Mobile Business Process Reengineering: How to Measure the Input of Mobile Applications to Business Processes in European Hospitals

Abstract

There is an ongoing debate about the value of mobile applications for the optimization of business processes in European hospitals. Thus finding satisfying methods to measure the profitability of mobile applications seems to be of great importance. Prior research had its focus mainly on general value dimensions concerning the medical sector or the usability and design aspects of hospital information systems. Conterminous to that, the authors chose a strictly process-oriented approach. They modeled the requirements of future mobile systems as an output of a profitability analysis based on activity-based costing. The cost savings defined as the difference between former and future business processes were used as an incoming payment for an ROI analysis. In a nutshell, the authors present a case study that highlights the value of their analyzing method as well as the enormous benefit of mobile applications in the area of food and medical supply processes in German hospitals.