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Paper info: User involvement in the provisioning of solutions: why, when and how?

Title


User involvement in the provisioning of solutions: why, when and how?

Authors


Klas Hedvall
Karlstad university
Sweden
Klas Hedvall

Place of Publication


The paper was published at the 33rd IMP-conference in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in 2017.

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Abstract


With respect to the provisioning of solutions, user involvement is of high importance. On the one hand, the solution provider must gain access to information required when adapting the solution according to the needs of the user. Moreover, in many users’ perspective, solutions are seen as a bundle of longitudinal and interactive processes. Hence, for the development and deployment of efficient and effective solutions, the involvement of users is fundamental. For many providers however, specifically those with a product-centric legacy, a change towards offering customer-oriented solutions involves numerous challenges. The provider’s organizational structure and internal processes may, for instance, increase the complexity with respect to management and coordination of provider-user interaction. Hence, the aim of this conceptual paper is to explore the role of user involvement in the provisioning of solutions and further the understanding of challenges faced by a product-centric provider when organizing user involvement for solutions. The paper concludes that in order to develop and deploy efficient and effective solutions satisfying the users, the provider must understand and address the implications resulting from a processual perspective of solutions. A main consequence of a processual perspective is that a product-centric solution-provider must organize and coordinate multiple producer-user relationships over time to achieve consistency, quality, efficiency and effectiveness of the solutions provided.