Services are presently recognized as a source of productivity growth and dynamism in the economy. However, in the public sector, these productivity improvements enabled by services are not easy to recognize. On the contrary, negative productivity effects related to Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) investments have been reported. In this paper, we first consider how ICT changes services and how the productivity effects of these changes can be evaluated. Then, we analyze two cases, the Finnish Tax Administration and the Helsinki Central University Hospital Stroke Unit, and draw conclusions about the ICT investments and productivity. Finally, we report some findings on how ICT can be used to improve hands-on work processes. While business process modeling has been applied in organizations for decades, this paper presents a new approach to analyzing process benefits based on the introduction of ICT services on the hospital floor. We analyze and evaluate the benefits already in the planning phase of an ICT project, taking into account the dynamic nature of processes as they are realized in true work flows.

Keywords: E-services, productivity, ICT, business process, process modeling, process improvement

O. Martikainen, M. Kulvik, V. Naoumov: E-Services and Productivity, Information Technologies and Control, ISSN 1312-2622, 3/2011, 2-8.

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