Apps, IT systems and modules

Electromobility, IT supplier management and knowledge transfer: three major projects on these topics have recently been launched in the Information Systems/ Very Large Business Applications department. They are being supervised by Computing Science Professor Dr Jorge Marx Gómez.

Electromobility is the topic of the moment. But how can consumers use electromobility - for example on public transport - in the most customer-friendly way possible? This question is being addressed by business informatics specialists at the university led by Prof Dr Jorge Marx Gómez. Since the beginning of the year, they have been working on new technologies for "customer-oriented electromobility" - including a virtual carpooling centre. Their research, which the German government is funding with 650,000 euros over the next three years, is part of the "ICT Services" (IKTS) project. IKTS is part of the major "Lower Saxony Electromobility Showcase" project of the Hanover-Braunschweig-Göttingen-Wolfsburg metropolitan region.

"Over the next three years, we will be working on ways to make electric mobility and associated services available to customers as efficiently as possible. Services that take individual mobility requirements into account," explains Benjamin Wagner vom Berg, project coordinator for "Customer-oriented electromobility" at the Chair of Information Systems / Very Large Business Applications (VLBA).
For example, apps are to be developed that take into account the most diverse forms of transport and types of mobility and link these with electromobility. This is done on the basis of the latest information systems from the field of customer relationship management and business intelligence, which are orientated towards the needs of the customer. For example, the apps are designed to support travellers in making their mobility as sustainable as possible. In this way, energy resources can be saved and harmful emissions minimised. One field of application is the planned car-sharing centre: "In addition to car-sharing, car-sharing centres offer enormous potential as new organisational forms of mobility to make motorised private transport more sustainable," says Wagner vom Berg.

The research area "IT Supplier Management" is the subject of a co-operation project with Volkswagen AG, which was launched at the beginning of the year. It is based at the new research area "ExploIT Dynamics" at the Department of Computing Science. In addition to Marx Gómez, the Oldenburg Computing Science experts Prof Dr Andreas Winter and Prof Dr Oliver Theel are also involved in the project. Over the next three years, an IT system is to be developed that takes into account the use of various technologies for user interaction and simplifies the delivery service at Volkswagen. Students will also be given the opportunity to familiarise themselves with work processes in the industrial environment of Volkswagen AG using the example of supplier management. The project has a budget of 350,000 euros.

"DASIK", a project funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) via the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), was launched in Port Elizabeth (South Africa) back in November. DASIK stands for "Developing and Strengthening Industry-Driven Knowledge-Transfer Between Developing Countries" and aims to promote knowledge transfer to South and East Africa. Over the next two and a half years, Marx Gómez will be working with researchers from the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University of Port Elizabeth and the University of Dar es Salaam (Tanzania) to design five one-week modules on business informatics. These are aimed at partners in industry and students and focus on the requirements of the participating companies.