Examine and Critique a Scholarly Article Related to Mobile Computing Challenges

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Analysing and Enhancing Business Processes and IT-Systems for Mobile Workforce Automation - A Framework Approach

Volker Gruhn University of Leipzig

Department of Computer Science Chair of Applied Telematics / e-Business Klostergasse 3, 04109 Leipzig, Germany [email protected]

André Köhler University of Leipzig

Department of Computer Science Chair of Applied Telematics / e-Business Klostergasse 3, 04109 Leipzig, Germany [email protected]

Abstract

Mobile B2E-applications (business-to-employee) can add significant value to a company’s business, when large work- force divisions are involved in the execution of certain busi- ness processes. From a technical point of view, the major issues are solved (e.g. solutions for connectivity, broadband mobile networks, synchronization mechanisms, secure pro- tocols etc.). But from a business point of view there is a lack of methodology regarding the alignment of technical solu- tions to the business needs. As companies face a contin- uously faster change in business models, legal constraints and customer needs, highly flexible systems are needed to react to changing business processes. Furthemore, the in- troduction of new mobile systems is often a technology- driven process, pushing the alignment of software and sys- tems to the highly specific, fast changing business needs into the background. This paper introduces a framework summarizing the findings from earlier research and case studies related to this topic. The framework consists of a general reference process for mobile work and of a model explaining influencing factors, optimization goals and their relationships for mobile processes. The framework can be applied for process modeling, simulation and optimization as well as for requirements analysis and return on invest- ment calculations.

Keywords

Mobility, Information Systems, Business Process

1 Introduction

Mobile applications can mainly be distinguished into three different types. Mobile B2C-applications(business-to-

customer) are used to provide services to a company’s cus- tomers on their mobile devices. Such services mostly are offered for sales or information purposes.Mobile B2E- applications (business-to-employee) are used to connect mobile workers to the company’s back-end systems, respec- tively to provide access to information systems on the road. Mobile M2M-applications(machine-to-machine) are used to transfer information automatically collected by a mobile or a stationary machine to the company’s information sys- tems. Actually, these applications are not mobile in the sense of supporting mobile people but often replace such mobile processes (e.g. B2E-processes).

In this paper, the focus is put on mobile B2E-processes (in the following: mobile processes). Since the availabil- ity of mobile broadband networks and the reduced costs for mobile devices, companies with large divisions of mobile employees (e.g. service technicians, sales representatives, healthcare services) can use mobile applications to gain ac- cess to corporate applications and databases at the point of service (POS). Therewith better coordination of mobile employees, rapid task assignment, the avoidance of error- prone format conversion, instant access to customer data and many more becomes feasible [8], [16].

The aim of this article is to show that due to several charac- teristics caused by the workers mobility, a general industry- independent mobile process can be established allowing to describe most of todays mobile processes. Furthermore, the most frequent characteristics of mobile work are described, which can be used to refine the general process. The find- ings are summarized in a framework, that can be applied for process modeling, simulation and optimization as well as a basis for requirements analysis and return on invest- ment calculations. This paper is organized as follows: Sec- tion 2 gives an overview about the related work. Section 3 describes the developed framework through explaining the reference work process (3.1), influencing factors on the

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process (3.2, 3.3), optimization goals (3.4), example cases (3.5) and the framework usage (3.6). Section 4 draws a con- clusion and gives an outlook to further research.

2 Related Work

The changes for the discipline of software engineering when developing systems for mobile environments are dis- cussed in [19]. The authors state that ”mobility represents a total meltdown of all stability assumptions [...] associated with distributed computing”. A comprehensive overview of software engineering for mobile systems is given, regarding issues like models, algorithms, applications and middleware to solve in the future. The concept of mobility is analysed by [9]. Usually, in the context of mobile applications and mobile workforces the term mobility is used in the meaning ofspatial mobil- ity. Kakihara and Sorensen expand this concept totemporal andcontextual mobility. Amongst others,temporal mobil- ity describes the fact that ”it is no longer strictly necessary to share the same time period exclusively with a particular person or group” [9]. In other words, the term describes the absence of temporal constraints through the use of mobile technologies. Beyond,contextual mobilityis given when contextual constraints for a certain task of a mobile worker can be avoided, e.g. when he carries the necessary infor- mation to the place of task completion. This work gives an excellent analytical basis for further work on the mobility concept. The concept of mobility is also subject of [22] where user mobility is distinguished intopersonalandterminal mobil- ity. The paper gives an overview about recent developments on OSI network levels for improving terminal mobility, i.e. connectivity. Moreover, the authors present an integrated personal mobility architecture which supports personal mo- bility. This architecture aims at context preservation during device or network changes. On the basis of these key fac- tors, concrete implications for the design of mobile systems in general are given. The particular importance of context is also subject of [6]. Different types of contexts in mo- bile environments like the infrastructure context, the sys- tem context, the domain context and the physical context are discussed. On this basis, a design framework for mobile systems is presented, that can be used to developmodels of space and awarenessand to deduce requirements for soft- ware architectures. [17] also present results regarding the basic concept of mobility. They present a study where dif- ferent aspects of mobile work in general are examined. The four key factors identified for mobile work arethe role of planning, working in dead time, accessing remote resources andmonitoring distant activities. A number of recent publications show that efficiency and ef- fectiveness of business processes can be improved through

the use of mobile technologies. A case study shows ex- amples for mobile business processes from Sweden and the Netherlands [23]. After stating that benefits of mobile technology are hard to quantify, the authors deduce certain propositions from their case studies. The first proposition is that a benefit is given when coordination is required for actors who are difficult to locate. The second proposition is that the benefit of a mobile solution is the avoidance of opportunity costs which occur due to not being able to coor- dinate actors. However, to examine such opportunity costs will likely be difficult. Furthermore, there are more advan- tages in mobile solutions than just coordination of mobile actors, e.g. the avoidance of error-prone format conversions or just-in-time data supply. [4] also adress the introduction of mobile systems in the construction industry with partic- ular focus on the mapping of business processes. The pre- sented methodology consists of the four stepsidentify ten processes, map out the as-is-process, map out the to-be- process, andselect four processes. The method is evaluated with site engineer processes.

A business process analysis for the electricity industry is presented in [10]. The authors show a method for iden- tifing and modeling selected business processes for a cer- tain goal. The method consists of a knowledge model, a goal submodel and a process submodel containing actors, roles, activities and resources. Based on these tools, the concrete goals and process models for a company can be created, followed by an analysis of these results. Another case study presents results from an analysis of mobile po- lice work [18]. The authors recommend to strongly focus on the type of mobility when dealing with mobile workers in order to design the right mode of interaction. Further, the distinction between structured and unstructured work is rec- ommended when designing mobile systems. Further case studies show significant improvements for mobile business processes, e.g. for energy supply workers [21], [3], [7], for medical services [21], [1], [2] and for salesforce divisions [5], [3], [13], [21].

[24] report about a similar appraisal. They provide an analy- sis framework focusing on assessing the design approach of mobile workforce solutions. Within this analysis frame- work, the four perspectivesthinking, controlling, working and modelingare distinguished. Thethinking perspective includes engineering aspects like network infrastructures and middleware (calledhard thinking), as well as commu- nication aspects with involved actors and the mobile work- force (calledsoft thinking). The controlling perspective deals with the way the project and processes are managed. The working perspectivedescribes how business engineers try to create solutions for the workforce problem, as well as the information system design. Themodeling perspec- tive consists of conceptual and empirical modeling of busi- ness processes and application prototyping. Although this

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framework contains certain important aspects for the mod- eling of mobile IT solutions, no details are given for con- ducting the mentioned steps from the four different perspec- tives. [15] present an analysis of requirements for mobile systems within the construction industry. Starting from de- fined situations, the information needed on site, the infor- mation created on site and the involved people are identi- fied. Furthermore, core business functions for specific prob- lem situations are developed. In [20] a model for assess- ing the readiness prior to IS investment is described. [16] present results from a case study with a utility company. On the basis of interviews with the company’s employees, the authors developed a means-ends objective network that can be used to increase the value of a mobile application. There are six fundamental objectives a company tries to reach through the use of a mobile application. Beyond, there are numerous mean objectives that must be fulfilled in order to reach a fundamental objective. This work could be very helpful for achieving a company’s objective by im- plementing mobile applications.

An interesting approach to a process-centered IT return on investment (ROI) analysis is described in [14]. The authors report about a case study where an IT ROI is calculated for a business process from the banking industry. According to their experiences they propose a seven phase model in order to calculate the ROI. [11] proposes an approach to evaluate e-Business information systems projects in order to calcu- late IT payoff. The approach focuses on traditional mea- sures for IT payoff and their linkage to technology ques- tions. The current research questions regarding IT invest- ment payoff in e-Business environments are raised in [12]. The authors propose directions for future research in this field, namelymetrics, environment, technologyandprocess.

3 A Generic Reference Model for Mobility in Business Processes

As described in section 2, a number of papers and case stud- ies report about successful implementations of mobile sys- tems in different business contexts. Based on this research as well as on the authors experiences from similar projects, a couple of repeatedly recurring process and system charac- teristics can be observed. In the following, these character- istics are described and a reference model for mobile busi- ness processes is built. This model can be used for differ- ent purposes when analyzing and designing mobile business processes and systems (see section 3.6). Amongst others, such purposes could be a process analysis for optimization potentials, a requirements analysis for mobile systems or a return on investment analysis for mobile systems.

headquarter

mobile worker

task assignment

receipt of task

move to location

execute task

return of executed task

receipt of task result

company creation of

task post-

processing

Figure 1. General mobile process.

3.1 General Mobile Work Process

As stated above, along with a wide range of case studies a typical mobile work process can be observed, which is at a certain level of abstraction the same process spanning different companies and industries. This derived general mobile work process is shown in Figure 1. The process is based on the assumptions, that four major components exist:

• An company, that requires the execution of defined mobile tasks.

• A group of mobile workers (mobile workforce).

• A headquarter, that coordinates mobile workers and tasks.

• A task-centered work process of the mobile worker.

The process works as follows: The company creates tasks and sends them to a headquarter, that coordinates its mobile workers. The headquarter receives tasks from the company and sends each to an appropriate worker. The worker re- ceives the task, moves to the specified location, executes the task and returns the task result back to the headquarter. The headquarter receives the task result and sends it to the company, where following processes can be initiated. There might be some special mobile work processes that do not follow this model, but as a result from analyzing the related work, case studies and reports, this model could be applied for the vast majority of mobile work processes. The headquarter and the mobile workforce are not necessarily required to be part of the company, but could be external service providers as well. However, the above described process is a very simplified process, prescinding from any detail or variant. But the nature of mobility brings certain opportunities as well as constraints when modeling a more detailed process. Analyzing these, the authors could iden- tify typical factors influencing the process design. They can be distinguished into factors caused by theorganizational structure and thebusiness model, and into factors caused

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by the use ofinformation technology. Furthermore, cer- tain generaloptimization goalscould be observed when re- designing such processes or implementing mobile systems. The influencing factors as well as the optimization goals are shown in Figure 2 and will be described in the following.

3.2 Influencing Factors due to Organiza- tional Structure and Business Model

The main influencing factors that arise due to the organiza- tional structure and the business model of the company are worker and task. Both influencing factors as well as their effects for the above described process are explained as fol- lows.

3.2.1 Worker A first distinction can be made through the assumption that the company’s mobile workforce is not a volume of unique subjects but workers with differentskills. Correspondingly, a task could require specific skills from the executing worker. Furthermore, a mobile worker could be associated with a certain geographicallyarea, that he can not leave or just at higher costs. Beyond, the company’s mobile workforce could be temporarily extended by sub- contractors, which might e.g. result in highercostsfor task completion. The autonomyof the mobile worker might be considered if he is allowed to reject a task assigned by the headquar- ter. In this case, the headquarter needs to regard this fact during the task planning. This could be especially impor- tant while subcontractors participate. Related to the auton- omy aspect, the types oftask handlingcan be distinguished into sequential and parallel ones. Sequential task handling means the need for closing the current task before the next can be started, even if the task could not be completed. In this case, the headquarter could later assign the same task to the same worker or another. Parallel task handling allows the worker to choose from a couple of tasks to complete, in particular to restart the processing of a task at a later time.

3.2.2 Task The majority of mobile tasks might be of sim- ple nature and can be completed by a single worker in a short time. But some tasks may require thecooperation with several specialist. Two major kinds of cooperation are particularly important: sequential cooperation (multi- ple mobile workers execute the task in a defined order) and team cooperation (multiple mobile workers execute the same task at the same time or ad hoc in undefined order). The highest flexibility for planning and executing a task is given when notime restrictionexists. But often a task is associated with a deadline until it has to be completed. Even more restrictive is a task with a fixed execution date (e.g. appointment). Furthermore, it can be necessary to fulfill a task immediately.

One way of task allocation is assigning a single task to a single worker. Another way is to assign a couple of tasks (e.g. for a day) to a single worker. Thetype of assignment has amongst others influence on the frequency of commu- nication between worker and central.

3.3 Influencing Factors due to Mobile Infor- mation Technology

The type of support for mobile workers with information technology can mainly be distinguished intocoordination systemsandinformation systems. A coordination system is used to build schedules and plan routes under certain op- timization goals. Furthermore, the system is often used to submit tasks and control worker and task state. An infor- mation system is necessary to connect the mobile worker with the company’s systems in order to supply him with the needed data and functionality at the point of action. The in- formation system is often used to retrieve, manipulate and store necessary information. As noticed in the analysis of the above mentioned case studies, often mobile systems re- alize both functionality in one physical system. However, the separation of both aspects is helpful when analyzing processes and designing systems.

3.3.1 Coordination System Using a coordination sys- tem, several opportunities for the process design are aris- ing. One opportunity is to realize theinformation flow to the headquarter. The coordination system could therefore permanently transmit the actual geographical location of the worker as well as the actual worker or task state to the head- quarter. This information could be used for ad hoc planning and task assignment. Furthermore, theinformation flow to the workercan be supported. This is often the main purpose of the coordination system, as it delivers tasks to the mobile worker. The coordination system consists of two major parts. The headquarter-part of the system is used to realize the func- tions

• assign task to worker,

• plan routes,

• control workers load and state,

• control task fulfillment,

• receive task from worker

and many more. The workers-part of the system usually realizes the functions

• receive new tasks,

• manage current tasks and

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optimization goals

influencing factors (information technology) influencing factors (organization, business model)

mobile process

worker skills

area

costs

autonomy

task handling

task cooperation model

time restrictions

assignment type

coordination system information flow to

headquarter

information flow to worker

information system information flow to

organization

information flow to worker

time … to task completion

(customer view)

… to task completion (company view)

cost average number of

accomplished tasks per worker and day

average number of assigned tasks per

worker and day

average travelling distance of worker per

day

quality

Figure 2. Influencing factors and optimization goals.

• send tasks to headquarter.

An extended function of the system could be e.g. to send the GPS coordinates of the workers current location to the headquarter permanently for real time planning purposes. Beyond, coordination systems can be distinguished regard- ing their connectivityinto (always) online systems, where workers are connected nearly constantly with the headquar- ter via a mobile network, and offline systems, where work- ers have to move to fixed points (e.g. home office) in order to synchronize their applications with a central server at the headquarter.

3.3.2 Information System An information system can be used to provide access to data and applications to mobile workers on the road. It focusses on the support of fulfilling the tasks of the worker. The first major function is to sup- port theinformation flow to the worker. The more complex a task is, the likelihood of needing unpredictable informa- tion at the point of action increases. Information systems can used to provide such information to the mobile worker whenever he needs it, avoiding costs and time for aquiring the information, e.g. in the office, and returning to the point of action. The second major function is to supportinforma- tion flow to the organization. If the task requires the aqui- sition of information, the system can realize the electronic gathering and (online) submission to the headquarter. Thus, a faster processing of aquired data, avoiding media breaks,

plausibility checks and many more can be realized. As described for coordination systems, information systems can be distinguished regarding theirconnectivityinto (al- ways) online systems, where workers are connected nearly constantly with the company via a mobile network, and of- fline systems, where workers have to move to fixed points (e.g. home office) in order to synchronize their applications with a central server at the company.

3.4 Optimization goals

As above stated, mobile processes are task-based and prin- cipal/agent-oriented. Different process variants occur due to different influence factors. When introducing or changing mobile systems (for coordination and/or information pur- poses) within such a process, the company aims at achiev- ing certain optimization goals with that investment. An op- timzation goal always belongs to one of the categoriescost, timeor quality referring to the process outcome. Typical cost optimzation goals are to increase theaverage number of accomplished tasks per worker and day, to in- crease thenumber of assigned tasks per worker and dayand to lower theaverage traveling distance of worker per day. Typical time optimization goals are to decrease theaverage time until task completion, distinguished into the customer and the company view. For both categories more goals are conceivable.

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Whereas these are quantitative measures, the quality cat- egory contains normally company- and process-specific qualitative measures regarding the process outcome. These could be e.g. the avoidance of preparing and concluding processes, the avoidance of recurrent visits and the ability to immediately and fully provide the requested information at the point of action.

3.5 Case Examples

Table 1 summarizes the above explained influencing fac- tors. For each influencing factor the characteristics as well as their typical values are shown. Furthermore, examples for the most characteristics are given, which are explained as follows.

3.5.1 Taxi Driver The first example for the application of the above described model is the case of a cab company. The assumption is, that an innovative coordination system as described in [23] is applied. The taxi central knows the exact location of each taxi driver as well as the current trans- port status. When a customer orders a taxi at the central, the nearest taxi is idenitified automatically via a GPS system. The driver gets the offer to take this ride with the option to reject or accept. If he accepts the task, he is supposed to fulfill it immediately. Table 1 shows the case matching the model explained above (case indicated by ’1’).

3.5.2 Accident AssessorThe second example is taken from the insurance industry. If a car accident with a cus- tomer involvement happens, usually an accident assessor will examine the car damage in order to define the max- imum repair costs. The insurance company’s headquarter collects the customers claim notifications on a daily basis and plans the assessors task list for the next day. One as- sessor has a defined geographically area where he can ac- complish tasks at defined costs and time. When he starts a task he drives to the damaged car (often at customers home or at garage). He assesses the claim, writes a report and sends the reports to the headquarter at the end of day. Table 1 shows the case matching the model explained above (case indicated by ’2’).

3.5.3 Emergency Worker The last example is one with most unstructured und often not scheduleable work processes. In case of an emergency, the headquarter gets informed by phone calls. It assigns tasks to its emergency workers (firemen, ambulance, police etc.). At the place of emergency the different workers need to cooperate, depend- ing on their skills and tools available (e.g. extinguish fire, remove objects, medicate casualties). Table 1 shows the case matching the model explained above (case indicated by ’3’).

3.6 Framework Usage

In the following, possible usage scenarios for the frame- work described above are explained.

3.6.1 Understanding Objectives, Constraints and Vari- ablity The model illustrated in Figures 1 and 2 shows the essentials when trying to understand the interdependen- cies between mobile business processes and mobile tech- nologies. In the center of the model resides themobile process, producing an outcome with worth for the com- pany. The constraints determining the process outcome are given through the organizational structure and the underly- ing business model asinfluencing factors(see the box in the upper left corner). The process outcome is produced un- der these constraints and is characterized by management ratios oroptimization goals(see the box at bottom). This means, that the company constantly produces the process outcome under the given constraints but aims at improving the optimization goals. The variable part in this model to achieve this objective is the support with information tech- nology (changes in organizational belongings or business development could also lead to this goal, but are not in the scope of this paper). Thus, two major conclusions can be drawn. First, when the supporting information technology is about be improved or to be introduced in the process, re- sulting changes in the optimzation goals have to pointed out clearly. Second, the applied information technology need to thoroughly consider the given organizational and business constraints. Aspects of both conclusions are explained in the following.

3.6.2 Calculating Return on Investment As the intro- duction of information technology is always an investment for the company, the profitability has to be proven before a management decision can take place. To support this, the model can be used to support the calculation of the mobility-specific management ratios. A simulation of the mobile process can be helpful in order to calculate the ra- tios under certain different constraints (see section 3.6.4).

3.6.3 Requirements Analysis When analysing the re- quirements of the mobile process for supporting informa- tion technology, the model can help as it shows the most typical constraints due to organizational structures and busi- ness models. Furthermore, it helps to distinguish between information and coordination aspects, showing typical func- tions to realize for mobile environments.

3.6.4 Process Modeling, Simulation, Optimization With a detailed modeling of the mobile process, several goals can be achieved. First, modeling the process is a cru- cial base for calculating the return on investment as well as

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influencing factor characteristic possible value example

worker skills process-dependent 2, 3 worker area process-dependent 1, 2, 3 worker costs process-dependent worker autonomy no autonomy 2, 3

can reject task 1 worker task handling sequential 1, 2, 3

parallel

task cooperation model requires single worker 1, 2 requires team sequentially 3 requires team cooperatively 3

task time restrictions no restrictions execution immediately 1, 3 has deadline has fixed execution date 2

task assignment type assign single task 1, 3 assign task list 2

coordination system information flow to HQ no information flow 2 transmit workers actual location 1, 3 transmit workers actual task state 1, 3

coordination system information flow to worker no information flow task (-list) update 1, 2, 3

coordination system connectivity no system used fixed point synchronization 2 (always) online connection 1, 3

information system information flow to worker process-dependent 2, 3 information system information flow from worker process-dependent 2, 3 information system connectivity no system used 1

fixed point synchronization 2 (always) online connection 3

1 – taxi driver 2 – accident assessor 3 – emergency worker

Table 1. Influencing factors on process and system design.

for the requirements analysis. The modeled process can fur- ther be used for e.g. simulation purposes in order to identify whether changes to technology have desired effects. Para- meters for the simulation are given through the above ex- plained reference model. Thus, it gives a clear frame for process modeling, simulation and optimization purposes.

4 Conclusion and Outlook

This paper presented a framework for the domain of mo- bile business processes and related systems. The aim of the framework is to summarize the findings from previous work related to research and case studies regarding mobility. The framework can be used for different purposes in conjunction with B2E-processes and -applications, e.g. calculating ROI

and supporting requirements analysis as well as the model- ing, simulation and optimization of processes. It consists of a general mobile work process as well as of a model describ- ing the relationship between the work process, influencing factors and optimzation goals.

Further research is necessary to increase efficiency and im- pact of mobile information technology for mobile business processes. From a technical point of view, the major is- sues are solved (e.g. solutions for connectivity, broadband mobile networks, synchronization mechanisms, secure pro- tocols etc.). But from a business point of view there is a lack of methodology regarding the alignment of technical solutions to the business needs. As companies face a con- tinuously faster change in business models, legal constraints and customer needs, highly flexible systems are needed to

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react to changing business processes. The authors see a great demand for process simulation, considering current and future changes in organizational, business and techno- logical constraints. As this is an optimization problem with multiple optimization goals and a large variety of input pa- rameters, the process modeling and simulation with Petri nets could lead to a convenient solution. Further research on this topic is planned.

5 Acknowledgments

The Chair of Applied Telematics/e-Business is endowed by Deutsche Telekom AG.

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