Kalle Elfvengren

Role of careful customer need assessment in product innovation management—empirical analysis

Abstract The purpose of this study was to determine the important problems and development needs of product innovation management in five manufacturing companies, particularly focusing on studying the role and importance of customer need assessment in product innovation management. The results indicate that customer need assessment is one of the major development needs in the product innovation management of the studied business-to-business companies. The results gained from the multi-function analysis of the companies facilitate the understanding of product innovation as a complex system that is affected in various ways by the success of customer need assessment. The report for instance describes what kinds of problems and self-reinforcing vicious loops, closely connected with the success of customer need analysis, are involved in product innovation management.

A GDSS based approach for the assessment of customer needs in industrial markets

Abstract Need assessment is a critical success factor of product development in all companies; developing the right product requires an accurate understanding of customer needs. All available information about customer needs should be carefully assessed in the early phases of product development. In this paper we study the usefulness and usability of a Group Decision Support Systems (GDSS) in the assessment of customers’ needs in industrial companies. We studied two real-world need assessment cases carried out in cooperation with a Finnish telecommunications company. These cases focused on the assessment of the lead users’ needs for new types of applications based on wireless technologies. GDSS technology offered many benefits for promoting the assessment of industrial customer needs. These case experiences will be described more profoundly in this paper.

A scenario approach for assessing new business concepts

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine challenges in the front end of innovation (FEI) and to propose a scenario‐based approach to alleviate some of these problems, particularly as regards uncertainty in opportunity recognition.Design/methodology/approach – The paper answers the main research question through a literature review and a case study. The paper employs the design‐oriented approach to propose an artifact which solves the underlined problem, and validate the artifact through the case study.Findings – According to the literature review, scenarios should offer a viable method for opportunity recognition. The case study supports the theoretical proposition, and suggests that scenarios can be used to alleviate the effect of uncertainty in the FEI.Research limitations/implications – The empirical results are limited to the level of proof‐of‐concept. The scenario process as such was rated positively, which corresponds to the theory and previous similar experiments, but the benefits of the s...

A GSS process to generate new product ideas and business concepts

The paper introduces a process for brainstorming new product ideas and business concepts. The developed process utilises a group support system. It aims to enhance the innovation process and the transfer of knowledge inside a company by offering effective means for cooperation. The paper reports the experiences and findings of using the developed process in business cases.

AHP-based expert analysis of forest industry strategies

This study evaluates different strategic courses of action concerning the whole forest industry sector. The assessments are based on the opinions of a group of experts in Finnish forest industries. The aim of the study is to evaluate the factors of success and their relative weights, and to evaluate the formulated strategy alternatives of the forest industries for the future (the year 2010 and beyond). The decision support method Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) has been utilised in the assessment of different strategies. With AHP, it is possible to evaluate several strategies and to synthesise qualitative and quantitative factors in the decision making.

A Clinical Decision Support System for Adult ADHD Diagnostics Process

Adult ADHD is a complex neuropsychiatric disorder, which is affecting the daily lives of 2-5 % of the adult population. This paper introduces a Clinical Decision Support System for diagnostics of ADHD. The introduced CDSS is currently in use in the South Karelia District of Social and Health Services (Eksote) in Finland. Eksote needed to establish the program for adult ADHD patients, and an evaluation, diagnosis and treatment process by a multi-professional team was developed. The new process was launched with tailor-made CDSS software support. The developed CDSS supports the implementation of the new adult ADHD patient evaluation, diagnosis and treatment process. The CDSS guarantees that the multi-professional team has from the start an algorithmic and extensive approach to the treatment of adult ADHD patients. The CDSS also warranted that Eksote has established a standard for the care of adult ADHD patients. The CDSS enables the possibility to make quick changes and development in the process.

Managing the front end of innovation with a group support system

Front end of innovation is defined as those activities that take place prior to the formal, well structured product development process. Front end activities are widely perceived as unstructured, fuzzy and hard to manage. There is a clear need for practical procedures and tools to support the front end process. This paper aims to enhance and systematise the early phases of the innovation process by presenting group support system tools and procedures for the management of the front end activities, such as new idea generation and concept evaluation. The empirical evidence is based on the experience gained in several cases carried out with industrial companies in the GDSS laboratory of Lappeenranta University of Technology.

A group support system process for the definition of software requirements

The definition of software requirements in the early phases of the software innovation process is considered to be an extremely important and challenging task, as decisions about precisely what will be developed are made during this stage. This paper presents a Group Support System (GSS) process for the definition of software requirements, and studies the usability of a GSS as a tool for requirements definition. The developed process was validated in a telecommunications company, and the study shows that requirements definition was expedited and more effective with the GSS-supported process compared to the traditional methods used in the case company.

Improving the Effectiveness of Business Process Development through Collaboration Engineering: A Method for Process Elicitation

Businesses transform and processes are transformed as organizations adapt to a changing business environment. The discipline of business process reengineering has proposed guidelines for this transformation, but the task is still challenging and the risk of failure remains high. Especially group work presents major challenges for process design.. Accordingly, this paper proposes a group support system to support process development. The paper leverages the collaboration engineering framework in designing an artifact to support teamwork in process elicitation. The artifact has been designed at a conceptual level and validated through a business case in a global process industry organization. The case indicates that the method for process elicitation works as intended in the given context. The contribution is a group process for business process development.

Clinical Decision Support System for Opioid Substitution Therapy

Opioid addiction is a chronic relapsing disorder affecting millions of people worldwide and having significant social and health impacts. Opioid substitution therapy has turned out to be one of the most effective treatments for opioid addiction. This paper introduces a Clinical Decision Support System (CDSS) for opioid substitution therapy. Opioid-dependent patients are one of the most resource-demanding patient groups in addiction care in Finland. The CDSS is needed in order to achieve an effective and efficient treatment process for opioid substitution therapy. The developed CDSS has proven to be an effective tool in the case organization. The improvements have increased productivity and ensured the quality of the diagnostics processes. A major factor in productivity improvement is that the developed CDSS keeps track on the tasks that the persons involved in the process have to perform. Furthermore, the CDSS enables effective management of patient flow, as the status of each patient in the process is fully visible.