Network meeting, guest lecture, part of course – and what's more, co-production of knowledge. When process orientation in practice was on the agenda, around 50 participants from different companies, organisations and Business School IT students attended the meeting.
On 8 March, students and professionals spent the whole morning focusing on process orientation, digitization and how best to create value. The event was a network meeting for process orientation in practice (PoP) and Swedish Association for Quality in the Värmland, Dalsland, and Örebro regions, as well as part of the course Business Development with a Process and Multi-Party Perspective for students in IT design, IT, project management and business systems. The aim was to acquire knowledge, be inspired and not least to produce knowledge together.
"When business needs digitization, it's vital to understand, improve and create completely new business processes before an IT solution is introduced. It doesn't work to solve organisational or work-related problems by replacing systems. We first need our clients to have a functioning and value-creating work procedure," says Marie-Therese Christiansson, deputy head of department at the Business School, senior lecturer in information systems and chairperson of SKF in Värmland, Dalsland and Örebro.
Inspiring lecture
Anders Ljungberg, founder and CEO of Trivector LogiQ, was the invited guest lecturer. He is doctor of technology in process orientation and has led process-related projects nationally and internationally for several major Swedish companies and organisations. Anders Ljungberg is one of the authors of the book Process-Based Business Development. He gave a lecture on the theme "Digitization of value-creating processes" and addressed future challenges, customer journey, procedures in need of adaptation, efficiency versus renewal and responsiveness, among other things.
"An excellent lecture with relevant examples and, in addition, entertaining," said Klas Brohagen, business developer at Karlstad University.
Network and co-production of knowledge
Kristin Mossberg, Valmet, is a member of the board of SKF in Värmland, Dalsland and Örebro. She says:
"Networks are important sources of inspiration – sharing ideas, broadening the mind, and not least avoiding being blind to flaws at home. At Valmet we've had a good partnership with Trivector over the years, so it's especially enjoyable to listen to Anders here today."
The students present have experience of using methods for process orientation in practice (PoP) when mapping out and improving processes in different organisations. After the lecture they had the opportunity to discuss the methods with the professional participants, in groups.
"I thought the whole day was extremely rewarding, mixed with serious talk and useful insights and plenty of laughter together with an awesome speaker. The group discussions were worthwhile and it's interesting to discuss the topics we study with practitioners," says Love Färnqvist, IT-design student.
Besides Karlstad University and Karlstad Business School, participants included representatives of Swedish Board of Agriculture, Karlstad Municipality, Länsförsäkringar Värmland, Valmet, Ejot Sverige, RZ Zampart, PMC, Nordic Paper Bäckhammar, Qualifier Sweden, Karolinska institutet, Region Örebro, Eurenco Bofors and Global Castings Guldsmedshyttan.
read more about process orientation in practice at kau.se/en/hhk
