Digitalization in Public Services: Process Automation and Workforce Management at BruderhausDiakonie, a Social Services Organization

Lightweight It as a New Analytical Lens for Digitalization of Ngos

“…Regarding the use of information and communication technology (ICT)/digitalization/automation (use of terms is not consistent in the literature) for NGOs, the scope in the literature varies quite extensively from the introduction of full-stack solutions like Service Now including tablet computers at the Bruderhaus Diakonie (Müller et al 2019) to the use of social media of Chinese NGOs (Zhou and Pan 2016). As such, we focus on the last three steps in the following and discuss 12 use cases of information technology in Fundraising, Fund Management, and Programme Deliverysee figure 1.…”

“…As fund management pertains mostly to internal operations, a lack of publications on this topic in the context of ICT use might be caused by a reservation of NGOs to make this public. The 2 use cases found both detail heavyweight systems: The decision making support through the introduction of an ERP system (Miranda et al 2016) and the use of internal service portals and platforms (Müller et al 2019). Despite that, Müller et al also discusses the introduction of mobile elements in addition of the central platform, which could be classified as lightweight but would depend on the exact platform setup (Bygstad 2017).…”