Using Open Data to Support Case Management - IEEE Computer ...

Using Open Data to Support Case Management Martin Henkel, Erik Perjons, Ulrika Drougge Stockholm University Stockholm, Sweden {martinh, perjons, drougge}@dsv.su.se

available to all without restriction in terms of cost, intellectual property or legal obstacles. Open data can commonly be distributed, used and re-used freely. Ideally, open data should be complete, timely, accessible, readable, clear and in an open format [4]. By using open data, a third party could provide the needed foregrounds to a case handling procedure, thus relieving a public organization in this task.

Abstract — Public organizations handle many request from citizens, some are routine requests, while others are more complex. To handle requests it is assumed that the case handler and the client share some common grounds, for example that the client and handler have a basic shared understanding of the roles and requirement on them. In this paper we examine how the concept of open data can be used to help the interaction between the client and the case handler. Open data builds upon that public data sources, such as legislations and explanations thereof, is made public. Third parties can then make use of this data and provide tailor-made services for clients. The paper is based on a case study performed at a Swedish municipality, and focus on the potential of open data application for improving the municipalities case handling.

The aim with this paper is to point towards the use of open data, and to what value it can bring to a case handling organization. In particular this paper aims to:  Raise the issues with case management that relies on that the client and case handler have a shared understanding.

Keywords— Case handling, Public organisations, Open data

 Point towards how open data, with the help of a third party intermediary, could potentially be used to solve the issues.

I. INTRODUCTION

 Exemplify the values of an open data solution for case management, based on a case study.

Public organizations need to handle request by having procedures that are ranging from straight-forward standardized procedures to highly personalized procedures. To support the work the organization commonly use some form of IT support. For example, workflow management (WfM) systems provide a way to improve the efficiency and response time when managing citizens’ requests. For handling more complex cases, adaptive case management (ACM) has been proposed as one solution [1] [2].

This paper is based on a case study performed at a Swedish municipality, as part of a project involving the municipality, the company Mobilearn and Stockholm University. In the case it was studied how information flows from the municipality to immigrants when the municipally handles cases. We here refer to immigrants as those that are seeking asylum and those who have recently received a residence permit. A common theme among immigrants is that they do not know the municipality case handling processes, the legislation, and the responsibility and role of the municipality.

These kind of solutions focus on the support for case management “from within”. That is, public organizations provide their case handlers with the appropriate tools to support their work processes. However, there may also be the need to support the client in the handling of cases. This is especially true if the client is not accustomed to the handling of cases, or is even unaware of the pre-requisites for the case handling. For example, in order to register a change of ownership of a house you need to differentiate between the property and the house, even if laymen usually do not. Thus a certain common ground must be established before the case handling starts. If this is not the case, the public organization need to spend time on explaining and documenting the foregrounds of the case management. This could be time-consuming, as the documentation and regulations governing a case may be spread on multiple public organizations.

The structure of the paper is as follows: In the next section the current state in the case is described in form of case handling processes and issues. Section 3 deals with the potential use of open data in the identified cases, while section 4 discusses the potential value of using a solution based on open data. II. CURRENT STATE IN THE CASE The domain of the case study was the case handling that is involving immigrants in a Swedish municipality. To examine what type of information that was given during a case, interviews where performed where representatives from the municipality where asked to describe their interaction with immigrants. In the project this activity was carried out by 11 unstructured interviews. The result was the identification of five main areas of case handling, each containing 3-4 information exchange processes. The approach taken was explorative, that is, rather than aiming for completeness and a representative

In this paper we examine how the use of open data can alleviate the aforementioned situation. Open data is, according to the e-delegation [3], information from organizations that are

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selection of interviewees, we aimed at exploring the different types of information exchanges by interviewing those that were deemed experts in their area.

The identified information exchange processes were used as the input for examination of potential uses of open data.

The result of the interviews resulted in that 15 information exchange processes grouped into 4 case areas were identified. The four areas were: citizen support, education, individual and family care, and elder care. The scope of the project determined the areas to be studied. Note that all activities in the municipality are not within these areas, for example city planning and handling of building permits.

III. POTENTIAL USE OF OPEN DATA IN THE CASE A fundamental view on open data solutions is that they consist of 1) a supplier of raw data; 2) an intermediary that extend the original data with function, content or form; 3); an end user making use of the data using the desired channel. According to Janssen & Zuiderwijk [5] there are six different business models that can be used categorize open data solutions. The two first, single purpose apps and interactive apps allows a single data source to be viewed in a new context (such as in a mobile device), or add functionality to it, such as the possibility to comment on the data. The models of information aggregators and comparison models allow two or more data source to be combined. Open data platforms and service platforms are models that support the development of new open data applications by providing intermediary storage or functionality such as search across data sources. Central to all the models are that the intermediary uses the open data provided by others, add functionality and provides it to its consumers. Note here that the customers of the intermediary can actually be the same as the providers of the open data. For example, an intermediary can take open data from a municipality web page, translate it to another language and sell in back to the municipality.

Each of the case areas and constituent information exchange processes were documented. For demonstration purposes we here briefly introduce three information exchange processes: a) apply for education, b) apply for economic subsidies, and c) preventive guidance. Note that these three information exchange processes is taken from two case handling areas: citizen support and elder care. Each information exchange process was documented in text, detailing the involved actors and the information that was exchanged. An excerpt of the translated documentation can be found below, including a description of problems related to them: Process A: Apply for education in the Swedish language. The Swedish for immigrants course, SFI, can be sought by those who have a residence permit and are registered in the municipality. The Municipality has agreements with providers that perform the SFI training. For those who do not have access to SFI, it is possible to participate in the Swedish education provided by NGOs such as the Red Cross and the Swedish Church. The problem with this process is that the eligibility criteria for taking SFI courses may not be clear for immigrants, and the available options for education is not clear since all information is not translated. Moreover, the municipality have a specific way of procuring the education – the municipality perform quality control of the educators, but the student must select the educators themselves. This procedure may not be clear for someone that are not accustomed to it.

After documenting the information exchange processes, the analysis of potential uses of open data was performed by surveying the existing providers of open data to see if the data provided can be of use in the information exchange. Furthermore, the open data solutions that an intermediary can offer in order to improve the information exchange was examined. The surveying of existing open data providers, resulted in a description of the available data for each information exchange. This included data sources owned by the municipality itself, such as its public web page. Table 1 lists the identified open data providers for the three information exchange processes.

Process B: Apply for economic subsidies. Applying for economic aid requires that the applicant to show a number of documents, such as bank statements, confirming the need for subsidies. The case handler at the municipality currently uses a complex checklist of requirements for documentation. The problem here is that the procedure is complex, and difficult to explain. One issue could be that even through the procedure is strict and formal, it is communicated through personal meetings. The case gets even more complicated if there is a need to use an interpreter as intermediary.

TABLE I.

OPEN DATA SOURCES FOR THE INFORMATION EXCHANGES

Process A: Apply for education in the Swedish language - Rules of who are eligible to participate in language education (municipality web page) - List of municipality contracted educators (municipality web page) - Free educators with no eligibility requirements, such as the Swedish Church (educators web pages)

Process C: Guiding talks with elderly. As a preventive measure, the municipality informs about the services available for people who are elderly. The information is provided via a personal meeting with a case handler, where family members can participate. The meeting is non-mandatory and is initiated by the municipality. The process need not lead to further activities, its purpose is to provide information about services (such as home nursing) that may be needed now or may be required in the future. The problem here lies in explaining the available options, and to what extent the municipality can and are obliged to provide help.

Process B: Apply for economic subsidies - Instructions on how to apply (municipality web page) - General rules on eligibility of economic aid (The Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare web page) Process C: Guiding talks with elderly - Description of available services, such as homes for elderly and support in the home (municipality web page) - Description of regulated services on the national level (The Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare web page)

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The identification of open data solutions was performed by considering how the identified data sources can be combined and provided. The key here was to, for each information exchange, analyze how the identified data sources could be used by an intermediary provider by combining or extend them.

decision to implement or use the solution, it may also affect the design of the solution. There are several frameworks that can be used in order to describe both tangible, and intangible values. For example, consumer values [10] and values of services [11]. There is currently no framework that specifically describes the values that are associated with the use of open data. To elaborate on the potential values of the open data solutions in the case, an interpretation of Sheth & Newmans [12] framework on consumer values has been used as a foundation. The values were categorized as functional values (essentially tangible values), social values (the value of improved communication), emotional, knowledge and situational values (values that are only trigged in specific contexts).

The result from the analysis was a set of potential solutions based on open data. Besides the input in form of data sources, the analysis also needs to consider the process and context in which the information is exchanged. The analysis of the three information exchange processes is described briefly below. Note that the functionality added by an intermediary is written in italics. Process A: Apply for education in the Swedish language. This information exchange process could be supported by the aggregation of multiple data sources that are translated. This would create a unified view of the eligibility requirements and the available educators.

The analysis of potential values was done by examining each of the solutions, and determining what value they can bring. Table 2 shows the potential values for the three processes discussed in this paper.

Process B: Apply for economic subsidies. In connection with the personal meeting the municipality case handler can view and list the documents needed for the specific case i.e. personalization, and show the translated explanations. The personalized list with the needed documents can be made available in a new channel: the applicant’s mobile phone. The solution is made possible in the case of immigrants to Sweden, because a high percentage already have smartphones when they arrive.

TABLE II.

Information Summary of exchange solution

Process C: Guiding talks with elderly. Translated and aggregated data can provide the citizen with an overview of the public services aimed at elderly. One possibility is that the information provided also are personalized, that is, customized to an individual. This may involve, for example, giving the opportunity to choose what activities or assistance that may be necessary and then save this information for later use. While the potential use of open data is described above, it is also possible to reason about the value of implementing the solutions. IV. 2

POTENTIAL VALUES OF THE OPEN DATA SOLUTIONS

Process A: Apply for education in the Swedish language

Aggregation and - Functional: Time savings translation of for municipality contact information related center to educators and - Knowledge: Increased eligibility criterias. knowledge about existing education options

Process B: Apply for economic subsidies

Translation, - Functional: Time savings personalization and for case handler mobile delivery of - Knowledge: Increased requirements for knowledge on aid economic subsidies - Social: Trust in the process

Process C: Aggregation, Guiding talks translation and with elderly personalization of available help for elderly

POTENTIAL VALUES OF OPEN DATA

The value of implementing the open data solutions can be found at both the municipality and the immigrant side. For the municipality the solutions enables focusing on the regular case handling processes, instead of for example booking interpreters and trying to explain the fundamental workings of their services. For the immigrant it allows easier access to the municipality services.

Potential values

- Emotional: Security - Functional: Earlier detection of support need

For the three processes included in this paper we found potential for functional, knowledge, social and emotional values. Concerning the knowledge values, immigrants can gain a better understanding of the available options for education (process a), and increased knowledge of the prerequisites of economic subsidies (process b). The knowledge about available language education options may also lead to what in referred to as “curiosity” by Sheth & Newman [12]. Essentially this “curiosity” may led to a higher incitement for further studies, for example in the form of making an immigrant aware of the special language courses aimed at certain professions.

Besides these general statements about the value, it is also possible to discern between intangible and tangible values of the solutions. Value is usually associated with the exchange of something between parties [6] where it commonly is expressed in terms of tangible economic value, i.e. money [7]. There are also intangible values representing something that cannot be easily exchanged. Examples of this type of value, sometimes referred to as internal values [8], are for example security and knowledge. Both tangible and intangible values can be used as a foundation for making decisions [9]. In the case of open data solutions, knowledge about potential value can influence the

For the functional values it may be possible to calculate the economic benefit of implementing the open data solution. In the case, we have performed this calculation based on the data stated in the interviews, and other data sources, such as the municipality web page. The following gives an example of the calculations done for Process A, where an open data solution

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based on aggregation and translation of information related to education in the Swedish language may be used:

aggregating and translating information. However, this cost may be divided among a large set of open data consumers.

About 10-15 immigrants a day is asking about the Swedish for Immigrants (SFI) education at the municipality contact center reception. Assuming that each question on average takes about 15 minutes of the receptionist's time, then this corresponds to 2-4 hours per day. Using an open data solution with translated information would cut down the questions to the contact center, and also cut down the time each questions take. Assume the time can be cut down by a third, this would give a saving of about one hour per day. Each hour a receptionist cost about 230 SEK (Swedish kronor, roughly equal to 25 €), and the contact center is open about 226 days per year. This gives an annual saving of about 50 KSEK.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT The authors would like to thank the project participants, especially those municipality employees that participated in the interviews. This work has been partially funded by the Swedish Innovation Agency (Vinnova). REFERENCES [1]

C. Herrmann, M. Kurz, “Adaptive Case Management: Supporting knowledge intensive processes with IT systems”, in S-BPM ONE - Learning by Doing - Doing by Learning. vol. 213, W. Schmidt, Ed., ed: Springer Berlin Heidelberg, pp. 8097, 2011. [2] M. White, “Case Management: Combining knowledge with process”, BPTrends, July, 2009. [3] The Swedish e-delegation, ”Vidareutnyttjande av offentlig information”, 2015. http://www.edelegationen.se /Documents/Vagledningar%20mm/V%C3%A4gledningf%C3%B6r-vidareutnyttjande-av-offentlig-information.pdf (Accessed 2016-04-08) [4] O. Eriksson, “Öppna data 2014 Nulägesanalys”, The Swedish Innovation Agency, ISBN: 978-91-87537-15-8, 2014. [5] M. Janssen, A. Zuiderwijk, “Infomediary business models for connecting open data providers and users”, Social Science Computer Review, 32(5), pp694-711, 2014. [6] R. Wieringa, J. Gordijn, P. van Eck, “Value-Based Business-IT Alignment in Networked Constellations of Enterprises”, In: 1st Int’l Workshop on Requirements Engineering for Business Need and IT Alignment, REBNITA, 2005. [7] H. Weigand, P. Johannesson, B. Andersson, M. Bergholtz, A. Edirisuriya, T. Ilayperuma, “On the Notion of Value Object”, In: Martinez, F.H., Pohl, K. (eds.) CAiSE’06. LNCS, vol. 4001, pp 321–335. Springer, Heidelberg, 2006. [8] M. Henkel, P. Johannesson, E. Perjons, “An approach for eservice design using enterprise models”, International Journal of Information System Modeling and Design, 2(1), 2011. [9] M. Rokeach, “Beliefs, Attitudes and Values”, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, 1968. [10] M.B. Holbrook, “Consumer Value: A Framework for Analysis and Research”, Routledge, London, 1998. [11] A. Parasuraman, V.A. Zeithaml, L.L. Berry, “SERVQUAL: A multiple-item scale for measuring consumer perceptions. J. of Retailing 64(1), pp.12–40, 1988. [12] J.N, Sheth, B.I. Newman, B.L. Gross, “Why we buy what we buy: a theory of consumption values”, Journal of business research, 22(2), pp.159-170, 1991.

Using similar calculations, the total benefit of the open data solutions found would be roughly 150 KSEK per year. Even if the “hard value” in form of economic values is often sought for, the other values with open data solutions can be brought forward by examining the intangible values as well. V. CONCLUSIONS In this paper we have raised the issue with case handling that requires that the client has pre-requisite knowledge about the case handing process and the concepts used in the case handling. To some extent, all case handling requires that the client and case handler has, or somehow gets, a shared understanding of the roles, rights and procedures. However, what pre-requisites that can be taken for granted may change quickly. As the case described in the paper shows, an example is the language barriers that exists when immigrants are communicating with case handlers in a municipality. The paper points towards the use of open data as a solution. Essentially letting a third party aggregate, translate and present information may provide a solution to the raised issues. The key here is that it is an external party that may do this, and thus may relieve the case handling organization from this task. The municipality case described in the paper shows that the use of open data may lead to several values, both in tangible and intangible form. For example, using open data to translate and describe a formal procedure may lead to an increased feeling of security concerning how the case handling is performed. By a small example based on data from the case we also show potential cost savings for the case handling organization (a municipality in the case). The aim of the paper was to point towards the potential of open data and the values of open data solutions. This must be complemented with an investigation into the cost of using open data. It is clear that an intermediary must cover the cost of

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