Enabling Business Domain-Specific eCollaboration
How to Integrate Virtual Cooperation in Product Costing
Diana Lück
Chair of Information Systems, esp. IS in Manufacturing and Commerce, Technische Universität Dresden, Germany
Keywords: Integrated Virtual Cooperation, Business Domain-Specific eCollaboration, Product Costing, Accounting
Information Systems, Enterprise Systems Integration, Enterprise 2.0, CSCW.
Abstract: Due to digitalization and the rising relevance of knowledge work, virtual cooperation in enterprises is
increasingly important. Product costing is an example of a business domain that is characterized by a high
demand for communication, coordination, and information exchange. Time and location-based restrictions
underline the necessity of computer-assisted support in collaboration. However, an approach to integrate IT-
support for virtual cooperation directly into the core process of business domains like product costing is still
missing. To overcome this challenge, we show how to enable Business Domain-Specific eCollaboration based
on the design principles for integrated virtual cooperation in product costing. This paper presents how to
combine collaboration support directly with the process of this particular business domain.
1 INTRODUCTION
Virtual cooperation enables working efficiently
around the limitations of time and place. In
enterprises, this empowers teams to collaborate even
though they are situated in different locations and
time zones. The relevance of corporate structures that
support virtual collaboration are found to increase,
especially in business domains characterized by a
high demand for information exchange and
communication (Riemer et al., 2009; Alqahtani et al.,
2014; Andriole, 2010).
Product costing is one such example of a highly
collaborative business domain due to the numerous
participants involved in the costing process. Dealing
with cost estimations of manufactured goods is very
typical in the discrete manufacturing industry, which
includes products like automobiles, electronic
devices, and technical equipment. Because 70% of
the costs of goods sold are already set during product
development, early product costing has a high
potential to influence costs. In particular, when the
costs of a new product whose development cycle has
just begun are determined, collaboration is a
significant factor in success due to the diverse sources
of information that are necessary and essential in the
process (Drury, 2008; Saaksvuori and Immonen,
2004). A prior study of ours showed that, in
collaborating, primarily traditional methods like
physical meetings and telephone calls and generic
tools such as emails and online conferences are used.
However, in the exploratory survey that we organized
with business experts the majority of participants also
reported an unsatisfying level of IT support for
collaboration in product costing, and problems related
to that (Lück and Leyh, 2016a). Therefore, we
introduced the approach of Business Domain-
Specific eCollaboration in order to tackle the
challenge of integrating virtual cooperation support
directly into the core process of particular business
domains. Based on strong feedback on the topic from
practice, we continued with the business domain of
product costing as a showcase. We conducted
interviews with experts from practice who pointed out
that there is a high demand for integrated virtual
cooperation support in product costing and we
determined the requirements for such an IT support
system (Lück and Leyh, 2016b).
In this paper, we aim to develop a concept for a
sociotechnical collaboration system for product
costing. To analyse how to connect the support for
collaboration with the systems used to solve tasks in
daily business, we address the following research
question:
RQ1: According to the requirements derived
from the collaborative processes in product costing,
how can virtual cooperation be integrated into the
Lück, D.
Enabling Business Domain-Specific eCollaboration - How to Integrate Virtual Cooperation in Product Costing.
DOI: 10.5220/0006274902090216
In Proceedings of the 19th International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems (ICEIS 2017) - Volume 1, pages 209-216
ISBN: 978-989-758-247-9
Copyright © 2017 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All rights reserved
209
domain by enabling Business Domain-Specific
eCollaboration?
To answer this question, we have structured our
paper as follows. After we explain the background of
this paper in section 2, we describe the requirements-
based design principles for Business Domain-
Specific eCollaboration in the context of product
costing in section 3. In section 4, we present our
approach for integrated virtual cooperation before
concluding the paper with a summary and outlook in
section 5.
2 BACKGROUND
The costing process of goods in the discrete
manufacturing industry is an example of a business
domain involving a multitude of departments with a
high degree of collaboration. Typically, managerial
accounting keeps an eye on the financial aspects,
engineering contributes construction-related
information, and the sales team negotiates with
customers and reflects the feedback from the market.
In addition, the procurement department contacts
suppliers in cases where a part of the product should
not be produced in-house, but purchased. Further
interaction partners are common in product costing,
illustrating the high complexity of the collaborative
process (Drury, 2008; Warren, 2014).
Therefore, we initiated a research project about
virtual cooperation in product costing. The first step
was the investigation of the current collaboration
support (Lück and Leyh, 2016a). We discovered that
the usage of common eCollaboration tools is
insufficient and remains unsatisfying with room for
improvement. Nearly 90% of the total product costing
workload consist of collaborative work, which makes
the support of these activities essential to ensuring
efficiency throughout the costing process. The
complexity of the process needs to be reduced by
clarifying who the participants are and what their
tasks are as well as showing the progress of the
costing process (Lück and Leyh, 2016a). Data
management is often detached from the cooperation
process, since using spreadsheet programs such as
Microsoft Excel remains highly common (Fiedler and
Gräf, 2012; Hansen et al., 2009; Schicker et al.,
2008). Thus, an integrated support concept could
provide further benefits, such as increasing data
consistency, speeding up the business process, and
raising productivity (Alqahtani et al., 2014; Back et
al., 2012; Lück and Leyh, 2016a).
Collaboration support has undergone an
astonishing evolution since the 1980s, especially
from a technological perspective (Grudin, 1994). In
today’s business environments, enterprise 2.0 tools
such as blogs and social networks are widespread
(Kemsley, 2010; Koch and Richter, 2009; McAfee,
2006). In response, research has focused on adopting
eCollaboration, its success factors, or the impact of its
use (Alqahtani et al., 2014; Andriole, 2010;
Hasenkamp, 2001; Patel et al., 2012). However,
integrated support for collaboration in the costing
process is still missing, and the existing
eCollaboration solutions cannot adequately support
the process. In the exploratory study of our first
research step experts from practice confirmed that
opportunities to cooperate virtually in a way
connected to the process of daily business tasks
appear to be missing, and we encountered that such
integral approaches have yet to evolve. The
examination of prior research confirmed that
collaboration support with a focus on the integration
into the core process is a research gap justifying
further investigation (Lück and Leyh, 2016a).
Consequently, we proceeded the research project
by conducting a requirements analysis for the
integration of virtual cooperation in product costing
(Lück and Leyh, 2016b). In expert interviews,
product costing specialists explained the
collaborative costing process in their company and
what IT tools they use for it. They also described the
problems they currently see and the needs they have
regarding a system that should support the
cooperation in product costing. Based on the
interviews, we derived a requirements model. How
we performed the data analysis and developed the
model is described in detail in our second research
paper (Lück and Leyh, 2016b). We utilize the
elements of the requirements model as design
principles for the collaboration support system that
we present in this paper. Hence, we explain the
requirements-based principles in the next chapter.
3 REQUIREMENTS-BASED
DESIGN PRINCIPLES FOR
INTEGRATED VIRTUAL
COOPERATION
To establish a substantiated foundation for our
integrative cooperation approach (see chapter 4), we
elaborated a requirements model in a prior research
step (Lück and Leyh, 2016b). From July to September
2015, we interviewed 14 experts; half of them
working in companies in Germany, the other half in
companies in the United States. Because product
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costing is a relevant business domain across diverse
industrial sectors, we involved experts from four
different industries: the automotive, consumer goods,
high-tech, and machine-building industries. To
understand the different perspectives on collaboration
in product costing, we included IT experts,
controllers, and managers in the interviews. The goal
was to investigate the collaborative process in product
costing and its current IT support in order to identify
the requirements for virtual cooperation support.
Further details are presented in the respective
research paper (Lück and Leyh, 2016b).
The requirements depict the design principles for
our concept of integrated virtual cooperation in
product costing that we present in chapter 4 in this
paper. They are aggregated in a requirements model
(Lück and Leyh, 2016b), which is illustrated in Figure
1. The model consists of four requirement areas that
cover 18 requirements (i.e., abbreviated R in the
model) as well as three system prerequisite areas
comprising six constraints necessary to enable IT-
based collaboration support (i.e., represented by C in
the model). The requirement area called Product Cost
Monitoring should give experts a clear overview of
the costing processes to keep the participants
informed about the status of the costing process. One
necessary component is the subscription in order to
track an object manually or automatically. The
presentation of which tasks have been completed,
what has yet to be done, and whether any issues
remain unaddressed enables product costing experts
to understand and control the process. To make users
aware of the status of the costing process, information
about the exact progress is necessary. Showing
information about the status, errors, and changes
enables system-based monitoring, simplifies the
coordination, and improves the controlling of the
process. Moreover, Product Cost Monitoring should
provide analytical functionality. The results of
product costing analyses can influence how to
collaborate in the team. Therefore, analytics also have
to be embedded.
The second requirement area is the Costing
Workflow. To collaborate virtually in product costing,
every user should be able to participate in a self-
initiated, ad hoc workflow. Costing Workflow has to
be a flexible tool for the coordination of tasks. The
presentation in form of a dashboard and via
notifications helps to raise awareness of the actions
each user has to perform. Consequently, the system
has to inform participants about their workload and
the tasks they have to complete. Furthermore,
tracking functions are required in order to automate
sequences of steps in the collaboration process.
The requirement area Task Integration allows
utilizing the task concept of the Costing Workflow in
all IT systems used for product costing. To obtain
necessary data in the collaboration process, it is
common that participants determine information
from several information systems. Relevant data
input has to be synchronized among the different IT
systems in order to avoid inconsistencies. To
coordinate tasks that are handled externally,
interfaces connecting the relevant IT systems need to
be realized in order to manage data from other sources
automatically.
Figure 1: Requirements model.
Enabling Business Domain-Specific eCollaboration - How to Integrate Virtual Cooperation in Product Costing
211
The requirement area Collaboration Groups
should support the definition of teams and the areas
each team should be able to access. It is needed to
administer the members of the collaboration teams as
well as the areas the team members should be allowed
to access.
Furthermore, the requirements model shows that
there exist preconditions for enabling integrated
virtual cooperation in product costing. System Access
for all participants of the collaboration process is a
prerequisite for using the full capabilities of the
system. Another precondition is System Performance.
Since users have to wait for results in order to proceed
to the next step, when there are time restrictions in the
system, the performance is critical and has to be taken
into account. System Assistance is a major asset of
standardized systems. Hence, implementation and
operation knowledge from experts is a precondition
for the success of the collaborative system.
As part of the prior research step, we also
evaluated the requirements model in an expert session
with 11 product costing specialists in December 2015
(Lück and Leyh, 2016b). None of the participants
were involved in the expert interviews in order to
ensure that nobody who suggested requirements in
the interviews assessed them as well. All participants
were from Germany. The experts from several
companies in different relevant industries described
the requirements model that we established for
integrated virtual cooperation in product costing to be
satisfactory. They agreed to the structure of the
model, its requirement areas, and their subdivisions,
and nobody indicated that any additional requirement
area was missing. The evaluation proved that all
constructs of our model have significance for
integrated virtual cooperation in product costing. No
changes to the model were deemed necessary, and the
modular composition was evaluated to be very
positive. The holistic approach to Business Domain-
Specific eCollaboration received excellent feedback
and participants confirmed that the requirements
represented the demand for integrated virtual
collaboration in product costing (Lück and Leyh,
2016b). The requirements-based design principles
serve as the fundament for the collaboration system
we conceptualize as follows.
4 APPROACH FOR
INTEGRATED VIRTUAL
COOPERATION
To integrate virtual cooperation in product costing,
we developed an approach addressing the
requirements described in chapter 3. The approach is
divided into three user-centric aspects: Monitoring
and Initiation comprises how virtual collaboration
can be coordinated and how the process can be
tracked. Execution and Progression explains in what
Figure 2: My Home screen.
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way cooperation is executed in the system. The
underlying concepts regarding the enablement of
those cooperation functionalities are defined in the
section Permissions and Subscriptions.
4.1 Monitoring and Initiation
The first aspect of our integrative approach is how
steps of the cooperation process can be triggered and
how to supervise the process.
We designed the My Home screen as an entry
point for all collaboration-related issues. It enables
the user to get an immediate understanding regarding
the status of the objects he or she is subscribed to as
well as his or her assigned tasks (see Figure 2). The
My Home screen is integrated in the main application
to enable users to collaborate directly in the costing
system preventing media breaks and reducing manual
effort (Lück and Leyh, 2016a). On the left-hand side
of the My Home screen one can find a tile view of all
the objects the user is subscribed to with a summary
of all issues (e.g., ‘Deadline overdue’ or ‘3 tasks
completed’).
Clicking on a tile item opens the Product Cost
Monitoring screen, which provides detailed
information regarding the selected object, as shown
in Figure 3. Covering the requirement R5 Status
illustration, this screen provides information about
existing tasks and their state of completion. The same
applies for checklists and flags. By summarizing
recent actions in a ‘What’s New’ area, users obtain
awareness about the latest changes in the
collaboration process. In addition, the screen shows
existing errors, addressed as R4 Error indication. This
enables the user to take immediate action on a certain
issue, e.g., to request a price for a cost item that is
Figure 3: Product Cost Monitoring screen.
Figure 4: Dialog windows for task and checklist definitions.
Enabling Business Domain-Specific eCollaboration - How to Integrate Virtual Cooperation in Product Costing
213
missing. The Product Cost Monitoring screen also
gives central access to the analytical functions R6
Editing history and R7 Comparison. The editing
history displays a chart with the chronological course
of all changes made by the processors and the
comparison function provides the possibility to match
different objects in order to analyze potential
differences. The navigation bar to the left enables
switching between the objects the user is subscribed
to.
In addition, the Product Cost Monitoring screen
enables initiating cooperation steps by creating and
assigning new tasks as well as checklists, which is
addressed by the requirements R8 Task creation, R9
Task assignment, and R12 Checklist. Clicking on the
link ‘Create New Task’ opens a dialog window in
which the user can specify all necessary data. The
corresponding data source that should be worked on
can be selected, enabling integrated data processing
(see Figure 4). Additionally, a description and due
data can be entered and the task can be assigned
directly to the favored processor. The option ‘Review
of Changes’ lets the initiator decide whether he or she
wants to check the changes when the task is finished
before committing them to the system. At times, tasks
affect other systems and data comes from those
systems. In cases where the assignee works with an
external system, synchronization can be activated via
the corresponding checkbox. Doing so enables the
processing of tasks externally, which addresses R15
Interfaces. The integration of this input has not only
automation benefits, but also allows mistakes to be
avoided that result from copying data manually from
one system to another. The link ‘Create New
Checklist’ provides a dialog window that enables the
user to specify a consecutive sequence of tasks to be
completed and/or flags that need to be set, as shown
in Figure 4. Processors can be assigned to all items
and a trigger can be added, e.g., to determine that a
multi-level review process should be initiated if a flag
called ‘Ready for Review’ has been set.
4.2 Execution and Progression
The central element for the collaboration execution is
the My Tasks screen, displayed in Figure 5. This
screen represents the requirement R10 Dashboard of
the requirement area Costing Workflow. The user can
navigate to this view by clicking on a task in the My
Home screen (see Figure 2). It is a key instrument
raising awareness and keeping each user informed
about his or her workload. Here the user also sets the
status of the tasks –in progress, in review, or done –
which is reflected in the status illustration of the
Product Cost Monitoring screen.
When the user changes the status of a task, a
notification is automatically sent to every user who
follows the object that the task belongs to via his or
her Product Cost Monitoring screen addressing R3
Change notification. Thus, everybody who is
involved is immediately informed about the progress.
A similar procedure is triggered whenever a new task
is sent or a new checklist is activated. In these cases,
a task notification is forwarded to the assignee as
required by R11 Task notification. By these means,
no manual effort is necessary to keep participants
informed.
Another element of the collaboration execution is
the capability to set flags (R13 Flag setting). This
allows to set an object to a particular state, simply by
choosing the appropriate flag. Setting a flag also
triggers the dispatching of a change notification in
Figure 5: My Tasks screen.
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order to keep participants up-to-date on the latest
state. Furthermore, users can leave comments and
notes in order to discuss issues in the system. This
addresses requirement R14 Discussion.
4.3 Permissions and Subscriptions
The fundamentals of the collaboration system are
realized via permissions and subscriptions. The
permissions handle the authorization in the
collaboration system represented by the requirement
area Collaboration Groups with the requirements R16
Team definition, R17 Area definition, and R18 Team
area linkage. A Team Definition screen was designed
in order to give the administrator the opportunity to
specify teams and their members. After creating a
team, specified by a team name, the members can be
selected from a list of the available users in the system
(see Figure 6). This assignment can also be reversed
by deselecting the users that should not be part of the
team anymore. In an Area Definition and Linkage
screen, the areas of access can be specified and linked
to the defined teams. For each access area, a
description and a reference have to be defined. The
reference specifies which object(s) should be
accessible by the respective area. For linking a team
to an access area, the team has to be chosen from a
drop down displaying all teams from the Team
Definition screen.
Subscriptions enable users to choose the objects
that they want to follow. This functionality is divided
into automatic and manual subscription, as requested
by requirement R1 Automatic subscription and R2
Manual subscription. When a user creates a new
object, he or she is automatically subscribed to it, sees
all relevant information in his or her Product Cost
Monitoring screen, and receives change notifications.
The user can manually unfollow this object, but also
follow any other object that is part of his or her access
area. A pin visualizes the subscriptions. Wherever
objects appear in the screens, the user has the
opportunity to click on the pin in order to (un-)follow
the item, providing a high level of integration (see
Figure 2 and Figure 3).
5 SUMMARY AND OUTLOOK
In this paper, we presented an approach to enable
Business Domain-Specific eCollaboration by
integrating virtual cooperation directly into the core
processes of a business area. As a showcase, we chose
the business domain of product costing due to its high
demand for communication and information
exchange as well as the necessity of an integrated
solution. In our initial study, we discovered that
particularly because the collaboration support is
detached from the systems in use, the process suffers
from data inconsistency, missing integration and a
lack of transparency (Lück and Leyh, 2016a). As a
next step in our research project, we derived a
comprehensive requirements model for integrated
virtual cooperation in product costing. The
requirements serve as design principles for the
cooperation support system (Lück and Leyh, 2016b).
In the research step presented in this paper, we
developed an integrative approach for Business
Domain-Specific eCollaboration. It enables virtual
collaboration in product costing based on connections
among daily work routines, data sources, and the
collaborative needs of the specific business domain.
A monitoring screen summarizes the status of all
relevant elements, providing insight into the progress
of the costing process. By enabling the initiation of
Figure 6: Team definition screen.
Enabling Business Domain-Specific eCollaboration - How to Integrate Virtual Cooperation in Product Costing
215
virtual cooperation directly in the system,
collaboration is accelerated and manual effort is
reduced. Moreover, data consistency can be increased
as the necessity for manual data input is decreased. In
addition, the task dashboard screen aims at
establishing awareness about the workload for each
participant in the costing process. Notifications
automatically inform users whenever there are new
tasks or changes. Automating the collaboration
process aims at increasing productivity and avoiding
mistakes resulting from manual efforts. Our approach
gives full flexibility for integrated virtual cooperation
by providing a subscription concept that allows each
user to decide which costing objects are of interest to
him or her. Likewise, the permissions concept enables
an easily adaptable authorization management in
order to define who should participate in the
collaborative process and which system areas they
should be able to access. In conclusion, the approach
for Business Domain-Specific eCollaboration covers
all identified requirements for integrated virtual
cooperation in product costing. Nonetheless, the
design principles also depict system constraints that
need to be fulfilled. We excluded them from our
investigations, as those are external limits given by
the costing systems in use.
The next step in our research project is the
evaluation of our approach for integrated virtual
cooperation in product costing. The validation should
help to further improve the concept for the
collaboration system that we later intent to test in a
real-world setting. Subsequent research could also
cover the investigation of further business domains
with relevance to this research topic.
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