Swedish municipalities have been urged by policy makers to implement automation technologies to make administrative work more cost-efficient. As a response, a large set of municipalities have attempted to implement Robotic Process Automation (RPA) solutions with the intention to speed up administrative processes. However, although RPA has been promoted for several years, implementation has been limited and slow. This paper explores challenges related to RPA implementation experienced by three Swedish municipalities. We use an extensive interpretive case study as our empirical foundation, generated in collaboration with three Swedish municipalities, complemented with interviews with RPA consultants. Through interpretive analysis, we generate challenges along four themes. Our analysis shows that RPA implementation requires that different organizational sub-units and stakeholders cooperate. Challenges arise from: initiating RPA top-down without bottom-up support; insufficient process- and IT-competence; dependence on individual enthusiasts and external RPA consultants; and subsequent difficulties in finding the right processes to automate. Our study contributes with empirical illustrations of how RPA implementation is made difficult by current organizational structures and resources. We confirm and further contribute to previous findings by pointing to multiple dimensions in which challenges can arise.

This short paper reports on an ongoing study related to automation journeys in public sector organizations. From interviews with Robotic Process Automation (RPA) consultants, we highlight and discuss the specific capability of "making technology work" by referring to and using a core capability framework. The capability of making technology work, which we see as needing attention from both suppliers and customers if the adoption of the automation technology should be successful. We argue that this capability becomes a crucial capability; from the start of the journey and after arriving at the destination, if successful, co-creation should happen and be continuously a fact.

This paper is part of a research project that investigates and provides guidance regarding the adoption and implications of automation in the Swedish local government. Automation technologies, such as Robotic Process Automation (RPA), are well established in the private and the public sector. In this paper, we discuss whether the adoption of RPA can be seen as migration towards automation. The aim is to evaluate the Push-Pull-Mooring (PPM) framework to understand better what factors influence local government adoption. By analysing RPA suppliers, RPA developers, and local government representatives' perspectives, we have identified push, pull, and mooring factors potentially influencing the decision to adopt, i.e., accepting or rejecting RPA. We, therefore, argue that the PPM framework seems to be a fruitful way of researching factors influencing the adoption of automation and the concept of automation as migration further.

Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is being adapted by public sector organizations as ameans to solve challenges yet new problems and challenges arise. One reason for this may be amismatch between ho ...

The public sector is facing an equation that cannot be solved by continuing doing business as usual. External demands of availability, quality and resilience of services, as well as internal demands of resource efficiency, are putting pressure on the public sector to seek for innovation. In this study, we focus on local government innovation where high expectations are set on better utilisation of employees' creativity and innovative capacity. Based on a qualitative case study of an innovation programme in a Swedish local government organisation, this study applies institutional theory as a theoretical lens to further investigate and analyse the relationship between formal and informal structures of local government innovation. The institutional structures related to norms and values, legitimacy and decoupling as well as digital artefacts as institutional carriers are discussed. Implications for practice show that formal structures, processes and digital artefacts to support local government innovation are important in this work. However, to achieve government innovation, equal attention should also be given to informal institutional structures of innovation. For research, this implies that government innovation studies can benefit from an institutional theory perspective to develop a better understanding of how informal structures affect related processes. We conclude by arguing that the needed change towards the innovative bureaucracy is a transformative innovation in itself that needs to be acknowledged.

Coordination is a critical enabler when creating and managing coherent, integrated, secure and smart public electronic services (e-services) as a part of digitalization. With an increased demand for such services, coordination as an internal organizational phenomenon is becoming increasingly important. Based on a qualitative case study, and informed by coordination theory, this paper investigates two different theoretical views applied on internal e-service coordination within a government agency in Sweden. At the outset, the agency is seeking one generic way to coordinate the current heterogeneous and fragmented internal e-service landscape in a more efficient way. Hence, our aim also includes investigating the prerequisites and potential for this type of coordination. We conduct this study in two stages. First, we apply a well-established theoretical lens from organizational theory on a set of coordination efforts, thereby perceiving coordination as a planned and anticipated activity based on a fixed set of mechanisms. Second, we apply a lens of coordinating as emergent practice, which allows for an in-depth investigation of more flexible and dynamic aspects of coordinating activities in daily work. By combining these two views, we argue that this approach can facilitate and increase understanding of the dynamics and flexibility needed to understand the type of coordination needed in public e-service contexts. This can also imply that there is no single best practice or ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach to internal e-service coordination. Instead, organizations need to acknowledge the need for multi-dimensional views revealing the inherent complexity of coordination; as planned as well as emerging activities.

I nutid existerar en samsyn kring att den offentliga sektorns innovationsformaga utgor en mycket viktig potentiell resurs for att mota saval samtidens som framtidens utmaningar. Denna outnyttjade r ...

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to analyse and understand the contemporary management of electronic identification (e-ID) development to: identify and formulate challenges and reflect upon the use of a combination of perspectives. To generate knowledge on this issue, we investigate e-ID development in Sweden from: an e-government systems development lifecycle perspective and a project challenge and critical success factor (CSF) perspective.Design/methodology/approachThis is a qualitative case study covering an analysis of the three years in a larger project focusing e-ID in a public e-service setting. Empirical sources have been face-to-face interviews; official documents and different kind of forums for presentations and discussions in, for example, hearings arranged by authorities; meetings with the coordinating agency, and practitioners’ networks events.FindingsThis study concludes that there are significant challenges involved in managing e-ID development because of its contextual and integrated character. Challenges involve the organization and management of the program and can be traced back to e-government, general project management literature and theory on path dependency. Based on this study, we can question, e.g. governance models, centralization and a narrow focus on the technical artefact. Our study is also an illustration of a possible way to analyse e-ID within an e-government initiative.Research limitations/implicationsThe present study shows that an e-ID can be considered as a back office-enabler for launching e-services, but also highlights the need for management of the artefact as an integral part of e-service development because it is intertwined with the use of e-services from a user perspective. This aspect together with the insights related to challenges and success factors including path dependency provides implications for future practice of e-ID management and development in particular and information systems artefact development in general.Originality/valueThis paper addresses challenges related to the development of e-ID in a public e-service setting. Few studies have theoretically combined a lifecycle perspective on challenges and success factors related to e-ID development while also focusing different dimensions of path dependency as an example of a challenging area within a program frame. Studying e-ID as a contemporary phenomenon from a contextual perspective in line with sociomaterial thinking – with a focus on the interplay between technology and people –can also help us to understand and discuss artefact development in general.

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to examine the challenges that arise when introducing an electronic identification (eID) card for professional use in a health-care setting.Design/methodology/approach - This is a case study of an eID implementation project in healthcare. Data were collected through interviews with key actors in a project team and with eID end users. The authors viewed the eID card as a boundary object intersecting social worlds. For this analysis, the authors combined this with an electronic government initiative challenge framework.Findings - The findings of this paper illustrate the interpretative flexibility of eID cards and how eID cards as boundary objects intersect social worlds. The main challenges of implementing and using eID cards in healthcare are usability, user behaviour and privacy. However, the way in which these challenges are interpreted varies between different social worlds.Practical implications - One of the implications for future practice is to increase our understanding of the eID card as a socio-technical artefact, where the social and technical is intertwined, at the same time as the eID card affects the social as well as the technical. By using a socio-technical perspective, it is possible to minimise the potential problems related to the implementation and use of eID.Originality/value - Previous research has highlighted the need for more empirical research on identity management. The authors contextualise and analyse the implementation and use of eID cards within healthcare. By viewing the eID card as a boundary object, the authors have unveiled its interpretative flexibility and how it is translated across different social worlds.

Purpose – The purpose of the paper is to reveal how identities are constructed when electronic identification (eIDs) cards are introduced through information systems in public organisations. Design/methodology/approach – Through two case studies, the authors generate rich data on the construction of identities through use of eID within public organisations. The author’s analysis, based on actor network theory, focusses on the translation of eIDs in these two settings. Findings – ID can be viewed as an artefact where the public and private spheres meet. The authors found at least three mixed roles in employees’ use of eID: as a purely private person; as a private person in the work place; and as a professional in the work place. Research limitations/implications – There is a need for further research on how eID is translated into organisational contexts and how institutional settings define the openings for local translation processes. However, the results are based on two small cases, meaning that broad generalisations are difficult to make. Practical implications – EID is so much more than technology. The technical framing of the identification system appears to be subordinated to organisational arrangements and cultures, making it important to apply a socio-technical perspective when working with eID. Originality/value – The empirical cases have offered a unique chance to study implementation and use of eID in two very different public service organisations. The findings illustrate how eID translated into organisational contexts, and how identity management within an organisational setting is linked to the employees’ private and professional roles.

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This paper investigates the management of developing electronic identification (e-ID) within a public e-service context. e-ID is an important key enabler for secure identification, authentication a ...

This paper will focus on the emergence of the Swedish National Electronic Identification (eID) from an Actor-Network perspective. As being a significant part of the public sectors delivery of secure electronic services, this seemingly limited technical artifact has an interesting potential in either enabling or limiting the public sectors ambitions for better and more secure electronic services. This paper will show that the emergence can be perceived as successful, but not as a product of a long term and pre-defined strategy formulated by the government. It is rather a product of a positive and emergent synergy between the public and market sector, driven by a strong belief in its potential by the actors involved in the ongoing process. By applying a lens of actor-network theory on the emergence of the eID, we have gained useful insights into how and why different actors have affected the emergence, as well as each other. By the processes of inscribing, translating and framing, this study analyses how actors have acted and interacted during the emergence with the focus on the influence of central beliefs. We argue, that with a clear focus on the actors concerned, governments have a better opportunity to successfully plan and implement complex inter-organizational solutions for electronic identification. This paper presents one possible approach to gain a better understanding of these aspects.

Are there any shortcuts to successful IT implementation? : A study of critical success factors and best practice in healthcare

This paper discusses critical success factors (CSF) and best practice in relation to IT implementation in the health sector. We have studied a University Hospital’s implementation of a health infor ...