Christiaan P. Katsma

The Inter-organizational Business Case in ES Implementations: Exploring the Impact of Coordination Structures and Their Properties

Developing the business case (BC) for an inter-organizational network is a major challenge. Factors like competition and differences in semantics between actors influence the stakeholders’ willingness to share information necessary for the BC development. In this paper we develop an exploratory framework showing the effect that coordination structure and project scope have on the development of a shared BC. We defined several coordination properties, such as competition, decision making location and decision power that mitigate this effect. We applied the framework in a case study where a BC is developed for an inter-organizational network. Our findings show that current BC development methods need to be re-stated and complemented by extra tools and interventions to support stakeholders in the inter-organizational specific setting.

A Design Proposal for a Benefits Management Method for Enterprise System Implementations

Enterprise Systems (ES) involve relative high investments and long-lasting implementations for its adopters. A business case (BC) is often developed in the beginning to evaluate and justify this investment. This BC explains the expected costs, benefits and risks of the ES implementation. In this paper we especially focus on the problems of the current BC development and present a design proposal based on Benefits Management (BM). Research in cost estimation is matured and BM is perceived as a standard in this domain. We use an iterative design science approach to create our proposal. First, we give a structured overview of current BM methods both from practitioners as well as academia using the methodological framework of Avison and Fitzgerald [1]. Second, we derive our own improved BM method based on the work of Ward and Daniel [2]. During the development process, in five iterations, we interviewed and collaboratively worked with experts towards this method.

Value, Participation and Quality of Electronic Health Records in the Netherlands

Growing cost of health care, the gradual reorganization of health care on a free-market basis and patients evolving into health care consumers all prompt hospitals to gain competitive advantage by improving efficiency, quality of care, and customer friendliness. An electronic health record system (EHR) is one of the tools to achieve these goals. Hospitals are nevertheless lagging behind industry in implementing IT systems to support their core business processes. Eighteen case studies were conducted among Dutch hospitals to examine the EHR system implementation. Through seventy three interviews with key stakeholders, the relation between perceived value of the EHR, the degree of participation in the implementation process, and the resulting quality of EHR systems was investigated. The value that end users expect is not achieved within Dutch hospitals. It was found that no hospital had so far reached third generation EHR functionality, even though several hospitals are actively pursuing it. Innovation with respect to EHR systems in hospitals is limited because of a lack of capabilities, not because of a lack of participation. Extensive and ill-targeted end user involvement tends to delay decision making and exacerbates the mismatch between implementation goals and results. Quality issues focus on information quality in terms of completeness and system quality in terms of reliability. This study contributes in combining participation models with the technology acceptance model and the IS success models. Electronic Health Records can be evaluated with this combination and a prescriptive analysis has lead to practical advice to the Dutch Ministry of Health.

Can Agile Software Tools Bring the Benefits of a Task Board to Globally Distributed Teams

Software-based tooling has become an essential part of globally disitrbuted software development. In this study we focus on the usage of such tools and task boards in particular. We investigate the deployment of these tools through a field research in 4 different companies that feature agile and globally distributed development teams. We interviewed a total of 15 developers and concluded that the paper-based task board currently still has many advantages when compared to its software-based solution. Our findings indicate that the majority of the investigated companies that use the agile method Scrum also work with a software tool to support Scrum. While distributed teams use a software only approach, a large portion of collocated teams we studied utilize a combination of a paper based task board and the archiving and integration properties of the software solution. We reflect on these findings through the lens of media synchronicity theory and conclude that this theory is useful for explaining the current use and future development of software tools to support agile globally distributed development teams.

Balancing Supply and Demand of an Electronic Health Record in the Netherlands; Not too open systems for not too open users.

About twenty suppliers of electronic health records (EHR) battle for the favor of about hundred hospitals in the Netherlands. The Minister of health has been promising for over a decade that every citizen in the Netherlands can have an EHR. Until now this promise has not been met. One of the main requirements for this national EHR is an agreed definition of an open EHR by both vendors and users. This paper first studies the demand side using the results of thirty eight interviews with end users asking them their core processes and their expected value of an EHR. Next we have a look at the supply side with an overview of the Dutch market and a focus on open EHRs as possible overall solution. This solution is further elaborated by using the experience with enterprise application integration (EAT) in industry. The contribution of this paper is twofold. First from a combined analysis of our data our main conclusion is the supply of EHR in the Netherlands is not open yet. Only suppliers with a small market share really offer external process integration. Only if the main suppliers are stimulated (by the government) to open up, a national EHR can arise. Secondly from a detailed analysis the following results stand out: majority of the end users (demand side) do not get support in their relevant working processes. Communication is badly supported and direct patient contact (what they think most important in their work) is even endangered by new systems. Availability, a benefit where all stakeholders agree upon, does not seem to be enough to open the market and create a good diffusion of EHR in the Netherlands. Much more focus should be laid on quality of care and communication with patients and colleagues

Exploring the Business Case Development Process in Inter-Organizational Enterprise System Implementations

Creating and negotiating an inter-organizational business case (BC) for multiple-stakeholder enterprise systems is a major challenge. This paper looks closer into the factors that influence the stakeholders’ willingness to share information necessary for the BC development. The authors develop an explanatory framework showing the effect that project constellation has on the development of a shared BC. They identify several factors, such as goal consensus, cultural and semantic similarities and willingness to share information, that mitigate this effect. Subsequently, the authors apply the framework in an inter-organizational case study in which a BC is developed. The findings show that current BC development methods need to be re-stated and complemented by new tools and interventions to support stakeholders in the inter-organizational specific setting. The authors elaborate on the possibilities that group decision support systems might offer to overcome challenges that might be experienced in the BC development process.

A negotiation game to support inter-organizational business case development

Nowadays, an increasing number of organizations in the supply chain are involved in business collaborations. The success of such collaborations is, among others, highly dependent on joint investment in IT system implementations. In this paper we will discuss how business cases can be used to determine the costs and benefits of such investments for each actor. Using design science as a research paradigm we develop a serious game, called SID4IOP, that helps partners in inter-organizational settings to come to an equal distribution of the costs and benefits of an investment. We will show how the introduction of anonymity, a bidding mechanism and structured information disclosure can help project partners to reach agreement on the distribution of the costs.

Using Value Models to Improve the Cost/Benefit Analysis of Inter-Organizational System Implementations

Jointly developing a business case for inter-organizational information systems (IOS) is difficult as: (1) in a business network there are benefits that may not appear at the site where costs occur, and (2) the involved stakeholders often have different or even conflicting organizational goals. This paper analyzes the use of value modeling as a way to address these two challenges and support business case development in a network. We carried out a case study to explore the usefulness of the value modeling logic during an IOS implementation project and conclude that the integration of value modeling into business case development can help to improve the quality of the business case. The value model allows business partners to get insights into the way value is exchanged in the network and check the distribution of costs and benefits, yet doing so without having to reveal confidential details about internal business processes.