A Service Model for the Development of Management Systems for IT-enabled Services

The shift from device and application towards service-orientated IT Management raises new questions that require concepts such as portfolio management, resource planning or mass customization for IT services. These concepts increase the complexity of IT Service Management and require additional tool support. Conceptual models are necessary in order to develop appropriate tools. The goal of our paper is to propose and validate a conceptual IT service model. We introduce the characteristics of IT services and analyze existing IT service models. A common IT service model is derived (theoretically) from the literature and validated through cases of IT service providers. These case studies from three German IT service providers also yield insights for further research

Smart Service Innovation: Organization, Design, and Assessment

Background: The emergence of technologies such as the Internet of Things, big data, cloud computing, and wireless communication drives the digital transformation of the entire society. Organizations can exploit these potentials by offering new data-driven services with innovative value propositions, such as carsharing, remote equipment maintenance, and energy management services. These services result from value co-creation enabled by smart service systems, which are configurations of people, processes, and digital technologies. However, developing such systems was found to be challenging in practice. This is mainly due to the difficulties of managing complexity and uncertainty in the innovation process, as contributions of various actors from multiple disciplines must be coordinated. Previous research in service innovation and service systems engineering (SSE) has not shed sufficient light on the specifics of smart services, while research on smart service systems lacks empirical grounding. Purpose: This thesis aims to advance the understanding of the systematic development of smart services in multi-actor settings by investigating how smart service innovation (SSI) is conducted in practice, particularly regarding the participating actors, roles they assume, and methods they apply for designing smart service systems. Furthermore, the existing set of methods is extended by new methods for the design-integrated assessment of smart services and service business models. Approach: Empirical and design science methods were combined to address the research questions. To explore how SSI is conducted in practice, 25 interviews with experts from 13 organizations were conducted in two rounds. Building on service-dominant logic (SDL) as a theoretical foundation and a multi-level framework for SSI, the involvement of actors, their activities, employed means, and experienced challenges were collected. Additionally, a case study was used to evaluate the suitability of the Lifecycle Modelling Language to describe smart service systems. Design science methods were applied to determine a useful combination of service design methods and to build meta-models and tools for assessing smart services. They were evaluated using experiments and the talk aloud method. Results: On the macro-level, service ecosystems consist of various actors that conduct service innovation through the reconfiguration of resources. Collaboration of these actors is facilitated on the meso-level within a project. The structure and dynamics of project configurations can be described through a set of roles, innovation patterns, and ecosystem states. Four main activities have been identified, which actors perform to reduce uncertainty in the project. To guide their work, actors apply a variety of means from different disciplines to develop and document work products. The approach of design-integrated business model assessment is enabled through a meta-model that links qualitative aspects of service architectures and business models with quantitative assessment information. The evaluation of two tool prototypes showed the feasibility and benefit of this approach. Originality / Value: The results reported in this thesis advance the understanding of smart service innovation. They contribute to evidence-based knowledge on service systems engineering and its embedding in service ecosystems. Specifically, the consideration of actors, roles, activities, and methods can enhance existing reference process models. Furthermore, the support of activities in such processes through suitable methods can stimulate discussions on how methods from different disciplines can be applied and combined for developing the various aspects of smart service systems. The underlying results help practitioners to better organize and conduct SSI projects. As potential roles in a service ecosystem depend on organizational capabilities, the presented results can support the analysis of ex¬ternal dependencies and develop strategies for building up internal competencies.:Abstract iii Content Overview iv List of Abbreviations viii List of Tables x List of Figures xii PART A - SYNOPSIS 1 1 Introduction 2 1.1 Motivation 2 1.2 Research Objectives and Research Questions 4 1.3 Thesis Structure 6 2 Research Background 7 2.1 Smart Service Systems 7 2.2 Service-Dominant Logic 8 2.3 Service Innovation in Ecosystems 11 2.4 Systematic Development of Smart Service Systems 13 3 Research Approach 21 3.1 Research Strategy 21 3.2 Applied Research Methods 22 4 Summary of Findings 26 4.1 Overview of Research Results 26 4.2 Organizational Setup of Multi-Actor Smart Service Innovation 27 4.3 Conducting Smart Service Innovation Projects 32 4.4 Approaches for the Design-integrated Assessment of Smart Services 39 5 Discussion 44 5.1 Contributions 44 5.2 Limitations 46 5.3 Managerial Implications 47 5.4 Directions for Future Research 48 6 Conclusion 54 References 55 PART B - PUBLICATIONS 68 7 It Takes More than Two to Tango: Identifying Roles and Patterns in Multi-Actor Smart Service Innovation 69 7.1 Introduction 69 7.2 Research Background 72 7.3 Methodology 76 7.4 Results 79 7.5 Discussion 90 7.6 Conclusions and Outlook 96 7.7 References 97 8 Iterative Uncertainty Reduction in Multi-Actor Smart Service Innovation 100 8.1 Introduction 100 8.2 Research Background 103 8.3 Research Approach 109 8.4 Findings 113 8.5 Discussion 127 8.6 Conclusions and Outlook 131 8.7 References 133 9 How to Tame the Tiger – Exploring the Means, Ends, and Challenges in Smart Service Systems Engineering 139 9.1 Introduction 139 9.2 Research Background 140 9.3 Methodology 143 9.4 Results 145 9.5 Discussion and Conclusions 151 9.6 References 153 10 Combining Methods for the Design of Digital Services in Practice: Experiences from a Predictive Costing Service 156 10.1 Introduction 156 10.2 Conceptual Foundation 157 10.3 Preparing the Action Design Research Project 158 10.4 Application and Evaluation of Methods 160 10.5 Discussion and Formalization of Learning 167 10.6 Conclusion 169 10.7 References 170 11 Modelling of a Smart Service for Consumables Replenishment: A Life Cycle Perspective 171 11.1 Introduction 171 11.2 Life Cycles of Smart Services 173 11.3 Case Study 178 11.4 Discussion of the Modelling Approach 185 11.5 Conclusion and Outlook 187 11.6 References 188 12 Design-integrated Financial Assessment of Smart Services 192 12.1 Introduction 192 12.2 Problem Analysis 195 12.3 Meta-Model Design 200 12.4 Application of the Meta-Model in a Tool Prototype 204 12.5 Evaluation 206 12.6 Discussion 208 12.7 Conclusions 209 12.8 References 211 13 Towards a Cost-Benefit-Analysis of Data-Driven Business Models 215 13.1 Introduction 215 13.2 Conceptual Foundation 216 13.3 Methodology 218 13.4 Case Analysis 220 13.5 A Cost-Benefit-Analysis Model for DDBM 222 13.6 Conclusion and Outlook 225 13.7 References 226 14 Enabling Design-integrated Assessment of Service Business Models Through Factor Refinement 228 14.1 Introduction 228 14.2 Related Work 229 14.3 Research Goal and Method 230 14.4 Solution Design 231 14.5 Demonstration 234 14.6 Discussion 235 14.7 Conclusion 236 14.8 References 23

Generative mechanisms of IT-enabled organisational performance in resource-constrained Emergency Medical Services organisations in South Africa

Problem Statement: Emergency medical services (EMS) organisations have one of the highest levels of dependence on and use of information technology (IT) to support delivery of emergency medical services. The need for EMS organisations to provide efficient and effective emergency medical services has emphasised the importance of performance management. Organisational performance which is monitored and evaluated through key performance indicators (KPIs) plays an important role in EMS organisations. Organisational performance helps to monitor, evaluate and communicate outcomes in the form of KPIs. Empirical evidence shows that quantitative KPIs have been designed with little in-depth understanding of the underlying IT usage mechanisms that influence organisational performance. Unfortunately, such quantitative KPI reports have been limited in explaining organisational performance underpinned by IT. Purpose / rationale of the research: The purpose of this research study was to identify the generative mechanisms associated with IT-enabled organisational performance and to explain how these mechanisms interact. In the context of resource-constrained EMS organisations, quantitatively defined KPIs are not suitable for explaining the underlying causes of performance variations and outcomes. The lack of empirical evidence on IT-enabled organisational performance as well as the lack of theoretical explanations of the underlying mechanisms provided the primary rationale for this study. In addition, this study sought to provide answers to the following research question: What generative mechanisms explain IT-enabled organisational performance in resource-constrained EMS organisations? Theoretical approach/methodology/design: This study was informed by the critical realist philosophy of science and used the complex adaptive systems theory together with institutional theory as the theoretical lenses to investigate the research question in a manner that jointly explained the generative mechanisms. Using interviews, participant observation, organisational performance data and documents collected from a single case study, the study used abduction and retroduction techniques to explicate the mechanisms of IT-enabled organisational performance. Findings: Findings indicate that the IT-enabled organisational performance mechanisms can be categorised into two types of generative mechanisms. These are structural and coordination mechanisms. The explanation of the mechanisms developed in this study take into consideration three important elements: (1) the technological, cultural and structural mechanisms that influence IT-enabled organisational performance; (2) the unpredictable, non-linear, adaptive nature of emergency medical services environments; and (3) the complexities that arise in the interactions between EMS organisations and their environments. Originality/contribution: In respect of IT-enabled organisational performance this study contributes to both organisational and health information systems literature by developing a multi-level research framework that is informed by the realist philosophical stance. The framework plays an explanatory role which relates to its inherent ability to offer explanatory insights into the necessary mechanisms that give rise to organisational performance. This framework has the potential to guide empirical research and provide theoretical explanations of different domains or disciplines that are concerned with identifying IT usage mechanisms which influence organisational performance. These include the significance of the coordination and structural mechanisms which, under differing conditions of uncertainty, produce variations in performance outcomes. Implications: Findings from this study can be integrated into broader emergency medical policy planning and health programme management. The model developed by the study provides a fresh understanding of the underpinning mechanisms enabling performance in resource-constrained EMS organisations. It can be used to assist emergency medical institutions and practitioners in South Africa and other sub-Saharan African countries, especially Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries to improve emergency medical service delivery to the public. The findings provide a guide for improving management of emergency medical situations and resources in their respective resource-constrained contexts. Furthermore, findings from the study can also guide improved design and implementation strategies and policies of EMS systems initiatives in South Africa and sub-Saharan developing countries

A Mobile Secure Bluetooth-Enabled Cryptographic Provider

The use of digital X509v3 public key certificates, together with different standards for secure digital signatures are commonly adopted to establish authentication proofs between principals, applications and services. One of the robustness characteristics commonly associated with such mechanisms is the need of hardware-sealed cryptographic devices, such as Hardware-Security Modules (or HSMs), smart cards or hardware-enabled tokens or dongles. These devices support internal functions for management and storage of cryptographic keys, allowing the isolated execution of cryptographic operations, with the keys or related sensitive parameters never exposed. The portable devices most widely used are USB-tokens (or security dongles) and internal ships of smart cards (as it is also the case of citizen cards, banking cards or ticketing cards). More recently, a new generation of Bluetooth-enabled smart USB dongles appeared, also suitable to protect cryptographic operations and digital signatures for secure identity and payment applications. The common characteristic of such devices is to offer the required support to be used as secure cryptographic providers. Among the advantages of those portable cryptographic devices is also their portability and ubiquitous use, but, in consequence, they are also frequently forgotten or even lost. USB-enabled devices imply the need of readers, not always and not commonly available for generic smartphones or users working with computing devices. Also, wireless-devices can be specialized or require a development effort to be used as standard cryptographic providers. An alternative to mitigate such problems is the possible adoption of conventional Bluetooth-enabled smartphones, as ubiquitous cryptographic providers to be used, remotely, by client-side applications running in users’ devices, such as desktop or laptop computers. However, the use of smartphones for safe storage and management of private keys and sensitive parameters requires a careful analysis on the adversary model assumptions. The design options to implement a practical and secure smartphone-enabled cryptographic solution as a product, also requires the approach and the better use of the more interesting facilities provided by frameworks, programming environments and mobile operating systems services. In this dissertation we addressed the design, development and experimental evaluation of a secure mobile cryptographic provider, designed as a mobile service provided in a smartphone. The proposed solution is designed for Android-Based smartphones and supports on-demand Bluetooth-enabled cryptographic operations, including standard digital signatures. The addressed mobile cryptographic provider can be used by applications running on Windows-enabled computing devices, requesting digital signatures. The solution relies on the secure storage of private keys related to X509v3 public certificates and Android-based secure elements (SEs). With the materialized solution, an application running in a Windows computing device can request standard digital signatures of documents, transparently executed remotely by the smartphone regarded as a standard cryptographic provider

Administration of the Indigenous Legal Assistance Programme

This audit assessed the effectiveness of the Attorney‐General’s Department’s administration of the Indigenous Legal Assistance Programme. Audit objectives and criteria The objective of the audit was to assess the effectiveness of the Attorney-General’s Department’s administration of the Indigenous Legal Assistance Programme. To conclude on this objective the ANAO adopted high level criteria relating to the effectiveness of program management arrangements, AGD’s management of funding agreements, performance monitoring and reporting arrangements. Overall conclusion Access to appropriate legal assistance services is an important element of a fair and equitable legal system. Since 2011, funding through the Indigenous Legal Assistance Programme (ILAP) has enabled service providers to deliver a cumulative total of 604 519 legal assistance services, or an average of 201 506 per year. Over the same period, ILAP funding has enabled these service providers to operate an average of 84 outlets each year to provide services. Research undertaken by a range of government and non-government bodies indicates generally that the level of unmet demand for Indigenous legal assistance services is higher than the supply of those same services. Additionally, the Productivity Commission has reported in the 2014 Overcoming Indigenous Disadvantage report that between 2000 and 2013, Indigenous imprisonment rates have continued to worsen with the imprisonment rate for Indigenous adults increasing by 57.4 per cent. There have also been significant increases in juvenile detention rates since 2001. While these trends in themselves are not necessarily reflective of levels of access and the quality of services provided through ILAP, they do indicate that demand for Indigenous legal assistance services is high and is likely to remain so. Facilitating appropriate access to justice is complex and involves a number of different institutions. For the most part, Australians interact with the justice system at the state and territory level, and accessibility is largely determined by how that justice system functions. As a result, while Australian Government support through ILAP is able to address some barriers to access, it is not able to address all factors relevant to improving access to justice for Indigenous people. Further, the demand for services arises largely from the operation of state and territory laws. In this respect, demand for Indigenous legal assistance services is not in the control of the Australian Government and can be affected significantly by changes made to state and territory laws. In this context, and considering the small size of the program, the overall management approach taken by the Attorney-General’s Department (AGD) is reasonable. The approach recognises that there are institutional and jurisdictional differences in justice systems across Australia, and acknowledges that ILAP service providers are better placed than AGD to identify appropriate service approaches in the areas they service. Accordingly, AGD allows service providers flexibility in their planning and delivery approach. In circumstances where national programs allow for local flexibility, program management arrangements need to be designed to achieve appropriate levels of consistency. Performance information arrangements also need to be well developed to enable appropriate comparative analysis and assessment of program performance overall. AGD has put in place a range of approaches to promote consistent national management of ILAP. These include a formula based funding allocation model that incorporates information specific to each jurisdiction, but assesses each jurisdiction against the same criteria and weightings to determine the funding levels to be allocated to each service provider. Expectations in relation to service delivery are promoted by the Service Delivery Directions, made available to service providers to inform the annual development of service plans, and the development of the Indigenous Quality Practice Portal designed to support the collection and analysis of relevant performance information and monitor delivery against Service Standards. Grant funding is managed through standard funding agreements that are in place with each service provider. AGD’s management of ILAP has matured since it assumed responsibility for the program in 2004, and while the current management framework is reasonable overall, improvements can be made in the following areas. Firstly, to give better effect to the intent of the program to prioritise assistance to communities with the highest need, the funding allocation model, which is currently being revised by AGD, could be enhanced by the inclusion of additional social and economic indicators of disadvantage to better target available resources. Secondly, there would be benefit in developing greater consistency in relation to performance expectations. Currently, each ILAP service provider proposes targets for the number of services they expect to provide in their annual service plans, which are endorsed by AGD as part of the annual planning process. However, the definition of a service can vary between jurisdiction and AGD has not developed a benchmark level of service against which an assessment of proposed targets can be made. Further, service plans are not integrated into funding agreements, and as a result, there is no clear link between the funding amounts provided in the agreements and the expected level of performance. Generally, ILAP funding agreements are compliance focussed and show only a limited performance orientation. While the reporting requirements established in the funding agreements give AGD sufficient visibility to identify issues of compliance, AGD has not always been timely in verifying or addressing matters relating to service provider compliance. Further, the focus of AGD’s program measurement and reporting is mainly on the levels of funding expended and the number of legal services delivered. This information is relevant in view of the demand-driven nature of ILAP. However, in the absence of targets or baseline information in relation to access, AGD is unable to assess whether access to justice has improved as a result of ILAP funding. Improvements to the collection, reporting and use of currently available performance information—directed towards measuring and reporting on the quality of services delivered and supported by appropriate assurance and verification mechanisms—would better enable AGD to strengthen its focus on whether the program is performing in line with expectations, and that barriers to access are being appropriately addressed. The ANAO has made one recommendation aimed at improving AGD’s approach to setting and assessing performance targets

Dynamic adaptation of interaction models for stateful web services

Dissertação para obtenção do Grau de Mestre em Engenharia InformáticaWireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) are accepted as one of the fundamental technologies for current and future science in all domains, where WSNs formed from either static or mobile sensor devices allow a low cost high-resolution sensing of the environment. Such opens the possibility of developing new kinds of crucial applications or providing more accurate data to more traditional ones. For instance, examples may range from large-scale WSNs deployed on oceans contributing to weather prediction simulations; to high number of diverse Sensor devices deployed over a geographical area at different heights from the ground for collecting more accurate data for cyclic wildfire spread simulations; or to networks of mobile phone devices contributing to urban traffic management via Participatory Sensing applications. In order to simplify data access, network parameterisation, and WSNs aggregation, WSNs have been integrated in Web environments, namely through high level standard interfaces like Web services. However, the typical interface access usually supports a restricted number of interaction models and the available mechanisms for their run-time adaptation are still scarce. Nevertheless, applications demand a richer and more flexible control on interface accesses – e.g. such accesses may depend on contextual information and, consequently, may evolve in time. Additionally, Web services have become increasingly popular in the latest years, and their usage led to the need of aggregating and coordinating them and also to represent state in between Web services invocations. Current standard composition languages for Web services (wsbpel,wsci,bpml) deal with the traditional forms of service aggregation and coordination, while WS-Resource framework (wsrf) deals with accessing services pertaining state concerns (relating both executing applications and the runtime environment). Subjacent to the notion of service coordination is the need to capture dependencies among them (through the workflow concept, for instance), reuse common interaction models, e.g. embodied in common behavioural Patterns like Client/Server, Publish/- Subscriber, Stream, and respond to dynamic events in the system (novel user requests, service failures, etc.). Dynamic adaptation, in particular, is a pressing requirement for current service-based systems due to the increasing trend on XaaS ("everything as a service") which promises to reduce costs on application development and infrastructure support, as is already apparent in the Cloud computing domain. Therefore, the self-adaptive (or dynamic/adaptive) systems present themselves as a solution to the above concerns. However, since they comprise a vast area, this thesis only focus on self-adaptive software. Concretely, we propose a novel model for dynamic interactions, in particular with Stateful Web Services, i.e. services interfacing continued activities. The solution consists on a middleware prototype based on pattern abstractions which may be able to provide (novel) richer interaction models and a few structured dynamic adaptation mechanisms, which are captured in the context of a "Session" abstraction. The middleware was implemented and uses a pre-existent framework supporting Web enabled access to WSNs, and some evaluation scenarios were tested in this setting. Namely, this area was chosen as the application domain that contextualizes this work as it contributes to the development of increasingly important applications needing highresolution and low cost sensing of environment. The result is a novel way to specify richer and dynamic modes of accessing and acquiring data generated by WSNs.Este trabalho foi parcialmente financiado pelo Centro de Informática e Tecnologias da Informação (CITI), e pela Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT / MCTES) em projectos de investigaçã

Rss-Based Information Delivery Model for Learning Management System

In modern education, e-learning or Internet enabled learning has been extensively used by teaching and learning institutions, especially by higher education for improving their educational services. Learning Management Systems (LMS) are one of the important parts of e-learning solutions for providing learning contents and learning information during the educational process. Information delivery as main functionality of these systems has a vital role in the success of these systems in achieving their goals. An LMS with growing number of users, courses, and frequently updated learning information resources needs a systematic, fast and easy to use information delivery service which can support personalization also. As a response to this need and with considering technical and pedagogical benefits of RSS (Really Simple Syndication), this research applied a combination of RSS 2.0 and RSS 1.0 to design a new RSS-based information delivery framework for LMSs. The proposed RSS based information delivery framework is implemented on e- SPRINT, an existing LMS at Universiti Putra Malaysia as object of experiment, and evaluated regarding to the impact of RSS-based information delivery framework in users satisfaction and usability of the LMS in information delivery. Based on the analysis of the results of experimental design there is positive changes in users satisfaction with information delivery after using the framework compared to before using the framework. According to usability evaluation of the RSS information delivery framework also, positive changes of user perception from the aspect of usability in information delivery has been gained. It is mentionable that the scope of the study was limited to the case study system. The contribution of this study was the design and development of an RSS-based information delivery model for LMSs to support systematic fast and easy to use information delivery

Towards designing a sustainable is-enabled service delivery system

This paper aims to bring into focus the concept of service sustainability. The normative literature advocates that services by companies, government institutions and service delivery are still posing great challenges to many organizations in this digital age. In highlighting the distinctive feature of service innovation, businesses will be able to maintain competitive advantage. In examining the literature on the service concept, successful companies have the customer at the forefront of their business strategy. As a result, the authors formulate suggestions on the most effective way an organization and the people concerned, can recast strategic thinking. to anticipate and adapt to ever increasing changing service environment. The contribution of the study is an IS-enabled Service Delivery Model (SDM) that places customer and staff as an integral part of the service delivery system with managed interactions and continuous quality control. This intends to support practitioners and researchers which could provide the former useful means of conceptualizing service, and raises an important issue to the latter in revisiting service quality research

Towards Developing Grid-based Portals for E-Commerce on-Demand Services on a Utility Computing Platform

Trends and current practices in the design and development of grid-enabled portals(GeP) reveal the need to identify and fulfill certain additional relevant requirements in order to build applicable and usable grid-enabled portals for evolving computing platforms such as the utility computing (UC). This paper reports an investigation of the minimum relevant additional requirements that must be fulfilled to attain effective GeP design for UC. A GeP prototype for the Grid-based Utility Infrastructure for Small, Micro, and Medium Enterprises (SMME) Enabling Technology (GUISET) initiative – a UC platform was developed, and an analytic evaluation experiment undertaken in the study to elicit these additional requirements using a set of benchmark requirements (standards) revealed that it fulfilled the minimum requirements to be suitable for UC context. The result of the study underlines the need for more controlled experiments in portal prototyping in order to foster the practice of GeP design for UC