Asiakaskokemuksen vaikutus liiketoimintaprosessien kehittämiseen

Tämä diplomityö toteutettiin Auto-Kilta Trucks Oy:lle. Tutkimus toteutettiin kvalitatiivisena tapaustutkimuksena. Tutkimuksessa käytettiin havainnointia ja perehdyttiin nykyisiin prosessikuvauksiin. Lähivuosina yrityksessä tulee tapahtumaan asiakasrajapinnassa eläköitymisiä eikä samanlaista ammatillista kokemusta ole helposti saatavilla. Taloudellinen tilanne ei mahdollista lisäresurssien palkkaamista vaan yrityksen asiakasrajapintaan tulee saada yrityksen sisältä voimavaroja. Yrityksen mekaanikoista on tarkoitus saada ratkaisu asiakasrajapinnassa tapahtuviin muutoksiin. Asiakaskokemuksen kautta haetaan ymmärrystä oman toiminnan kehittämiseen. Liiketoimintaprosessien tulee tukea asiakaskokemuksen luomista. Muutosjohtamisen keinoin on tarkoitus viedä prosesseihin muutos työskentelytavoista sekä saada työntekijät ajattelemaan asiakaslähtöisesti. Lopputuloksena esitetään asiakasrajapintaan uusi prosessimalli, joka tukee asiakaskokemuksen luomista. Yrityksessä on tärkeää ymmärtää asiakkaan oikea tarve käyttää yrityksen palveluja.

Designing of Balanced Performance Measurement System to Purchasing Process

The performance measurement produces information about the operation of the business process. On the basis of this information performance of the company can be followed and improved. Balanced performance measurement system can monitor performance of several perspectives and business processes can be led according to company strategy. Major part of the costs of a company is originated from purchased goods or services are an output of the buying process emphasising the importance of a reliable performance measurement of purchasing process. In the study, theory of balanced performance measurement is orientated and framework of purchasing process performance measurement system is designed. The designed balanced performance measurement system of purchasing process is tested in case company paying attention to the available data and to other environmental enablers. The balanced purchasing performance measurement system is tested and improved during the test period and attention is paid to the definition and scaling of objectives. Found development initiatives are carried out especially in the scaling of indicators. Finally results of the study are evaluated, conclusions and additional research areas proposed.

An examination of factors influencing ERP key-user satisfaction: A qualitative case study

Several companies are trying to improve their operation efficiency by implementing an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system that makes it possible to control the resources of the company in real time. However, the success of the implementation project is not a foregone conclusion; a significant part of these projects end in a failure, one way or another. Therefore it is important to investigate ERP system implementation more closely in order to increase understanding about factors influencing ERP system success and to improve the probability of a successful ERP implementation project. Consequently, this study was initiated because a manufacturing case company wanted to review the success of their ERP implementation project. To be exact, the case company hoped to gain both information about the success of the project and insight for future implementation improvement. This study investigated ERP success specifically by examining factors that influence ERP key-user satisfaction. User satisfaction is one of the most commonly applied indicators of information system success. The research data was mainly collected by conducting theme interviews. The subjects of the interviews were six key-users of the newly implemented ERP system. The interviewees were closely involved in the implementation project. Furthermore, they act as representative users that utilize the new system in everyday business processes. The collected data was analyzed by thematizing. Both data collection and analysis were guided by a theoretical frame of reference. This frame was based on previous research on the subject. The results of the study aligned with the theoretical framework to large extent. The four principal factors influencing key-user satisfaction were change management, contractor service, key-user’s system knowledge and characteristics of the ERP product itself. One of the most significant contributions of the research is that it confirmed the existence of a connection between change management and ERP key-user satisfaction. Furthermore, it discovered two new sub-factors influencing contractor service related key-user satisfaction. In addition, the research findings indicated that in order to improve the current level of key-user satisfaction, the case company should pay special attention to system functionality improvement and enhancement of the key-users’ knowledge. During similar implementation projects in the future, it would be important to assure the success of change management and contractor service related processes.

Teollisuuden palveluliiketoiminnan vaativien toimitusprosessien kehittäminen arvovirtakartoituksen avulla

Työssä kartoitettiin teollisuuden palveluliiketoiminnan vaativien toimitusprosessien kehittämistä Lean -ajattelu yritysympäristössä. Tavoitteena oli vaativien toimituspro-sessien ongelmien selvittäminen ja kehittämiskohteiden määrittäminen palveluliike-toiminnan tuottavuuden kehittämisen näkökulmasta. Lisäksi tutkittiin arvovirtakuvauksen soveltuvuutta teollisuuden palveluliiketoiminnan prosessien kehittämiseen. Kirjallisuusosuudessa selvitettiin teollisuuden palveluliiketoiminnan prosessien kehit-tämisen erityispiirteitä ja Lean -ajattelun periaatteita. Tavoitteena on löytää teollisuuden palveluliiketoiminnan kehittämisen erityispiirteet tuottavuuden kannalta ja arvioida niiden soveltuvuutta Lean -ajatteluun. Työn empiirisessä osuudessa kartoitettiin yrityksen vaativat prosessit. Menetelminä työssä käytettiin puolistrukturoitua kyselyä, ryhmähaastattelua, ja osallistuvaa ha-vainnointia. Tutkimuksen tulosten perusteella laadittiin kehityssuunnitelma. Diplomityö käynnisti kohdeorganisaatiossa prosessien päivitysprosessin, ja loi puitteet vaativien toimitusten kehityssuunnitelman toteuttamiselle.

Verkkokaupan tarpeen kartoitus puualan konserniin

Tutkimusongelmana oli case-yrityksen tiedontarve verkkokaupan vaikutuksista sen liiketoimintaan, joten työn tavoitteena oli kartoittaa verkkokaupan tarve puualan yritykselle. Tutkimusmenetelmänä oli haastattelututkimus, joka suoritettiin yrityksen tulosyksiköille sekä asiakkaille. Yksiköiden erilaisista luonteista, toimintatavoista ja myyntistrategioista johtuen verkkokaupan hyödyt ja haitat olivat erilaisia eri yksiköille. Tutkimusongelmaa selvitettiin tutkimuskysymyksillä, jotka liittyivät myyntistrategioihin, tuotteisiin, tietojärjestelmien integrointiin sekä verkkokaupan hyötyihin ja haittoihin. Työ voidaan jakaa teoreettiseen ja empiiriseen osioon. Teoreettinen osuus koostuu yleiskatsauksesta sähköiseen liiketoimintaan sekä ostoprosessien ja verkkokauppojen tarkastelusta. Empiirinen osio sisältää verkkokaupan tarpeen tutkimuksen, johon yksiköiden vastuuhenkilöt sekä asiakkaat antoivat haastattelun. Tuloksista voidaan havaita, että kaikki haastateltavat pitävät verkkokaupan käyttöä tulevaisuuden trendinä, mutta välitöntä tarvetta verkkokaupan hankinnalle ei ilmennyt. Tuloksista kuitenkin ilmeni välitön tarve liiketoimintaprosessien tehostamiselle sekä muulle tietojärjestelmäpalvelulle.

The advancement of innovations in communications industry: A case study of Russian Post company

The purpose of this study is to provide a project aimed on solving the problem of advancement of innovations for Russian Post company that is the main actor on the Russian postal service market. This project is constructed through gathering and scrutinizing two essential informational packages, with first being precise information about Russian Post business processes and structure in order to find out the weak spots and hindering forces, and the second being benchmarking analysis of product and service portfolio of company's peers in Europe and Australia in order to evaluate existing experience and gather additional sources that can facilitate the advancement of innovations. These informational packages are studied and sent through the matrix analysis that must highlight customer and technical requirements which emphasize the innovativeness and problem-solving purpose of the project and lay stress on the assuring characteristics that must to be met in order to advance the project. The project itself is aimed on providing Russian Post company with several solutions, both managerial and engineering, which are aimed on easing problem-solving processes and lay the foundation for continuous innovation and value increase for Russian Post company, its partners and its customers. Project's payback period is been calculated as well.

Improving productivity by developing knowledge management practices for a consulting company

The objective of the research was to identify knowledge conversion states in consultancy sales and delivery processes for the company’s one business unit, to know where to store certain types of information and knowledge, and to create best practices for the company’s knowledge management activities in the selected business processes. The used research methodology was action research. The current business processes were analyzed by interviewing people involved in them. The results were documented and catego- rized, and based on them the target states of the processes were developed. Knowledge man- agement activities were integrated to the business processes. The main findings of the research were that roles and responsibilities in the processes were not clear to people, information systems did not fully support individuals and time was wasted searching for information and knowledge. There were also many variations of how the processes actually realized, which affected the overall quality of the process. The conclusions of the research were that knowledge management activities should be high- lighted in businesses where knowledge workers are the main assets of the company. Knowledge management practices can be supported by company culture, leadership and in- formation systems. However, one main factor is each individual’s willingness to share knowledge. By integrating knowledge management activities to business processes and hav- ing information systems supporting knowledge management, individual productivity can be improved.

Replacing traditional ERP with EAI - the next generation’s ERP

Organizations often consider investing in a new Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system as a way to enhance their business processes, as it allows integrating information used by multiple different departments into a harmonized computing system. The hope of gaining significant business benefits, such as reducing operating costs, is the key reason why organizations have decided to invest in ERP systems since 1990’s. Still, all ERP projects do not end up in success, and deployment of ERP system does not necessarily guarantee the results people were waiting for. This research studies why organizations invest in ERP, but also what downsides ERP projects currently have. Additionally Enterprise Application Integrations (EAI) as next generation’s ERP solutions are studied to challenge and develop traditional ERP. The research questions are: What are the weaknesses in traditional ERP deployment in today’s business? How does the proposed next generation’s ERP answer to these weaknesses? At the beginning of the thesis, as an answer to the first research question, the basics of ERP implementation are introduced with both the pros and cons of investing in ERP. Key concepts such as IS integration and EAI are also studied. Empirical section of the thesis focuses on answering the second research question from the integration approach. A qualitative research is executed by interviewing five experienced IT professionals about EAI benefits, limitations, and problems. The thematic interview and questionnaire follow the presented ERP main elements from literature. The research shows that adopting traditional ERP includes multiple downsides, e.g. inflexibility and requiring big investments in terms of money. To avoid these critical issues, organizations could find a solution from integrations between their current IS. Based on the empirical study a new framework for the next generation’s ERP is created, consisting of a model and a framework that deal with various features regarding IS adoption. With this framework organizations can assess whether they should implement EAI or ERP. The model and framework suggest that there are multiple factors IT managers needs to consider when planning their IT investments, including their current IS, role of IT in the organization, as well as new system’s flexibility, investment level, and number of vendors. The framework created in the thesis encourages IT management to assess holistically their i) organization, ii) its IT, and iii) solution requirements in order to determine what kind of IS solution would suit their needs the best.

Replacing traditional ERP with EAI - the next generation’s ERP

Organizations often consider investing in a new Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system as a way to enhance their business processes, as it allows integrating information used by multiple different departments into a harmonized computing system. The hope of gaining significant business benefits, such as reducing operating costs, is the key reason why organizations have decided to invest in ERP systems since 1990’s. Still, all ERP projects do not end up in success, and deployment of ERP system does not necessarily guarantee the results people were waiting for. This research studies why organizations invest in ERP, but also what downsides ERP projects currently have. Additionally Enterprise Application Integrations (EAI) as next generation’s ERP solutions are studied to challenge and develop traditional ERP. The research questions are: What are the weaknesses in traditional ERP deployment in today’s business? How does the proposed next generation’s ERP answer to these weaknesses? At the beginning of the thesis, as an answer to the first research question, the basics of ERP implementation are introduced with both the pros and cons of investing in ERP. Key concepts such as IS integration and EAI are also studied. Empirical section of the thesis focuses on answering the second research question from the integration approach. A qualitative research is executed by interviewing five experienced IT professionals about EAI benefits, limitations, and problems. The thematic interview and questionnaire follow the presented ERP main elements from literature. The research shows that adopting traditional ERP includes multiple downsides, e.g. inflexibility and requiring big investments in terms of money. To avoid these critical issues, organizations could find a solution from integrations between their current IS. Based on the empirical study a new framework for the next generation’s ERP is created, consisting of a model and a framework that deal with various features regarding IS adoption. With this framework organizations can assess whether they should implement EAI or ERP. The model and framework suggest that there are multiple factors IT managers needs to consider when planning their IT investments, including their current IS, role of IT in the organization, as well as new system’s flexibility, investment level, and number of vendors. The framework created in the thesis encourages IT management to assess holistically their i) organization, ii) its IT, and iii) solution requirements in order to determine what kind of IS solution would suit their needs the best.

Liiketoimintaprosessien mallinnuksen edellytykset suuressa tehdasyksikössä

In the theoretical part of this master’s thesis business process management and process modeling and the benefits and challenges related are discussed. The empirical part consists of two parts. The first one is a case study about process management and modeling and the second one presents the outcomes from a modeling project that was executed for the employer of this thesis. In the project the target mill unit’s business processes were identified, a process map was conducted and process architecture for further use was established. In the outcomes of the study challenges and possibilities of process management and modeling as well as possible reasons for these prejudices are discussed based on the case study and the modeling project. From the research of this thesis a framework for successful process modeling is established. The framework highlights four most important sectors that an organization should evaluate before and during the modeling project.

Dynamics AX -toiminnanohjausjärjestelmän jatkuvuudenhallinta ja toipumissuunnitelma - Simulaatiotestausmalli: case CGI Suomi Oy

Nyky-yhteiskunta nojautuu vahvasti tietojärjestelmiin luoden laajemman arkkitehtuurisen kokonaisuuden, kybertoimintaympäristön. Liiketoimintaa tukevat tietojärjestelmät tukevat myös organisaatioiden prosesseja kokonaisvaltaisesti. Jotta näitä tärkeitä kyberympäristön tietojärjestelmä- sekä liiketoimintaympäristöresursseja pystytään käyttämään, tulee järjestelmien olla luotettavia ja sovellusten saatavilla vuorokauden ympäri tai aina tarvittaessa. Tilanteet, joissa järjestelmän käytettävyys vaarantuu, voivat eskaloitua yllättäen suuremmiksi, jos poikkeustilanteisiin ei ole varauduttu. Poikkeustilanteisiin varautumiseen tarvitaan jatkuvuudenhallintaa, joka on kiinteästi osa kattavampaa IT-strategiaa ja koko yhteiskunta-/yrityskulttuuria. Työ on toteutettu yhdistäen empiriaa ja teoriaa eli tavoitteena on teoreettisen tietämyksen ja käytännön kokemuksellisen oppimisen ja tietämyksen kautta luoda konstruktiivisella otteella toipumissuunnitelman testauksessa käytettävä simulaatiotestausmalli. Dynamics AX -toiminnanohjausjärjestelmän toipumissuunnitelman simulaatiotestausmallista rakentui selkeä ja kevyt työkalu asiakasyritysten toipumissuunnitelman simulaatiotestauksiin. Diplomityössä kuvatuilla keinotekoisilla järjestelmän häiriötilanteilla pystytään simuloimaan Dynamics AX:n toipumissuunnitelman testauksissa oikeita häiriötilanteita suhteellisen kattavalla tasolla.

Integration of Logistics Systems across Companies’ Borders

The growth of the companies working in the Logistics area has raised the need for using several Logistics systems that can meet the increased requirements in business processes. Different companies may use one or more Logistics systems internally and may use different Logistics systems that other collaborated companies use. Furthermore, these Logistics systems are required to communicate with each other in order to process and manage the flow of the information. Integrating the Logistics systems is beneficial as it allows interaction between the whole systems and services instead of the need to replace them. In addition, it improves the efficiency, lowers the possible errors in the supply chain, reduces the costs and facilitates the access of suppliers and customers to the information. This in turn leads to better relationships with both suppliers and customers. Usually local integration of several Logistics systems is not very difficult, especially that mostly the companies buy their system from a single source. However, the case is different for integrating several logistics systems across the companies’ borders. In this case, there are many factors play major roles in limiting the integration, such as using different systems and different output. This thesis highlights these factors and challenges, demonstrates some solutions for the logistics inter-organizational integration from the perspective of information systems and presents some approaches for integrating these systems. There are many studies about the integration inside a company but fewer studies focused about the technical side and the information systems integration across company’s borders or what is called inter-organizational integration. This study is a literature review that aims at illustrating the challenges, the requirements and some approaches in inter-organizational logistics information systems integration of logistics systems across the companies’ borders.

Datahubin merkitys jakeluverkonhaltijalle case: Vantaan Energia Sähköverkot Oy

Tavoitteena oleva hiilineutraali energiantuotanto muokkaa sähköntuotannosta sykkivämpää ja vaatii kulutuksen sopeutumista siihen. Tämä synnyttää tarpeen kansallisia markkinoita laajemmille sähkön vähittäismarkkinoille ja vaatii kuluttajilta aktiivisempaa roolia markkinoilla. Pohjoismaiset kantaverkkoyhtiöt ovat alkaneet valmistella pohjoismaisia sähkömarkkinoita sähkön vähittäiskaupan avaamiselle. Sähkön vähittäiskaupan avautuminen eri maiden välillä vaatii kansallisten markkinamenetelmien yhtenäistämistä varsinkin taseselvityksen ja tiedonvaihdon osalta. Tässä työssä tutkitaan Suomessa vuonna 2019 käyttöönotettavan keskitetyn tiedonvaihtojärjestelmän, Datahubin, vaikutuksia jakeluverkonhaltijalle. Vaikutuksia tarkastellaan Vantaan Energia Sähköverkot Oy:n näkökulmasta. Työssä kartoitetaan jakeluverkonhaltijan nykyisiä liiketoiminnan pääprosesseja ja niihin liittyvää tiedonvaihtoa eri markkinaosapuolten kanssa prosessien toteutuksessa. Lisäksi työssä esitellään jakeluverkonhaltijan nykyisten liiketoiminnan pääprosessien toteuttaminen Datahubissa. Jakeluverkonhaltijan liiketoiminnan nykyisiä pääprosesseja ja tiedonvaihtoa verrataan Datahubin kautta suoritettaviin prosesseihin. Työssä todettiin Datahubin korjaavan jakeluverkonhaltijan liiketoiminannan nykyisissä pääprosesseissa havaittuja ongelmia ja mahdollistavan prosessien tehostamisen. Datahub ei sinällään muuta nykyisiä jakeluverkonhaltijan liiketoimintaprosesseja merkittävästi, mutta mahdollistaa prosessien kehittämisen markkinoiden muutoksen mukana. Datahubin kokonaisvaltainen hyödyntäminen on toimijoiden itsensä käsissä, niiltä osin, kun sähkömarkkinalaki ei velvoita tiettyyn toimintamalliin. Jakeluverkonhaltijan liiketoimintaprosessien osalta suurin muutos kohdistuu jakeluverkonhaltijan taseselvitykseen, joka siirtyy kokonaisuudessaan Datahubin tehtäväksi. Datahub tulee kaventamaan jakeluverkonhaltijan roolia markkinapaikalla ja siksi jakeluverkonhaltijoiden tulisi kartoittaa liiketoiminnan laajentamisen tarvetta ja mahdollisuuksia tulevaisuudessa.

An examination of factors influencing ERP key-user satisfaction: A qualitative case study

Several companies are trying to improve their operation efficiency by implementing an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system that makes it possible to control the resources of the company in real time. However, the success of the implementation project is not a foregone conclusion; a significant part of these projects end in a failure, one way or another. Therefore it is important to investigate ERP system implementation more closely in order to increase understanding about factors influencing ERP system success and to improve the probability of a successful ERP implementation project. Consequently, this study was initiated because a manufacturing case company wanted to review the success of their ERP implementation project. To be exact, the case company hoped to gain both information about the success of the project and insight for future implementation improvement. This study investigated ERP success specifically by examining factors that influence ERP key-user satisfaction. User satisfaction is one of the most commonly applied indicators of information system success. The research data was mainly collected by conducting theme interviews. The subjects of the interviews were six key-users of the newly implemented ERP system. The interviewees were closely involved in the implementation project. Furthermore, they act as representative users that utilize the new system in everyday business processes. The collected data was analyzed by thematizing. Both data collection and analysis were guided by a theoretical frame of reference. This frame was based on previous research on the subject. The results of the study aligned with the theoretical framework to large extent. The four principal factors influencing key-user satisfaction were change management, contractor service, key-user’s system knowledge and characteristics of the ERP product itself. One of the most significant contributions of the research is that it confirmed the existence of a connection between change management and ERP key-user satisfaction. Furthermore, it discovered two new sub-factors influencing contractor service related key-user satisfaction. In addition, the research findings indicated that in order to improve the current level of key-user satisfaction, the case company should pay special attention to system functionality improvement and enhancement of the key-users’ knowledge. During similar implementation projects in the future, it would be important to assure the success of change management and contractor service related processes.

Collaborative Customer Relationship Management in Business-to-Business Firm's Strategy

The objective of this thesis is to study the presence of collaborative customer relationship management in a firm’s strategy. In addition the thesis explains specific implementations of collaborative CRM, and CRM in general, by each case company. The sample consists of five Finnish business-to-business companies through applying multiple-case study method. The data is collected through face-to-face interviews with employees knowledgeable of the case company’s CRM processes. The qualitative data is analyzed through coding and shows that two out of five case companies have adopted and are using collaborative CRM in their strategy and operations. These case companies see collaborative CRM as an important driver for the company, through customer focus and market orientation. The rest of the case companies are either in the process of moving towards collaborative CRM or have given little consideration to it. The results show that collaborative CRM is in use, and that each company modifies it to meet their exact aspirations. The major challenge in the process is to fully grasp the importance of a shared vision that can translate into collaborative efforts in CRM and business strategy.