Henk G. Sol

Decision Enhancement for Sourcing with Shared Service Centres in the Dutch Government

Many shared service centres (SSCs) are being established in organisations, primarily in order to save costs. However, establishing SSCs is a challenging task for organisations, including the Dutch government. This research aims to enhance SSC establishment with a decision enhancement studio for sourcing & sharing in the Dutch government. The studio consists of a set of services that are delivered in (virtual) group sessions with a suite and a recipe with scripts. The studio enables participants to conduct SSC scenario analyses based on three perspectives: best & worst practices, content and stakeholder considerations. The assumption is that providing participants insight into these three perspectives with the studio enables them to choose feasible SSC scenarios. The studio is evaluated with SSC professionals in a focus group session and semi-structured interviews. Results suggest that the studio is useful and will be used in providing support to effective SSC establishments in organisations.

Prototyping: A Methodological Assessment

The attractiveness of prototyping for problem-solving, and thus for the development of information systems and decision support systems, can be explained by referring to a specific modelcycle. It is demonstrated that prototyping can be looked upon as a specific instance of the methodology of simulation in a broad sense. Recent experiences with the application of a simulation approach to the development of information systems may be generalized towards prototyping. Emphasis on conceptual modeling and attention to the construction of a simulation model system are also valid for prototyping. This puts specific demands on the activities of verification, validation and experimentation. Prototyping is not only related to concrete model systems, but also to abstract ones. Prototyping is not restricted to the solution of datalogical and technological problems. It is also applicable to systelogical and infological problems as is demonstrated by some examples.

A social simulation-game to explore future co-ordination in knowledge networks at the Amsterdam Police Force

The 32 autonomous neighbourhood teams of the Amsterdam Police Force need to utilise each others knowledge and expertise to deal with the variety and complexity of their daily work assignments. However, despite the creation of organisation wide knowledge networks, communication, co-ordination and knowledge sharing between the neighbourhood teams is disappointing. We conducted an action research to investigate how co-ordination in the knowledge networks could be improved with the help of information and communication technologies (ICTs). This article reflects on the choice of co-ordination perspectives and modelling techniques. The above problem is conceptualised and made operational in different ways in research on network co-ordination, knowledge co-ordination and co-ordination of distributed work. The article demonstrates how our initial focus on capturing quantitative measures of the co-ordination problem in a computer simulation was problematic in this case. Instead a social simulation-game that focused on the qualitative issues of this co-ordination problem was developed and played. We conclude that the choice of theoretical perspectives and modelling techniques strongly affected the results of both phases of our action research. Furthermore the article argues that more attention to qualitative issues in co-ordination is required to better understand the impact of ICT-support on co-ordination.

A Repeatable Collaboration Process for Exploring Business Process Improvement Alternatives

The dynamic nature of organisations has increased demand for business process agility leading to the adoption of continuous Business Process Improvement (BPI). Success of BPI projects calls for continuous process analysis and exploration of several improvement alternatives. These activities are knowledge intensive requiring multi-disciplinary skills. Coupled with the cross-cutting nature of business processes attainment of ones business goal necessitates collaboration among stakeholders in many business process improvement efforts. However the existing tools provide limited to no support for this kind of collaboration, especially in the decision processes involved. In light of this, we designed a repeatable collaboration process (CP) for BPI alternative exploration. The CP consists of two modules aimed at the generation of BPI alternatives and the selection of a BPI alternative respectively. Evaluation results from testing sessions at two organisations show that the CP provides support for the BPI generation and selection process, and is useful for BPI alternative exploration.

Decision enhancement for sourcing with shared service centres in the dutch government

Primarily in order to save costs, many shared service centres (SSCs) are being established in organisations. However, establishing SSCs is a challenging task for many organisations, including the Dutch government. This design science research aims to enhance SSC establishment with a decision enhancement studio for sourcing & sharing in the Dutch government. The proposed studio consists of a set of services for studio participants to analyse decision alternatives and improve collaboration. In this paper a studio design is presented with four decision enhancement services for sourcing & sharing that are delivered with an online tool and predefined scripts (called sourceLets). Future research will be dedicated to the scientific evaluation of the studio design by applying it to multiple case studies in the Dutch government.

Decision Enhancement Services for Small and Medium Enterprise Start-Ups in Uganda

While start-up firms create a substantial economic impact on most economies, the failure rate of start-up firms seems to remain high due to inadequate agile decision services. Deciding to start-up mining Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) is a challenging task in Uganda. Research on SME start-up support is limitedly available. Technology is envisaged to facilitate enterprise start-ups. However, there is still acknowledged deficiency in Uganda due to discrete approaches of technology, stakeholders and processes. There is lack of a generalized and systematic means to SME start-up that emphasizes communication and prioritization. Hence, this design science research aims to enhance SME start-up processes with a decision enhancement studio which consists of services for participants in an interactive environment that analyzes decision alternatives. Results from this study suggest that the start-up decision processes can be improved using technology in rural areas.

Simulation Based Inquiry Systems

The effective use of simulation as a methodology for problem solving can be ameliorated by the introduction of simulation based inquiry systems. These systems comprise a language system, a knowledge system and a problem processing system.

The Usefulness of Learning Objects in Industry Oriented Learning Environments

A model is presented to evaluate the usefulness of learning objects for industry oriented learning environments that emphasise training university graduates for job opportunities in a competitive industry oriented economy. Knowledge workers of the industry seek continuous professional development to keep their skills and knowledge up to date. Many of the desired features of learning objects and facilities of e-learning systems can be realized in a framework that combines usefulness, usage, and usability. This model on the usefulness of learning objects, called Learning Objects Evaluation Model LOEM, defines the concepts: academic level specificity, field specificity, industry specificity, operational specificity, and reusability specificity. It also defines an index, called Learning Objects Specificity Index LOSI that helps course developers in a course design and development process to assess the usefulness of learning objects.