The purposes of performance dashboard use: A case of a procurement performance management SaaS provider.

Objectives of the Study The main objective of this study is to find out how do end-users of the Case Company use performance dashboards to support decisions for measuring and managing procurement performance. Academic background and methodology Performance dashboards are a type of performance management system that brings together key performance metrics of an organisation or an individual on one display. A visual interface of performance dashboards is just a small part of what most users see. However, this information system for decision support is built on business intelligence technology as well as performance management and measurement principles. The relevant theory on performance dashboards, procurement performance management based and instruments of evaluating Information System Use were reviewed. Furthermore, a case study in the form of an online survey and semi-structured interviews was conducted with three client companies of the Case Company that provides its procurement performance management dashboards on software as a service basis. The Doll and Torkzadeh's tool for multidimensional measurement of system-use was applied in an online survey to identify usage purposes. The results from the survey were qualitatively confirmed and enriched with the evidence from the semi-structured interviews conducted with the selected end-users. Findings and conclusions The main finding of the research was that the Case Company's application was most extensively used by strategic level employees, primarily for communication and decision rationalizing purposes. Moreover, the application is most valued by the client companies for enabling a consolidated view on purchasing by integrating data from different sources of an organisation; its ability to tackle an analysis of direct and especially indirect spend; and its function as a convenient communication platform between different business and geographical units of an organisation

Process mining techniques applied in industry

Internship Report presented as the partial requirement for obtaining a Master's degree in Data Science and Advanced Analytics, specialization in Business AnalyticsGiven the overview of today’s information era, several scientific fields related to data raised. Process Mining is relatively new and it aims to leverage merged techniques from two separate scientific areas: Business Process Management and Data Science. The main purpose of Process Mining is the discovery, monitoring and improvement of real processes. As a result, in the last few years, Process Mining has increased remarkably, and the importance of the process insights has become more and more relevant, directly proportional to the amount and quality of data that supports the analyses. As a Data Engineer Intern at Nokia, I had the opportunity to be involved in the development phase of two business cases, being part of a team that has the main objective of exploring and analyzing several business processes within the company leveraging Data Science techniques

Utilizing business intelligence at the operational level

Abstract. The objective of this thesis is to explore how business intelligence can be utilized at the operational level of the case company. The stakeholders of the study are two teams working on the customer interface of a Finnish software company. The case company wishes to explore the use of business intelligence in a new context where it has not been utilized before. Providing stakeholders with the capability to utilize business intelligence tools can help them streamline their reporting tasks, as well as provide them with capabilities to visualize data, filter data based on their needs, and provide access to aggregated data. The study includes a literature review on business intelligence, business analytics, and analytical maturity. The research method used in this study is design science research, which involves designing and developing an innovative artifact to address problems that the case company is currently facing. The research data was gathered through interviews, in which nine senior-level employees were interviewed to gather insights about the current situation of the reporting, data, key figures, and their previous experiences with business intelligence. This resulted in an in-depth snapshot of the current problems detected in reporting solutions captured in the form of qualitative data. This data was analyzed to establish the objectives and requirements that the artifact should aim to address, following the principles of design science research methods. Based on these objectives and requirements, the artifact was designed and developed. The functionalities of the artifact were demonstrated and subsequently evaluated by forming illustrative scenarios to support the artifact’s effectiveness. The main findings of this study indicate that the artifact can serve as an efficient addition to the current reporting tools. It offers easier access to data and introduces functionalities that are not currently available with other reporting tools. However, these findings were overshadowed by two major limitations discovered during the design and development phases. The limitations encompassed the current availability of the licenses required to utilize the artifact and the case company’s data governance policies. These limitations, combined with the time constraints of this thesis, resulted in the artifact not being evaluated with stakeholders

ERP implementation methodologies and frameworks: a literature review

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) implementation is a complex and vibrant process, one that involves a combination of technological and organizational interactions. Often an ERP implementation project is the single largest IT project that an organization has ever launched and requires a mutual fit of system and organization. Also the concept of an ERP implementation supporting business processes across many different departments is not a generic, rigid and uniform concept and depends on variety of factors. As a result, the issues addressing the ERP implementation process have been one of the major concerns in industry. Therefore ERP implementation receives attention from practitioners and scholars and both, business as well as academic literature is abundant and not always very conclusive or coherent. However, research on ERP systems so far has been mainly focused on diffusion, use and impact issues. Less attention has been given to the methods used during the configuration and the implementation of ERP systems, even though they are commonly used in practice, they still remain largely unexplored and undocumented in Information Systems research. So, the academic relevance of this research is the contribution to the existing body of scientific knowledge. An annotated brief literature review is done in order to evaluate the current state of the existing academic literature. The purpose is to present a systematic overview of relevant ERP implementation methodologies and frameworks as a desire for achieving a better taxonomy of ERP implementation methodologies. This paper is useful to researchers who are interested in ERP implementation methodologies and frameworks. Results will serve as an input for a classification of the existing ERP implementation methodologies and frameworks. Also, this paper aims also at the professional ERP community involved in the process of ERP implementation by promoting a better understanding of ERP implementation methodologies and frameworks, its variety and history

Organising digital innovation in ERP platforms

Recently, established enterprise technology vendors (such as Oracle and SAP) have been remaking their enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems as ‘platforms’ that herald in new technologies capable of transforming mainstream organising logics and, apparently, making organisations ‘intelligent.’ However, scholars studying digital platforms are yet to capture this change. The literature has discussed how digital platforms are transforming the way organisations innovate and compete but, thus far, studies have developed a rather partial understanding of digital platforms and their role in digital innovation. The bulk of the literature seems to focus mostly on consumer-oriented platforms (e.g., Apple and Google) in business-to-consumer (B2C) markets, thus leaving the important nuances of innovation dynamics surrounding the building of enterprise platforms unexplored as well as their potential for reshaping organisations. Combining Information Systems (IS) perspective with insights from Science and Technology Studies (STS), this thesis offers a sociotechnical, longitudinal, multi-perspective and multi-spatial approach, which contrasts with the narrow, snapshot studies that portray digital innovation as a technology-oriented phenomenon from a singular vantage point in time and space. Drawing on qualitative data, the research includes three empirical studies, each with a different perspective – the digital platform, the platform ecosystem and the platform markets – that depict struggles, asymmetries and challenges in the relationship between a global ERP vendor and multiple actors participating in innovation development and adoption. Together, these studies present a deeper understanding of how a major digital innovation emerges and unfolds and what complexities are involved in this trajectory; how third-party innovation is orchestrated and what processes and mechanisms constitute this orchestration; and how innovation visions are created and shaped, highlighting details of the sociotechnical arrangements that connect actors, processes and artefacts towards innovation adoption. Answering demands for a holistic approach in digital platform studies, this thesis’ main contribution is to articulate a comprehensive view of how digital innovation is organised in ERP platforms. This research enhances digital innovation knowledge in three aspects. First, it advances the understanding of digital innovation processes. While the extant platform literature studies isolated processes, this study brings an investigation of their simultaneous occurrence, providing different insights about their dynamics. Second, this thesis goes a step further in the comprehension of innovation coordination. Scholars have described several mechanisms that are put in place to orchestrate third-party innovation, and this investigation builds on them to show how the orchestration occurs. Finally, this research draws attention to a different aspect of innovation adoption. The digital platform literature has not looked at the antecedents of innovation adoption, i.e., innovation visions, which here are depicted in detail from their emergence to their articulation in the market

How business intelligence has changed management accountants’ profession and roles?

Technology is an ever changing phenomenon which effects widely to organizations and different members in them. Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems influenced management accountants’ job description in the past and nowadays Business Intelligence transforms their roles even further. Some may be worried that their job will disappear because of routinization and automation of manual work, but this only means that new tasks and responsibilities are directed to accounting professionals. They can use the time saved for example for more in-depth analysis and strategic work. Past studies have not put enough emphasis for this change, instead academics have researched widely ERP implementation, and thus it seemed rational to study BI in accounting environment. The goal of this research is to study how Business Intelligence has changed accounting profession and management accountant’s role and presents a more comprehensible definition for BI than just some certain system. The research was conducted by first studying relevant literature about Business Intelligence and development of management accountants’ roles and constructing a literature review. There are not lot academic writings about this phenomenon, hence the deficit of relevant studies was brought to day light. After some discussions and consideration, field study seemed to be appropriate method to study the subject and 8 semi-structured interviews were conducted. Interviewees were management accountant and represented different business fields and amount of experience varied to obtain interesting findings. In the end empirical findings were connected to prior literature and there was a comparative discussion about the phenomenon and conclusions were made. The findings implicate that management accountants clearly have more comprehensible role than before and issues like future and business orientation are emphasized in modern organizations. ERP systems have lacks and BI complements those systems by offering views to future. Additionally new skills are required from management accountants such as IT and social skills. The expanded definition of BI is presented and through empirical findings it is evident that BI can be understood as much more than just a specific system per se. Usually the main task of these systems is to collect data from different sources and combine it to sensible information and knowledge. Moreover BI systems should not be implemented just because other companies are doing it, but organizations have to really analyze what do they use these systems for and what are the possible benefits from them, hence the implementation cannot be an intrinsic value. New kinds of roles were found for management accountants, which were consultant and educator to mention few of them. In the future there will be probably much more new ones related to data management or something similar

Business process modelling in ERP implementation literature review

Business processes are the backbone of any Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) implementation. Business process modelling (BPM) has become essential for modern, process driven enterprises due to the vibrant business environments. As a consequence enterprises are dealing with a substantial rate of organizational and business processes change. Business process modelling enables a common understanding and analysis of the business processes, which is the first step in every ERP implementation methodology (blueprint phase). In order to represent enterprise processes models in an accurate manner, it is paramount to choose a right business process modeling technique and tool. The problem of many ERP projects rated as unsuccessful is directly connected to a lack of use of business process models and notations during the blueprint phase. Also, blueprint implementation phase is crucial in order to fit planned processes in an organization with processes implemented in the solution. However, business analysts and ERP implementation professionals have substantial difficulties to navigate through a large number of theoretical models and representational notations that have been proposed for business process modeling (BPM). As the availability of different business process modeling references is huge, it is time consuming to make review and classification of all modeling techniques. Therefor, in reality majority of ERP implementations blueprint documents have no business process modeling included in generating blueprint documents. Choosing the right model comprise the purpose of the analysis and acquaintance of the available process modelling techniques and tools. The number of references on business modelling is quit large, so it is very hard to make a decision which modeling notation or technique to use. The main purpose of this paper is to make a review of business process modelling literature and describe the key process modelling techniques. The focus will be on all business process modeling that could be used in ERP implementations, specifically during the blueprint phase of the implementation process. Detailed review of BPM (Business process modeling) theoretical models and representational notations, should assist decision makers and ERP integrators in comparatively evaluating and selecting suitable modeling approaches

An Innovation-driven IT Governance Framework for Benefits Realisation and its Application to Public Sector

Information and communication technology (ICT or IT) provides benefits to an organisation. However, a large number of IT projects fail. The research literature shows extant governance frameworks are not adequately protecting against project failures and are not as effective on many of these IT projects as they should be. This thesis developed a new IT governance framework using an agile benefit management approach, aimed to achieve benefits realisation for any scale of IT projects, particularly for projects in the public sector such as Defence. The framework objectively targets digital transformation and technological agility, however, is shown in the thesis to assist in other enterprise challenges with IT acquisition and through-life management, such as cyber-resilience. The framework is based on many theories, principles, and practices, such as: Transaction Cost Economics Theory, Prospect Theory (Decision-Making Under Uncertainty), Reference Class Forecasting, Stratification and the Incremental Enlargement Principle and Fuzzy Logic. The framework is shown to be effective primarily through better informed decision-making. Benefits realisation is critical for information technology project success. The framework provides a systematic methodology on how to define economic benefit, technical benefit, and strategic benefit. It provides benefit realisation measures through fuzzy inference system, and it provides decision support based on the benefit performance measures and dis-benefit risk management. When compared to industry-based frameworks for IT acquisition and sustainment this new framework is unique because it includes all internal and external stakeholders such as users, providers, industry, and academia to continuously collaborate for innovating, iterating, and evaluating technology for realisation of benefits to achieve the organisational goals and objectives. The proof of concept has been conducted through a detailed case study in the Defence public sector, and several critiques of IT reform in other public sector applications where difficulties are occurring. Organisations will be able to use this framework for a more rapid and assured uptake of emerging technologies of the Fourth Industrial Revolution into their technology stack. Examples of some of these emerging technologies are AI, machine learning, geo-spatial, block chain, cognitive and brain computing, cloud computing, data echo system, and cybersecurity

A conceptual framework for capability sourcing modeling

Companies need to acquire the right capabilities from the right source, and the right shore, at the right cost to improve their competitive position. Capability sourcing is an organizing process to gain access to best-in-class capabilities for all activities in a firm's value chain to ensure long-term competitive advantage. Capability sourcing modeling is a technique that helps investigating sourcing alternative solutions to facilitate strategic sourcing decision making. Our position is applying conceptual models as intermediate artifacts which are schematic descriptions of sourcing alternatives based on organization's capabilities. The contribution of this paper is introducing a conceptual framework in the form of five views (to organize all perspectives) and a conceptualisation (to formulate a language) for capability sourcing modelling

The creation of business architecture heat maps to support strategy-aligned organizational decisions

The realization of strategic alignment within the business architecture has become increasingly important for companies. Indeed, it facilitates business-IT alignment as a well-designed business architecture helps both to identify the appropriate requirements for IT systems and to discover new business opportunities that can be realized by IT. However, there is a lack of alignment techniques that support organizational (re) design decisions during the operation phase as the actual performance of business architecture elements is neglected. Capability heat maps provide a useful starting point in this respect as they focus on the creation of a hierarchy of prioritized capabilities, which are characterized by a performance measure. In this paper, these techniques will be extended to support strategy-aligned decisions within the business architecture. The identification of the relevant business architecture elements is based on state-of-the-art enterprise modelling languages, which enable the development of enterprise models on distinct layers of the business architecture. Strategic alignment between these elements will be realized by using prioritization according to the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), while performance measurement will enable the creation of a proper decision support system. Afterwards, the proposed heat map will be applied on a case example to illustrate its potential use. This results in the completion of a first build-and-evaluate loop within the Design Science methodology