Falk Uebernickel

User, Use & Utility Research The Digital User as New Design Perspective in Business and Information Systems Engineering

Business and Information Systems Engineering (BISE) is at a turning point. Planning, designing, developing and operating IT used to be a management task of a few elites in public ad-ministrations and corporations. But the continuous digitization of nearly all areas of life changes the IT landscape fundamentally. Success in this new era requires putting the human perspective – the digital user – at the very heart of the new digitized service-led economy.BISE faces not just a temporary trend but a complex socio-technical phenomenon with far-reaching implications. The challenges are manifold and have major consequences for all stakeholders, both in information systems and management research as well as in practice. Corporate processes have to be re-designed from the ground up, starting with the user’s perspective, thus putting usage experience and utility of the individual center stage.The digital service economy leads to highly personalized application systems while organizational functions are being fragmented. Entirely new ways of interacting with information systems, in particular beyond desktop IT, are being invented and established. These fundamental challenges require novel approaches with regards to innovation and development methods as well as adequate concepts for enterprise or service system architectures. Gigantic amounts of data are being generated at an accelerating rate by an increasing number of devices – data that need to be managed.In order to tackle these extraordinary challenges we introduce ‘user, use & utility’ as a new field of BISE that focuses primarily on the digital user, his or her usage behavior and the utility associated with system usage in the digitized service-led economy.The research objectives encompass the development of theories, methods and tools for systematic requirement elicitation, systems design, and business development for successful Business and Information Systems Engineering in a digitized economy – information systems that digital users enjoy using. This challenge calls for leveraging insights from various scientific disciplines such as Design, Engineering, Computer Science, Psychology and Sociology. BISE can provide an integrated perspective, thereby assuming a pivotal role within the digitized service led economy.

Developing a maturity model for service systems in heavy equipment manufacturing enterprises

There is no common understanding of service systems in industry goods companies.We develop a maturity model (MM) for appropriate IS support of service systems.The model is structured along integrating service offerings into the business model.The MM measures performance and installed base management (organisational elements).IT elements are mobile workforce management, data integration and data quality. Heavy equipment manufacturing firms are increasingly challenged by the integration of service planning and execution in their established product-centred information systems (IS) environment. Despite a few standardisation efforts, there is no common understanding of service systems in industry goods companies and the corresponding requirements for the appropriation of information systems. We address this need by developing a maturity model. The design of the model is grounded in extant literature, focus group and case study research involving eleven organisations over 1.5 years. The evaluation confirms that the maturity model makes a novel and useful contribution to the design of service systems.

The role of users and customers in digital innovation

We study three B2B manufacturing firms that deal with digital innovation.We identify the distinct roles of customers and users in guiding digital innovation.Customer knowledge provides short-term guidance for digital innovation processes.User knowledge provides long-term guidance for digital innovation processes.We identify 12 practices for leveraging customer and user knowledge for use in digital innovation. Diffusion of digital technologies into the manufacturing industry has created new opportunities for innovation that firms must address to remain competitive. We investigate the role of customer and user knowledge in the digital innovation processes of three global B2B manufacturing companies. We find that the B2B manufacturing industrys characteristics influence how users and customers may be leveraged. Customers making the purchasing decisions are considered for knowledge about short-term changes in market needs, while users working directly with the products provide long-term guidance for digital innovation. We identify practices for acquiring, distributing, and using customer and user knowledge for digital innovation.

User, Use & Utility Research

ZusammenfassungDie Wirtschaftsinformatik steht heute am Wendepunkt. Ist die Planung, Entwicklung und der Betrieb von Informations- und Telekommunikationssystemen (ITK) bisher eine Managementaufgabe einiger „Eliten“ in Verwaltung und Wirtschaft gewesen, so führt die zunehmende Durchdringung aller Lebensbereiche mit ITK zu einer Veränderung der gesamten ITK-Landschaft, die den Menschen in der digitalen Welt – den digitalen Nutzer – in den Mittelpunkt der zukünftigen Betrachtung stellt.Aus dem Blickwinkel der Wirtschaftsinformatik stellt sich diese Entwicklung nicht nur als vorübergehende Modeerscheinung dar, sondern hat als komplexes soziotechnisches Phänomen weitreichende Bedeutung. Die sich ergebenden Herausforderungen sind vielfältig und betreffen die gesamte Wirtschaftsinformatik sowohl in Forschung als auch in Praxis. Prozessmodelle von Unternehmen sind vollkommen neu aus der Nutzungsperspektive einzelner Individuen zu betrachten und zu entwerfen.Die Individualisierung von Anwendungssystemen bei gleichzeitiger Desintegration von Funktionen und die Unterstützung völlig neuer Bedienkonzepte werfen die Frage nach neuen Entwicklungs- und Innovationsmethoden wie auch Architekturkonzepten auf. Der Umgang mit Datenmassen in einer weiter rasant zunehmenden Digitalisierung von Lebenswelten und Unternehmungen stellt die Wissenschaft und Praxis vor Herausforderungen.Um diese Herausforderungen zu lösen, wird ein neues Forschungsfeld „User, Use & Utility“ skizziert, welches den digitalen Nutzer und dessen Nutzungsverhalten in der digitalen Welt als primäres Untersuchungsobjekt beschreibt.Ziel ist die zukünftige systematische Ableitung von Anforderungen, die digitale Nutzer an Informationssysteme stellen. Für diese Aufgabenstellung ist die Kombination und Integration diverser wissenschaftlicher Disziplinen wie Design, Ingenieurswesen, Informatik, Psychologie, Soziologie und anderen notwendig. Die Wirtschaftsinformatik hat die Chance, eine Schlüsselrolle zu spielen.AbstractBusiness and Information Systems Engineering (BISE) is at a turning point. Planning, designing, developing and operating IT used to be a management task of a few elites in public administrations and corporations. But the continuous digitization of nearly all areas of life changes the IT landscape fundamentally. Success in this new era requires putting the human perspective – the digital user – at the very heart of the new digitized service-led economy.BISE faces not just a temporary trend but a complex socio-technical phenomenon with far-reaching implications. The challenges are manifold and have major consequences for all stakeholders, both in information systems and management research as well as in practice. Corporate processes have to be re-designed from the ground up, starting with the user’s perspective, thus putting usage experience and utility of the individual center stage.The digital service economy leads to highly personalized application systems while organizational functions are being fragmented. Entirely new ways of interacting with information systems, in particular beyond desktop IT, are being invented and established. These fundamental challenges require novel approaches with regards to innovation and development methods as well as adequate concepts for enterprise or service system architectures. Gigantic amounts of data are being generated at an accelerating rate by an increasing number of devices – data that need to be managed.In order to tackle these extraordinary challenges we introduce ‘user, use & utility’ as a new field of BISE that focuses primarily on the digital user, his or her usage behavior and the utility associated with system usage in the digitized service-led economy.The research objectives encompass the development of theories, methods and tools for systematic requirement elicitation, systems design, and business development for successful Business and Information Systems Engineering in a digitized economy – information systems that digital users enjoy using. This challenge calls for leveraging insights from various scientific disciplines such as Design, Engineering, Computer Science, Psychology and Sociology. BISE can provide an integrated perspective, thereby assuming a pivotal role within the digitized service led economy.

Design Thinking for Innovation

This book presents the full scope of Design Thinking in theory and practice, bringing together prominent opinion leaders and experienced practitioners who share their insights, approaches and lessons learned. As Design Thinking is gaining popularity in the context of innovation and information management, the book elaborates the specific interpretations and meanings of the concept in different fields including engineering, management, and information technology. As such, it offers students and professionals a sourcebook revealing the power of Design Thinking, while providing academics a roadmap for further research.

IT Governance Mechanisms in Multisourcing--A Business Group Perspective

Many international corporations are adopting multisourcing strategies. Multisourcing is defined as the blending of services from multiple company-internal and external suppliers. To date, performance measurement and governance-related aspects have been scarcely covered in the academic literature of IT outsourcing. With this study, we intend to broaden understanding of how business groups utilize governance mechanisms in a multi-sourced IT environment. This article contributes to the body of knowledge in three ways. First, it describes established IT governance mechanisms, second, it presents insights into a real-life example of IT governance mechanisms at a leading financial services provider, and third, it extends current literature toward multisourcing in a group-context by proposing a framework of IT governance mechanisms targeting the different relationships of multisourcing in business groups. In addition, this research is useful for corporations facing similar challenges.

Design Rules for User-Oriented IT Service Descriptions

Customers of complex IT-services increasingly demand integrated value bundles that fit their individual needs. At the same time, IT service providers are facing commoditization of their products and need to standardize their portfolios to realize economies of scale. While approaches to coping with the gap between individual customer demand and the economic necessity of standardization have a long standing tradition in mature manufacturing industries, IT-service providers still struggle with translating their standardized portfolio into a form that is understandable and relevant for their customers. This paper proposes a way of describing IT-services that follows the paradigm of a “service dominant logic”. We therefore transfer “service dominant logic” to the realm of IT and propose guidelines to create customer oriented service descriptions. An excerpt of a prototype description serves as an example, how the technical, inside view on IT-services can be translated into a customer-oriented outside view.

Toward a model of effective monitoring of IT application development and maintenance suppliers in multisourced environments

Many international corporations are now adopting multisourcing approaches to information technology (IT). Multisourcing is described as the disciplined provision and blending of services from multiple suppliers both outside the company and within the company. This approach to meeting business goals is primarily concerned with the relationship between the client organization and the multiple suppliers. To date, aspects relating to performance measurement and governance have scarcely been covered in the literature, and established IT frameworks such as control objectives for information and related technology (COBIT) provide imprecise approaches for monitoring suppliers. In this study, we intend to sharpen the existing understanding of how corporations manage and monitor suppliers in a multisourced environment and of why specific key performance indicators (KPIs) are utilized. We provide insights using a real-life example of the monitoring of IT application development and maintenance (IT ADM) suppliers and suggest monitoring dimensions based on a cross-case analysis. Based on inter-rater reliability, we further derive a minimum set of corresponding IT ADM KPIs. This study is expected to help corporations facing similar challenges by providing a set of essential KPIs to monitor IT ADM suppliers.

Finding the Right Balanced Scorecard for Business-Driven IT Management: A Literature Review

During the last decades information technology (IT) management has changed significantly. Starting from being a costly and rare resource in its very beginnings IT has evolved into a vital enabler for almost any kind of business today. This development demands for highly flexible management concepts allowing the business to actively control and govern IT performance. A meanwhile widely used approach for multi-dimensional performance measurement in the context of IT management is the Balanced Scorecard (BSC). With this article we aim at investigating the state of the art of IT BSC use through a comprehensive literature analysis. Moreover, we evaluate the adaptability of the different types of this concept to the most recent developments in IT management. Our findings suggest that two new scorecards need to be derived: the IT BSC for services and service portfolios.

Nutzenpotentiale cyber-physischer Systeme für industrielle Dienstleistungen 4.0

ZusammenfassungDas Dienstleistungsgeschäft gewinnt in der produzierenden Industrie, sowie im Maschinen- und Anlagenbau gegenüber dem ausschließlichen Verkauf von industriellen Produkten zunehmend an Bedeutung. Durch die langen Lebenszyklen industrieller Maschinen und Anlagen generieren Produkthersteller und Serviceorganisationen vor allem mit der Sicherstellung des Betriebs und der Durchführung von Instandhaltungen als produktergänzende Dienstleistungen kontinuierliche Einnahmen. Die fortschreitende Digitalisierung und der geschickte Einsatz von cyber-physischen Systemen transformieren dieses Geschäft. Einerseits ergeben sich neue Möglichkeiten zur Steigerung der Effizienz bereits bestehender Prozesse. Andererseits eröffnen sich durch die Verfügbarkeit von Sensordaten und Steuerungsmöglichkeiten der Maschinen und Anlagen aus der Ferne bisher ungeahnte Möglichkeiten zur Umsetzung innovativer industrieller Dienstleistungen. Auf Basis empirischer Daten von 45 konkreten Anwendungsfällen identifiziert dieser Beitrag Nutzenpotentiale cyber-physischer Systeme im Kontext industrieller Dienstleistungen.AbstractBoth managers and researchers agree: Manufacturing as one of the most traditional and conservative industries is undergoing the most fundamental change in decades. Facing shrinking margins in their core business, manufacturing firms of industrial equipment and capital goods started to expand their business by also offering services that complement the traditional product business to address the long lifecycles of industrial equipment. Digital innovation and industrial equipment with cyber-physical capabilities unlock new opportunities for the industrial service business and pivot the manufacturing industry. With the ability to (1) improve efficiency and quality of existing services, (2) establish new service offerings and (3) transform the service ecosystem, myriad opportunities for service innovation emerge. Based on 45 concrete smart service scenarios, we identify areas of benefit of cyber-physical equipment for the industrial service business.