Evaluating concepts for short-term control in financial service processes

Financial services are characterised by the integration of customers while the service is being delivered. This integration leads to interruptions and thus delays in the processing of a customer order until for example the customer provides the missing input. Because customer behaviour can only be planned to a certain extent this is a major problem for an efficient control of financial service processes. It would be helpful to know which concept leads to the best solution for a certain situation in controlling the process. A concept contains explicit practical knowledge e.g. using a stand-by-employee or a prioritisation of customer orders with first-infirst-out. As financial services differ from manufacturing processes application knowledge of concepts cannot be transferred one to one. To test concepts regarding their ability to deal efficiently with interruptions by customers short-term simulations should be conducted. Shortterm simulation uses the actual state of a process and is not focussing on steady-state results. The research presented focuses on comparing several concepts for short-term control using case-study data of a typical financial service process. For this process a simulation model is built based on process mining. This approach is used to gather information out of documented timestamps of underlying process-aware information systems. Such timestamps allow a historical analysis to build typical scenarios and to gather the actual state of a financial service process as a starting point for a simulation analysis. The depicted concepts are simulated for different typical scenarios points to determine respectively which concept suits best. The results show which concepts suit best in certain situations for the case study conducted. --short-term control,financial services,business process simulation

Stand der Literatur zur operativen Steuerung von Dienstleistungsprozessen

Services are characterised by the integration of customers while the service is produced. This integration leads to interruptions in the processing of a customer order until the customer provides the missing input. Since customer behaviour can be planned to a certain extent only challenges in planning an efficient delivery of a service process arise. This holds especially true for operational control as it has to correct deviances in the short-term. Thus, the following research question occurs: How can service processes be controlled efficiently taking customer integration into account? The aim of this working paper is to conduct a comprehensive literature review with regard to the research question. The results show that the majority of approaches are originate from manufacturing dealing with processes mainly conducted by machines and having stock-keeping possibilities. These manufacturing processes and the approaches typically do not deal with the complex influence of customer integration on operational control as in the case of service processes. It is concluded that a sufficient answer to control service processes is missing so far and thus potential research areas are addressed. --operational control,services,literature review

Different landscape factors explain establishment and persistence of river red gum (Eucalyptus camaldulensis) in agricultural landscapes of southeast Queensland

Riparian and floodplain ecosystems in production landscapes are considerably degraded and under continued pressure from surrounding land use. However, little is known about how remnant ecosystems respond to land use and hydrological factors in small non-riverine wetlands. River red gum (Eucalyptus camaldulensis) is a dominant tree species within these scattered remnants, which provides critical ecological functions for the remaining biodiversity. In this study, we investigated how different life stages of E. camaldulensis responded to land use and hydrological variables in the Condamine catchment of south east Queensland. We used logistic regression to develop models for different life stages of E. camaldulensis in two regions with differing land use intensity histories. Broad regional differences and land use practices at smaller scales best explained differences in E. camaldulensis occurrence for younger life stages, while hydrology (groundwater and connectivity to rivers) and land use practices (dryland agriculture and grazing) best explained differences in older life stages. The results indicate that different factors are important in determining the establishment and persistence of E. camaldulensis and that land use practices at the regional scale are key factors in determining the establishment and potential future persistence of E. camaldulensis in floodplain wetlands

Towards Learning Business Process Management Thinking

Business process management is indisputable an approach many organizations are aiming to adopt. While much emphasis is put on modeling business processes and designing information systems, the employees working in a process-oriented organization often struggle with these changes. Here, it is of major importance for organizations to take their employees with this change of mind towards process orientation to be successful. However, the question how an organization can support its employees in learning process-oriented thinking, remains open so far in the literature. Thus, this research-in-progress paper presents first results in trying to explore how employees can be supported. A rather new empirical method in this research field, namely a questionnaire experiment, is used. Based on a sample of 114 participants, we find empirical support for our hypotheses that learning in general matters with regard to process-oriented thinking. Organizations are better off when their employees learn process-oriented thinking by doing in comparison to provide documentations in order to actively promote learning

YUMA – An AI Planning Agent for Composing IT Services from Infrastructure-as-Code Specifications

Infrastructure-as-code enables cloud architects to automate IT service delivery by specifying IT services through machine-readable definition files. To allow for a reusability of the infrastructure-as-code specifications, cloud architects specify IT services as compositions of sub-processes. As the AI planning agents for automated IT service composition proposed by prior research fall short in the infrastructure-as-code context, we design a search-based problem-solving agent named YUMA according to a design science research process to fill this research gap. YUMA holds a search tree reflecting the state space and transition model. It includes an algorithm for building the search tree and two algorithms for determining the minimum composition plan. The underlying IT service composition problem is explicated for the infrastructure-as-code context and formulated as a search problem. The results of the demonstration and evaluation show that YUMA fulfills the requirements necessary to solve this problem and digitizes an important task of cloud architects

Facilitating Operational Control of Business Services: A Method for Analysing and Structuring Customer Integration

The efficient delivery of services is a major task for service companies to survive in competition. But, services are characterised by the integration of customers in the process of service delivery. In this context, operational control of business services is an important issue as business service performance often suffers from operational problems caused by customers involved. In order to react, a service company has to identify the possible options for operational control clearly. This is not easy as the impact of customer integration is ambiguous. To facilitate this, a method for analysing and structuring customer integration in business services is proposed. The aim is to cluster, quantify and qualify customer integration in business services from a production point of view. Applying this method (as demonstrated using a real business service) operational control will be facilitated due to a better transparency of customer integration

Towards assessing the value of digital self-service options from a provider perspective

Given the ongoing digitization of service, understanding the value co-creation process in the self-service context is getting more and more relevant for practitioners and academics alike. Prior research on service co-production has primarily focused on the service beneficiaries’ causal paths of value determination or has conceptualized value as utility relying on neo-classical economic concepts and theories. As a result, little is known about how to assess the value-in-experience of digital self-service options from a service provider’s perspective. This study represents a first contribution towards answering this research question. Based on the results of a systematic literature review, we develop a framework that enables service organizations to assess the expected and perceived value before, during or after an actual service experience. It therefore conceptualizes value in form of net benefit and means-end. Drawing upon the framework, we discuss various value enhancement strategies reflecting different categories of self-service options

Identifying the Factors influencing Self-Service Technology Usage Intention – A Meta-Analysis

Service organizations introduce self-service technologies to their customers to reduce cost and realize efficiency gains. However, for service organizations to realize such benefits, the customers must use the SSTs provided. Results from prior studies are too diverse to derive a proper set of relevant factors that must be considered in this regard. A meta-analysis was conducted and the findings of prior studies that have investigated factors influencing the customers’ intentions to use SSTs were synthesized. 13 factors directly influencing the customers’ intentions to use SSTs were identified from 26 prior studies. The meta-analysis provides the following contributions. First, SSTs must be designed and marketed according to the customers’ familiarity with their usage. Second, the resources that are required from the customers must be considered when designing SSTs. Third, customers should not be forced to use SSTs. The research findings offer practical advice on how to design and market SSTs

How should we teach the logic of BPM? Comparing e-learning and face-to-face setting in situated learning

Knowing the fundamental logic of Business Process Management (BPM) is essential for students to understand and connect concepts of BPM and to develop appropriate information systems (IS). The logic of BPM refers to how organizations and processes should be designed to be efficient in general. Yet the question arises how to enable students to learn the logic of BPM. We conducted an empirical study with 150 graduate students separated into e-learning and face-to-face groups. The results show that both learning settings are effective, but the effect of the face-to-face setting is almost double. We propose to use situated e-learning as a short introduction for beginner courses in IS. Thus, students can quickly accumulate a sufficient level of knowledge. A situated face-to-face setting is then helpful to deepen the knowledge in a course on specific concepts of BPM.postprin

Prevention of Electrostatic Charge Generation in Filtration of Low-Conductivity Oils by Surface Modification of Modern Filter Media

The electrostatic charging behavior of filter elements operating in various hydraulic and lubricating fluids has been re-examined from the perspective of fundamental material properties of the two materials participating in the event. In contrast to the previously proposed mechanisms that focused predominantly on fluid and material conductivities, new evidence strongly suggests that the relative placement of the substrates in the triboelectric series must be taken into account. The positions occupied in the triboelectric series account for the donor/acceptor tendencies exhibited by the materials when brought close together in close proximity ( 10 nm). Nevertheless, this behavior is only an outward manifestation of the deeper underlying characteristics that include material surface energies and, looking even deeper, the associated electron work functions of the interacting materials. Herein we provide several examples of the enhanced understanding of the electrostatic charging/discharging (ESC/ESD) phenomena as they occur in the course of filtration of hydraulic and lubricating fluids through modern filter elements constructed of synthetic glass fiber and polymer materials