Research at the Department „Services – Processes – Intelligence“ as part of the Institute of Information Systems focuses on services science as an interdisciplinary approach to the study, design, and implementation of service systems. The nature of this research field calls for complementary competencies in process management and business intelligence – both contributing to the body of knowledge of application-oriented services.
Services
Today, services are built on complex socio-technical systems in which specific arrangements of people and technologies take actions that provide value for others. By federating human interactions and intelligence through IT, new forms of business models and innovative services emerge from the combination of business, technologies, and people. Service innovation in general requires close attention to the management of business processes as well as the management of information and knowledge. In our research we investigate services in order to understand, reengineer, and innovate service systems. We design and develop strategies, solutions, technologies, and IT systems for service industries such as commerce, retail, logistics, health care, tourism, education, and industrial services fostering smart factories and supply chains in Industry 4.0 environments. To sum up, we strive after the digital service economy and society of tomorrow.
Processes
This research field focuses on concepts, new technologies and innovative information systems supporting the strategic as well as operational phases of Business Process Management (BPM). Both business processes within the company and inter-organizational transaction processes are being considered. Research topics include agile BPM, collaborative systems, adaptive case management, network-centric service processes, and integrated concepts for process monitoring and controlling. Special attention is given to ecosystems where persons, software, smart things and autonomous devices interact to drive value creation processes. IT solutions for business process management are being developed in cooperation with industry partners from various fields. To sum up, we strive for process optimization, investigating scientific foundations and best practices of human-centric, semi-automated, and highly automated solutions.
Intelligence
Enterprises are facing a rapidly growing amount of both internally generated as well as externally available structured and unstructured information. Research focuses on data science, big data, and predictive analytics, e.g. in the domains of market intelligence, process mining, customer insight, and sensor networks. The main goal is to enable automated information extraction, aggregation, and analysis to gain business knowledge using smart systems. Modern instruments such as artificial neural networks, fuzzy logic, semantic networks, data and text mining methods or swarm intelligence allow the development of innovative solutions assisting enterprises in their information and knowledge management processes. Data is gathered from a range of different organizational and web sources and consolidated to offer a more accurate view of organizational performance, facilitating more effective business decisions. To sum up, our mission is “Business Intelligence for Intelligent Business”.