Shengnan Han

Prioritizing business processes improvement initiatives : the seco tools case

Chief Information Officers (CIOs) face great challenges in prioritizing business process improvement initiatives due to limited resources and politics in decision making. We developed a prioritization and categorization method (PCM) for supporting CIOs’ decision-making process. The method is designed in a collaborative research process engaging CIOs, process experts and researchers. In this experience paper, we firstly present the PCM, and then we describe the lessons learned when demonstrating the PCM prototype at a big international company, Seco Tools. The results show that the PCM can produce a holistic analysis of processes by eliciting the “collective intelligence” from process stakeholders and managers. The PCM activities create a top-down social process of process management. By using the PCM the company managed to prioritize business process improvement initiatives in a novel way. This paper contributes to theories/know how on business process management, as well as propose a novel method that can be used by CIOs of large corporations in prioritizing process initiatives.

Governance of an Enterprise Social Intranet Implementation: The Statkraft Case.

Recent studies demonstrate that the implementation of enterprise social systems (ESSs) will transfer organizations into new paradigm of social business which results in enormous economic returns and competitive advantage. Social business creates a completely new way of working and organizing characterised by social collaboration, intrinsic knowledge sharing, voluntarily mass participation, just name a few. Thus, implementation of ESSs should tackle the uniqueness of the new way of working and organizing. However, there is a shortage of knowledge about implementation of these large enterprise systems. The purpose of this paper is to study governance model of ESSs implementation. A case study is conducted to investigate the implementation of the social intranet called the ‘Stream’ at Statkraft, which is a world-leading energy company in Norway. The governance model of ‘Stream’ emphasizes the close cooperation and accountability between corporate communication, human resources and IT, which implies paradigm shift in governance of implementing ESSs. Benefits and challenges in the implementation are also identified. Based on the knowledge and insights gained in the study, recommendations are proposed to assist the company in improving governance of ESSs implementation. The study contributes knowledge/know-how on governance of ESSs implementation.

Process Innovation with Disruptive Technology in Auto Insurance: Lessons Learned from a Smartphone-Based Insurance Telematics Initiative

Insurance telematics or usage-based insurance (UBI) is a potential game-changer for the insurance industry, especially for innovating auto-insurance. In order to achieve and sustain UBI for auto insurance, insurers are called upon to innovate the marketing and sales processes of the UBI product, as well as related processes such as risk assessment and price calculation. In this chapter, we demonstrate the insurer’s process innovation with smartphone-based insurance telematics, using the example of the “If SafeDrive” campaign which was commercially conducted by the insurer If P & C in Sweden. The results show that although disruptive technology can trigger process innovation, such innovation cannot succeed and be sustained without fundamental changes in a company’s structure, business model and business strategy. We further propose a capability layer model for understanding the insurer’s process innovation behaviour. This chapter provokes the critical thinking with regard to the exploration and exploitation of disruptive technology into process innovation. Further, the chapter contributes new knowledge to the research of process innovation with disruptive digital technologies.

Culture Influence on IT Governance : What We Have Learned?

Managers face enormous challenges today to plan the decision rights and responsibilities in order to reach desired IT behaviors which are aligned with business objectives of organizations. This is ...

The prioritization and categorization method (PCM) process evaluation at Ericsson: a case study

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate and evaluate the prioritization and categorization method (PCM), which facilitates the active participation of process stakeholders (managers, owners, customers) in process assessments. Stakeholders evaluate processes in terms of effectiveness, efficiency and relevance against certain contextual business and industry factors. This collective evaluation serves as a foundation for the management decision-making process regarding process improvement and redesign. Design/methodology/approach: The PCM is examined based on a case study at Ericsson. In total, 55 stakeholders, representing different organizational levels and functions, assessed eight core processes. Follow-up interviews and feedback after the evaluation sessions were collected for triangulation purpose. Findings: The PCM helps Ericsson evaluate its processes within business context and industry environments. The results show that, to realize seamless end-to-end processes in the eight assessed processes, Ericsson has to make a greater effort to improve its process structures, governance and culture for fulfilling the needs of future business. Ericsson Steering Group is satisfied with the insights provided and has decided to train more stakeholders to use PCM. Research limitations/implications: This research is based on a single case within a specific organizational setting. The results may not be necessary generalizable to other business and industry settings. Organizations need to configure PCM in consideration of their own processes and business contingencies to explore and fulfil their process improvement purposes. Originality/value: This paper presents a new context-aware, easy-to-use and holistic method for business process management (BPM), the PCM. The method requires the active engagement of stakeholders, it focusses on developing dynamic BPM capabilities and fully embeds organizational contingencies and contextual factors in the decision-making regarding BPM. This paper contributes a novel method to explorative BPM.

Evaluation of the PCM

This chapter summarises the key results gained from the empirical case studies that have been conducted. These include: the demonstration of the PCM to Seco Tools (Ohlsson et al. in Prioritising business processes improvement initiatives: the Seco tools case, Springer International Publishing, Switzerland, pp 256–270, 2014a), a small scale pilot at Ericsson (Ohlsson et al. in Developing a method for prioritising business process improvement initiatives, 2014b), and the evaluation of the configured PCM at Ericsson (Ohlsson et al. in Business Process Management Journal 23(2):377–378, 2017).

The Prioritisation and Categorisation Method—PCM

This chapter presents the designed artefact—the Prioritisation and Categorisation Method (PCM). The Prioritisation and Categorisation Method (PCM) consists of two models, a Process Assessment Heat Map (PAHM) and a process Categorisation Map (CM). The design rationale of the PCM is to embrace a BPM life cycle view, which implies that a continuous assessment of process characteristics is made at different stages of the process life cycle. Next, the six core elements of the BPM, as discussed in Chap. 2 are used in the assessment. In this way, the method is grounded in theory. In addition to the theoretical grounding, the method is empirically and practically grounded, eliciting the tactical knowledge and practical experience from the BPM managers and stakeholders involved by using the business concepts the managers use in everyday practice.

Prioritising Business Processes

This book addresses business process prioritisation – a problem in Business Process Management research that is often ill-structured and complex. The book introduces and describes the Prioritisatio ...

How to Achieve Sustainable Business IT Alignment -- Designing a Circular Organizational Structure at SAAB

To achieve sustainable business IT alignment (BITA) requires firms to create a circular organizational structure that enhance interactions of major stakeholders. We aim to explore the issue, and in our study of SAAB, we find three viable components to design the organizational structure so it can foster the accomplishment of sustainable BITA: (1) Strong top management initiates the management boards so stakeholders across IT and business, and at different organization levels can participate in IT planning and decision making, (2) Business managers propose and engage in business related IT initiatives so they define critical requirements and needs, and they are responsible/accountable for BITA, and (3) CIO facilitates and coordinates planning, decision making, and implementation of ICT initiatives at ICT boards with a clear strategic focus on realizing business values. The paper explores unique insights of designing a circular organizational structure and its impacts on BITA, and contributes knowledge to IT management and practice.

The Influence of Organizational Culture on IT Governance Performance: Case of the IT Department in a Large Swedish Company

IT governance is one of the top concerns of organizations today seeking to gain value from their IT investments and create competitive advantage. Organizational culture on the other hand is one of the various factors influencing IT governance performance. However there is not much research conducted to understand this topic deeply. This research thus, is exploring the influence of organizational culture on four IT governance performance outcomes through a case study in IT department of a large Swedish company. The results provide evidence that organizational culture is influencing IT governance performance. Specifically the current clan culture orientation of the IT department has led to a successful IT governance performance in cost-effective use of IT. Furthermore adhocracy as the preferred culture is identified to influence IT governance in effective use of IT for growth which is not so successful with the current clan culture.