Capabilities and Levels of Maturity in IT-Based Case Management

We present the results of a case study where we compared the needs of case managers with the capabilities of case management software systems (CMS) in social work, health care, and the handling of complex claims in insurance. Building on existing maturity models, we relate capabilities with maturity levels and present the C3M maturity model for IT-based case management. Whereas vendors of business process management suites (BPMS) argue that case management requires flexible process guidance and improved context-sensitive information handling, we identify case assessment and case similarity as key capabilities of future CMS. We show how these and other capabilities are implemented in CMS today and discuss future trends of how CMS capabilities will evolve further. Furthermore, we discuss the impact of CMS technology on the practice of case management in an organization. Our results are beneficial for the evaluation of CMS. They support organizations in mastering levels of maturity when using CMS, help them exploiting their benefits and addressing associated risks. The results also help BPMS vendors in adding the ‘right’ case-management capabilities to their BPM software when addressing case-oriented work.