Electronic records management in Small and Medium Enterprises is a relatively new research area. It is difficult to find much on the SME and electronic record management in academic databases. In public organizations and in large enterprises the management of electronic records is now acknowledged as important for business support. Efficient records management is e.g. necessary for fulfilling requirements found in various legislation such as e.g. the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX). The requirements for documentation in the ISO 9000, and the ISO 14000 series can be fulfilled if standards for records management are used.
This paper aims to contribute further knowledge on the quality of records management in SMEs. The following research question has guided this research: How well do SMEs meet minimum ISO 15489 requirements for records management?
The research has been carried out within a EU funded research program, where 4 SMEs from both Sweden and Finland have been studied using a qualitative research approach. The data have been collected from four SMEs through interviews. The analytical lens used in this research has been the international standard for Information and Documentation - Record Management: ISO 15489.
The results show that electronic records are managed in a rather ad-hoc manner and that management is very dependent upon individuals, many of whom have little, if any, expertise or training in this area and no access to expert advice. One of the identified business values of well-managed electronic records is that the SME gains the opportunity to manage and benefit from their explicit knowledge and experience.
This research shows that there are major obstacles to overcome before SMEs are able to fully adopt best practice in electronic records management. Many of these hindrances have their roots in a lack of appropriate strategies for records appraisal and that the SMEs have not followed the steps recommended in the ISO 15489 standard.
Working life continues to undergo rapid change. This change creates greater demand and sophistication and causes employees to experience more pressure, professionally and personally. Thus, absences from work due to sickness and injuries increase. In Sweden, this problem has become serious. This article argues that psychological empowerment and individual control are two key factors that minimize the many perils faced by the modern worker and those seeking to return to the work force through the vocational rehabilitation process. The findings show that a shift in ideology is needed. Specifically, there must be a shift from scientific management and Weberian bureaucracy towards organizational structures, routines, and cultures that support and increase individual worker psychological empowerment and control.
The aim of this paper is to define and explain information technology strategic dispositions and competence development within small enterprises. Small enterprises are a heterogeneous group of firms and for that reason, a universal explanation of strategic dispositions and learning strategies makes it advisable to draw upon a diverse range of methods, practices and approaches. 'Competence ergonomics' that fosters learning, empowerment and participation offers the flexibility within which to frame this strategy description. Introduction of information technology into small enterprises is treated as being of strategic importance to the future growth and survival of a firm. Methods and theories now being used in The Swedish National Institute of Working Life's (Arbetslivsinstitutet) Balanced Information Technology Project are those described. The Project is located in the area of Ostersund, Sweden where small industries have the need to adopt information technology as a means of promoting continuing competitiveness.
The development of Information and communication technology (ICT) has changed the action of business. The view to considered SEs sector as homogeneous, within which SEs take an ordered, sequential e-progression on the route to ICT adoption, and postulate that businesses move in stages from basic use of the Internet to the full integration of business systems and redesign of business processes. The aim of this paper is to conduct an analysis of the stage model in the context of the progression of ICT adoption by SEs. Empirical cases are given that show weaknesses of stage models to explain e-progression in SEs, the stage model are too general and do not take into account the diversity of SEs and focused upon factors such as firm size, age, owner/manager characteristics and geographical position This variety of different perspectives on the adoption of ICT by SEs suggests the need for a multidimensional framework to more adequate explained e-progression in SEs.
This article assesses gender-related differences in rural enterprises and examines implications for development of economic policy and services in a rural district of Sweden. The article focuses on female owned micro enterprises. A quantitative and qualitative survey of 32 micro enterprise owners was carried out. Focus was on owner attitudes toward local governmental policies and programmes. There were not strong differences between genders for items using multiple-choice responses. Where qualitative, written responses were solicited there were some differences in perceptions and attitudes. The female respondents tended to write more and respond in ways that suggest that they tend to reflect more upon the future and new possibilites. Differences in style of operation were evident; others have reported this. Written responses from female participants described in greater detail and more clearly the ongoing need for governmental support of networking activities and other programmes that promote cooperation and resource pooling (regardless of gender).
Social networking services have become increasingly widespread and, together with GPS equipped with mobile phones give citizens the opportunity to create new innovative types of social networks. The service is evolving, technology-centric to positioning using GPS and Google Maps Web service should also identify existing services interfaces are analysed, and be associated with basic functions of social networks to create a new innovative service. The purpose of this work is to illustrate the usercentred interaction design for mobile phones. Research design includes user requirement analysis, prototype development and usability evaluation. The results from usability evaluation in a simulated PC-based environment, support the user tasks in an efficient manner, one can work efficiently and feels that the system is sufficiently adapted to users' needs. © 2011 Taylor & Francis Group.
E-hälsa – innovationer, metoder, interventioner och perspektiv tar upp definitioner och modeller för e-hälsa, metoder och processer att utveckla e-hälsa samt beskrivningar av olika projekt inom området. Boken visar på hur informations- och kommunikationsteknik kan användas inom olika områden, t.ex. hälsopromotion inom arbetslivet, telerehabilitering och verksamhetsutveckling inom logopedi samt som delaktighetsverktyg för äldre och för människor med funktionshinder.
This article explores the development of a scheme to use Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in the training of individuals with severe functional impairments. Computers were used as an integral part of a rehabilitation programme for training, and the authors found that the resource was a useful addition to other treatment methods. This article describes the development and subsequent setting up of computers for training and how the study progressed. The study used a somewhat unique bottom up approach that first trained care-giving staff in computer skills. The caregivers in turn worked with and trained some of those they served. This learning strategy drew upon the concept of learning, empowerment and the motivation of all involved in a system and process. The study found that by using ICT all involved felt a greater sense of empowerment and improvement in the quality of life. That caregivers were involved at all stages was valuable in that they felt an ownership of the process and that they also benefited from being involved because they also learned new skills.
The county of Västernorrland and Jämtland, like most of the remote and rural areas in the Northern Periphery, face common challenges consisting of limited economic resources, high sickness rates and major recruitment needs in the future. Developed eservice may be one of the solutions to these problems: a solution especially well-suited to sparsely populated areas. In this paper, we have summarized the exciting current challenges and opportunities in the domain of e-governmental services and indicated some areas of special interest for promoting the transition to an information society with enhanced e-services for the rural citizens. There are increased interest in e-service and the will to improve the services offered to citizens and the business community.
The Internet forms an important component of eGovernment strategy, the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in public administrations combined with organisational change and new skills in order to improve public services. In this paper we describe the work in progress in a Swedish project called �Mitt företag� by NUTEK aimed to provision of One-Stop-Shop services to people who want to start their own business. We are going to present a usability evaluation study of the Website of Swedish Company Registration Office and the Swedish National Tax Board. The e-service has a low level of acceptance among user since many of the tasks take too much time and effort to complete. Comparing these results against our usability measures and the golden heuristic rules we find many discrepancies.
Design of Electronic Public Information Systems (e-PIS) can benefit from the inclusion of guidelines that consider the needs of users. Inclusion of guidelines and prototyping practices that take into consideration the capabilities of human users make it possible to avoid errors that would otherwise significantly reduce efficiencies offered by Informationtechnology (IT). Design strategies that include consideration of the Human Factor (HF) within e-PIS are introduced and discussed. Argued is that without integration of design strategies that consider human capabilities the efficiencies brought about through the use of electronic technology are significantly reduced. Through the study of intended user behaviours during the development of systems loss of efficiency is avoided.
Varied types of Visual Display Unit (VDU) are used in modern process control rooms. The main purpose of present study is to identify and find solutions to usability problems of VDU user interface in process control room. The usability evaluation methods were heuristic evaluation, usability test, and SUMI questionnaire. Fifteen operators participated in the study. The main result from the usability test were that the time to solve the task depends on the number of false clicks and commands, and participants experienced that user interface doesn't support in an efficient manner, too many and difficult steps must be performed. To improve the user interface of VDU we have created number of guidelines; for example; create groups of the fields, buttons, text, place the buttons in functionally way, enable the user to open multiple windows, drag and drop is a dynamic operation. © 2011 Taylor & Francis Group.
This paper will describe methods of assessing a process' mobility need from a better understanding of mobility and a way of implementing a citizen and public servant perspective when defining citizen friendly rural Mobile Government (mGovernment). The expected results presented a part of an eTen-project; CIDRE. Objective is to supply electronic public services and solutions to overcome the "digital divide" and to strengthen the European Community. Advances in mGovernment oriented services are taking place and ICT usage becomes an integral part of many people�s lives and the available services become more varied.
Managers and other key staff involved in the development of Swedish e-government services were interviewed about their perceptions of changes caused by the shift from more traditional forms of government service delivery. Almost all were satisfied with the progress of the transition. It was felt that a shift to systems that are electronically based will result in economies and greater organizational efficiency. When questioned about potential problems, most felt they were manageable. However, they did not describe strategies indicating that problems were being addressed and managed. Focus was on getting functioning systems in place and then resolving with problems as identified. Evident was that issues such as being able to effectively evaluate progress/success, creating systems accessible by all potential users, information security, understanding costs and planning for rapid technology change were being minimized or ignored. Apparent is that until the issues are adequately addressed final cost is unknown, e-government systems will not by accessible by some citizens because they lack the skills and/or resources needed to take advantage of services offered, and the extent of change is unclear. Recommended is to better define real and potential problems and then to include solutions in e-government planning, design and implementation processes.
The basic assumption of this paper is that the acceptance of the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is a platform for a developed Customer Relationship Management (CRM) in rural Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs). The purpose of this study is to develop a model about rural SME managers� acceptance of ICT applications for CRM. The results are presented as a number of propositions of different barriers and possible facilitators that are supposed to be issues to address in strategies to promote the �digitalisation� of rural SMEs.
Electronic invoicing (e-invoicing) refers to the sending and receiving of invoices by electronic means. Small and media sized enterprises (SMEs) have not accepted e-invoicing to the same extent as large companies and the public sector in Sweden. The purpose of present study was to gain a better understanding of the acceptance of e-invoicing in SMEs, particularly small business, by describing the factors that affect e-invoicing in SMEs in rural area. The study is a part of a going on project "The Digital Age in Rural and Remote Areas" DARRA. We proposed a research model that found significant in prior research and grouped them into four different factors; organisational readiness, external pressure, owner/manager characteristics, and perceived benefit in the perception of e-invoicing in SMEs. To validate the model we collected data from owners/managers of SMEs by using a survey. The main results from present study indicate that SMEs are ready for acceptance of e-invoicing. Pressure from customers is considered to be an important factor for e- invoicing acceptance in SMEs. Furthermore, the SMEs perceive that acceptance of e-invoicing can be beneficial, and lead to increased internal efficiency as well as impact on business processes and relationships. The innovativeness of the owner/manager was also found to influence acceptance of e-invoicing.
In the design of manageable packages for customers with hand function problems, we were faced with the problem of deciding which assessment tool to use. No studies have been done to show the relationship between performance-based and self-reported assessment of hand function to management of packaging. The purpose of the current study is to examine the relation between a self-reported hand function measure and performance-based measurements. The participants consisted of 40 adults who have impaired hand function. The Grip Ability Test (GAT) and Grippit test and self-reported assessment questioner were administrated. The findings of this study showed a slightly correlation between performance-based and self-reported assessment of hand function, therefore, further research is needed in this area. © 2011 Taylor & Francis Group.
The purpose of the article is to present a conceptual framework for innovation learning, directed to beginner in innovation development. The model for innovation includes factors like practical and theoretical learning linked to explicit and implicit knowledge related to different phases of innovation development. © 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Information systems may be used for several purposes in an organization. They are often the basis of operations and activities. For example, information systems and technologies can be an integrated part of the production process. Information systems have also an important role in management and development of the organization. Here information, its management and sharing throughout the company have a decisive role. It may still be argued that in many cases information systems are not used in the best possible way. For example, a lot of information remains personal property even though it might be valuable when shared with colleagues. In this paper we look at the role and use of information systems in information sharing. The paper explores the challenges in sharing of information and knowledge. Technology can be used here, especially if the information can be expressed in written format. When information is more tacit, complex and based on expertise also personal interaction is important in information sharing.
Stovepiped systems and difficulties associated with managing cross-functional boundaries are problems that are hindering the successful implementation of customercentred systems and processes within public organisations. The present study covers public organisations, and discusses and analyses the results in relation to those from a previous study in the banking sector. While problems with stovepiped systems and departments have, in general, been solved in the banking sector, the results from the interviewed public organisations confirm that the stovepipe problem is still evident and that cross-functional collaboration, processes, customer focus and integration of services and channels all require additional improvement or development. The present study concludes that the goals with the highest priority for leaders in public organisations are not those associated with customer relations and that the political level rates higher than the customers’ demands. The public organisations are following a similar path to that of the private sector, but there are differences in both the time-frame and ability to implement changes due to weaker incentives for customer related work, and additionally, a larger organisational inertia of both culture and collaboration to overcome. Similarities are found in IT organisations and projects, and in the views regarding business organisations and the necessity for an enterprise architecture.
Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to look at process initiatives in the Swedish social insurance administration, focusing on the problems of crossing functional boundaries, co-ordinating processes over inter-organisational boundaries and the issue of whether to aim for radical or incremental change.
Design/methodology/approach - The survey involved data collection including a study of internal documents and 16 individual personal interviews.
Findings - The organisation experiences collaboration problems when cross-functional work and processes collide with the traditional and hierarchical command and control structures. These are not easily dismantled, meaning intensive work to change the culture and break functional mind-sets. Furthermore the administration struggles with and can benefit from co-ordination of processes over the inter-organisational boundaries. Changes in the customer front-line affect the rest of the organisation and its processes. The study has shown that both functional units and support processes deep inside the organisation, like the systems development process, are affected, and that deficiencies in the underlying structure and organisation are revealed. The process efforts so far are scattered, but it may be more important for organisations to deploy process change, as a continuous strategic initiative, rather than embarking on huge radical redesign programmes. Originality/value ? Little information regarding processes and the public sector exists, and problems likely to be encountered by other public organisations are pointed out. The survey also puts light on support processes - not only business processes - required for e-government.
After 30 years holding the same course, a new pension scheme and IT system was introduced in Sweden. It is described as one of Sweden�s largest IT projects with approx. 1 800 000 lines of code produced by the IT department of the Swedish social insurance administration. The administration uses a purchaser-contractor model for systems development where the IT department supervises the development and management of the IT facilities used by the national social insurance system. The project has been evaluated several times pointing out critical success factors for future large-scale projects. This study examines the critical success factors in relation to the purchaser-contractor model and the administration�s e-government efforts. Many factors refer to the roles in the purchaser-contractor model suggesting comprehensive views from all dimensions and communication and collaboration between the parts in the model. Another important factor is the project management. This suggests joint projects over the purchaser-contractor boundaries, uniting of overall leadership, overall planning, an operative project management, strong focus on goals and continuous follow-up. Other factors refer to the development process and it�s contents, suggesting a clarifying �baseline� after initial capturing of requirements not allowing more than regulated changes after the baseline. Special organisational structures are suggested for handling changes in requirements, for planning deliverables and for installation. Lastly, priority and support from top management was considered important. Furthermore the administration is on a path towards e-government, changing the organisation and processes in the customer front-line. A general process for management of the case workflow has been introduced, where the workflow is being managed in a general and similar way. A case management system has been developed that supports the general process. Web services for e-government will be ... (shortened)
This paper analyses relations between leaders' and co-workers' competence, IT-levels and organizational aspects within ten small business enterprises in Sweden. Data from questionnaires and semi-structured interviews were used for statistical data analyses organized in four steps. A result is that IT-levels and change competence go together with higher levels of educational investment, and that companies with high levels on these aspects also tend to have a proneness for joining change programs. Another finding is that the higher the rate of IT in a company, the lower the incidence of musculoskeletal problems among employees. The study shows that an increase in leader change competence, a flat organization, a higher leader than co-worker change competence, and an ongoing program contribute significantly to profit per capita at the company level. The analysis model seems to give a good integration of the results, but underlying mechanisms must be dealt with in future research.
This paper focus on conditions and relationships between factors in small and medium sized enterprises related to organizational change and information technology level using an integrated and empirically founded model. Data comes from a study of small and medium sized enterprises in the northern part of Sweden. The design combines a quasi-experimental approach with ideas on concept-driven development and network building research. Concepts and data analysis are multi-level - an individual level with leaders and co-workers in the enterprises as units, and an organizational level, with the enterprises as units. Empirical results of network activities, ICT-level, change competencies, ergonomic and psychosocial tension are presented and related to other relevant research.