Case Study of the Implementation of Business Process Management in Public Administration in Germany , Switzerland and Austria
Norbert Ahrend 1 , Konrad Walser 2 and Henrik Leopold 1
1 Humboldt‐Universität zu Berlin , Unter den Linden 6 , Germany 2 Bern University of Applied Sciences , Morgartenstraße 2a , Bern , Switzerland
norbert . ahrend @ hu‐berlin . de henrik . leopold @ wiwi . hu‐berlin . de konrad . walser @ bfh . ch
Abstract : In the private sector business process management is a common and well‐established practice . In the public administration in Europe , this does not hold true to the same degree . However , currently we observe some considerable challenges . Important keywords such as eGovernment , networking , interoperability , compliance and governance and their relation to the administration processes are getting increasing focus . As a result , process management is gaining importance in public administration , especially where the execution of business activities or electronic integration of the process handling is concerned . However , many insights about the successful implementation of process management cannot be directly transferred to public authorities , as there exist important differences to the private sector . For instance , traditional process reengineering approaches cannot be applied in public authorities due to the legal and political conditions . Further , public authorities often face other challenges than industrial enterprises . The wide range of services which are typically offered by public authorities represent a particular challenge in this context . Hence , this paper focuses on the different implementation strategies of BPM in public administration . We investigated and compared the approaches to business process management in the public administration of three countries , namely Germany , Switzerland , and Austria . We conducted 13 interviews in the respective countries and examined the different ways in which these countries handle process management . The goal of the paper is to provide insights on how process management can be successfully introduced in public authorities . As there exist almost no insights on the implementation of process management in public authorities , our findings represent a first step towards a solid understanding of how BPM can be successfully brought to public authorities .
Keywords : business process management , public administration , BPM strategies , success factors
1 . Introduction
Nowadays business process management ( BPM ) and business process modeling are well‐established practices in the private sector ( Ahmad et al . 2009 ). However , considering the public authorities in Europe , it turns out that the process orientation in the public administration is still in its early stages . Nevertheless , due to new demands and budget cuts at the same time , business process management is also gaining more and more importance in public authorities ( Becker et al . 2006 ).
While some insights about the successful implementation of process management might be directly transferred to public authorities , there are also some important differences , which need to be taken into consideration . First , the legal and political conditions in public authorities often prohibit the application of traditional process reengineering approaches as for instance proposed by Hammer and Champy ( Hammer and Champy 1993 ). Second , the specific challenges in public authorities partially significantly vary from those in industrial practice ( Palkovits et al . 2003 ; Scott et al . 2004 ). Taking for instance a look at the service portfolio of municipalities , there are more than 1000 interconnected and interdependent service processes ( Becker et al . 2006 ). Hence , the overall question is how BPM can be successfully implemented in the context of public administration .
Accordingly , the goal of this paper is to shed some light on the question how BPM can be successfully taken to public authorities . Building on prior work ( Ahrend et al . 2012 ), our contribution is a list of success factors resulting from the comparative analysis of three case studies from Germany , Switzerland and Austria . As there are , to our knowledge , almost no insights on the successful implementation of BPM in public administration , we consider our findings to be an important first step towards a solid understanding of implementing BPM in the public authorities .
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