J Ö N K Ö P I N G I NTERNATIONAL B U S I N E S S S CHOOL JÖNKÖPING UNIVERSITY Design of the Open Source S o f t w a r e B a s e d B u s i n e s s Relationship s M o d e l for Public Sector Institutions Case study of K i v o s municipalities Master Thesis within Informatics Authors: Lina Lvova & Marius Cirba Tutor: Jörgen Lindh Jönköping 2010 Master Thesis within Informatics Title: Design of the Open Source Software Based Business Relationships Model for Public Sector Institutions: Case study of Kivos municipalities Authors: Lina Lvova, Marius Cirba Tutor: Associate Professor Jörgen Lindh Date: 2010 August Key terms: Business Model, Public Sector Institution (PSI), municipality, Kivos, Open Source Software (OSS), OpenOffice Abstract Business modelling (BM) is being used in commercial organizations of different sizes and industries all over the world as a tool to design, structure and analyse business pro- cesses and activities. Hence, advantages of BM can be exploited by public sector insti- tutions (PSIs) as well. Adoption of open source software (OSS) is another phenomenon that started to spread from individual and corporate users to public environment. In Eu- rope, it was successfully done in German municipalities and Swedish police. Moreover, guidelines on OSS public procurement were developed by the group of researchers led by R. A. Ghosh on the base of EU directives on software management. The aim of the current study is to combine two mentioned above tools (BM and OSS adoption) in one practical approach that could be used by municipalities. The main rea- son for doing this is obvious lack of findings in both theoretical and practical aspects though the subject is being broadly discussed and promoted. The overall purpose of the current research is to design an OSS based business model for Kivos municipalities that can be later generalized to other public organizations, probably even in other countries. The specific feature of this business modelling is that it is created upon value and rela- tionships instead of issues related to money which is more common for BM. The current study is an exploratory and inductive qualitative research where case study was chosen as a research strategy. Data collection was conducted using the following techniques: literature review – for secondary data collection, and communication (inter- view and survey) – for primary data collection. Theoretical framework includes litera- ture (sources providing both general and specific information related to the subject of interest. All gathered information was interpreted and analysed through the instrumen- tality of enterprise modelling or simply summarised and discussed verbally. On the base of interpreted results of theoretical and empirical studies desired OSS based business relationships model was designed and described for Kivos municipalities. It is based on value which in particular case implies sharing information, knowledge and ex- perience as well as mutual assistance and reliable interaction between participants of re- lationships existing in OSS environment. i Acknowledgments In the context of two year master studies, working on this final paper can be thought of as a seven month project that touched different people from different institutions and provided us with incredible reserves of knowledge and experience. We hope that our research plans were realized as much as possible and that our study will be useful for others in future. Obviously, the whole project would be completely impossible to conduct without help and support of peo- ple whose attention and participation played crucial role in the transformation of initial ideas into real practical results. We are happy to have the opportunity to communicate with these persons and would like to express our vast gratitude to them. First of all, we would like to thank our supervisor, Associate professor Jörgen Lindh, who initiat- ed collaboration with municipalities in Western Sweden as a continuation of previous studies. Tack så jättemycket Jörgen!!! We appreciate your professionalism and we are grateful for at- tention you devoted to us and our thesis, for constant support and instant feedback, for pa- tience, inspiration and encouragement. We also want to express our gratefulness to Per Augustsson and Göran Westerlund, CIOs of Falköping and Alingsås municipalities, for their immediate respond and further participation in the project. Information that we have got from you was vital for our work and became an inte- gral part of it. It was really interesting and practical experience that we will undoubtedly use in the future. Now we have much more information about day-to-day work activities and pro- cesses in public sector institutions and organization of local government in general. Tusen tack, Per och Göran!!! Furthermore, we would like to say many thanks to Ulf Seigerroth who was our teacher earlier in the course “Enterprise modelling” and then helped us once again during the thesis work. The draft of the final model was developed and improved after the interview. Tack så mycket, Ulf!!! Edmundas Ralys has also helped us since he provided us with sufficient critics on the subject based on his work experience. Ačiū tau labai, Edmundai! Moreover, we are acknowledged with recent research “Choosing Free/Open Source Software” by N. M. Aghaee which was carried out before establishment of Kivos group and concerned two of its municipalities which became leading members later in 2009. And finally, we would like to thank those people who did not participate directly in the project but who are always with us, supporting, believing and encouraging; among them – our rela- tives, friends and classmates. And certainly, nothing in our life could be done without our be- loved parents who gave us the whole world of opportunities including the possibility to be en- gaged in these master studies; and to whom we are always and forever very much obliged. Thank you all very-very much! Sincerely yours, Lina & Marius ii Table of Contents 1 Introduction ............................................................................... 1 1.1 Background ............................................................................................ 1 1.2 Problem overview ................................................................................... 2 1.3 Purpose statement ................................................................................. 3 1.4 Research questions ................................................................................ 4 1.5 Concepts and definitions ........................................................................ 5 1.6 Perspective and target audience ............................................................ 6 1.7 Knowledge gap covered ......................................................................... 7 1.8 Delimitations of the study ....................................................................... 8 2 Methodology .............................................................................. 9 2.1 Research method ................................................................................... 9 2.2 Research design..................................................................................... 9 2.2.1 Exploratory research ............................................................................ 10 2.2.2 Qualitative research .............................................................................. 11 2.2.3 Inductive, deductive and abductive research ........................................ 11 2.3 Research strategy: Case study ............................................................ 12 2.4 Data collection and analysis ................................................................. 13 2.4.1 Model for data collection and analysis .................................................. 14 2.4.2 Data collection ...................................................................................... 15 2.4.2.1 Secondary data collection: Literature review .......................................................... 15 2.4.2.2 Primary data collection: Communication ................................................................ 16 2.4.3 Analytical procedures ........................................................................... 18 2.5 Method evaluation ................................................................................ 19 2.5.1 Relevance ............................................................................................ 19 2.5.2 Validity .................................................................................................. 20 2.5.3 Reliability .............................................................................................. 21 3 Theoretical framework ............................................................ 22 3.1 Managing PSIs ..................................................................................... 22 3.1.1 Public services: quality and effectiveness ............................................ 23 3.1.2 IT-based performance of PSIs .............................................................. 24 3.1.3 Software procurement in public sector ................................................. 26 3.1.4 Swedish perspective ............................................................................. 28 3.2 OSS: European practices ..................................................................... 30 3.2.1 Overview .............................................................................................