How a flexible collaboration infrastructure impacts healthcare information exchange

Exchanging health information and data is considered to be critical for modern hospital operations. Research shows that exchanging, e.g., laboratory results, clinical summaries, and medication lists, across the boundaries of hospitals, will improve the efficiency, quality, cost- effectiveness, and even safety of healthcare practices. However, views and strategies differ on how hospitals can facilitate or enable this exchange process, given the high dynamics of technology and IT developments. We explore a hypothesized relationship between a flexible collaboration infrastructure and health information and data exchange. This study builds on the resource-based view of the firm and subsequently tests two hypotheses using PLS-SEM analysis on a sample of 983 European hospitals. We find that there is a significant positive relationship between flexible collaboration infrastructures and health information and data exchange. Hospitals’ security measures to protect the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the data conditions this relationship

Cloud-based Platform for Collaborative Business Process Management

With the wide adoption of the Internet, organizations establish collaborative networks to execute Collaborative Business Processes (CBPs). Current approaches of Process-Aware Information Systems (PAISs) to implement and execute CBPs have shortcomings: high costs and complexity of IT infrastructure to deploy the PAISs; poor support for autonomy, decentralization, global view of message exchange and peer-to-peer interactions; and rigid platforms for generating and deploying PAISs on-demand according with the CBPs agreed in collaborative networks. To overcome these issues, this work proposes a cloud-based platform for the management of CBPs. The platform provides cloud services that enable the generation and deployment on-demand of the PAISs required to implement the agreed CBPs, as well as the execution on-demand of CBPs by fulfilling the abovementioned issues. To deal with privacy issues, the platform can be deployed in private clouds. Elasticity is provided at the level of process instances and portability is also achieved.Sociedad Argentina de Informática e Investigación Operativa (SADIO

Blockchain : effects in transactions costs from information governance

This research aims to analyze the effects of the adoption of blockchain on information governance and transaction costs. We present an exploratory, quantitative, and qualitative study. In the first stage, quantitative, a theoretical model was developed and tested based on structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). Data collection was carried out through an online survey with IT and management professionals involved in blockchain projects from different countries. In the second stage, qualitative, a multiple case study was carried out in order to illustrate how the relations of the developed model are established. In the quantitative phase, the study’s hypotheses were supported and it was observed that the adoption of blockchain technology can be seen as a mechanism to reduce transaction costs, since it has a positive impact on information governance. In the qualitative phase, it was observed that, in the three cases analyzed, characteristics such as information security, transparency, and the possibility

Principais mecanismos de governança da informação contábil

Dados e informações vêm ganhando importância estratégica na Contabilidade, haja vista que o seu objetivo primordial está em fornecer informações úteis e de qualidade aos stakeholders para as tomadas de decisões. O impacto dos recursos tecnológicos nos processos empresariais e o surgimento de temas como Big Data vêm demandando atenção com as práticas contábeis, uma vez que afetam o modo como a informação é produzida e disseminada. Por isso, torna-se necessária e oportuna a identificação de práticas de controle (mecanismos) que garantam que as informações sejam governadas de forma eficiente. A Governança da Informação (GovInfo) se apresenta como uma abordagem contemporânea para o melhor uso da informação. Embora grande parte do que se tem conhecimento sobre a GovInfo venha de estudos de casos que oferecem insights da sua composição, a GovInfo pode ser abordada sobre a estrutura ampla da GovTI, utilizando práticas similares, porém, com foco no artefato informação. Assim, o objetivo desta dissertação é identificar os principais mecanismos de governança da informação contábil. O estudo é composto por duas etapas, sendo cada uma representada por um artigo. A primeira etapa visa a identificação dos mecanismos de governança da informação contábil (MecGovInfoCont), tendo como elementos norteadores os mecanismos de Governança de TI (MecGovTI) e de Governança da Informação (MecGovInfo). Para tanto, inicialmente, realizou-se uma revisão sistemática dos MecGovTI e dos MecGovInfo existentes na literatura e posterior validação por profissionais da área de Sistemas e TI. Subsequentemente, buscou-se identificar, por meio de entrevistas com especialistas em Contabilidade, as aproximações e adaptações destes mecanismos para o contexto contábil. A segunda etapa tratou da identificação dos principais MecGovInfoCont por meio de uma Delphi do tipo Ranking, realizada em três etapas, buscando a obtenção de um consenso sobre elementos prioritários na avaliação de profissionais da área contábil. Como resultado, tem-se a apresentação de um conjunto de práticas de controle de Governança da Informação Contábil, além de uma lista dos mecanismos mais importantes para a Contabilidade. Essas evidências podem ser úteis tanto para a prática contábil nas organizações quanto para a formação de futuros profissionais que precisam estar aptos para lidar com os desafios relacionados às mudanças tecnológicas, ao volume crescente de dados e informações e às funções cada vez mais significativas que o contador exerce ao indicar aos empresários tendências, cenários e análises referentes ao negócio. Ainda como implicações à prática profissional, os resultados poderão nortear a implementação de mecanismos para um melhor controle da informação contábil, representando estratégias para a criação de valor no uso de dados e informações. Desta forma, a adoção progressiva dos MecGovInfoCont pode vir a qualificar a tomada de decisão dos diversos interessados. No âmbito acadêmico, a contribuição desses resultados está na apresentação dos MecGovInfoCont, algo ainda não conhecido pelos pesquisadores e práticos do contexto contábil. E, para a Governança da Informação (GovInfo), este estudo adiciona evidências do campo sobre práticas de controle às lacunas que ainda existem nesta temática.Data and information are gaining strategic importance in Accounting since its primary objective is to provide useful and quality information to stakeholders for decision-making. The impact of technology resources on business processes and the emergence of issues such as Big Data have been demanding from attention with accounting practices since they affect the way information is produced and disseminated. Therefore, it is necessary and timely to identify control practices (mechanisms) that ensure that information is governed efficiently. Information Governance presents itself as a contemporary approach to the best use of information. While much of what is known about Information Governance comes from case studies that provide insights into its composition, Information Governance can be approached through a broad IT Governance structure by using similar practices, although, with an information artifact focus. Thus, the objective of this dissertation is to identify the main accounting information governance mechanisms. The study is composed of two stages, each one being represented by an article.The first step aim to identify the accounting information governance mechanisms, having as guiding elements the mechanisms of IT Governance and Information Governance. For this, initially, a systematic review of the existing mechanisms of IT Governance and Information Governance literature and later a validation by professionals in the Systems and IT area was carried out. Subsequently, we sought to identify through interviews with specialists in Accounting, the similar and adaptations of these mechanisms to the accounting context. The second stage dealt with the identification of the main accounting information governance mechanisms through a Ranking-type Delphi, performed in three stages, seeking to obtain a consensus about on priority elements in the evaluation of professionals in the accounting area. As a result, we present a set of accounting information governance practices, as well as a list of the most important mechanisms for Accounting. This evidence can be useful both for accounting practice in organizations and for the training of future professionals who need to be able to deal with the challenges related to technological change, the increasing volume of data and information, and the increasingly significant functions that the accountant professional to might play indicating scenarios and business trend analyzes. Also as implications to professional practice, the results can guide the implementation of mechanisms for better control of accounting information, improving strategies for the value creation data and information usage. In this way, the gradual adoption accounting information governance mechanisms can qualify stakeholders decision making process. In the academic field, the contribution of these results is in the presentation accounting information governance mechanisms, something not yet known to the researchers and practitioners of the accounting context. And for Information Governance, this study adds evidence from the field about control practices to the gaps that still exist in this research area