Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to present results from an analysis of service processes regarding their optimization potential through mobile technologies. The analysis was performed with a company of the housing industry. Design/methodology/approach -The analysis was conducted with the aim of organizing business processes more efficiently in order to realize cost savings. Therefore, a method introduced in this paper was used. Findings -It is shown how the initial situation of the company was analyzed, which alternative process models on the basis of mobile technologies were developed and how these alternatives were economically evaluated. Furthermore, first restrictions for the software and system design were identified on the basis of one process model. Finally, it is shown how the method can be used to verify whether the adoption of mobile technologies is suitable to obtain a defined goal, and which requirements such a solution needs to fulfill. Originality/value -This paper shows practitioners how to conduct a systematic analysis of business processes regarding their optimization potential through mobile technologies.

In this article we examine the integration of communities of practice supported by a wiki into work processes. Linear structures are often inappropriate for the execution of knowledge-intensive tasks and work processes. The latter are characterized by non-linear sequences and dynamic social interaction. Communities of practice, however, often lack the guiding light needed to structure their work. We discuss the primary requirements for the integration of formally described knowledge-intensive processes into the dynamic social processes of knowledge generation in communities of practice and use the wiki approach for their support. We present our approach for an appropriate interface to integrate wiki communities into process structures and an information retrieval algorithm based on it to connect the process-oriented structures with community-oriented wiki structures. We show the prototypical realization of the concept by a brief example

This article deals with the support potential of knowledge communities for a co-operative knowledge generation and problem solving before the background of the increasing economic importance of knowledge-intensive processes. Therefore, requirements for an IT-support of a co-operative knowledge generation and problem solving via knowledge communities are being developed that are of significance in the induction and dissemination of knowledge within communities. Special emphasis is put on the integration of the knowledge of the community into relevant work processes aiming at an initiation of synergies with this combination. According to the above- mentioned requirements, we will present the realisation of a knowledge community with the help of the Wiki-approach. Thereupon, a concept for integrating knowledge communities in process-oriented knowledge structures will be developed by creating an adequate interface. This concept could be realised in a prototype way in an implementation. The developed prototype will be described in a brief case study.

Abstract. The adoption of mobile technologies into companies frequently follows a technology -driven approach without precise knowledge about the potential benefits that may be realised. Especially in larger organisations with complex business processes, a systematic procedure is required if a verifiable economic benefit is to be created by the use of mobile technologies. Therefore, the term "mobile business process", as well as requirements for information systems applied in such processes, are defined in this paper. Subsequently, we introduce a procedure for the systematical analysis of the distributed structure of a business process model in order to identify mobile sub-processes. For that purpose, the method Mobile Process Landscaping is used to decompose a process model into different levels of detail. The method aims to manage the complexity and limit the process analysis to the potentially mobile subprocesses from the beginning. The result of the analysis can be used on the one hand as a foundation for the redesign of the business processes and on the other hand for the requirements engineering of mobile information systems. An application of this method is shown by the example of business processes in the insurance industry.

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