaining a large user base, business software’s migration towards the cloud is still in its infancy. On the one hand, business software vendors face challenges with changing their business model and offering complete Web-enabled solutions in a pay-per-use model. On the other hand, many companies still have concerns related to the risks and security aspects of using business-critical applications as cloud solutions. In our research, we are interested in understanding the migration of business software towards the cloud (from the customer and from the vendor perspective), and in identifying and designing innovative cloud services for businesses.

We supervise Master thesis related to cloud computing and business software (either as academic thesis or in combination with an internship). Here are some suggestions:

• Assessment of cloud readiness and cloud migration scenarios from a user perspective
• Market analysis of the business software market: Are PaaS and app stores the future of business software?
• Designing innovative cloud solutions for specific business problems
• Cloud-based B2B collaboration platforms: Current state and future scenarios
• Cloud Computing as enabler of increased interaction in companies’ ecosystem and value chains