Do We Need Intermediaries in E-Government? Intermediaries to Create a Demand-Driven Government

The advent of e-government and the use of the Internet to connect governments to citizens and businesses have resulted into direct contact among government agencies and their customers. The development towards more direct interaction can be used to predict the bypassing of intermediaries. In this paper three case studies are analyzed which counter this argument. A reintermediation strategy is followed in which intermediaries are used as new distribution channels to interact with customers. The case studies show that intermediaries can be employed to reduce cost and at the same time make government more demand-driven. Following only a disintermediation strategy, often motivated by transaction cost, is a too narrow approach and needs to be complimented by reintermediation strategy to advance towards a demand-driven government

Data Sharing Issues and Potential Solutions for Adoption of Information Infrastructures: Evidence from a Data Pipeline Project in the Global Supply Chain over Sea

Information infrastructures have gained significant momentum in today’s information economy. They are defined as shared, open and evolving socio-technical systems providing distinct IT capabilities. The Cassandra EU project aims to enhance visibility of the international flow of goods over sea with an electronic data pipeline as an information infrastructure. This paper presents data sharing issues that could prevent adoption of the Cassandra Pipeline. Potential solutions are provided regarding access restriction and data sharing. In addition solutions are derived from the design theory for dynamic complexity in information infrastructures of Hanseth and Lyytinen (2010), proposing to gain momentum by starting small, focusing on immediate benefits for supply chain partners and obtaining experience using simple prototypes. This paper underlines that designers of the Cassandra Pipeline as an information infrastructure need to think carefully about the implications of restricting access and non-obligatory or obligatory data sharing, both allowing for generativity and trust while preventing potential abuse at the same time

Avoiding management of resistances during IT pre-implementation phase: A longitudinal research in a high tech corporation

Most of empirical research about users\u27 resistance toward IT has been conducted after IT been implemented in organizations surveyed. Few longitudinal research have been done about the way individual and group resistances emerge and evolve during prior stages of projects. This focus on preimplementation phases is all the more important that IS managers need to anticipate potential conflicts and users’ resistances likely to involve project failure. This article delivers the results a two year longitudinal research conducted at Netia corp. (a worldwide leader in video and audio broadcasting) during preliminary phases of its ERP implementation project. As main findings, while conflicts toward IT implemented are often considered as having negative effects and requiring to be actively managed by the hierarchy, the case study delivers an alternative observation: it describes how an affective oriented conflict has been solved while managers adopted an “avoiding management style”. Our observations differ from several prior studies about conflict management styles and support that an avoiding management style can drive team’s members to cope efficiently with conflict situations during IT pre-implantation phase. In conclusion, the article presents research perspectives associated to these results

Multichannel management : de stand van zaken

Dit rapport geeft een overzicht van multichannel management (MCM) vanuit drie verschillende invalshoeken, namelijk vanuit het perspectief van de klant, de organisatie en de technologie. Alvorens elk van de invalshoeken toe te lichten, is er eerst een introductie over MCM op basis van verschillende wetenschappelijke onderzoeksgebieden. Bij het klantperspectief zijn vooral aspecten als kanaalkeuze, gebruik en beïnvloeding van het kanaalgedrag van belang. In het organisatieperspectief staat het huidige beleid van overheidsinstellingen op het gebied van MCM centraal. Tot slot geeft dit rapport een overzicht van de huidige technologische oplossingen voor MCM. Bij elk van deze invalshoeken worden inzichten uit de wetenschap en de praktijk meegenomen

Big data in the public sector : uncertainties and readiness

Big data is being implemented with success in the private sector and science. Yet the public sector seems to be falling behind, despite the potential value of big data for government. Government organizations do recognize the opportunities of big data but seem uncertain about whether they are ready for the introduction of big data, and if they are adequately equipped to use big data. This paper addresses those uncertainties. It presents an assessment framework for evaluating public organizations’ big data readiness. Doing so demystifies the concept of big data, as it is expressed in terms of specific and measureable organizational characteristics. The framework was tested by applying it to organizations in the Dutch public sector. The results suggest that organizations may be technically capable of using big data, but they will not significantly gain from these activities if the applications do not fit their organizations and main statutory tasks. The framework proved helpful in pointing out areas where public sector organizations could improve, providing guidance on how government can become more big data ready in the future

Process management in hospitals: an empirically grounded maturity model

In order to improve transparency and stabilise health care costs, several countries have decided to reform their healthcare system on the basis of diagnosis-related groups (DRG). DRGs are not only used for classifying medical treatments, but also for case-based reimbursement, hence induce active competition among hospitals, forcing them to become more efficient and effective. In consequence, hospitals are investing considerably in process orientation and management. However, to date there is neither a consensus on what capabilities hospitals need to acquire for becoming process-oriented, nor a general agreement on the sequence of development stages they have to traverse. To this end, this study proposes an empirically grounded conceptualisation of process management capabilities and presents a staged capability maturity model algorithmically derived on the basis of empirical data from 129 acute somatic hospitals in Switzerland. The five capability maturity levels start with 'encouragement of process orientation' (level 1), 'case-by-case handling' (level 2), and 'defined processes' (level 3). Ultimately, hospitals can reach the levels 'occasional corrective action' (level 4) and 'closed loop improvement' (level 5). The empirically derived model reveals why existing, generic capability maturity models for process management are not applicable in the hospitals context: their comparatively high complexity on the one hand and their strong focus on topics like an adequate IT integration and process automation on the other make them inadequate for solving the problems felt in the hospital sector, which are primarily of cultural and structural nature. We deem the proposed capability maturity model capable to overcome these shortcomings

Barriers for transformation: Impediments for transforming the public sector through e-government

Most of empirical research about users\u27 resistance toward IT has been conducted after IT been implemented in organizations surveyed. Few longitudinal research have been done about the way individual and group resistances emerge and evolve during prior stages of projects. This focus on preimplementation phases is all the more important that IS managers need to anticipate potential conflicts and users’ resistances likely to involve project failure. This article delivers the results a two year longitudinal research conducted at Netia corp. (a worldwide leader in video and audio broadcasting) during preliminary phases of its ERP implementation project. As main findings, while conflicts toward IT implemented are often considered as having negative effects and requiring to be actively managed by the hierarchy, the case study delivers an alternative observation: it describes how an affective oriented conflict has been solved while managers adopted an “avoiding management style”. Our observations differ from several prior studies about conflict management styles and support that an avoiding management style can drive team’s members to cope efficiently with conflict situations during IT pre-implantation phase. In conclusion, the article presents research perspectives associated to these results

Exploring factors that influence information sharing choices of organizations in networks

Organizations do not just decide on whether or not to exchange information digitally. In many cases, there are multiple alternative configurations of inter-organizational systems (IOS) that facilitate such information sharing. Although a lot is known about the factors that influence whether organizations do or do not adopt IOS, little is known about how these factors work when organizations are choosing among multiple configurations for information sharing. This paper takes two archetypical IOS forms - dyadic and multilateral arrangements – and explores how the known antecedents affect choosing among them. To this end, a case study was conducted on the selection and development of an IOS for information sharing in a network of utility service and infrastructure providers