Large-scale perspective as a challenge

1. Scale forms a challenge for chain researchers: when exactly is something ‘large-scale’? What are the underlying factors (e.g. number of parties, data, objects in the chain, complexity) that determine this? It appears to be a continuum between small- and large-scale, where positioning on that continuum is situation dependent.2. Scale forms a challenge for chain professionals and consultants as well. Large-scale projects require a fundamentally different approach than regular, small-scale projects; starting from the principles of gradualism and a good starting place. Fallacies of the wrong level are looming and should be prevented.3. Because it is difficult to determine whether a situation is large-scale, it is important to make assumptions about an information strategy/chain project explicit and test them on both a small- and large-scale scenarios.4. The theory of Chain-computerisation can provide guidance for dealing with scale

Measuring interoperability maturity in government networks

The purpose of this paper is to create a model that describes the development of interorganisational collaboration in government networks that apply eGovernment. Contrary to several models that describe eGovernment from a government-to-citizen perspective, and primarily emphasise on the front office of eGovernment services, this paper focuses on the collaboration that takes place in the back office to enable successful eGovernment services. A maturity model was developed to describe and assess the level of interorganisational collaboration in government networks that apply eGovernment. Through a structured literature review, 19 existing maturity models related to interorganisational collaboration and eGovernment were identified. These models were subsequently analysed on their dimensions and on the stages that were used to define maturity.Furthermore, the authors of this paper studied the characteristics of each stage and the preconditions for increasing maturity. Based on this literature review and their analysis, the authors propose a new maturity model in which existing concepts are integrated and extended from a network perspective. This model describes the levels of interorganisational collaboration in government networks on three dimensions: system, information and process. Five levels of increasing interconnectedness describe how the interorganisational collaboration in government networks unfolds across these three dimensions. The model is empirically applied through case studies of three government networks.Medium- to large-sized networks of municipalities and their cooperating partners that apply eGovernment services in their permit application procedure have been studied. The model appears to be suitable for assessing the development of interorganisational collaboration among government networks that implement eGovernment in their service provisioning. Further research could focus on the use of this model in order to analyse additional growth strategies, aiming to create successful roadmaps

Chain-computerisation as a research methodology: The fruits of six years of Chain Landscape Research at Utrecht University

With the emeritus status of Professor Jan Grijpink, the moment has come to take stock of the Chain Landscape Research that has been going on under his supervision at Utrecht University since 2005. Central to this research is the implementation of chain analyses on the basis of the theory of Chain-computerisation. Its chain analysis profiles can be used as either descriptive or as assessment tools. Over the past six years, approximately 25 social chains have been examined. Generic, recurring results have bearing on the dominant chain problem, fallacies of the wrong level and identity fraud. Chain Landscape Research is continuing in the form of a debating society and that is desperately needed in view of the contribution that Chain-computerisation can make in providing an answer to large-scale information problems

Maturing interorganisational information systems

This thesis consists of nine chapters, divided over five parts. PART I is an introduction and the last part contains the conclusions. The remaining, intermediate parts are: PART II: Developing a maturity model for chain digitisation. This part contains two related studies concerning the development and operationalisation of a maturity model for chain digitisation. It also contains empirical work, namely the application of the model on the Dutch retail sector, and on Dutch organisations in general. PART III: Studies on interorganisational information systems in retail and health. This part focuses on empirical application of interorganisational concepts in the retail and health sector. Two chapters concentrate on point-of-sale (POS) systems. This is a type of information system that is specific to the retail sector and forms the central part of a retailer’s ICT. The third chapter describes a study on interorganisational ICT in primary care. PART IV: Policy studies on interorganisational information systems. In this part we shift our attention to the policy perspective. We look at interorganisational chains as a whole and work towards an information strategy that takes into account the threat of identity fraud. Finally, we evaluate a policy programme in terms of its success in furthering the uptake of interorganisational ICT. These three parts match with the three elements of the main research question. They also form a logical sequence: from developing theoretical concepts, through empirical application, to policy formulation

Towards an information strategy for combating identity fraud in the public domain: Cases from healthcare and criminal justice

Two trends are present in both the private and public domain: increasing interorganisational co-operation and increasing digitisation. More and more processes within and between organisations take place electronically, on local, national and European scale. The technological and organisational issues related to this prove to be difficult on a local scale and barely manageable on national and European scales. We introduce the theoretical framework of Chain-computerisation, which explains large-scale chain co-operation as an answer to a dominant chain problem. Identity fraud proves to be the dominant chain problem in many chain co-operation situations. Therefore, our main research question is: how to arrive at a successful information strategy to combat identity fraud in the large-scale processes that constitute the public domain? We demonstrate the problem of identity fraud on the basis of two Dutch cases, from the criminal justice chain and the healthcare sector. These cases are taken from our chain research programme in which we test empirical findings against the theoretical framework of Chain-computerisation to derive a successful chain-specific information strategy. In both cases, the problem of identity fraud presents a threat to the chain co-operation. Identity fraud has to be tackled with an approach focused on large-scale processes and with specific person-oriented security procedures and instruments preventing identity fraud from happening undetected. This study forms an important contribution to information science and to the security realm that still pivots only on traditional authentication frameworks that cannot cope with ‘wrong person’ identity fraud. In large-scale situations, therefore, additional safeguards will be necessary. Taking into account that the problem of identity fraud rises in many other domains and countries as well, we conclude that it is a major threat to the European society. Finally, we argue that chain-specific information systems with random identity verification enable combating identity fraud

Measuring chain digitisation maturity: An assessment of Dutch retail branches

The purpose of this article is to develop a validated measurement model and typology for chain digitisation maturity, defined as the degree of interorganisational collaboration through ICT