Implementing an agile start-up culture into a process oriented company

The purpose of the present study was to find out and implement more agile ways of working into a process oriented telecommunications company TeliaSonera Finland Oyj. TeliaSonera Finland is one of the largest telecommunication companies in Finland and the largest in the Nordics. In Finland it operates under the name of Sonera Oyj. Part of TeliaSonera’s strategy is to become a new generation telecommunications company through transforming the company towards more application and integrator type of service provider and finding new business opportunities close to the core business. During the study, a current state analysis was made from Sonera’s current development methodology and decision-making processes. Three different disciplines were selected to be studied that were lean start-up and lean service creation, scaled agile framework and bimodal enterprise. A lean service creation program was launched in order to validate these methodologies with a case study with one of the new business initiatives close to the core – eHealth. The results revealed many different angles for the company to further develop: customer centricity, agility in development governance and culture. The scope of the development projects were not usually based on engaging the customer into the design process and projects tended to grow very large with big scopes and long lead times in the current state analysis. The minimum viable product thinking was something that the company was not used to do. The entrepreneurship culture was after all discovered to be one of the largest challenge for the company. There is no “one size fits all” type of approach. Instead, the conceptual framework should be adjustable and different methodologies suit better in different type of development items based on size, complexity, business area and so on. The author recommends that the leaders in Sonera make sure that the lean service creation and agile methodologies are taken more widely into use throughout the organization, but also clarify the guidelines of different disciplines. The change from a tightly-governed company to an agile start-up-like company with entrepreneurship as its core value does not happen overnight, it requires a lot of change management and continuous learning – especially from the management

A service oriented architecture to implement clinical guidelines for evidence-based medical practice

Health information technology (HIT) has been identified as the fundamental driver to streamline the healthcare delivery processes to improve care quality and reduce operational costs. Of the many facets of HIT is Clinical Decision Support (CDS) which provides the physician with patient-specific inferences, intelligently filtered and organized, at appropriate times. This research has been conducted to develop an agile solution to Clinical Decision Support at the point of care in a healthcare setting as a potential solution to the challenges of interoperability and the complexity of possible solutions. The capabilities of Business Process Management (BPM) and Workflow Management systems are leveraged to support a Service Oriented Architecture development approach for ensuring evidence based medical practice. The aim of this study is to present an architecture solution that is based on SOA principles and embeds clinical guidelines within a healthcare setting. Since the solution is designed to implement real life healthcare scenarios, it essentially supports evidence-based clinical guidelines that are liable to change over a period of time. The thesis is divided into four parts. The first part consists of an Introduction to the study and a background to existing approaches for development and integration of Clinical Decision Support Systems. The second part focuses on the development of a Clinical Decision Support Framework based on Service Oriented Architecture. The CDS Framework is composed of standards based open source technologies including JBoss SwitchYard (enterprise service bus), rule-based CDS enabled by JBoss Drools, process modelling using Business Process Modelling and Notation. To ensure interoperability among various components, healthcare standards by HL7 and OMG are implemented. The third part provides implementation of this CDS Framework in healthcare scenarios. Two scenarios are concerned with the medical practice for diagnosis and early intervention (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease and Lung Cancer), one case study for Genetic data enablement of CDS systems (New born screening for Cystic Fibrosis) and the last case study is about using BPM techniques for managing healthcare organizational perspectives including human interaction with automated clinical workflows. The last part concludes the research with contributions in design and architecture of CDS systems. This thesis has primarily adopted the Design Science Research Methodology for Information Systems. Additionally, Business Process Management Life Cycle, Agile Business Rules Development methodology and Pattern-Based Cycle for E-Workflow Design for individual case studies are used. Using evidence-based clinical guidelines published by UK’s National Institute of Health and Care Excellence, the integration of latest research in clinical practice has been employed in the automated workflows. The case studies implemented using the CDS Framework are evaluated against implementation requirements, conformance to SOA principles and response time using load testing strategy. For a healthcare organization to achieve its strategic goals in administrative and clinical practice, this research has provided a standards based integration solution in the field of clinical decision support. A SOA based CDS can serve as a potential solution to complexities in IT interventions as the core data and business logic functions are loosely coupled from the presentation. Additionally, the results of this this research can serve as an exemplar for other industrial domains requiring rapid response to evolving business processes

Organizational Transformation Towards Product-service Systems – Empirical Evidence in Managing the Behavioral Transformation Process

AbstractOne of the major challenges facing today's manufacturing industry is to differentiate from competition in a highly globalized world. As a consequence to the increasing competitive pressure, many companies transform their product centered business models towards service based business models to differentiate from competition. However, the transformation is often underestimated regarding its complexity and its management challenges to behavioral change. As a consequence lots of transformation initiatives fail. Besides difficulties in structuring the magnitude of changes in processes and structures, many transformation managers do not perceive the risk of employee resistance against changes, which is one of the key factors causing the failure of transformation. The objective of this paper is to enhance the existing body of research on manufacturer's organizational transformation towards Product-Service Systems. More detailed, the objective is to develop new knowledge to support the management during the decision-making process in the way how and by means of which instruments the change of behavior can be supported when transforming from a manufacturer to a solution.We developed a reference framework which structures and defines the relevant dimensions of behavioral change. The identification and validation of the success factors build the second component of our research. We conducted an empirical investigation in the German manufacturing industry and got 79 data sets. Structural equation modelling was applied for the analyses and the validation of the hypotheses. By this analysis we linked management practice with employee behavior and transformational success variables. On the basis of the gained insights decisions can be made concerning the successful transformation from manufacturer to a solution-oriented service provider

Carbon emissions evaluation for highway management and maintenance

Highway clients are increasingly concerned with the environmental consequences and sustainability implications of their highway maintenance service. This is because the service consumes a significant amount of natural resources, is financial and energy-intensive and is a large Greenhouse gas (GHG) emitter responsible for global warming and climate change. This has placed the highway maintenance sector, including its supply chain under increasing pressure to deliver well-maintained low-carbon maintenance service, whilst addressing its climate change impacts. The highway stakeholders increasing focus on carbon footprinting is a direct response to the legal obligation presented by the enactment of the UK s Climate Change Act (2008) and the Carbon Reduction Commitments. Investment decisions on highway infrastructure must now account for carbon and financial costs in a balanced manner. Highway clients now require their supply chains to demonstrate the capacity to reduce both direct and indirect carbon, and provide carbon footprint information relating to the work done or being tendered for. This is driving the sector to re-think its business operations within environmental, economic and social limits, which inherently presents risks and opportunities poorly understood by the stakeholders. It requires an in-depth understanding of the business operations, inputs and outputs. These business requirements are compounded given the lack of an agreed industrial methodology standard focusing on carbon footprinting, the knowledge and skill gaps, system boundary definitions, credible industrial data and their collection approach. The aim of this study is to develop a project-focused and process-based carbon footprinting methodology that includes a decision-support and carbon management tool to assist carbon management decision-making in highway maintenance planning and operation. This study then explored how the PAS2050 protocol can enhance the highway maintenance service delivery carbon footprinting and identify opportunities for reduction. It briefly reviews carbon emissions performance and the UK s highway maintenance sector, and developed a methodological framework that includes a carbon evaluation tool (the sponsor s business focus tool) based on the PAS2050 protocol. The framework developed is specific to highway maintenance planning and operation. It offers a carbon Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) tool that can identify emission hotspots across the process value chain, and inform a carbon reduction hierarchy. The implementation of the PAS2050-compliant methodology framework and the carbon evaluation tool for core highway maintenance processes (for example, pavement resurfacing, pavement marking, bulk lamp replacement and grass cutting), in addition to carbon footprinting across different site locations (urban, semi-urban and rural) are presented. The results indicate that materials production and their delivery to site (embodied carbon) are areas of carbon hotspots. This represents an important decision point for highway designers, managers and maintainers in order to deliver low-carbon service. These carbon hotspots suggest a less energy-intensive or green materials manufacturing process, responsible sourcing, use of recycled and secondary materials sourced locally (closer to sites) and delivered in bulk. The step-by-step carbon footprinting approach presented in this study is unique. It can be used by other sectors within the built environment as a pragmatic means of identifying and prioritising areas of potential carbon reduction through informed decision-making

Business process reengineering in Ethiopian public organizations: the relationship between theory and practice

Since 1994, the government of Ethiopia has embarked on reforming its civil service organizations with the objective of improving the public sector service delivery system. The government sponsored a lot of management training programs to enhance the capacities of civil service employees and to implement Result Based Performance Management System in all of its civil service organizations. Though this brought some improvements in the performance of some civil service organizations, the effort required was too much as compared to the benefits obtained. Since 2004, the government has also endorsed Business Process Reengineering (BPR) as a foundation for strengthening Result Based Performance Management System in the Civil Service. Scientific Management, Systems Theory and Operations Management are the theoretical and methodological foundations of BPR. For this reason, most corporations used BPR as transformation tool during the 1980s and 1990s. However, the characteristics of government organizations are different from corporate organizations. These distinguishing features constrain government organizations from emulating the BPR experiences of corporate ones. Hence, it is important to introduce a conceptual framework and a working model that facilitate the implementation of BPR in a particular civil service organization. Venktramen has developed the five stages of organizational transformation model. These stages are automation, horizontal integration, BPR, network redesign and organizational scope redefinition. The model helps to determine from which perspective to reengineer the processes of an organization - either to seek efficiency or to enhance capacity. Matching the statuses of civil service organizations in Ethiopia to this model indicates that BPR should be considered to seek evolutionary changes. In conclusion, considering the human resource and the technological capacities of Ethiopian civil service organizations, BPR can bring incremental benefit and evolutionary transformation instead of dramatic and radical change for foreseeable future to come. Key words: BPR, Efficiency, Effectiveness, Organization Redesign, Management Information System (MIS), Information Technology (IT) , MCB, Civil Service Organization

Organisaation muutosvalmius liiketoimintamallin muutoksessa kohti palveluliiketoimintaa

This thesis examines organization’s readiness for change when moving towards service business. Especially for traditionally product-centric manufacturing companies, services can be seen as a potential way to gain competitive advantage. The focus of this thesis is on Finnish-based product-oriented companies operating in metals, engineering and construction industries. The main research question is as follows: How can the readiness for change be taken into account at the early phase of the transformation process towards service business? The objective is to identify factors and elements of organizational readiness for change that are relevant in the business transformation and thus give suggestions to managers at companies willing to make transformation from products towards services. Multiple case study method was used and the empirical data were collected through semi-structured thematical interviews. Altogether 31 interviews were conducted in 6 different business units. The theoretical part of the study reports the relevant literature from the fields of strategic change and its management, organizational readiness for change and transformation towards services. Based on the literature review, a conceptual framework for organizational readiness for change was built to assist the analysis of the empirical data. The empirical part of the thesis is concerned with the results of the interviews, namely the elements of the organizational readiness for change and how those appear in the early stage of the business transformation. The main finding is that the content of the change, i.e. the clarity of objectives, scope of change and the change message, is somewhat unclear and needs to be taken into account at the early stage of the business transformation. Clarifying the objectives regarding services and thus initiating so-called service-talk within the organization is suggested. Also, allocating needed resources, top management support, and using an IT system supporting the services are requirements in the transformation. The receptivity of customers and the industry’s readiness for change for new kinds of business models must be assessed before taking further steps. In turn, the psychological readiness of individuals seems to be at a good level, promoting the organizational readiness for change. Bringing changes step-by-step to the organization and building an organization culture receptive for changes is a mean to improve organizational readiness for change in the transformation from products towards services. Possible future research topics could include industry’s readiness for change, validating the framework used, and reviewing the whole readiness for change literature. /Kir1

Organisaation muutosvalmius liiketoimintamallin muutoksessa kohti palveluliiketoimintaa

This thesis examines organization’s readiness for change when moving towards service business. Especially for traditionally product-centric manufacturing companies, services can be seen as a potential way to gain competitive advantage. The focus of this thesis is on Finnish-based product-oriented companies operating in metals, engineering and construction industries. The main research question is as follows: How can the readiness for change be taken into account at the early phase of the transformation process towards service business? The objective is to identify factors and elements of organizational readiness for change that are relevant in the business transformation and thus give suggestions to managers at companies willing to make transformation from products towards services. Multiple case study method was used and the empirical data were collected through semi-structured thematical interviews. Altogether 31 interviews were conducted in 6 different business units. The theoretical part of the study reports the relevant literature from the fields of strategic change and its management, organizational readiness for change and transformation towards services. Based on the literature review, a conceptual framework for organizational readiness for change was built to assist the analysis of the empirical data. The empirical part of the thesis is concerned with the results of the interviews, namely the elements of the organizational readiness for change and how those appear in the early stage of the business transformation. The main finding is that the content of the change, i.e. the clarity of objectives, scope of change and the change message, is somewhat unclear and needs to be taken into account at the early stage of the business transformation. Clarifying the objectives regarding services and thus initiating so-called service-talk within the organization is suggested. Also, allocating needed resources, top management support, and using an IT system supporting the services are requirements in the transformation. The receptivity of customers and the industry’s readiness for change for new kinds of business models must be assessed before taking further steps. In turn, the psychological readiness of individuals seems to be at a good level, promoting the organizational readiness for change. Bringing changes step-by-step to the organization and building an organization culture receptive for changes is a mean to improve organizational readiness for change in the transformation from products towards services. Possible future research topics could include industry’s readiness for change, validating the framework used, and reviewing the whole readiness for change literature. /Kir1

Institutionalisation of technology-supported organisational processes: A structurational perspective on IT service management support technology.

Increasing emphasis on strategic and operational IT-business alignment and best-practice frameworks (e.g. ITIL) has promoted the deployment of cross-functional process-based IT Service Management (ITSM) technologies within a wide range of organisations. Such technologies underpin core IT support processes such as Incident, Problem, and Change Management within a Service Management framework, promoting greater visibility and evaluation of IT contribution to the business. However, strategic and operational improvement of cross-functional ITSM processes requires effective embedding of process-supporting software in the organisation's ITSM process infrastructure. This research is based on an in-depth interpretive case-study of the use made of an ITSM software package in an IT Services department of a major UK university. In particular, this thesis examines the roles of organisational context, specific software functionality and design features, and organisational process infrastructure to develop an understanding of how particular ways of working with the software are embedded in various organisational routines. This research identifies a number of prevalent IT support working practices as organisational routines, and analyses the interrelationship between the working practices, organisational processes, the ITSM software artefact, and the immediate and wider organisational context. This thesis makes a number of contributions, including developing a theoretical framework for studying the role of technological artefact and organisational context and processes from the perspective of organisational routines and structuration theory

Performance in Consumer Financial Services Organizations: Framework and Results from the Pilot Study

Financial services comprise over 4 percent of the gross domestic product of the United States and employ over 5.4 million people. By offering vehicles for investment of savings, extension of credit and risk management, they fuel the modern capitalistic society. While the essential functions performed by the organizations that make up the financial services industry have remained relatively constant over the past several decades, the structure of the industry has undergone dramatic change. Liberalized domestic regulation, intensified international competition, rapid innovations in new financial instruments and the explosive growth in information technology fuel this change. With this change has come increasing pressure on managers and workers to dramatically improve productivity and financial performance. This paper summarizes the first year of a multi-year effort to understand the drivers of performance in financial services organizations. Financial services are the largest single consumer of information technology in the economy, investing $38.7 billion dollars in 1991 (National Research Council, 1994). While this investment has had a profound effect on the structure of the industry and the products it provides, its effect on financial performance of the industry remains elusive. Why this "productivity paradox" (Brynjolfsson and Hitt,1993) exists is an important part of this project. The authors describe the differences in productivity in services from manufacturing. In the service world, the consumer co-produces the product with the firm, ofte nadding labor to the creation of the service. In addition, the scope of the service enterprise typically is quite vast, with components of the service production process being both producers and deliverers of the service. In addition, the quality of the services provided is forever changing. Thus, the authors suggest that productivity gains from human resource improvements or technology investments may not show up in standard performance measures, but may rather be used to improve the quality of the service provided. What appears to be a stagnation in productivity may actually be an increase in value delivered to the customer. Delivering value to the customer may provide the institution with sales opportunities and much needed information about the institution's customer base. The pilot survey conducted by the authors examines the relationship between technological advancement and the relational part of service delivery by studying time spent with the customer in relation to technological sophistication and time spent on the entire delivery process. The authors adopt the view that processes are the central "technology" of an organization. As with any technology, the process must be maintained. After a process has reached its useful life, it should be scrapped or rebuilt. Thus, the authors suggest that researchers should take a life-cycle view of processes when undertaking efficiency studies. The authors rely heavily on a process-oriented methodology in their analysis of performance drivers in financial services. The study does not focus on traditional measures of productivity or financial performance. Rather, the authors base comparisons on intermediary measures which evaluate the drivers of performance from the perspective of all participants in the co-productive process. This pilot study starts with consumer financial services and in particular, retail banking. The authors review the relevant literature on financial services performance and then propose a conceptual framework for the study. The framework assumes that industry conditions and firm strategy are given. The authors focus is to examine the components of performance that managers can affect, given a strategy and industry operating conditions. Thus, their initial focus is guided by their desire to direct attention to issues of implementation and their effects on performance. The authors attempt to bridge the gap between traditional productivity measures and difficult-to-measure financial performance by developing a set of value creation components as an intermediary set of performance indicators. Based on pilot interviews, these indicators reflect effective performance in ways that are more meaningful than the more traditionalmeasure of productivity, as they are the goals toward which bank management strives. The key values the study attempts to measure are customer convenience, precision, efficient cost structure, adaptability and market penetration. The survey conducted by the research team benchmarks two types of management decisions that are presumed to drive these outcomes. The first set of management choices are implementation choices, human resources choices, technology implementation processes and product/servicedelivery processes. The second set of choices relates to management infrastructure, resource management processes, the information architecture of the firm, the performance management and control systems and the organizational structure of the firm. Based on interviews and the work of previous productivity studies, the research team developed a pilot survey focused on the practices of the functional areas, business lines, product groups and the retail distribution network. The pilot measured the outcomes and choices made by managers in seven large commercial banks. The pilot results will lead to a large scale survey of practices for the entire retail banking sector. Based on early pilot results, the researchers concluded that managers in consumer financial services firms typically assume that improvement in one area of performance is largely at the expense of decreased performance in other areas. The authors believe this is only partly true. Based on the pilot results, the authors believe that better management practices can move outcomes in a number of areas simultaneously. Through effective process design, use of technology and management of human resources, institutions can improve performance in multiple categories. The successful financial services organizations will be those which find processes and practices that enhance multiple measures of performance. The results of the large scale survey of practices will be available in early 1996.

A language-agnostic framework for the analysis of the syntactic structure of process fragments

Process fragments are a cornerstone of process modeling in both Service Oriented Architecture and Business Process Management. The state of the art lacks shared, language agnostic definitions of the basic concepts and properties of process fragments. This absence of a common foundation for the research on process fragments hinders the comparison and reuse of the results in the state of the art, and renders impossible the reaching of agreed, intensional definitions of the different typologies of process fragments. The present work aims at filling this gap by providing a framework of language agnostic definitions of properties of the syntactic structure of process fragments based on the mereotopology of discrete space. Alongside familiar mereologic concepts like inclusion, overlap and disjointness, we cover fundamental concepts for process fragments like (dis)connection, selfconnectedness, borders, interiors and exteriors. Besides providing a foundation for further research on process fragments, we discuss the immediate application of the concepts defined in this work in the scope of the change management of process models