Improving IT-Service Business Processes by Integrating Mobility: The Role of User Participation - Results from Five Case Studies

In common IT-Service business, e.g., field technicians for maintenance and servicing of office machines, processes are usually paper-based. This causes error-prone and time-consuming activities. The integration of mobile tools might improve these business processes. Nevertheless, the implementation of mobile-integrated business processes within corporate IT-Systems is a major and still increasing issue. Although the usage of mobile technologies for IT management and improvement of business processes is far behind expectations, still little research has been done in analyzing critical success factors for mobile technology implementation and usage when replacing a former paperbased process within the IT-Service domain. In this paper we identify major business metrics which are influenced after mobile tool integration into mobile business processes. Therefore, the deployment of mobile solutions for IT service technicians has been investigated within five long-term industrial case studies. Major results show (a) key performance indicators in the area of IT-Service based on five case studies, (b) mobile technology impacts not only main business processes but also support-processes positively and (b) user participation within the development process of mobile solutions is a critical success factor for adoption and acceptance after deployment.