The purpose of this paper is to discuss the conditions and possibilities of information and communication technology(ICT) especially cloud services in local small and medium-sized enterprises(SMEs). First we examine some government statistics which reveal that most of local SMEs have not utilized the ICT such as cloud service yet. However some advanced SMEs are wisely using cloud technologies. We find the importance of “concierges” which intermediate local SMEs and ICT. Business supporters(local venders, chamber of commerce, local banking, consultants, and so on), business partners and national/local governments play important roles when local SMEs adopt ICT including cloud service and can be such intermediaries. Finally, we extract the challenges and issues of both actors, SMEs and intermediaries.

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This study explores an indicator for organizational maturity assessment of business-IT alignment in small and medium enterprises (SMEs). A mail questionnaire survey is used to gather data. The questionnaire is sent to 1016 companies in Akita prefecture from mid-September to the end of October in 2012. The data of 342 complete sets of valid responses including various industry types is analyzed. Five indicators including top management leadership, IT infrastructure development, IT risk management, outsourcing, and communication are identified. Business-IT alignment organizational maturity of SMEs in Akita prefecture is slightly low. This study implies that IT infrastructure development and outsourcing is a key to improve organizational maturity of business-IT alignment for SMEs.

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In recent years, shopping streets have come to actively use Web site and social media. However, shopping streets have a problem that “We do not know what to do concretely for Web use”. This paper proposes two models of “Website/social media cooperation model”, “Reference model of Web use” based on the activities of Web use at the shopping streets, and examines the validity of two models.

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The Great East Japan Earthquake inflicted heavy damage on the Pacific side of the Tohoku district by tsunami. In Urayasu-City, one of the affected areas, many houses and facilities caved in by “the liquefaction disaster”. Over the past four years since the Earthquake, the city has steadily advanced reconstruction and worked out concepts of smart city, as a next-generation project. Features of the administration strategy was industry-government-academia cooperation power. This concept aims to revitalize the city with ICT support system to enhance quality of urban services and to reduce costs and resource consumption. This paper purposes to consider how to realize the future of urban vision based on ICT.

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This paper aims to clarify object capabilities of Project Managers (PMs) to develop as the most important for the success of the project. In order to achieve this we conducted the following survey of PMs’ competencies. The target group consisted of 520 IT PMs in Japan. Based on the results of the questionnaires we classified them into a successful group and an unsuccessful group. Then, the two groups were compared by the evaluation of the chi-square test. After that, the success factors were analyzed by SEM . As a result, we could define the following tendencies. The effect of the quality success on the general project success was strong among user PMs. Among both user and vender PMs groups we could observe strong effect of schedule success onto cost success, and then the effect of cost success and quality success onto general project success. Besides, we could observe the connection between the project success and PM’s capabilities, within the difference of PM type. That is, the schedule success was strongly effected by procurement management competencies among user PMs group, and, on the other hand, by cost management competencies among vender PMs group. Thus we think that the object capabilities to develop should be set differently for user and vender PMs groups correspondingly. In both side, were high for cost success and quality success what influence for integrated success. Besides, for schedule success, effects of procurement management competencies in user PMs and cost management competencies in vender PMs were identified. Thus, the object of development about PM’s competencies should set differently.

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In this paper, I discuss the platform (PF) envelopment strategy, which is particularly influential as a two-sided market PF competition strategy. I presented the case of Direct3D from Microsoft and RenderWare from Criterion Software, clarified the attack and defense processes at the tactical level, and highlighted new knowledge. As a result, the tactics implemented by Microsoft, the attacking company, were concentrated in two areas: the development of a complementary PF product and promotional activities. The former was characterized by the invalidation of patents, while the latter was marked by the importance of psychological elements. For example, the PF was announced long before it was actually offered. On the other hand, for the company being subject to attack, three defensive measures are important: (1) extending the life of the business by conducting PR activities in the market that emphasize the track record of the PF product, (2) launching new businesses by developing software applications that utilize the PF technology, and (3) promoting sales to and establishing ties with hardware companies and companies that can compete with or restrain the attacking company. Legal action such as patent lawsuits would also have been desirable.

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