No abstract

RESUMO Foi analisada a utilização dos recursos transferidos de outras instâncias federativas aos blocos de financiamento da saúde pelos municípios de Santa Catarina. Trata-se de um estudo descritivo dos anos de 2009 e 2015. Observou-se que os municípios investem recursos próprios em saúde muito além do recomendado legalmente, no entanto, não conseguem fazer uso integral dos recursos de transferência direta efetuados pelo estado e pela União aos blocos de financiamento da saúde. Nota-se, porém, diminuição expressiva no montante de recurso subutilizado no período analisado, o que sinaliza a melhoria da capacidade de gestão dos recursos de transferência direta.

This research analyzes the maturity level of business processes with the application of the Process and Enterprise Maturity Model (PEMM) in the light of Enterprise Architecture (EA). This is qualitative research, cross-sectional, and in the form of a multiple case study performed in science and technology parks in Brazil. A questionnaire conducted by semi-structured interviews, non-participant observations, and document analysis to gather information on the processes was applied to achieve the proposed objective. The finding revealed that 75% of the analyzed parks show signs that processes’ maturity results in optimal performance (Level 3) and can be integrated with other internal processes, maximizing the performance of these parks. Only one park was at Level 2, indicating that business processes led to better results when implemented from one organization. This study shows that even when enterprise capability is at Level 3, this does not help the process enablers rise from Level 2 to Level 3. This study’s originality lies in its showed that the maturity level of the analyzed parks and in making comparisons to identify discrepancies and future actions, considering their responsibility to transfer knowledge from science and technology institutions to the public and private sector.

Enterprise Architecture-EA encompasses the core business processes, Information Technology infrastructure (IT), systems, and technologies, as well as the level of integration and standardization of data and processes. Companies that develop EA tend to migrate from local applications to systems that share infrastructure and data. In this context, the aim of this study is to identify how the SMEs-Small Enterprises from Southern Brazil are positioned in maturity levels of EA set out by their IT investments. The sample comprised 152 small businesses and the methodology employed included cluster analysis with average link between groups as linkage method and Euclidean distance as similarity measure. After the identification of eight main EA maturity stages, non-parametric tests such as Kruskal-Wallis and Mann-Whitney were employed to identify significant differences among the stages regarding their age and the number of employees. The results indicate that the average number of employees is low from stages zero to four, grows significantly in stage five and decreases moderately in the final stages, where the decrease from stage six to seven is also significant statistically. Moreover, the study suggests that small companies use less EA because they have fewer activities. On the other hand, larger companies use more EA because they are more complex and need more employees. However, after a certain point, the more they increase their EA level, the more efficient they become and the fewer employees are needed.

The aim of this article is to present an artifact for evaluating the quality and performance of service providers in the field of health care: the UNIPLUS Program. To verify the scientific nature of the artifact and ensure that it meets the criteria set by the community and the environment, the premises of Design Science Research (DSR) were used. As this research field lacks empirical evidence, the artifact was tested from 2013 to 2015 with 25 health care service providers from different categories, with an emphasis on hospitals and clinics located in 7 cities in the south of Brazil. This article makes 3 main contributions to the field: (1) the artifact can be applied to any health insurance operator in Brazil and other countries, as it meets the legal norms and requirements established by current legislation; (2) it helps health service providers by generating information that identifies shortfalls and possibilities for improvement for every aspect analyzed in the evaluation process; and (3) it uses the DSR methodology in an evaluation artifact that evaluates the quality and performance of services in the field of health care. The artifact proved to be adequate for the purpose in question, helping to improve the quality of care and institutional performance.