IN DEGREE PROJECT COMPUTER SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING,SECOND CYCLE, 30 CREDITS

, STOCKHOLM SWEDEN 2018

Improving the information architecture at Boliden Group

KRISTINA NYBERG

KTH ROYAL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGYSCHOOL OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING AND COMPUTER SCIENCE

Improving the information architecture at Boliden Group Kristina Nyberg

The Royal Institute of Technology

Stockholm, Sweden knybe@kth.se

ABSTRACT Architects design physical structures to allow visitors to perform certain actions. The same idea can be applied to the digital landscape [18]. Physical architectural design of spaces for employees within the metals industry influence and improve productivity [14], whereas a suboptimal intranet design can cause decreased productivity in a digital landscape [20]. During an IT conference in June 2018, it was established that 75% of enterprise cloud-based system users consider the complexity of implementation or operations top obstacles to usage. Productivity, efficiency, and consideration for people are strategic values at Boliden Group AB [22], yet the internal Document Management System (DMS) indicated the opposite to be true. The DMS was thus analyzed using Information Architecture (IA) principles; context, content, and users [3], through a case study including (3) stakeholder and (1) expert interviews, an internal questionnaire with 631 respondents, external State-of-the-Art (SoA) analysis including sketch and (4) interviews and a final survey with 35 respondents. Results indicated inconclusive policies concerning education in Information Systems (IS); problematic DMS user interface (UI) and branding; IS restriction to Microsoft (MS) Office365 and a desire to use Sharepoint increasingly. The overall impression indicated desire to follow the strategy at Boliden Group AB, through well defined methods and goals, and focus on simplifying processes. The State-of-the-Art analysis identified success factors organization, emails, publishing, tools, and findability. Recommendations propose to leverage impressions particularly regarding strategy, UI and training. Improvements to the IA should be done following complementary user-focused research in two steps; Search-log analysis followed by Contextual inquiry. Applied improvements from the State-of-the-Art analysis were visualized in a sketch that can, collectively with future user insights, be used to inspire a developed Digital Workplace with Sharepoint UI and more intuitive document management for the common user, in order to provide simplifying recommendations for improved IA and productivity.

ABSTRAKT Arkitekter designar fysiska strukturer för besökare ska kunna utföra vissa handlingar. Samma idé kan tillämpas på det digitala landskapet [18]. Utformning av fysiska utrymmen för anställda inom metallindustrin har visats förbättra produktivitet [14]; en suboptimal design av intranät kan däremot leda till minskad produktivitet i ett digitalt landskap [20]. Under en IT-konferens i juni 2018 fastställdes att 75% av företags molnbaserade systemanvändare anser att komplexitet i genomförande eller daglig verksamhet de största hindren till användning. Produktivitet, effektivitet och hänsyn till människor är strategiska värderingar hos Boliden Group AB [22], men det interna dokumenthanteringssystemet (DMS) talade för det motsatta. DMS analyserades därför med applicerade InformationsArkitekturs(IA) -principer; sammanhang, innehåll och användare [3]. Resultaten indikerade otydliga policies avseende utbildning i informationssystem (IS); problematiskt DMS, speciellt avseende användargränssnitt (UI) och branding; Begränsning till MS (Microsoft) Office365, med vilja att använda Sharepoint; State-of-the-art (SoA) -analys framgångsfaktorer organisering, e-post, publicering, verktyg och tillgänglighet; konsekvent helhetsintryck av en önskan att följa strategin på Boliden Group AB genom väldefinierade metoder och mål, och fokus på förenklande processer. Rekommendationer till följd av detta föreslår att särskilt utnyttja intryck gällande strategi, UI och utbildning. Förbättringar av IA bör göras efter kompletterande användarfokuserad forskning i två steg; Search-log analysis (sökloggsanalys) följt av Contextual inquiry (kontextuell undersökning). Tillämpade förbättringar från SoA-analysen visualiserades i en attrapp som tillsammans med framtida användarinsikter kan användas för att inspirera en utvecklad Digital Workplace med Sharepoint UI och mer intuitiv dokumenthantering för användare, för att förenkla rekommendationer för förbättrad IA och produktivitet.

Author Keywords Information management, Information architecture

ACM Classification Keywords H.5.m. Information systems; Data flow architectures, communication management, Intranets.

INTRODUCTION Digitalization can be described as the integration of multiple digitizable technologies, or as Gartner wrote; “the use of digital technologies to change a business model and provide new revenue and value-producing opportunities; it is the process of moving a digital business” [9]. The main challenges identified when digitally transforming an enterprise include data architecture, investments, convergence of information sources and information infrastructure [14], in essence; Information Architecture (IA). IA has become increasingly important as the flood of information in people's lives exploded, resulting in information filtering and organizational skills that historically belonged to librarians, but became a norm [20]. According to Ding [20], IA is not just about organizing, simplifying, designing and integrating information spaces or systems; but also creating ways for people to find and interact with information. A company with opportunity to improve its IA, is the Swedish metals enterprise Boliden Group AB. Transition of data from local storage to the cloud was partially a step of digitalization taken; Digital Workplace, opening up for changed information flows; usage of various devices to access data and collaboration. It also allowed for increased workplace accessibility, as tools were no longer restricted to one physical location. Nevertheless, an improvement area within IA at Boliden Group identified was the Document Management System (DMS); indicating problems to share, find, trust and control distribution of information. Reasons included users lacking knowledge of how or why to use DMS as well as issues to navigate and filter the information. User needs may vary depending on technical fluency; some employees experienced a deficit of digital technologies, whereas others were laggards. Project managers were identified to have a central role as both users and responsible for educating new hires. The research question to be answered is;

“What are relevant IA recommendations at Boliden Group that may contribute to increased productivity, through improved adoption of digital tools with a focus on project managers?“

Sub questions include:

1. “What characteristics of project managers are relevant to provide IA recommendations?”

2. “How can internal analysis at Boliden support IA recommendations?”

3. “How can benchmark analysis support IA recommendations for Boliden?”

The objective of this thesis is to propose recommendations to improve the IA at Boliden, focused on the Information System (IS) DMS reviewing its context, content and users. The resulting recommendations intend to specifically support improved adoption of digital tools with a focus on project managers, which may contribute to increased productivity.

BACKGROUND This section will introduce the role of IS, DMS and project managers within the scope of IA.

Information

Defining information Borko defined Information science as “the discipline that investigates the properties and behavior of information, the forces governing the flow of information, and the means of processing information for optimum accessibility and usability. It is concerned with the body of knowledge relating to the origination, collection, organization, storage, retrieval, interpretation, transmission, and utilization of information [11]”. Information can be defined as structured, organized data with relevance and purpose [20]. Factors influencing information flows are its reach and richness between which there is a trade-off. Richness can be deconstructed into bandwidth, customizability, and interactivity. The higher the amount of information moved between a sender and a receiver in a given time, the more flexibly the information can be modified, and the higher the amount of people involved in exchanging the information; the lower the reach [5].

Information systems An overlap exists between information and knowledge, where the main difference is the complexity of knowledge; people play a role not just in creating or using data, but also in carrying and internalizing it. A Knowledge System (KS) would thus in this context to a greater extent exist inside the human mind, whereas an IS to a greater extent functions external to humans, but also may be influenced by them [20]. An IS can contain various types of information; such as websites, software applications, images or documents. Metadata on a smaller scale within the IS describes content holders; people, processes, organizations or documents. [18] A DMS is a specific IS; typically where documents are holders of content such as reports, policy statements, or contracts. The flow of information is fundamental for many crucial business processes, as well as correlated with productivity [16]. It also measures how effective a business is [18].

Information architecture

IA structures and designs shared information environments, through organization that supports usability and findability in the current digital landscape [18]. IA illustrates a spatial view of an IS; a snapshot at a particular time; whereas Content Management (CM) describes a temporal view deciding how information should flow through an IS over time, ownership of content and other content-related policies. In contrast to IA, which focuses on accessibility to current content and the IS within which it exists, Knowledge Management (KM) focuses on developing tools to motivate and foster knowledge to be shared in a future situation [18].

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Managing and architecturing information

Strategies Strategies concerning how to manage information and knowledge differentiates between standardization and innovation. Standardization; scalable efficiency, was historically used to increase stability, simplicity and cost savings. Despite offering efficiency by leveraging resources in a growing organization, it becomes problematically inflexible as business needs change in response to an increasingly turbulent environment. It also presumes a streamlined need, which may be efficient concerning IS management, but lacking in KS management. There are different strategies of seeking information based on needs that exist, affecting KS and, indirectly, IS; exploratory, exhaustive, re-finding, and known-item seeking [13]. It could, thus, be argued that an IS could not have a purpose without an effective KS. Innovation; scalable learning, in contrast allows for KS and IS to co-exist by facing exponentially increasing disruption and change. It also supports institutionally re-architecturing relationships and information flows to foster collaborative learning and innovation. IS and KS are harmonized through this strategy by using technology to augment the capabilities of people rather than replacing them. [6] Relating back to the trade-off between reach and richness of information flows, it could be argued that innovation offers quality of reach, whereas standardization offers quantity of reach. [5]

Project managers A project can be considered a unique, temporary and focused [5] process divided into a structure consisting of the ordered phases “define”, “design”, “do”, and “develop”. The emergent nature of a project differs from operations’ repeatable ongoing processes, why project managers’ needs would also differ [13]. Methods, goals, materials, the allocation of resources, project opportunity alignment with company strategy, and the strength of the business case can profile what type of manager that handles a project. The level of specificity of goals and methods can offer guidance in how to manage a project, as seen in the goals-and methods matrix , see Figure 1. [21]. Another distinction for management of a project can be made by deconstructing projects into smaller

components, called breakdown structures. The breakdown structures are Product Breakdown Structure (PBS); bill of materials to complete the project, Object Breakdown Structure (OBS); resource and skill to complete the project, and Work Breakdown Structure (WBS); allocated resources defining involvement of each skill type at a given element of the project objective. Mostly, OBS is given while other factors can be uncertain. There is a correlation between that uncertainty and an increasing need for top-down management. In contrast, where methods are well defined, bottom-up management is suitable, see Figure 1. Four project manager types are defined linked to these factors in Table 1 and Table 2.

Type Traits

Conductor

Specialized implementers, defined organization and known

techniques. Methods and goals are well known.

Coach

Multi-disciplinary teams, brainstorming, techniques need

definition. Methods not well known, but goals are.

Sculptor Facilitator, informed negotiation.

Goals not well defined but methods are.

Eagle Inspiration, creative negotiation,

strategy definition, communication.

Table 1. Project manager types linking methods and goals. Turner, J. and Cochrane, R. 1993.

Another business-oriented take on project management considers two factors; whether the project growth opportunity aligns with the existing company strategy; and whether a reliable business case can be made. The matrix results in four types illustrated in Figure 1. It can be argued that a business with access to all four types of project managers can support a competitive advantage through increased diversity and coverage for a wide range of projects [17].

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Figure 1. Inspired by “Goals-and-methods matrix”. Turner, J. and Cochrane, R. 1993.

Prophet Gambler Expert Executor Strategy

should be... Challenged Followed Challenged Followed

The growth opportunity

is...

A grand vision A bet An analysis A sure thing

Organizational followers should...

Make a leap of faith

Gamble a bit and pursue

rewards

Listen to advice and act

upon it

Stay within the strategy and follow the analyses

Weapon of choice

Persuasive vision Potential reward Well-supported

arguments Business cases

and reports

Table 2. Project manager types linking growth opportunity and strategy. Carsten et al. 2017.

METHOD The case study methodology was selected in order to focus on a single situation, participate actively in the learning process, use a real business problem [7] and understand the dynamics present in a single setting [4]. The reason this method was selected was primarily the fit with the context identified at Boliden. The research was decision-oriented; focused on providing the executive department of Boliden Group with a scientific basis to support decision-making. To document findings, voice recordings and notes in Google Keep were made when possible, combined with interview transcriptions. A combination of methods were used, where three main variables for research methods within IA set the

theoretical framework; context, content; and users [3, Table 3].

Type Traits

Context Background research,

presentations, meetings, stakeholder interviews.

Content Content mapping, benchmarking, metadata and content analysis.

Users Use cases and personas.

Table 3. IA framework. Ding. 2017.

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The background research formed the introduction and theory of this paper. Stakeholder interviews primarily guided the researcher in an unfamiliar context, by collecting impressions from three stakeholders that have been working within the Boliden IT department for many years. They are also users of the IS and other content relevant to this study. Meetings in Stockholm and presentations sent via email further contributed to the image of both context and users. Attendance at an external conference effectively contributed to the content through benchmarking and observations. [10] The expert interview primarily offered deeper knowledge within the content by mapping out metadata and technologies at hand. Fictional personas were designed to better understand the target group and provide a fictional but realistic idea of project managers. Boliden then provided an internal questionnaire and data from 650 respondents. An analysis was subsequently made of insights to better understand the context, technology and users. A survey was then designed by the researcher with the intent to correlate theory with impressions and associations, consisting of 12 questions and designed by using the tool Google Forms. The questions were divided into three sections; basic information, information management and project managers associations. Results were lastly presented considering relevant recommendations and conclusions for Boliden.

DELIMITATIONS The study is delimited to the division Group; including purchasing, IT, communication, legal, HR unless otherwise mentioned. The time of the study spans from February to August 2018. The recommendations’ main focus is on the internal IS (Information System) DMS. This study might additionally benefit external parties such as others with similar situations, problems, or systems. The areas concerns IA within Boliden; selected and identified as an area with opportunity to improve, as well as an area of interest to the researcher. The identity of the people and companies included in this study are anonymized wherever it is not considered a crucial contribution in order to respect personal data, legal requirements, ethics and privacy. It is presumed that any data provided by Boliden is correct, relevant and representative of future digital communication.

RESULTS In this section, the context; content; and users are analyzed. Stakeholder interviews, an expert interview and observations shaped the context. Content mapping, benchmarking and a State-of-the-Art analysis framed the content. User analysis was made through an internal questionnaire at Boliden, personas developed following background research, and a 12 question survey.

Context analysis

Stakeholder interviews It was known that Boliden was in the process of digital transformation. To gain a better understanding for the background, related details and context, semi-structured

stakeholder interviews were conducted (in Swedish) with Boliden employees within the department “Group”, holding various IT functions. In one telephone interview (see Appendix B), questions were asked considering the current environment, IS and potential areas of improvement. The interviewed considered user categories, their location and environments, and ideal usage paths important to investigate. The same also thought that the cloud transition worsened system performance overall. It was also established that mobile devices and computers were used within the company, where the need for mobile usage varied between sites and functions. In a conference call (see Appendix B) with two interviewees, it was concluded that the main system is MS Office365 and that one issue is document handling 1

being offered but not used. A big discrepancy in user needs was also confirmed; some desire more technology and others consider it overwhelming.

Expert interview meeting In a meeting with an application expert, IT systems were described and shown. The interviewed considered user interface, education and functionality the key aspects to further investigate and improve upon. It was also established that Boliden sites are self-regulating to a great extent. The decentralization causes people there to think locally, creating a disconnect to other sites. New employees have no formal training in software; it is, according to the expert, the primary responsibility of the project manager to educate them as necessary. Retroactive education is, however, sometimes offered. Different ages of users may be a potential cause for why they organize and document information differently, in terms of how they map files. There is also a discrepancy between how much users share on different sites, which the expert suspects is connected to trust. Although there is a dedicated document handling system (“DMS”, built on eDOCS DM), some users save files in their email client 2

Outlook , on their desktop, or on a local server. Out of 3

those that use DMS, they are forced to navigate 25 types of potential document types, fill out 9 required fields and specify permissions to save one file. Some out of these choices were also outdated. Future visions included future development of file tagging, a drag-and-drop procedure where the user drags and drops a file into a map structure, which triggers a question of how the document should be tagged based on where it is placed. Another vision was to cease using emails for archiving of information and instead use a system that is searchable for others. One reason for that was that in connection to burnout discussions, emails were a recurring topic. It would be

1 https://support.office.com/en-us/office-training-center 2 https://www.opentext.nl/what-we-do/industries/legal/legal-content-management-edocs 3 https://products.office.com/en-us/outlook

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desirable to increasingly use Sharepoint in connection 4

with Digital Workplace. “The main reason for this is not functionality, but that the trust for DMS has become so low that a brand expert would be required to turn it around. We are also deeply attached to Microsoft so it is not a question about if, but when, we will move (fully) to Office365.”

Observations At the Stockholm office for Boliden, several hours were spent and observations made. Walking around the quiet, light and visually appealing office with the expert, “DMS” was mentioned to one of the IT managers causing a negative reaction and troubled facial expression. When the expert was setting up a portable computer to present and educate on the IT systems, various technical frustrations emerged. Initially, the expert had problems in finding the correct cable to connect the computer and get image on a projector screen. The issue was resolved by collaborative effort, but then other systems such as Outlook took several minutes to start up. Overall, the impression was that the physical architecture was better designed than the virtual.

Content analysis

Content mapping To save one file in DMS, it is required to manually set a number of metadata including document type, properties and permissions. Tagging metadata is thus a manual, lengthy process. Sites are independently labelling metadata and setting ownership. It varies per site how important certain metadata, permissions and searchability are. Examples of content ranges from contracts, to technical manuals, to reports of accidents. The process is highly decentralized, which leads to inconsistency in how content is handled in DMS. The visibility in DMS also takes no interest in what function or site the logged in user belongs to, which increases the availability of information that may be irrelevant and distracting. DMS is also just one tool out of many which are being used for document sharing at Boliden.

Benchmarking technologies Three technologies were identified that could potentially assist in improvements of IA at Boliden. At an IT consultancy conference in June 2018, containers were forecasted as key solution for enterprise cloud systems, available through Microsoft by 2019. The containers are said to be used as small puzzle pieces inside a virtual engine to address security, but with maintained speed. Connecting people to content is central to IA, but could be explored through IoT; the Internet of Things; used to allow humans to focus on decision making and actions, at the same time as it decreases information filtering [1]. As part of a headhunting process, a tool specifically used for

4 https://support.office.com/en-us/article/what-is-sharepoint-97b915e6-651b-43b2-827d-fb25777f446f

speeding up and simplifying migrations to Office365 was presented; SkyKick . 5

State-of-the-Art at another enterprise At another large Global Enterprise (GE), in a different industry than Boliden, a customized digital workplace leveraging MS Office365 was rolled out globally during 2018 after a project of two years. Prior to introduction of this new IS, GE struggled with stability and usability issues as well as time and cost consumption, largely due to maintenance. The issues triggered extensive research, looking particularly at UX, CM and technical needs amongst thousands of respondents. Global questionnaires were combined with multiple other sources such as interviews, workshops and focus groups. Some takeaways from the studies about the old IS are highlighted in Table 4.

Area Details

Organization

Disorganized and difficult to navigate. Dependent on search

functionality with low relevance on output.

Publishing

Content is published where the employee feels comfortable, not

always where it makes sense. There are no standards regarding

KM or sharing.

Emails

Employees feel there is an overload of emails, but use it as there is no better way to reach people. Nevertheless, there is a

communication deficit.

Tools

There are too many tools and unclear how to use them.

Difficult to keep track of sites and tools required for daily

work.

Findability Rely on personal connections to

find important contacts, disadvantaging new hires.

Table 4. Overview of problem areas in old IS.

The main needs identified as drivers to create a new digital workplace, were size and diversity of the workforce, outdated decade-old technology and disconnected sites. Security risks and high investment in maintenance were also identified in connection to the disconnect between sites. MS Sharepoint search and MS Delve were the underlying technologies used to enable finding content and collaboration. Following implementation, users of the new IS were provided with a “help” section including a visual overview with actions to take, how they used to be done and how they were to be done in the new IS. A policy for managing security (permissions and sharing) in Office365 was made available under the same “help” section, including visual

5 https://www.skykick.com/

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step-for-step tutorials of how to set permissions in Onedrive for business and Sharepoint site owners. Best 6

practices for sharing included usage of groups before individuals, a disabled “share with anyone” setting for security reasons, encouragement to not overshare, review permissions often and make it routine. Changes observed were summarized in Table 5. Following the implementation, users were informed of how to update preferences to personalize and get relevant content. A prompt to update preferences was also displayed on first login. In Figure 3, a sketch visualizes how the improved IS main page was designed and finally used in terms of IA. The top left corner symbol expanded to a sidebar with applications such as Outlook, Yammer, Teams and Excel. The top right icons contains a profile photo, personal notifications and settings. In the right hand sidebar, “Tools” refer to a page with links to benefits, training, absence, legal agreements, ERP and CRM systems. “Collaboration” refers to group-specific links such as teams, communities, site-specific apps, blogs, external- and document collaboration centers. In addition to testing and using the system, several people using the IS were interviewed briefly and informally, to identify spontaneous impressions and opinions by the users some months after implementation. Respondent 4 used the system on a daily basis, found intuitive to use and had contact with many other employees but had not heard any complaints about it.

6 https://products.office.com/en-us/onedrive-for-business/online-cloud-storage

Area Details

Organization

Menu option top left, search bar top right for “people, search and documents” . Relevant output.

Possible to filter relevant content by updating preferences

for language, location and organization.

Publishing

Content is published according to new KM policy. Profile page supports simple upload/drop of files and permissions setting.

Emails

People can be found via the top search bar, where country, function, phone number and manager are immediately visible. If expanding by one click, availability via Outlook calendar is visualized as well as Skype, site details and documents they shared with the viewer. Email is just one connection point of many, and can either be accessed via the IS interface notifications, or a separate Outlook client.

Tools

Tools required are possible to easily find, customize and personalize through a user friendly interface that supports folder navigation, but focuses on search queries. Search functionality extends from documents to people, listing their site location which helps to keep track of sites.

Findability

New hires receive more information about people through the featured news on the IS home page, which is filtered based on what site they belong to. Important contacts can easily be found by navigation of the organizational chart after searching for a particular person.

Table 5. Overview of improvements in new IS.

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Figure 2. UI sketch from benchmark IS at GE. Image:Created by researcher with WireframePro.

User analysis

Internal Boliden questionnaire analysis An internal end user questionnaire not provide for publishing, contained 23 questions concerning overall IT satisfaction. Questions contained satisfaction of accessibility, applications (DMS and other office software and tools), information and communication. UI and functionality were recurring and central themes throughout the questions, which were mostly (14) formulated offering an answer scale of 6 alternatives ranging from “Very unsatisfied” to “Very satisfied” or “No answer”. The remaining 9 questions requested categorising information (6) or specific feedback (3). 31 respondents globally from all sites and departments answered the survey at the end of 2017, whereof 17 users indicated neither location nor position. Based on language, however, consistently every second respondent mentioned "usage" or "usability". More than every fifth user mentioned "education", "knowledge" or "training". "Structure" was also mentioned by 88% of Swedish managers. DMS-related comments included "too complex", “disaster for management”, accessibility issues, lag problems, lacking tutorials, information losses, dislike of program resulting in not using it, lacking

searchability; "very complicated to navigate, more than it needs to be", difficult to search queries as they return too many (e.g. 500+) results, "build something where information can be found", "simplify and make easier to overview". One suggestion mentions “the idea is good (shareability of documents) but usability is lacking so why not use Sharepoint as solution?”.

Project managers personas Combining background research in Table 1 and Figure 1, four project manager types can be described as combined personas, see Table 6;

Type Traits

A An earthed conductor focused on execution and reports.

B A fluid coach, focused on expertise and arguments.

C A fiery sculptor, focused on gambling and reward.

D An air bound eagle that preaches a grand and inspirational vision.

Table 6. Personas combining research.

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Boliden survey August 2018 150 respondents considered to have some connection to Group in Sweden were selected by one Boliden IT employee and sent a survey Tuesday 14th of August 2018. 35 respondents returned an out of the office auto-response; the 77% remainder generated 35 respondents in total. 74% of the responses were submitted the same day. The survey closed at August 19th. The survey was primarily designed to verify findings, capture user impressions and associations specifically from the division Group. The age groups provided to respondents aimed to capture the generations profiles; B (1946-1964), G (1965-1974), X(1975-1985), M (1986-1994), Z

(1995-2012). Age gaps were based on multiple sources, but there is no conclusive evidence that a line is drawn at a specific year. Other generations were excluded as they would be either retired or far from reaching a working age. Questions were designed (see Appendix A) partially based on Boliden’s internal questionnaire structure to capture basic information, partially on findings following the research already performed. Based on the expert interview, a claim was made that file navigation preferences was generation based; (folder structures for B, query search for Z).. Author notes can be viewed in connection to relevant figures.

Figure 3. Number of responses per age group when asked “What year are you born?”.

Notable was that almost half of the respondents were profiled as B and none of Z, see Figure 3. Considering the location of users important, following interview responses, the users were required to specify their site.

Figure 4. Number of responses per site when asked “Please specify your site”.

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“Boliden Office” accounted for nearly half of the respondents, see Figure 4. None of the respondents specified a site outside of Sweden. Definitions separating managers from non-managers were used similarly to the internal questionnaire Boliden to remain consistency. The positions of respondents were slightly more non-managers as seen in Figure 5.

Figure 5. Number of responses per position option when asked “Please specify your position”.

Figure 6. Number of responses per software(s) when asked “What software(s) did you get formal training in?”.

Only 29% responded to have had formal training in any software, where the majority that did get formal training got it in DMS, see Figure 6. Where users save documents was scattered amongst 8 locations, although the majority mentioned DMS, see Figure 7. Similar answers were given concerning preference for sharing documents, see Figure 8..

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Figure 7. Number of responses per document storage location when asked “Where do you usually save your documents (desktop)?”.

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Figure 8. Number of responses per document sharing location when asked “Where do you usually share your documents (desktop)?”.

Users were asked to select pre-designed options or to specify “other”. There was no conclusive evidence to warrant further research in correlations between age and how to search for documents on a desktop. Nevertheless, a clear majority wanted the option to browse through a folder structure, see Figure 9.

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Figure 9. Number of responses per findability options when asked “To find a specific document on a desktop, what do you prefer?”.

Using mobile devices for professional use was done by 76% of the respondents where multiple responses were possible for the same user. Out of those, a clear majority indicated a different usage need on mobile device document management, see Figure 10.

Figure 10. Number of responses per alternative specified when asked “Do you save, share, or search for documents differently on a mobile device?”.

The relationship to project managers was requested based on the expert interview, where it was claimed they have a central role in IS education, however, this was disproven as a majority considered someone else primarily responsible, see Figure 11.

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Figure 11. Number of responses per answer when asked “Do you have contact with project managers at work?”.

Predefined alternatives were offered, but also an optional field allowing free text. All respondents answered in regards to their relationship to project managers, but when asked to associate them without explanations to natural elements, 7 respondents skipped to the next question, see Figure 12.

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Figure 12. Number of responses per association option when asked “Which of the following would you associate with a typical PM at Boliden?”.

Nevertheless, the majority of respondents answered the association questions about project managers. Interestingly, the project managers themselves had conclusive results with the others on the image of “Executor” and “Earth” but none of them agreed with “Conductor”, see Figure 12 and Figure 13.

Figure 13. Number of responses per association option when asked “Which of the following would you associate with a typical PM at Boliden?”.

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From the additional comments in Figure 14, further focus was made on DMS and project management needs. Questions were purposely designed to not steer the respondents too much, which as expected generated some question marks.

Figure 14. Responses per comment when asked “Do you have any additional comments?”.

DISCUSSION The purpose with this case study was to answer the research question What are relevant recommendations to improve the information architecture at Boliden Group? The architectural framework of context, content, and users was used to capture a snapshot of the internal IA at Boliden, focusing on the DMS and the user group project managers. This research should contribute to the digital transformation Digital Workplace, in particular concerning document management, at Boliden Group. The research could also benefit others with similar needs.

Process

Method critique Initially, several employees within the department Group at Boliden Group emerged interest in this thesis project, due to a current internal digital transition. DMS was early identified as problem factor and central, together with project managers as important target group. The case study method seemed appropriate as it would allow to focus on people and their complexity as well as suitable for a particular business situation. DMS was identified as part of IA, where the framework of Ding was deemed relevant as IA research method. The idea to capture a snapshot; an overview of a particular moment in time; has more to do with IA than the case study method, which here became an unexpected weakness as the duration of the study was spread out over six months. Furthermore,

researching IA as subject area was sometimes tricky due to overlapping areas that could increase the scope extensively, such as Content and Knowledge Management. This complexity is accurately emphasized by Terra et al [20], but their view of data and information as main focus when managing IS lacks the purpose, which would involve humans to a greater extent. Although the case study was a suitable method, a higher involvement of users might be desirable to capture relevant changes. It would also be beneficial to be on location for the duration of the study as some observations are likely missed from a distance. Selecting in what order to perform various data collection methods within the case study can be difficult. The expert interview done at an early stage changed the impression of the main user group, which was suboptimal. It would be advantageous to instead select a target user group based on multiple sources of data earlier in the process to better focus. A potential problem with the internal questionnaire could be that responses magnify a reflection of people wanting to be heard because they are unhappy with the system. Nonetheless, the variety of collection methods together with the sample size gave a reasonable impression. Furthermore, it should be noted that potential bias and cultural differences are risks when highly depending on qualitative data collection methods. Nevertheless, the case study as method opened up the

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possibility to view a dilemma from many various angles which enriched the final results.

Researching enterprises The larger the organization, the larger the problem becomes. Inevitably, a lot of time was required to only navigate the structure of Boliden to begin with. A restriction to Microsoft systems was initially provided, which closed some doors to this research. It could be questioned why Boliden would not be open to explore cloud solutions such as Linux Red hat, or Amazon web services. Customizing a large system into a corner should not be a reason to exclude innovation or large investments from a business model for all foreseeable future. There were also red tape issues in connection to getting permissions to access various systems. An advantage with a large multinational enterprise, however, is the access to, quantity of, and potential to collect and use relevant data. The scope of the study focused on the Swedish market; all interviews were thus conducted in Swedish in Sweden. However, all of the interviewed respondents worked in multinational enterprises, increasing the relevance. With more time, there would have been potential to do a larger study including and emphasizing on cultural dimensions, differences and needs within Boliden. A way to address this scope limitation was to benchmark an even larger global enterprise. Outlining critical success factors and their improvements in tables was one way to illustrate changes, but the final result was harder to illustrate in text or with graphs which was why a sketch was designed. The idea with the sketch is to offer some visual inspiration to the future Digital Workplace at Boliden, but should be complemented with further research.

Recommendations

User interface and training Several sources verified the current Boliden DMS interface to be problematic. There is functionality in DMS for users to customize and personalise content, but the complexity of the user interface does not adequately support practice. It could also be questioned why users are required to do this manually, when technologies in place can identify and tag metadata automatically. Functionality aside, DMS is perceived negatively. Indicators for a more user friendly interface favour keeping MS Office 365 as the main hub, with a transition to Sharepoint. Regardless what system is in place, a training need should be satisfied. The findings of this study indicates discrepancies concerning policies for training in IS. A decision is needed to decide and communicate who is responsible for training of IS.

State-of-the-Art success factors Organization, emails, publishing, tools, and findability were identified through benchmarking another enterprise as problems possible to transform into success factors by leveraging MS Office 365 tools, including Sharepoint. A sketch visualizes inspiration for the future Digital Workplace including IS and DMS systems at Boliden, with SharePoint and Delve as underlying systems. The

inspiration from benchmarking could be a starting point for further IA improvements, but should be complemented with more user-focused research.

E-commerce research methods Two research methods known to the researcher from previous expertise within e-commerce could be applied at Boliden to offer further user insights. Search-log analysis [8] allows navigation of scattered user needs by looking at search queries entered into a search field, stored in a database. This is not not limited to DMS, but could be applied in other relevant IS to investigate weaknesses or unknown needs relating to findability and organization. By identifying the function, site, location, time of day, or other relevant dimensions, combined with search queries, it is possible to identify how the system can be improved. An advantage is that this data is often quick and uncostly to collect and offers anonymity to users. A second step to see users in their natural environment and be able to ask why they do what they do in case there is a clarification need, could be the method contextual inquiry [10]. This method could support investigation of publishing, emails, and tools. The user is not anonymous in this situation, which means it is better suited to verify less sensitive hypotheses and capture observations that are not possible through other analyses.

Strategy How to better bridge users with the IS can be done in several ways. Considering user input from Boliden employees at the end of 2017, there is an expressed need for simplicity of IS as well as increased training. The dilemma is to decide whether to invest resources in a simpler system which requires less education, or on offering more education to understand a complex system. Should the process be handled, or the people? Following the strategy of Boliden, although concern for people is mentioned, stable and efficient work processes are in focus. This could be interpreted as simplifying the process should be priority as a logical first step. Although project managers are not unanimously central to the education in IS, associations and input related to them indicated goals and strategy at Boliden to be well known and there is a vision to follow them.

Future research Recommended future research could complement this research by exploring the usage of supportive tools such as containers, Skykick and IoT in the context of an IS. Comparing cloud services for enterprises not restricted to a Microsoft environment could further investigate reliability, security and usability.

CONCLUSION Through a case study in Sweden, the collected information about the context, content, and users was used in order to provide relevant recommendations for the IA at Boliden Group. Recommendations offers guidance for managerial decision making and applied research, focusing on IS managing documents and the user group project managers. Results indicated inconclusive policies

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for, and execution of, training in IS; a DMS with problematic user interface and branding; Restriction to MS Office 365, with preference for Sharepoint; State-of-the-Art analysis success factors organization, emails, publishing, tools, and findability; consistent overall impression of desire within the company to follow the strategy at Boliden, through well defined methods and goals and focus on simplifying processes. The recommendations following the results of the study proposes to leverage impressions particularly regarding strategy, user interface and training. Inspiration for design of a successful Digital Workplace was identified at another multinational enterprise State-of-the-Art analysis, and could offer a starting point for the next step in digitalization at Boliden Group. Improvements to the IA

should be done following further complementary user-focused research in two steps; Search-log analysis followed by Contextual inquiry. Applied improvements learned through the State-of-the-Art analysis were visualized in a sketch that can, collectively with further user insights, be used to inspire a future Digital Workplace with Sharepoint user interface and more intuitive document management for the common user.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to acknowledge contributors that offered valuable insights and support to this document. Those people include but do not limit origins at KTH and Boliden. Thank you.

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REFERENCES

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en/vision-values-and-strategy

APPENDIX A: QUESTIONNAIRE

Basic information 

This survey consists of 12 questions, is anonymous               and performed by Kristina Nyberg (knybe@kth.se)           as part of a thesis at KTH royal university of                   technology. All questions concern activities in your             work environment at Boliden, for professional use. 

What year are you born? 

Please specify your site* 

Please specify your position 

Information usage at Boliden This section concerns how you handle information             at work. All questions concern activities in your work                 environment at Boliden, for professional use. This             survey is anonymous and performed by Kristina             Nyberg (knybe@kth.se) as part of a thesis at KTH                 royal university of technology. 

What software(s) did you get formal training in? 

Where do you usually save your documents             (desktop)? 

Where do you usually share your documents             (desktop)? 

To find a specific document on a desktop, what do                   you prefer? 

Do you save, share, or search for documents               differently on a mobile device? 

Project managers In this section, questions are asked concerning your               image of project managers. This survey is             anonymous and performed by Kristina Nyberg           (knybe@kth.se) as part of a thesis at KTH royal                 university of technology. 

Do you have contact with project managers at work? 

Which of the following would you associate with a                 typical project manager at Boliden? 

Which of the following would you associate with a                 typical project manager at Boliden? 

Which of the following would you associate with a                 typical project manager at Boliden? 

Do you have any additional comments? 

APPENDIX B: INTERVIEWS

Date Details

11/2 2018 Respondent 1. Function within IT at Boliden. Telephone call.

13/2 2018 Respondent 2,3. Function within IT at Boliden. Telephone call.

23/2 2018 Respondent 3, in function as expert. Meeting at the Boliden Stockholm office.

16/8 2018

Respondent 4. Born after 1995. Function within consultant for facility management division at external enterprise. Meeting in Stockholm.

17/8 2018

Respondent 5. Born 1975-1985. Function within corporate management division at external enterprise. Skype chat.

17/8 2018

Respondent 6. Born 1965-1974. Function within core business and operational division at external enterprise. Meeting in Stockholm.

17/8 2018

Respondent 7. Born 1975-1985. Function within facility management division at external enterprise. Meeting in Stockholm.

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