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Organizational information technology (IT) needs are served through increasingly complex configurations of people, technologies, organizations, and shared information. Ideally, an organizational IT service is valuable for both the providers and users of systems and solutions. However, mutually beneficial outcomes may be difficult to achieve within the configurations through which IT services are delivered. We suggest that analyzing stakeholder interplay in IT service processes helps us to understand how information systems (IS) organizations can be leveraged to co-create business value. Through a qualitative empirical inquiry, we explore IT service realization in two case organizations. Through our analysis we find that value creation builds on orchestrated social action among the different stakeholder groups involved. Joint value creation in IT service processes hence calls for specific network leadership and resource integration capabilities from the IS organization. The paper enriches the current understanding of business value creation in IT services by infusing the service logic with traditional IT management perspectives. The findings highlight that the extent to which the IS organization can learn to facilitate the interaction between the essential actors in an 'IT service system' and leverage user-perceived value throughout the service process will ultimately determine its success or failure.

The following is a review of the current status and future plans of the research concerning tower crane operations, carried out by the Technical Research Centre of Finland (VTT). Firstly, an empirical time-motion study of crane operations on building sites is described. The results can be used for creating a crane selection guideline in a textual or knowledge based form and in crane automation ideas evaluation. Secondly, the current crane automation research results carried out by VTT are summarized and possible applications to a tower crane are characterized. Thirdly, some of the future activities in crane automation research in VTT are discussed. In those studies an integrated approach to crane automation problems will be applied, where development of the site's overall order, systematic construction management methods, knowledge or simulation based crane selection methods, adaptation of building components and crane automation will be gradually combined on the way to the long term goal: a highly automated building frame erection system.

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This paper reports on the results of a Norwegian-Finnish feasibility project on construction robotics, carried out in 1988. The aim of this project was to determine and evaluate the most suitable robotization themes from the point of view of the construction industries in the respective countries. Functional requirements and preliminary technical solutions were charted for seven themes: crane automation ; automation of the prefabrication of facade components; robotization in inner works; equipment for materials handling on site ; masonry robotics ; concreting automation ; and measurement, positioning and navigation techniques in construction.