This November we had the opportunity to present our research progress at the CENTERIS -International Conference on ENTERprise Information Systems. All our five papers have been accepted! This is why Petra Schubert, Susan Williams, Simon Meier, Jens Alberts and Martin Just travelled to Lisbon to present four of their papers on the premises of Hotel Olissippo Oriente. In addition, Söhnke Grams attended the hybrid conference setting remotely to present his research from Germany. Together with CENTERIS there have been three conferences simultaneously since ProjMAN – Conference on Project Management and HCist – Conference on Healthcare Inf. Systems took place at the same time and location.
Presentation 1- Social Business Object Ontology (SoBOOnt): A formal description of a novel concept for social features
In our first session, Simon presented the Social Business Object Ontology (SoBOOnt) to the audience. The SoBOOnt builds on the Collaborative Actions on Documents Ontology (ColActDOnt) and introduces Social Features (e.g. Likes, Comments or Follows), known from Social Media or Enterprise Collaboration Software, to the world of Business Objects. Busines Objects are content from different information systems of a company, like customers, projects or invoices, or other things important for a company, like a printer or a workspace (e.g. a chatroom or a fileshare). The Social Network of Business Objects (SoNBO) connects all the Business Objects by creating a Social Profile for each of them (even for an invoice or a printer), allowing the employees to navigate through the whole network. With the introduction of the Social Features into SoNBO, the employees are able to modify the network through their interactions. For example, an employee might follow an invoice, thus getting a notification if said invoice gets paid. As a result, the employee is actively informed about updates in his working environment, which is a novelty outside the field of social software. The SoBOOnt, the result of this work, formalises this concept.
Presentation 2 – Is the Structure of “Regular Working Days” about to Dissolve? Changes in Employees’ Time-Use Patterns Working in Enterprise Collaboration Systems During the COVID-19 Pandemic
In the second paper, Petra presented the findings of a joint study conducted with colleagues from the University of Bielefeld. The COVID-19 pandemic has led to an increase in the use of digital communication technologies for work, which has in turn led to a debate about the potential flexibilities of telework. Petra demonstrated how employees’ time use patterns have changed during the pandemic. The presentation showcased data from large-scale enterprise collaboration systems to conclude that there is evidence of more flexibility in time use patterns. Additionally questions about the scope, depth, and type of permeation of digital communication technologies in work, and whether or not this increase is due to employee preferences or employer demands were discussed.
Presentation 3 – Collaborative Actions on Documents Ontology (ColActDOnt)
In our third session, Martin built on the concepts introduced in the second session and demonstrated the variance in event logs of Enterprise Collaboration Platforms that are typically collections of multiple, heterogeneous software tools from different software vendors. When it comes to Social Process Mining (SPM) this is an issue since there was no harmonised log format for event logs that applies for the different collaboration softwares until now. To address this problem, Martin and Petra took a deep dive into the structure of content and the formats of logfile data in HCL Connections and other collaboration software. Our approach on cross-system analysis of digital traces generated by user activity that makes use of our ontologies (SocDOnt and ColActDOnt) to harmonise event logs in a standardised format (XES Extension) from different sources was presented. The audience was quite interested in the topic and asked questions regarding the underlying concepts of the ColActOnt. The ontology specifications and the XES Extension can be found here: w3id.org/SocDOnt and w3id.org/ColActDOnt.
Presentation 4 – Identification and Classification of Adoption Supporting Measures for Enterprise Collaboration Systems
In the fourth session, Jens presented on behalf of the other co-authors Carolin Blankenberg and Susan P. Williams the research study about the adoption of enterprise collaboration systems. To support the adoption of enterprise collaboration systems like HCL Connections , organisations should consider Adoption Supporting Measures (ASM) such as designing user – friendly interfaces or providing user training . Through a process of qualitative coding of six industry case studies, they identified and described 41 different ASM in the context of enterprise collaboration systems. These 41 ASM were further analysed and classified into seven categories and related subcategories. The resulting classification is visualised and discussed.
Presentation 5 – Benefits Scorecards for the Benefits Measurement of Enterprise Collaboration Platforms
In Söhnke’s presentation, he introduced the method of Benefits Scorecards that supports the quantitative benefits analysis of an Enterprise Collaboration System. His paper covers the development and evaluation of the scorecards’ design, including applying the benefits scorecards for developing metrics in a structured way based on reactive and non-reactive data. The introduced method extends and builds on established methods that support indicator-based analysis, such as the balanced scorecard by Kaplan & Norton, the Goal-Question-Metrics approach by NASA or the metrics profiles by Grams et al. 2021.
The time spent in Lisbon was a pleasure for all of us. We used the time for many stimulating conversations with researchers from all over the world and gained new connections. We were also able to obtain new perspectives on relevant topics such as Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain and Industry 5.0. We are already looking forward to our next visit to Portugal.