Norbert Ahrend , Konrad Walser and Henrik Leopold
Austria the federalism is less strict since the autonomy of the federal levels is a bit smaller than in Germany or Switzerland .
Table 2 : Overview of the investigated cases
Criteria |
Germany |
Switzerland |
Austria |
Framework |
|
|
|
Conditions |
|
|
|
Input Variables
Methods & Standards Tools
Challenges
Federal decision making Strict separation of economy and administration / only beginning partnerships
Federal decision making / direct democratic Partnership between economy and administration Consensus‐oriented culture
Federal decision making Strict separation of economy and administration / only beginning partnerships
Predominantly paper‐based |
Predominantly paper‐based |
Comprehensive electronic inputs via ELAK system ( Elektronischer Akt ) |
No BPM guidelines BPM |
eCH standards |
No BPM guidelines / orientation |
|
|
towards technical implementation |
Adequate tool support for current maturity level Interorganizational exchange platform available Tool is deployed ( yet no or minor standardization ) BPM initiative is either driven by business or IT / but no sufficient interlocking of business and IT Externalization of process knowledge
Adequate tool support for current maturity level Broad acceptance of standards Interorganizational platform is prepared
BPM initiative is either driven by business or IT / but no sufficient interlocking of business and IT Externalization of process knowledge
High level of integration with respect to technical infrastructure
BPM initiative is strongly driven by technology / no sufficient interlocking of business and IT Externalization of process knowledge
Nevertheless , all in all , we did not observe a significant impact of the framework conditions . Although the framework conditions are similar , the current implementation of BPM is rather different . Consequently , we may conclude that the opportunities resulting from the local conditions are realized to a different extent . For instance , in Germany the federal structure of the public administration is frequently used as justification for the current state of affairs and thus is one of the most significant de facto obstacles for a faster implementation of the BPM approach . Although Austria and Switzerland have similar conditions , we did not encounter such problems in these countries .
Nevertheless external factors act on the system and can cause an acceleration of the implementation of the BPM approach . The German Federal Government and the federal states have set themselves significant consolidation targets by means of the Schuldenbremse ( debt brake ); this means the administrations have to slim down considerably . This can only be achieved by means of automation of the business processes ( among other measures ). The European financial and debt crisis is likely to accelerate this process even further . Simultaneously , the demographic developments in Germany are creating an enormous pressure to preserve the expertise of employees who leave the organization . This expertise can be preserved in process modules , with the additional benefit that this creates a basis for redesigning the processes , if this should become necessary . Comparable measures for reducing the reducing the overall administration costs are also taken in Austria and Switzerland .
In all of these three countries , the approaches in part also have political backing . This has to be strengthened in future , as the political support and the support of the management of the administrative units are central success factors for the introduction of BPM . Since the introduction of BPM is always accompanied by significant changes in culture and operational procedures , the implementation of BPM should be understood as part of a huge change process . As frequently reported in literature on change management ( e . g . Hiatt and Creasey , 2003 ), this again emphasizes the importance of a strong management support .
3.2 Input variables
Input variables are an integral and important factor in the BPM system model as they represent the starting point of every process . Moreover , they may have significant implications for the execution of the process . The processes in the administrations of Germany and Switzerland are predominantly initiated by paper‐based input variables ( which are also referred to as process data ). Hence , the data must be digitalized for further process‐
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