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Table 1: Field case results.
Vektis Setu
IT Resources
The standards are relatively open, whereby the insurance
organizations pay contributions. Standards modules are built
for specific occupational groups, resulting in high
recognition, and increases the adoption amongst those
groups. Furthermore the standards are built using ASCII and
it is not compatible with other standards, however this has
no influence on the adoption. The standards are also
considered easy to use by which Vektis actively encourages
the testing of the standards which is considered important
for it gives a sense of confidence.
Although the standards are open the standards are not as
widely used that software vendors have solutions ready "on
the shelf" which are SETU compliant, this stresses the
switching costs and portability. However many
organizations / software solutions are already compliant to
HR-XML which ensures that lower switching costs and
portability is mediated and also linkages can be made to
international organizations, The standards are built out of
four complementary standards by which organizations can
choose to implement one or multiple standards.
Compl. Org.
Broad adoption of the standards can mainly be attributed to
cost savings organizations within the healthcare domain can
make significant cost savings through the standards. The
fact that Vektis and Vecozo is funded by insurance
organizations does not affect the adoption of the standards.
However the presence of the KEI within Vektis encourages
good will and reduces misinterpretations and thus has
positive effects on adoption.
The development of the standards is conducted in such a
manner that organizations can participate in the
development. This creates good will and reduces
misinterpretations amongst industry players. Furthermore
organizations within the staffing domain can make
significant cost savings through the usage of the standards
(economies of scale do apply).
Business
The standard ensures that the declaration process is
conducted on an unambiguous manner which makes the
adoption of the standard attractive because it can be used to
enhance business processes. Furthermore insurance
organizations also offer to collect the money that is not
covered by the insurance, which creates good will and
makes the declaration process simpler.
The standards ensure that no paper documents (e.g. hour
specifications) will have to be sent towards other
organizations that have converted to the standards. This will
yield burden reliefs through increased processes which can
attract organizations to adopt the standards.
Industry
The healthcare declaration processes is highly regulated
within the market which results in high adoption. By which
health insurance organizations do not compete by means of
an effective communication process between chain partners,
they do compete through lower insurance fees and by having
superior customer contacts etc. This means that the health
insurance organizations can collectively endorse / develop
the standards.
When adopting the SETU standards staffing customer
organizations have the possibility of reaching more staffing
companies, and thus giving them more flexibility. This can
have positive effects on the adoption of the standards.
However the staffing industry is one where there is lots of
competition (i.e. the market is not consolidated) and thus
organizations can choose not to convert in order to be
flexible to market changes.
Trading
Insurance organizations collectively have such powers that
they can obligate (by means of contractual agreements) the
usage of the standards, and thus health providers will have
to implement the standards. The high adoption of the
standards has ensured that the programs (that are compliant
to the standards) are relatively cheap and thus lowers the
switching costs.
At this point in time the installed base of the standard is not
of such levels that other organizations automatically feel the
need to adopt, there are several important organizations (e.g.
Randstad, Adecco) within the market that are actively
working for higher adoption of the standards, however they
cannot make the standard use compulsory towards their
partners.
Macro Env.
The standards are not obligated by law, however the
healthcare domain is strongly regulated which is one of the
reasons why the insurance organizations have such powers
in the market. Furthermore respondent stated that when the
government would have obligated standard use adoption
would have gone quicker.
The SETU standards have been added to the comply-or-
explain regime of the Dutch government which pressures
(semi) governmental organizations to convert to the SETU
standards, furthermore expectations are that this regime will
encourage other organizations to follow.
Recently the standard has been added to a Dutch
government “Comply-or-Explain” list that includes
open standards that are mandatory to be used for
each (semi) government organisation for achieving
interoperability (Min_EZ, 2007).
4.3 Cross Case Vektis and SETU
Using the data collected from the SETU and Vektis
standards, a cross case analysis has been conducted
whereby aspects that are important for the adoption
of business transaction standards have been
identified. Table 1 shows the similarities and
differences between the two cases. These differences
between the two cases can mainly be related to the
competitive environment and the macro environment
the main differences are:
• The staff lending domain is not consolidated
resulting on more emphasis on the IT resource
dimension e.g. making the standard more
compatible with other standards.
• Legislation ensures that health insurance
organizations have high domain powers, as a
result the Vektis standards are purely built to
serve the declaration process towards the
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