There is no commonly accepted definition of a business method. It ought to consist of a method or a process of doing business. Business Methods constitutes a broad category of patents, it is hard to tell exactly what can be interpreted in to the term. Most of the world's legal systems have made an exception from patentability for Business Methods. In the USA the exception was abolished in a case 1998.

How does IT-consultants reason in their consulting process regarding the development of a clients IT-based internal recruitment system? The purpose with this paper is to investigate how an IT-consultant is reasoning in a consulting process and investigate whether consultants are using established models and methods in their work. We have chosen to work with a qualitative examination to attain our purpose. In our work gathering the empirical facts we have been working with a case study, an observation and a simulation exercise. The combination of these has made it possible to carry out the paper and produce the most correct data possible. Conclusion: We state that IT-consultants do not use any theory-based methods, they use process methods created by themselves and their company.

Business development is to bring forth the entirecompany and through effective, market renewalprocesses to create sustainable profitability.1 This mightbe difficult, especially for smaller companies who lackthe experience and also tools to make correct forecast.2The purpose of my thesis is to investigate andexplain how a small business can remain flexible andcreate products in new markets by making the brandappealing and credible.In my thesis I have investigated how a company canextract benefit from its brand and identify the benefitswhich are the most unattended in a new market. Bydoing so, the company can systematically developconcepts for new business opportunities. I hopethat my thesis may provide tools and ease businessdevelopment process for smaller businesses.The purpous of my thesis I have studied theories ofbusiness development, brand and brand extension. Inthese theories I have used existing methods and I havecreated my own methods of business development.Through this thesis I have worked with AvelutionAB (a small that produce products for recoveryand comfort). I tested the theory and methods withAvelution which has resulted in a business developmentstrategy as well as two concepts that show howAvelution in the future might develop its business basedon the benefits Avelution and its products create..

In recent years, agile software development methods have become increasingly popular throughout the world. Today there are a number of different agile methods and they all rest on the Agile Manifesto that was formulated in 2001 as a reaction to the traditional software processes.The aim of this thesis is to make a survey of some of the agile methods used today and to see how they are being used in practice. It consists of two parts: a literature study and an interview study with people working in the software business. First, a definition of agile methods is proposed and a number of different agile methods are described. Second, the interviews are being analysed with special focus on communication, collaboration, expectations and results.

Purpose: The purpose of this essay is to study how the hotel chain Radisson SAS works with prolonged customer relations with their business clients, with other words the clients that have business agreements with them.Methods: This study will contain an inductive approach and qualitative methods. The qualitative research method is in the shape of a deep interview with the sales manager of Radisson SAS and qualitative interviews of chosen business clients to the hotel.Results: The results of this investigation show that business clients are controlled by what kind of agreements their company has.The companies sign agreements with hotels and hotel chains that are able to satisfy big parts of their needs, if not all of them.With the help of flexible solutions, a well known brand, and good relations, Radisson SAS has made sure that their business clients have prolonged their agreements.They are a global hotel chain near transports, and business clients feel secure with Radisson SAS..

In recent time, agile methods have been devoted much attention, and the concept is widely used in the IT industry in particular. An increasing number of companies are interested in this way of working. The following report is the result of a study on the ability to create value for customers in business development through the use of agile methods. We ask what the advantages and limitations of agile methods are in the creation of customer value. Grounded Theory and an initial literature review was used to answer this question.

In recent time, agile methods have been devoted much attention, and the concept is widely used in the IT industry in particular. An increasing number of companies are interested in this way of working. The following report is the result of a study on the ability to create value for customers in business development through the use of agile methods. We ask what the advantages and limitations of agile methods are in the creation of customer value. Grounded Theory and an initial literature review was used to answer this question.

Business Intelligence may help organizations in making the right decisions byproviding data for analysis which can be presented to decision makers. DataWarehouse which is a central part of Business Intelligence can be built in severalways but the methods presented by Ralph Kimball and Bill Inmons are considered thetwo main methods. The solution provided by Inmon focuses on integrating the entirebusiness into one large database using relational database development. Kimballhowever proposes dimensional database modeling by creating one or more data martsand integrating these using a data bus. Previous research has shown that the quality ofa Data Warehouse can be measured through critical factors such as data quality andsystem quality.

This essay describes some factors that may effect small business survival in relation to becoming a supplier for bigger companies that may implement the use of EDI for electronic invoicing.The purpose of this study is to analyse and evaluate what impact may occur during the introduction of EDI between small and big business.Following on from the introduction of methods used in this study there will be a complete analysis made detailing results.From our research we have found that most small business have developed a professional working relationship between themselves and their clients.The adoption of EDI by big business has revolutionised the day to day dealings between both supplier and consumer in that EDI has empowered both chains to collaborate data in real time.In conclusion our research illustrates that in order for small business to survive the must implement EDI. The results of our study have shown that the introduction of EDI to both small and big business has had a positive outcome..

Business valuation is something that has been more general and discussion around this subject is very common. The discussions often revolve the various principles and procedures that a business appraiser can apply when a valuation of a business should be done. When there are different evaluation methods there are also resulting in an assumption that there are not so easy to create a complete objective business value. The individual evaluator choice of method will determine the result of the business value. The global world for each business has been more uncertain and turbulent/changeable which have tended to exacerbate the work for the evaluator to determine a business value.

It is important to understand the process of appraisal of a business in order to establish its value. The purpose of our thesis is to establish which methods and models are used when evaluating a business and investigate the factors that may affect the value and price tag of a business. We have used a qualitative approach by conducting both indepth interviews and a survey as well as reading literature within the field. The main conslusion in our findings is that the common practice of discounted cash flow is widely used when bestowing a monetary value for a business, and in order to raise the value a well established customer relationship was the single most important factor. As far as lowering the value, the answers were of such a wide spread that a single factor could not be attributed.

This study presents a survey of the capital budgeting methods used in investment decisions by selected Swedish firms. The study has a qualitative approach where the main goal is to increase the understanding of why firms use ?incorrect? capital budgeting methods like the payback method despite the well known fact that it is one of the most faulty methods, according to literature in business finance (Brealey. Myers). The study has specially researched the impact of company?s size, investments size, ownership structure, branch traditions and political risks influence on firms capital budgeting..

By studying the forms of work and methods teachers choose for their teaching on the Business and Administration Programme and by examining the experiences gained by these teachers, I hope to gain a clearer insight into how the demands of national policy/governing documents are met in the actual teaching of the courses within the programme. In my qualitative study,teachers in a team from a Business and Administrative Programme have been my informants. The team combines multiple forms of work and methods in line with the intentions of the national policy/governing documents. Students usually have an unbroken school day with block teaching where they work with case studies and interdisciplinary  work. Morals and ethics are integrated in class.

Our aim with this thesis was to closer study business intelligence to be able to present an overview of both the concept and the phenomenon. We have also developed a framework that show how business intelligence can be used effectively. We think that our framework can be of help to under-stand the areas which constitutes the core of business intelligence. We think that the framework we have developed is a good basis for the im-plementation of business intelligence in an organisation and that it also can be of help in the daily business intelligence work..

The concepts of environmental scanning and Business Intelligence have gained increased interest over the last years in a number of different organisational contexts. The research in this field has mainly been dealing with methods and issues regarding organisation but the aim of environmental scanning, the forming of new perspectives, has been largely ignored. The purpose of this thesis is to study how Swedish joint-stock banks put environmental scanning and Business Intelligence into practice. First a literature study is made to create a background and to explain the different conceptions. Then I describe the different functions of the different services in Swedish joint-stock banks.