An Organizational Perspective on Critical Success Factors for Customer Relationship Management - A Descriptive Case Study

Despite much IS research on CRM in general and CRM-related critical success factors (CSFs) in particular, CRM projects are still subject to high failure rates. Most current CSF studies focus on a project or technological perspective. What they neglect, for instance, is an organizational perspective, i. e. the setting in which people execute operational CRM processes and which should be considered and/or established during CRM projects. In order to provide deeper insights into the organizational perspective, we conducted a descriptive case study within a CRM project at the German sales department of a globally acting company from the electronics and electrical engineering industry. We also had the chance to analyze two of the company’s so-called sales business types (SBTs), namely “product sales” and “solution sales”. We identified 13 organizational CSFs, compiled a ranking for each SBT, and conducted a cross-SBT analysis

ProcessPageRank - A Network-based Approach to Process Prioritization Decisions

Deciding which business processes to improve first is a challenge most corporate decision-makers face. The literature offers many approaches, techniques, and tools that support such process prioritization decisions. Despite the broad knowledge about measuring the performance of individual processes and determining related need for improvement, the interconnectedness of processes has not been considered in process prioritization decisions yet. So far, the interconnectedness of business processes is captured for descriptive purposes only, for example in business process architectures. This drawback systematically biases process prioritization decisions. As a first step to address this gap, we propose the ProcessPageRank (PPR), an algorithm based on the Google PageRank that ranks processes according to their network-adjusted need for improvement. The PPR is grounded in the literature related to process improvement, process performance measurement, and network analysis. For demonstration purposes, we created a software prototype and applied the PPR to five process network archetypes to illustrate how the interconnectedness of business processes affects process prioritization decisions

An Optimization Model for Valuating Process Flexibility

Although flexible processes are deemed critical for many companies and constitute a key concern of business process management, there is a lack of approaches for valuating process flexibility from an economic perspective and for determining an appropriate level of process flexibility. Today, companies do not know how flexible their processes should be. While generally advocating balanced investments, scholars provide concrete recommendations for very specific settings only. What is missing is a more general guidance and a deeper investigation of the positive economic effects of flexible processes, which are hard-to-measure and beset with risks. Against this backdrop, we propose an optimization model that enables determining the optimal level of process flexibility in line with the principles of value-based business process management. We also report on the insights gained from applying the optimization model to the production processes of an international company from the semi-conductor industry

PROCESS MEETS PROJECT PRIORITIZATION – A DECISION MODEL FOR DEVELOPING PROCESS IMPROVEMENT ROADMAPS

Improving business processes is a key success factor for organizations and, at the same time, a major challenge for decision makers. For process improvement to be successful, effective prioritization is essential. Despite the existence of approaches for the prioritization of process improvement projects or business processes, prescriptive research at the intersection of both research streams is missing. Existing approaches do not simultaneously prioritize business processes and improvement projects. Hence, scarce corporate funds may be misallocated. To address this research gap, we propose the PMP2, an economic decision model that assists organizations in the identification of business process improvement (BPI) roadmaps. Based on stochastic processes and simulation, the decision model maps different improvement projects to individual business processes within a process network. Thereby, it caters for process dependencies and basic interactions among projects. Drawing from the principles of value-based management, the decision model determines the process improvement roadmap with the highest contribution to the long-term firm value. To evaluate the PMP2, we instantiated it as a software prototype and performed different scenario analyses based on synthetic data. The results highlight the importance of prioritizing business processes and improvement projects in an integrated manner

Business Value of the Internet of Things – A Project Portfolio Selection Approach

The Internet of Things (IoT) counts among the most disruptive digital technologies on the market. De-spite the IoT’s emerging nature, there is an increasing body of knowledge related to technological and business topics. Nevertheless, there is a lack of prescriptive knowledge that provides organizations with guidance on the economic valuation of investments in the IoT perspective. Such knowledge, however, is crucial for pursuing the organizational goal of long-term value maximization. Against this backdrop, we develop an economic decision model that helps organizations determine an optimal IoT project port-folio from a manufacturer’s perspective and complies with the principles of project portfolio selection and value-based management. For our purposes, IoT project portfolios are compilations of projects that aim to implement IoT technology in an organization’s production process, products, or infrastructure. Our decision model schedules IoT projects for multiple planning periods and considers monetary as well as monetized project effects. On this foundation, it determines the project sequence with the highest value contribution. To evaluate our decision model, we discussed its real-world fidelity and under-standability with an industry expert renowned for its proficiency in IoT technology, implemented a soft-ware prototype, and demonstrated its applicability based on real-world data. Keywords: Internet of Things, economic valuation of IoT, value-based management, project portfolio management

The Nature of Digital Technologies - Development of a Multi-Layer Taxonomy

Digitalization disrupts business models and smartifies products and services. Based on the ever-faster emergence and adoption of digital technologies such as the Internet of Things, blockchain, or augmented reality, digitalization irreversibly changes our private lives and organizational routines from all industries on a global scale. Thereby, digitalization develops unlimited potential in terms of innovation, connectivity, efficiency and productivity improvements. However, research and practice still lack a fundamental understanding of the nature of digital technologies. To address this gap, we developed a multi-layer taxonomy of digital technologies that includes eight dimensions structured along the layers of established modular architectures, i.e. service, content, network, and device. Based on our taxonomy, we also identified seven archetypes of digital technologies by means of a cluster analysis. To revise and evaluate our artefacts, we classified 45 digital technologies from the Gartner Hype Cycle of Emerging Technologies and conducted evaluation rounds with other researchers. Our results contribute to the descriptive knowledge on digital technologies. They enable researchers and practitioners to classify digital technologies on two levels of aggregation and to make informed decisions about their adoption

Understanding the Internet of Things: A Conceptualisation of Business-to-Thing (B2T) Interactions

The Internet of Things is widely regarded as one of the most disruptive technologies as it integrates Internet-enabled physical objects into the networked society and makes these objects increasingly autonomous partners in digitised value chains. After transforming internal processes and enhancing efficiency, the Internet of Things yields the potential to transform traditional business-to-customer interactions in a way previously not thought of. Remote patient monitoring, predictive maintenance, and automatic car repair are only some innovative examples. This paper contributes to the conceptualisation of the emerging business relationships based on such empowered smart things by proposing a series of core and advanced business-to-thing (B2T) interaction patterns. The core patterns named C2T-Only, B2T-Only, Customer-Centred, Business-Centred, Thing-Centred, and All-In B2T classify alternative interactions between businesses, customers, and smart things, using the connected car as an ongoing case and Uber as an example to demonstrate how patters can be composed. The proposed patterns demonstrate the affordances of integrating smart things into the networked society and sensitise for the emergence of B2T interactions

Omni-Channel Retail Capabilities: An Information Systems Perspective

Emerging technologies enable customers to define by themselves through which channels they would like to interact with retailers. These technologies also enable retailers to emancipate from traditional channels, to offer services anytime and anywhere, and eventually to evolve into omni-channel retailers. In fact, most interactions between customers and retailers are enabled by information technology. Nevertheless, many retailers struggle with identifying and implementing IS capabilities that help meet customers’ interaction preferences in omni-channel environments. Despite this strong practical need, there is little guidance in the academic literature. To address this research gap, we present a framework of IS capabilities for omni-channel retail. Exploratory in nature, the framework is grounded on a structured review of the academic literature, practitioner publications, and an online survey involving global retailing experts. Comprising twelve operational IS capabilities, our framework is an initial attempt to structure the field of omni-channel IS capabilities