Process visibility: how mobile technology can enhance business-customer care in the paper industry

The paper focuses on developing the idea that process visibility is a key aspect of effective cross-boundary organizational processes, specifically customer care, and that it is potentially enhanced by the capabilities provided by mobile technology. Process visibility enables specific actors to track the dynamics of a process, empowers them and provides a higher degree of involvement, what may result in increased customer satisfaction. We introduce the visibility concept into the domain of mobile information systems, and within the following case study we outline the unique opportunities it can offer when incorporated into business customer solutions. Results from the field experiment imply that a mobile system, once implemented in the case organization, could permanently change daily routines in customer service recovery and introduce new ways of reacting to problems, treating them in collaborative manner and learning together.