A lean approach to robotic process automation in banking

Automation is a concept that has been previously introduced in organizations as a means to improve their processes. However, Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is an emerging method to automate processes with software, which the industry calls robots. These robots perform repetitive and low-complexity tasks previously performed by humans in front of a computer which as is known is the most commonly used feature in a company nowadays. Using the Design Science Research methodology to build up this article, it is argued that RPA is being used idly compared to its full potential which would entail using process improvement techniques before applying the automation itself. Thus, this article proposes a new approach to RPA through the use of Lean techniques. This article assesses two market leaders in RPA. It suggests a framework of activities for organizations that are investing in RPA and that want to take advantage of the capabilities currently offered by this technology. The majority of the demonstration proposal was carried out in a Portuguese private bank in three processes. Depending on the different cases, it had an overall positive evaluation in the field or simulations. Comparing RPA and Lean RPA projects in the number of resources (time, FTE) needed to carry out business processes, the latter approach presented values that were significantly lower and, consequently, satisfactory.

A method for selecting processes for automation with AHP and TOPSIS

Organizations are more frequently turning towards robotic process automation (RPA) as a solution for employees to focus on higher complexity and more valuable tasks while delegating routine, monotonous and rule-based tasks to their digital colleagues. These software robots can handle various rule-based, digital, repetitive tasks. However, currently available process identification methods must be qualified to select suitable automation processes accurately. Wrong process selection and failed attempts are often the origin of process automation's bad reputation within organizations and often result in the avoidance of this technology. As a result, in this research, a method for selecting processes for automation combining two multi-criteria decision-making techniques, 'Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS), will be proposed, demonstrated, and evaluated. This study follows the Design Science Research Methodology (DSRM) and applies the proposed method for selecting processes for automation to a real-life scenario. The result will be a method to support the proper selection of business processes for automation, increasing the success of implementing RPA tools in an organization.

Case studies about smart contracts in healthcare

The Internet of Things (IoT) such as devices and sensors are a fast growth reality which our bureaucratical and archaic institutional system is not yet ready to embrace its functionalities. In the health system, many developments are made, and smart devices are the key to preventing, studying, investigating, and solving a lot of diseases and improving our health system. But along with this, innovation is necessary for the hospitals, for example, to have a proper system that provides storage of health data information and respects the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) with the use of smart contracts that secure the integrity and disclosure of the patient's data, since the majority of hospitals still use paper, physical records to store data. In this study, we will briefly analyse and explain three different suggested methods to deal with the challenges that Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) encounters. We will not choose which one is the best because of the different features and the countries they are proposed but will emphasize the benefits and challenges which one has.

Research contributions and challenges in DLT-based cryptocurrency regulation: a systematic mapping study

The purpose of this paper is to identify research that has been carried out about cryptocurrency regulation contributions and the current challenges that need to be addressed in future studies. The methodology used to conduct this research and report the findings was systematic mapping. We use this methodology to search, identify, and select all relevant primary studies on cryptocurrency regulation. The findings reveal that the key cryptocurrency regulation research topics are distributed governance, central bank digital currency, monetary policy, cryptocurrency adoption, security, regulation, cryptocurrency market, cybercrime economy and money laundering. The research proposals for cryptocurrency regulation comprise tools, protocols, methods, models, frameworks and, knowledge. The cryptocurrency regulatory challenges are cryptocurrency adoption, central bank digital currency regulation, accounting for cryptocurrencies and risk for cryptocurrencies. This systematic mapping provides an overview of the solutions proposed to regulate cryptocurrency as well as the current research challenges.

Implementation of Digital Monitoring Services During the COVID-19 Pandemic for Patients With Chronic Diseases: Design Science Approach

BACKGROUND

The COVID-19 pandemic is straining health systems and disrupting the delivery of health care services, in particular, for older adults and people with chronic conditions, who are particularly vulnerable to COVID-19 infection.

OBJECTIVE

The aim of this project was to support primary health care provision with a digital health platform that will allow primary care physicians and nurses to remotely manage the care of patients with chronic diseases or COVID-19 infections.

METHODS

For the rapid design and implementation of a digital platform to support primary health care services, we followed the Design Science implementation framework: (1) problem identification and motivation, (2) definition of the objectives aligned with goal-oriented care, (3) artefact design and development based on Scrum, (4) solution demonstration, (5) evaluation, and (6) communication.

RESULTS

The digital platform was developed for the specific objectives of the project and successfully piloted in 3 primary health care centers in the Lisbon Health Region. Health professionals (n=53) were able to remotely manage their first patients safely and thoroughly, with high degrees of satisfaction.

CONCLUSIONS

Although still in the first steps of implementation, its positive uptake, by both health care providers and patients, is a promising result. There were several limitations including the low number of participating health care units. Further research is planned to deploy the platform to many more primary health care centers and evaluate the impact on patient's health related outcomes.

The role of Design Science Research Methodology in developing pharmacy eHealth services

The increasing focus on efficiency of care has prompted health systems to look for innovative solutions that yield maximum value for care. Integration of care and eHealth are seen as the most promising solutions in the high technological environment of the coming decades. Pharmacy services have been developed to a point where the face of community pharmacy has changed dramatically. Thus, service design and implementation has become an area of increased attention by Pharmacy practice researchers, and the arrival of eHealth concepts to Pharmacy is driving the need to find alternative ways to design new services. Moreover, known barriers and challenges remain when securing integration of pharmacy services with the health systems. In this paper, Design Science Research Methodology (DSRM), a user-centered alternative methodology to the design, development and implementation of health services, especially eHealth services, is presented. This alternative, originally from the Information Sciences field, has been adopted as a service design methodology in diverse settings, including health care. Here, case studies are used to explain how a DSRM process should be conducted in a health care setting, illustrating what methods to choose in each step of the process. Finally, the advantages of DSRM compared to other user-centered methodologies for service design are presented, hopefully prompting the discussion on the use of DSRM for the study of the implementation and sustainability of pharmacy services.

Integrating COBIT 5 PAM and TIPA for ITIL Using an Ontology Matching System

Organizations can implement enterprise governance of IT (EGIT) over the use of practices such as COBIT 5 and ITIL. Integrating practices provide a more comprehensive and efficient approach, enabling features that would be unavailable through individual practices. Therefore, organizations are now forced to adopt and adapt various EGIT practices. However, the literature lacks a proposal that can assist and guide organizations in assessing different practices in a multi-practices environment. To overcome this issue, this research intends to shed some light in this area by proposing an ontological approach for describing TIPA for ITIL PAM and COBIT PAM, using semantic similarity techniques to compare COBIT and ITIL process assessment core concepts.

An Ontology for BPM in Digital Transformation and Innovation

Technologies are being incorporated continuously into day-to-day life, introducing new shapes for all businesses. Nevertheless, it is interesting to notice that most novelty is based mainly on processes, rather than on technology. Although the literature seems to agree the digital transformation and innovation (DT&I) and business process management (BPM) connection is almost mandatory, there is not a clear and precise conceptualization of the relationship of these two domains. Therefore, the authors argue that a conceptual model is needed to organize the knowledge raised on these subjects structurally. This article presents an ontology to provide a formal and explicit specification as a common understanding basis of this topic. This research contributes to leveraging the BPM in the digital age, exploring their relationship, investigating to what extent the BPM characteristics initiatives affect—and are affected by—DT&I. The authors evaluated the proposal using a public domain business case to confirm the model requirements and assess whether it adequately addresses the research problem.

IT governance enablers in relation to IoT implementation: a systematic literature review

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to obtain a list of recommendations addressed by the information technology (IT) governance enablers in relation to IoT implementation. The reason behind this it is the lack of information about these instances which could the organizations to be more effective when implementing IoT.

Design/methodology/approach

The objectives will be obtained using the methodology – systematic literature review.

Findings

During the research, a list of recommendations was created on each IT governance enabler in relation to IoT implementation, showing the flaws that exist at the literature level for each enabler.

Originality/value

The state of art of this research is a creation of a list of recommendations according to IT governance enablers to be applied on an IoT implementation.

A conceptual model for enterprise risk management

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to ease the ISO 31000 standard understanding and provide mechanisms that allow organizations to adopt and adapt this standard to their reality.

Design/methodology/approach

The research methodology adopted in this research was the design science research methodology.

Findings

Key finding is that enterprise architecture (EA) models and EA tools can help reduce the complexity of the ISO 31000 standard and improve the communication between stakeholders.

Practical implications

The research proposal serves the purpose of supporting the evidence collection for an enterprise risk management (ERM) initiative in an as-was, as-is, or to-be perspective.

Originality/value

Traditional ERM efforts operate on silos, limiting the sharing of risk information and the achievement of an organization-wide view of risks. EA can provide a common way to model complex business systems, from the strategic level to implementation details. This paper proposes the use of an EA model and an EA tool (Atlas) to represent ISO 31000, allowing a better understanding on the value of assets that can be affected from the manifestation of some risks over time.

The critical success factors of GDPR implementation: a systematic literature review

Purpose

The digital paradigm people live in today, which drastically increased the consumption of data, is a threat to their privacy. To create a high level of privacy protection for its citizens, the European Union proposed the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which introduces obligations for organizations regarding the storing, processing, collecting and disclosing of data. This paper aims to identify the critical success factors of GDPR implementation.

Design/methodology/approach

A systematic literature review was conducted by following a strict review protocol, where 32 documents were found relevant to perform the review and to answer to the proposed research questions.

Findings

The critical success factors of GDPR implementation were identified, including barriers and enablers. Furthermore, benefits of complying with GDPR were identified.

Research limitations/implications

As GDPR is a relatively recent subject, there are still few scientific papers about it. Therefore, the authors were unable to neither identify nor present a robust conclusion regarding specific topics, such as practical outcomes.

Originality/value

On the basis of the literature, the identified critical success factors may be useful for organizations as these can be better prepared to achieve compliance by prioritizing the enablers and avoiding the barriers.

Implementing an online pharmaceutical service using design science research

BACKGROUND

The rising prevalence of chronic diseases is pressing health systems to introduce reforms. Primary healthcare and multidisciplinary models have been suggested as approaches to deal with this challenge, with new roles for nurses and pharmacists being advocated. More recently, implementing healthcare based on information systems and technologies (e.g. eHealth) has been proposed as a way to improve health services. However, implementing online pharmaceutical services, including their adoption by pharmacists and patients, is still an open research question. In this paper we present ePharmacare, a new online pharmaceutical service implemented using Design Science Research.

METHODS

The Design Science Research Methodology (DSRM) was chosen to implement this online service for chronic diseases management. In the paper, DSRM's different activities are explained, from the definition of the problem to the evaluation of the artifact. During the design and development activities, surveys, observations, focus groups, and eye-tracking glasses were used to validate pharmacists' and patients' requirements. During the demonstration and evaluation activities the new service was used with real-world pharmacists and patients.

RESULTS

The results show the contribution of DSRM in the implementation of online services for pharmacies. We found that pharmacists spend only 50% of their time interacting with patients, uncovering a clear opportunity to implement online pharmaceutical care services. On the other hand, patients that regularly visit the same pharmacy recognize the value in patient follow-up demanding to use channels such as the Internet for their pharmacy interactions. Limitations were identified regarding the high workload of pharmacists, but particularly their lack of know-how and experience in dealing with information systems (IST) for the provision of pharmaceutical services.

CONCLUSIONS

This paper summarizes a research project in which an online pharmaceutical service was proposed, designed, developed, demonstrated and evaluated using DSRM. The main barriers for pharmacists' adoption of online pharmaceutical services provision were the lack of time, time management and information systems usage skills, as well as a precise role definition within pharmacies. These problems can be addressed with proper training and services reorganization, two proposals to be investigated in future works.

How can information systems provide support to nurses' hand hygiene performance? Using gamification and indoor location to improve hand hygiene awareness and reduce hospital infections

Background

Hospital-acquired infections are still amongst the major problems health systems are facing. Their occurrence can lead to higher morbidity and mortality rates, increased length of hospital stay, and higher costs for both hospital and patients. Performing hand hygiene is a simple and inexpensive prevention measure, but healthcare workers’ compliance with it is often far from ideal. To raise awareness regarding hand hygiene compliance, individual behaviour change and performance optimization, we aimed to develop a gamification solution that collects data and provides real-time feedback accurately in a fun and engaging way.

Methods

A Design Science Research Methodology (DSRM) was used to conduct this work. DSRM is useful to study the link between research and professional practices by designing, implementing and evaluating artifacts that address a specific need. It follows a development cycle (or iteration) composed by six activities. Two work iterations were performed applying gamification components, each using a different indoor location technology. Preliminary experiments, simulations and field studies were performed in an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of a Portuguese tertiary hospital. Nurses working on this ICU were in a focus group during the research, participating in several sessions across the implementation process.

Results

Nurses enjoyed the concept and considered that it allows for a unique opportunity to receive feedback regarding their performance. Tests performed on the indoor location technology applied in the first iteration regarding distances estimation presented an unacceptable lack of accuracy. Using a proximity-based technique, it was possible to identify the sequence of positions, but beacons presented an unstable behaviour. In the second work iteration, a different indoor location technology was explored but it did not work properly, so there was no chance of testing the solution as a whole (gamification application included).

Conclusions

Combining automated monitoring systems with gamification seems to be an innovative and promising approach, based on the already achieved results. Involving nurses in the project since the beginning allowed to align the solution with their needs. Despite strong evolution through recent years, indoor location technologies are still not ready to be applied in the healthcare field with nursing wards.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12911-017-0410-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Automating the Migration of Enterprise Architecture Models

The evolution of Enterprise Architectures (EA) is the result of applying EA development projects within organizations with the goal of accomplishing specific business requirements. Recent approaches seek to automate and improve EA practice within organizations by employing EA management tools. Thus, evolving the organization's EA meta-model is a consequence of fulfilling such initiatives. Currently, the migration of EA models conforming to a specific EA meta-model evolution is a manual task in which EA data corresponding to the actual models is gathered and the models re-designed. This results in an error-prone and time-consuming task. To address this issue, the authors propose a set of migration rules to automate the migration process. The proposed migration rules were implemented within an EA tool and then demonstrated and validated using a fictitious organization migration scenario.

Closing Service Quality Gaps Using Dynamic Service Level Agreements

Each service interaction between a provider and a customer is an opportunity for the provider to delight, satisfy or disappoint the customer. However, the customers' expectations may change on every interaction. Therefore, defining Service Level Agreements (SLAs) at design time and then restricting the customers' options limits the possibilities for the customers to express their expectations. This is one of the reasons why the services quality is suffering from gaps identified more than two decades ago. In this paper, the authors propose a service quality approach such that SLAs can be specified at execution time (dynamic service levels) in contrast to the usual static SLAs specified at design time. They evaluated the proposal's impact in the service quality gaps using SERVQUAL. The proposal showed improvements in three of the five dimensions measured by SERVQUAL.

Measuring and Evaluating Efficiency on IT Outsourcing operations through Data Envelopment Analysis

Information Technology (IT) outsourcing is a set of IT services that require providers to manage a long relationship with multiple services that have a high degree of variance between clients. IT outsourcing operational contexts display multi-input and multi-output variables, so managers need guidance on developing suitable approaches in order to identify the set of variables to analyse. This work proposes a model based on Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), which is a linear programming technique able to manipulate multiple inputs and outputs. DEA allows the identification of the most efficient operation, which in turn enables providers to set the best operational strategy to follow. The results demonstrate the importance of quantitative measures in a dynamic business environment like IT outsourcing. To develop the authors' research, design science research was applied, and eighteen IT outsourcing contracts were used to demonstrate their model's utility. This work is a major contribution for measuring efficiency in IT outsourcing operations.

Using Gamification Combined with Indoor Location to Improve Nurses' Hand Hygiene Compliance in an ICU Ward

Healthcare acquired infections are among the biggest unsolved problems in healthcare, implying an increasing number of deaths, extra-days of hospital stay and hospital costs. Performing hand hygiene is a simple and inexpensive prevention measure, but healthcare workers compliance with it is still far from optimal. Recognized hurdles are lack of time, forgetfulness, wrong technique and lack of motivation. This study aims at exploring gamification to promote nurses' HH compliance self-awareness and action. Real-time data collected from an indoor location system will provide feedback information to a group of nurses working in an ICU ward. In this paper both the research's motivation and methods is presented, along with the first round of results and its discussion.

Mapping Critical Success Factors for IT Outsourcing

During the last decades, IT Outsourcing gained considerable management attention and is considered a strategic decision used to promote success on its variable dimensions, like: cost reduction, quality improvement, access to new technologies, among others. The existing literature presents many studies on IT Outsourcing. However, there are few studies from the provider's perspective. Therefore, the objective is to focus on providers' critical success factors and their relationships in IT Outsourcing contracts. To analyse this subject a qualitative approach based on cognitive mapping process was applied. Cognitive or causal maps are widely employed in problem-structuring, since they permit a rich representation of ideas, through the modelling of a complex network of actions. This approach is innovative compared to the traditional quantitative methods used. As a result, they were able to map a network of means and ends and in parallel were found new success factors like service standardization, price flexibility, cost management and service catalogue, which allowed obtaining new insights into the structure of today's IT Outsourcing contracts.

Online Pharmaceutical Care Provision: Full-Implementation of an eHealth Service Using Design Science Research

Chronic diseases are pressing health systems to introduce reforms, focused on primary care and multidisciplinary models. Community pharmacists have developed a new role, addressing pharmaceutical care and services. Information systems and technologies (IST) will have an important role in shaping future healthcare provision. However, the best way to design and implement an IST for pharmaceutical service provision is still an open research question. In this paper, we present a possible strategy based on the use of Design Science Research Methodology (DSRM). The application of the DSRM six stages is described, from the definition and characterization of the problem to the evaluation of the artefact.

A Business Motivation Model for IT Service Management

The Enterprise Architecture (EA) approach usually considers a set of motivational concepts that are used to model the reasons and motivations that underlie the design and change of organizations, which corresponds to their Business Motivation Model (BMM). Likewise, this BMM is also present in organizations that provide IT services. However, although ITIL has become a standard for performing IT Service Management (ITSM), there is not one holistic solution to integrate EA and ITIL. Therefore, we propose to join both approaches through the definition of a specific Enterprise Architecture to design organizations according to ITIL's best practices to perform ITSM. Thus, this paper's goal is twofold: on one hand to establish that architecture's motivation model, and, on the other, to contribute for a formal identification and representation of the ITIL business motivation model itself.

Designing a New Integrated IT Governance and IT Management Framework Based on Both Scientific and Practitioner Viewpoint

IT Governance (ITG) has been recognized as a CIO top-10 issue for more than five years and has risen in priority between 2007 and 2009. There are several Frameworks to help organizations in ITG implementation but these lack scientific viewpoint, are complex, and also overlap each other. However, besides the existence of several frameworks to help organizations in ITG implementation, most organizations keep designing their own Framework. Such statements reinforce the possibility of improvements in the existing Frameworks. In this paper the authors make a literature review to leverage ITG Contingency factors, ITG general guidelines and main ITG and IT Management (ITM) areas in order to provide a scientific viewpoint validation. Therefore, they integrate their artefacts and propose a new integrated ITG framework. The authors then evaluate their artefacts with expert’s interviews so as to provide practitioner viewpoint validation and also map the authors’ artefacts with current theories. Finally, they conclude their research with main contributions and future work.

Using enterprise ontology for improving emergency management in hospitals

In a competitive world, healthcare organizations are forced to make improvements in order to compete and prosper. Healthcare services suffer from lack of change and inefficiency, which affects the delivery of sustainable services. We propose a method based on DEMO to find non value-added transactions that must be redesigned to simplify processes. This methodology was chosen as a basis for our solution because it provides a better understanding of the dynamics of an organization, has a strong and well-formed theory, and allows a good alignment between the enterprise design and operation. A demonstration of the method was accomplished in an emergency department, making it possible to find transactions that can be improved or automated. To evaluate the results we used interviews, Moody and Shanks Quality Framework, and the Four Principles from Österle et al., which shows that the method yields an adequate and clear process view and is reliable when it comes to improving healthcare operational processes.

Using People-CMM for Diminishing Resistance to ITIL

Information Technology (IT) now plays a fundamental role in most organizations. This increased responsibility and consequent impact in business performance leads to a higher demand and tighter control on IT Departments. To respond to these requirements, IT Departments have been implementing Service Management frameworks, with ITIL currently being the most popular. However, many ITIL projects fail, and the most commonly documented cause is organizational resistance. The main goal of this research work is to test the hypothesis that using best practices described in the People Capability Maturity Model (People-CMM) framework for improving organizational maturity has impact on achieving a greater ITIL maturity as well. This hypothesis was evaluated in three real-world case studies, and based on the results; the conclusion reached was that the hypothesis cannot be rejected. However, more research is needed to prove a cause-effect relation between People-CMM and ITIL.