# A Multi-Usable Cloud Service Platform: A Case Study on Improved Development Face and Efficiency
## 3 Research Approach  
The research approach was based on a case-study methodology proposed by [PERSON] (2016) with \"a linear but iterative process\" (p1) comprising: planning, design, preparation, data collection, data analysis and sharing of results. Alternative methodologies, such as action research or participatory design, would have also been possible to use, but might have required more time, effort and action from the researchers. The research question is \"how much improvement has been made and how has the company managed to maintain a high development pace and efficiency throughout the development and simultaneous operation of the cloud service platform?\", and the \"how\" indicates that a case-study methodology is appropriate to use. In addition, a case-study methodology was suitable as the researchers did not directly participate in the work that led to multiple contexts and customer cases. The case-study company, Adage AB, is a high-tech micro SME located in northern Sweden and is very active on the northern European market. The company was founded in 2005 and has recently had an annual turnover of approximately 60 k\(\&\) and 110 k\(\&\) in 2016 and 2017, and expected in 2018 is 220 k\(\&\). Further, the company has one employee (the company currently uses development resources from its mother company BnearIT AB). The company provides services and products and participates in small and large research and development projects. Further, the company also provides cloud services and Industrial Product-Service Systems (IPS2) ([PERSON] et al., 2017). The planning of the case study was crafted at the very start when the provider did the initial projects related to the construction and real estate contexts during 2010 and recycling management the year following. The focus on these three areas is due to that they all have similar technology problems and were developed on the same initial platform thinking (and later adapted to and re-built on the Arrowhead Framework) and that they were the starting points with interesting commercial outlooks. The planning was further updated during 2014 as a new business model was applied (IPS2) to the recycling management context and the business volume increased rapidly. The intent was to follow the contexts on a regular basis and conclude the complete case study by 2017. The design of the case study included: formulating the study question, stating the study proposition: how has the company needed to change in terms of, e.g., the below, in order to improve and keep a high development pace and efficiency:  
* Technology
* Development processes/practices
* Competencies and skills
* Organization
* Management
* Infrastructure
* Service and support  
Most of these areas were initially predefined, except for management and infrastructure that were added later, based on practical experience from innovation and change management in companies. Further, the unit of analysis was the organizational level at the company. In addition, explanation building will be used to link the data to the propositions. It was decided that the criteria for interpreting the case study's findings would be made via rival explanations based on [PERSON]'s [18] approach, balanced defensively and offensively. The researchers wish to investigate how the company's set-up and organization has been affected when changing the development strategy and business model towards an IPS2. The generalizability of the (multi-usable) cloud service platform is of great interest as well. In order to prepare for the case study, a number of presentations, architectural/technical specifications, technical plans and marketing documents were analyzed. Further, a number of questions were presented to the company and ideas for changes and additional customer pain points were fed back to them as well. The initial data collection was done through semi-structured interviews [19; 20] combined with workshops [21].