Enterprise system lifecycle-wide innovation - research in progress

Enterprise Systems purport to bring innovation to organizations. Yet, no past studies, neither from innovation nor from ES disciplines have merged their knowledge to understand how ES could facilitate lifecycle-wide innovation. Therefore, this study forms conceptual bridge between the two disciplines. In this research, we seek to understand how ES could facilitate innovation across its lifecycle phases. We associate classifications of innovation such as radical vs. incremental, administrative vs. technical innovation with the three phases of ES lifecycle. We introduce Continuous Restrained Innovation (CRI) as a new type of innovation specific to ES, considering restraints of technology, business processes and organization. Our empirical data collection at the implementation phase, using data from both the client and implementation partner, shows preliminary evidence of CRI. In addition, we state that both parties consider the implementation of ES as a radical innovation yet, are less interest in seeking further innovations through the system.

Evaluating operational cloud enterprise systems success : an organizational perspective

This paper presents a formative measurement index to assess cloud enterprise systems success. The scale development procedure is based on Moore and Benbasat (1991), including newer scale development elements which focus on the creation and assessment of formative constructs. The data is analysed using SmartPLS with a sample of 103 IT decision makers. The results show that the perception of net benefits is shaped not only by enterprise-system-specific factors like productivity improvements and higher quality of business processes, but also by factors which are specifically attributed to cloud systems, such as higher strategic flexibility. Reliability, user requirements and customization contribute most to the overall perception of system quality. Information quality shows no cloud-specific facets and is robust in the context of cloud enterprise systems.

A critical success factors model for enterprise resource planning implementation

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems are integrated enterprise-wide standard information systems that automate all aspects of an organisations’ business processes. The ERP philosophy is that business systems incorporating sales, marketing, manufacturing, distribution, personnel and finance modules can be supported by a single integrated system with all of the company’s data captured in a central database. The ERP packages of vendors such as SAP, Baan, J.D. Edwards and Intentia represent more than a common systems platform for a business. They prescribe information blueprints of how organisation’s business processes should operate. In this paper, the scale and strategic importance of ERP systems is identified and the problem of ERP implementation is defined. Five company examples are analysed using a Critical Success Factors (CSFs) theoretical framework. The paper offers a framework for managers which provides the basis for developing an ERP implementation strategy. The case analysis identifies different approaches to ERP implementation, highlights the critical role of legacy systems in influencing the implementation process, and identifies the importance of business process change and software configuration in addition to factors already cited in the literature such as top management support and communication. The implications of the results and future research opportunities are outlined.

Beyond enterprise resource planning projects : Innovative strategies for competitive advantage

ABSTRACT A rapidly changing business environment and legacy IT problems has resulted in many organisations implementing standard package solutions. This 'common systems' approach establishes a common IT and business process infrastructure within organisations and its increasing dominance raises several important strategic issues. These are to what extent do common systems impose common business processes and management systems on competing firms, and what is the source of competitive advantage if the majority of firms employ almost identical information systems and business processes? A theoretical framework based on research into legacy systems and earlier IT strategy literature is used to analyse three case studies in the manufacturing, chemical and IT industries. It is shown that the organisations are treating common systems as the core of their organisations' abilities to manage business transactions. To achieve competitive advantage they are clothing these common systems with information systems designed to capture information about competitors, customers and suppliers, and to provide a basis for sharing knowledge within the organisation and ultimately with economic partners. The importance of these approaches to other organisations and industries is analysed and an attempt is made at outlining the strategic options open to firms beyond the implementation of common business systems.

Best of breed IT strategy: an alternative to enterprise resource planning systems

Abstract - Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software has become the dominant strategic platform for supporting enterprise-wide business processes. However, single vendor ERP software systems have been criticised for not meeting specific organisation and industry requirements. An alternative approach ‘Best of Breed (BoB)’, integrates components of software from multiple standard package vendors, and in some cases custom components. The objective is to develop enterprise systems that are more closely aligned with the requirements of an organisation. Although this approach may not be common at present it is likely to grow in importance due to business needs and technology advances such as the componentisation of ERP software. A case study analysis of a BoB implementation at a global entertainment's company is used as a platform for the discussion of the issues associated with this strategy and a comparison is made with the single vendor ERP alternative. The analysis centres on the complexity of implementation, the differences in the levels of functionality and business fit and the maintenance requirements.

ERP and best of breed : a comparative analysis

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software is the dominant strategic platform for supporting enterprise-wide business processes. However, it has been criticised for being inflexible and not meeting specific organisation and industry requirements. An alternative, Best of Breed (BoB), integrates components of standard package and/or custom software. The objective is to develop enterprise systems that are more closely aligned with the business processes of an organisation. A case study of a BoB implementation facilitates a comparative analysis of the issues associated with this strategy and the single vendor ERP alternative. The paper illustrates the differences in complexity of implementation, levels of functionality, business process alignment potential and associated maintenance.

Managing risk in process-aware information systems

This research contributes a fully-operational approach for managing business process risk in near real-time. The approach consists of a language for defining risks on top of process models, a technique to detect such risks as they eventuate during the execution of business processes, a recommender system for making risk-informed decisions, and a technique to automatically mitigate the detected risks when they are no longer tolerable. Through the incorporation of risk management elements in all stages of the lifecycle of business processes, this work contributes to the effective integration of the fields of Business Process Management and Risk Management.

Exploring location-dependency in process modeling

Purpose – Context-awareness has emerged as an important principle in the design of flexible business processes. The goal of the research is to develop an approach to extend context-aware business process modeling toward location-awareness. The purpose of this paper is to identify and conceptualize location-dependencies in process modeling. Design/methodology/approach – This paper uses a pattern-based approach to identify location-dependency in process models. The authors design specifications for these patterns. The authors present illustrative examples and evaluate the identified patterns through a literature review of published process cases. Findings – This paper introduces location-awareness as a new perspective to extend context-awareness in BPM research, by introducing relevant location concepts such as location-awareness and location-dependencies. The authors identify five basic location-dependent control-flow patterns that can be captured in process models. And the authors identify location-dependencies in several existing case studies of business processes. Research limitations/implications – The authors focus exclusively on the control-flow perspective of process models. Further work needs to extend the research to address location-dependencies in process data or resources. Further empirical work is needed to explore determinants and consequences of the modeling of location-dependencies. Originality/value – As existing literature mostly focusses on the broad context of business process, location in process modeling still is treated as “second class citizen” in theory and in practice. This paper discusses the vital role of location-dependencies within business processes. The proposed five basic location-dependent control-flow patterns are novel and useful to explain location-dependency in business process models. They provide a conceptual basis for further exploration of location-awareness in the management of business processes.

Turning event logs into process movies: animating what has really happened

Today’s information systems log vast amounts of data. These collections of data (implicitly) describe events (e.g. placing an order or taking a blood test) and, hence, provide information on the actual execution of business processes. The analysis of such data provides an excellent starting point for business process improvement. This is the realm of process mining, an area which has provided a repertoire of many analysis techniques. Despite the impressive capabilities of existing process mining algorithms, dealing with the abundance of data recorded by contemporary systems and devices remains a challenge. Of particular importance is the capability to guide the meaningful interpretation of “oceans of data” by process analysts. To this end, insights from the field of visual analytics can be leveraged. This article proposes an approach where process states are reconstructed from event logs and visualised in succession, leading to an animated history of a process. This approach is customisable in how a process state, partially defined through a collection of activity instances, is visualised: one can select a map and specify a projection of events on this map based on the properties of the events. This paper describes a comprehensive implementation of the proposal. It was realised using the open-source process mining framework ProM. Moreover, this paper also reports on an evaluation of the approach conducted with Suncorp, one of Australia’s largest insurance companies.

A theory of process modeling impact

Process modeling – the design and use of graphical documentations of an organization’s business processes – is a key method to document and use information about the operations of businesses. Still, despite current interest in process modeling, this research area faces essential challenges. Key unanswered questions concern the impact of process modeling in organizational practice, and the mechanisms through which impacts are developed. To answer these questions and to provide a better understanding of process modeling impact, I turn to the concept of affordances. Affordances describe the possibilities for goal-oriented action that a technical object offers to a user. This notion has received growing attention from IS researchers. The purpose of my research is to further develop the IS discipline’s understanding of affordances and impacts from information objects, such as process models used by analysts for information systems analysis and design. Specifically, I seek to extend existing theory on the emergence, perception and actualization of affordances. I develop a research model that describes the process by which affordances emerge between an individual and an object, how affordances are perceived, and how they are actualized by the individual. The proposed model also explains the role of available information for the individual, and the influence of perceived actualization effort. I operationalize and test this research model empirically, using a full-cycle, mixed methods study consisting of case study and experiment.

Mining resource profiles from event logs

Human resources are often responsible for the execution of business processes. In order to evaluate resource performance and identify best practices as well as opportunities for improvement, managers need objective information about resource behaviours. Companies often use information systems to support their processes and these systems record information about process execution in event logs. We present a framework for analysing and evaluating resource behaviour through mining such event logs. The framework provides a method for extracting descriptive information about resource skills, utilisation, preferences, productivity and collaboration patterns; a method for analysing relationships between different resource behaviours and outcomes; and a method for evaluating the overall resource productivity, tracking its changes over time and comparing it with the productivity of other resources. To demonstrate the applicability of our framework we apply it to analyse behaviours of employees in an Australian company and evaluate its usefulness by a survey among managers in industry.

Process visualization techniques for multi-perspective process comparisons

Organizations executing similar business processes need to understand the differences and similarities in activities performed across work environments. Presently, research interest is directed towards the potential of visualization for the display of process models, to support users in their analysis tasks. Although recent literature in process mining and comparison provide several methods and algorithms to perform process and log comparison, few contributions explore novel visualization approaches. This paper analyses process comparison from a design perspective, providing some practical visualization techniques as anal- ysis solutions (/to support process analysis). The design of the visual comparison has been tackled through three different points of view: the general model, the projected model and the side-by-side comparison in order to support the needs of business analysts. A case study is presented showing the application of process mining and visualization techniques to patient treatment across two Australian hospitals.

Achieving intention-centric BPM through automated planning

As a result of the more distributed nature of organisations and the inherently increasing complexity of their business processes, a significant effort is required for the specification and verification of those processes. The composition of the activities into a business process that accomplishes a specific organisational goal has primarily been a manual task. Automated planning is a branch of artificial intelligence (AI) in which activities are selected and organised by anticipating their expected outcomes with the aim of achieving some goal. As such, automated planning would seem to be a natural fit to the BPM domain to automate the specification of control flow. A number of attempts have been made to apply automated planning to the business process and service composition domain in different stages of the BPM lifecycle. However, a unified adoption of these techniques throughout the BPM lifecycle is missing. As such, we propose a new intention-centric BPM paradigm, which aims on minimising the specification effort by exploiting automated planning techniques to achieve a pre-stated goal. This paper provides a vision on the future possibilities of enhancing BPM using automated planning. A research agenda is presented, which provides an overview of the opportunities and challenges for the exploitation of automated planning in BPM.

Special issue on best papers from the "BPM 2012" workshops

Business Process Management (BPM) (Dumas et al. 2013) investigates how organizations function and can be improved on the basis of their business processes. The starting point for BPM is that organizational performance is a function of process performance. Thus, BPM proposes a set of methods, techniques and tools to discover, analyze, implement, monitor and control business processes, with the ultimate goal of improving these processes. Most importantly, BPM is not just an organizational management discipline. BPM also studies how technology, and particularly information technology, can effectively support the process improvement effort. In the past two decades the field of BPM has been the focus of extensive research, which spans an increasingly growing scope and advances technology in various directions. The main international forum for state-of-the-art research in this field is the International Conference on Business Process Management, or “BPM” for short—an annual meeting of the aca ...

Normative requirements for regulatory compliance: An abstract formal framework

By definition, regulatory rules (in legal context called norms) intend to achieve specific behaviour from business processes, and might be relevant to the whole or part of a business process. They can impose conditions on different aspects of process models, e.g., control-flow, data and resources etc. Based on the rules sets, norms can be classified into various classes and sub-classes according to their effects. This paper presents an abstract framework consisting of a list of norms and a generic compliance checking approach on the idea of (possible) execution of processes. The proposed framework is independent of any existing formalism, and provides a conceptually rich and exhaustive ontology and semantics of norms needed for business process compliance checking. The possible uses of the proposed framework include to compare different compliance management frameworks (CMFs).