Information systems - fit or hit the needs

Services are based on the needs of the clients. The needs are satisfied by the activities implemented in service processes, which have service interfaces with the client, service actors and process flow as their components. Service actors may be human or information systems. The service flow connects the service actors to each other and the connection between two actors has a similar kind of interface as the interface between the client and the service. Process analysis is used to recognize the weak points of the process. In service processes these may be in the operations or capabilities of the actors or in the interfaces, which are unable to implement reliable transfer of information without the possibility of misunderstanding or erroneous interpretations. This paper analyzes service processes based on real cases. The aim is to point out the importance of the adaptive and learning organization culture in the implementation of high service quality. The structure of the service process is simplified to cover the client as the service user and human actors or information systems as service providers. Generalization is made by allowing different combinations of the basic service situations. The paper provides an introduction to the central concepts and underlying assumptions related to the study concepts and also the means and methodology to be used in the analysis. The cases introduced are analyzed and a summary of the main findings is given at the end of the paper.