The number of applications for debt management services in the Netherlands shows a steady increase of about 10 percent each year, over the last few years. Municipalities, responsible for these services, at the same need to cut back on expenditures. Our research shows that the (social) return on debt management is on average twice as high as the costs. These benefits are mainly found in the areas of social welfare and housing. Since debts are a reason for employers not to hire or not to continue employment, debt management increases the chance of (continued) employment and therefore helps reduce costs of unemployment and welfare benefits. Since housing corporations spend large sums of money on evictions, the prevention of evictions through debt management also reduces costs in that area. The ratio between the costs and benefits is only partly influenced by the quality of execution. Social structure offers a better explanation, where a weaker social structure results in greater benefits. Our findings are based on extensive research of individual files combined with interviews with professionals. Only direct if-then relations were considered. This means that in reality the cost-benefit ratio may even be more favorable. Municipalities should therefore be careful in cutting back on debt management services. On the other hand, crosslinking debt management with welfare payments and co-operating with housing corporations could open up opportunities for co-financing debt management services.
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Enterprise Architecture has been developed in order to optimize the alignment between business needs and the (rapidly changing) possibilities of information technology. But do organizations indeed benefit from the application of Enterprise Architecture according to those who are in any way involved in architecture? To answer this question, a model has been developed (the Enterprise Architecture Value Framework) to organize the benefits of Enterprise Architecture. Based on this model, a survey has been conducted among the various types of stakeholders of Enterprise Architecture, such as architects, project managers, developers and business or IT managers. In the survey the respondents were asked to what extent they perceive various benefits of Enterprise Architecture in their organization. The results of this survey (with 287 fully completed responses) are analyzed and presented in this paper. In all categories of the framework benefits are perceived, though to different extent. Very few benefits are perceived in relation to the external orientation of the organization. Few statistically significant correlations were found in relation to the background of the respondents: the overall view on benefits of Enterprise Architecture appeared independent of the role of the respondents, the economic sector and the number of years of experience with architecture.
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Due to climate change the frequency of extreme precipitation increases. To reduce the risk of damage by flooding, municipalities will need to retrofit urban areas in a climate-resilient way. To justify this investment, they need insight in possibilities and costs of climate-resilient urban street designs. This chapter focused on how to retrofit characteristic (Dutch) typologies of urban residential areas. For ten cases alternative street layouts were designed with a determination of the life cycle costs and benefits. All designs are resilient to extreme rain events. The results show that most flat urban typologies can easily be retrofitted in a climate-resilient way without additional costs compared to the standard way of retrofitting. Climate proofing sloping areas are highly dependent on the situation downstream. When there is no space downstream to divert the water into waterways or parks, costs to provide storage easily rise above traditional levels for retrofitting. In addition to reducing flood risk, for each case one variant includes resilience to extreme heat events making use of green. The life cycle costs and benefits of the green variants showed that especially green designs in high-density urban areas result in a better value for money.
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Summary Project objectives This study fits into a larger research project on logistics collaboration and outsourcing decisions. The final objective of this larger project is to analyze the logistics collaboration decision in more detail to identify thresholds in these decisions. To reach the overall objectives, the first step is to get a clearer picture on the chemical and logistics service providers industry, sectors of our study, and on logistics collaboration in these sectors. The results of this first phase are presented in this report. Project Approach The study consists of two parts: literature review and five case studies within the chemical industry. The literature covers three topics: logistics collaboration, logistics outsourcing and purchasing of logistics services. The five case studies are used to refine the theoretical findings of the literature review. Conclusions Main observations during the case studies can be summarized as follows: Most analyzed collaborative relationships between shippers and logistics service providers in the chemical industry are still focused on operational execution of logistics activities with a short term horizon. Supply management design and control are often retained by the shippers. Despite the time and cost intensive character of a logistics service buying process, shippers tendering on a very regular basis. The decision to start a new tender project should more often be based on an integral approach that includes all tender related costs. A lower frequency of tendering could create more stability in supply chains. Beside, it will give both, shippers and LSPs, the possibility to improve the quality of the remaining projects. Price is still a dominating decision criterion in selecting a LSP. This is not an issue as long as the comparison of costs is based on an integral approach, and when shippers balance the cost criterion within their total set of criteria for sourcing logistics services. At the shippers' side there is an increased awareness of the need of more solid collaboration with logistics service providers. Nevertheless, in many cases this increased awareness does not actually result in the required actions to establish more intensive collaboration. Over the last years the logistics service providers industry was characterized by low profit margins, strong fragmentation and price competition. Nowadays, the market for LSPs is changing, because of an increasing demand for logistics services. To benefit from this situation a more pro-active role of the service providers is required in building stronger relationships with their customers. They should pay more attention on mid and long term possibilities in a collaborative relation, in stead of only be focused on running the daily operation.
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With the development of Enterprise Architecture (EA) as a discipline, measuring and understanding its value for business and IT has become relevant. In this paper a framework for categorizing the benefits of EA, the Enterprise Architecture Value Framework (EAVF), is presented and based on this framework, a measurability maturity scale is introduced. In the EAVF the value aspects of EA are expressed using the four perspectives of the Balanced Scorecard with regard to the development of these aspects over time, defining sixteen key areas in which EA may provide value. In its current form the framework can support architects and researchers in describing and categorizing the benefits of EA. As part of our ongoing research on the value of EA, two pilots using the framework have been carried out at large financial institutions. These pilots illustrate how to use the EAVF as a tool in measuring the benefits of EA.
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Background: Impaired upper extremity function due to muscle paresis or paralysis has a major impact on independent living and quality of life (QoL). Assistive technology (AT) for upper extremity function (i.e. dynamic arm supports and robotic arms) can increase a client’s independence. Previous studies revealed that clients often use AT not to their full potential, due to suboptimal provision of these devices in usual care. Objective: To optimize the process of providing AT for impaired upper extremity function and to evaluate its (cost-)effectiveness compared with care as usual. Methods: Development of a protocol to guide the AT provision process in an optimized way according to generic Dutch guidelines; a quasi-experimental study with non-randomized, consecutive inclusion of a control group (n = 48) receiving care as usual and of an intervention group (optimized provision process) (n = 48); and a cost-effectiveness and cost-utility analysis from societal perspective will be performed. The primary outcome is clients’ satisfaction with the AT and related services, measured with the Quebec User Evaluation of Satisfaction with AT (Dutch version; D-QUEST). Secondary outcomes comprise complaints of the upper extremity, restrictions in activities, QoL, medical consumption and societal cost. Measurements are taken at baseline and at 3, 6 and 9 months follow-up.
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Spectral imaging has many applications, from methane detection using satellites to disease detection on crops. However, spectral cameras remain a costly solution ranging from 10 thousand to 100 thousand euros for the hardware alone. Here, we present a low-cost multispectral camera (LC-MSC) with 64 LEDs in eight different colors and a monochrome camera with a hardware cost of 340 euros. Our prototype reproduces spectra accurately when compared to a reference spectrometer to within the spectral width of the LEDs used and the ±1σ variation over the surface of ceramic reference tiles. The mean absolute difference in reflectance is an overestimate of 0.03 for the LC-MSC as compared to a spectrometer, due to the spectral shape of the tiles. In environmental light levels of 0.5 W m−2 (bright artificial indoor lighting) our approach shows an increase in noise, but still faithfully reproduces discrete reflectance spectra over 400 nm–1000 nm. Our approach is limited in its application by LED bandwidth and availability of specific LED wavelengths. However, unlike with conventional spectral cameras, the pixel pitch of the camera itself is not limited, providing higher image resolution than typical high-end multi- and hyperspectral cameras. For sample conditions where LED illumination bands provide suitable spectral information, our LC-MSC is an interesting low-cost alternative approach to spectral imaging.
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Background: The purpose of this study was to investigate the cost-effectiveness and budget impact of the Boston University Approach to Psychiatric Rehabilitation (BPR) compared to an active control condition (ACC) to increase the social participation (in competitive employment, unpaid work, education, and meaningful daily activities) of individuals with severe mental illnesses (SMIs). ACC can be described as treatment as usual but with an active component, namely the explicit assignment of providing support with rehabilitation goals in the area of social participation. Method: In a randomized clinical trial with 188 individuals with SMIs, BPR (n = 98) was compared to ACC (n=90). Costs were assessed with the Treatment Inventory of Costs in Patients with psychiatric disorders (TIC-P). Outcome measures for the cost-effectiveness analysis were incremental cost per Quality Adjusted Life Year (QALY) and incremental cost per proportional change in social participation. Budget Impact was investigated using four implementation scenarios and two costing variants. Results: Total costs per participant at 12-month follow-up were e 12,886 in BPR and e 12,012 in ACC, a non-significant difference. There were no differences with regard to social participation or QALYs. Therefore, BPR was not cost-effective compared to ACC. Types of expenditure with the highest costs were in order of magnitude: supported and sheltered housing, inpatient care, outpatient care, and organized activities. Estimated budget impact of wide BPR implementation ranged from cost savings to e190 million, depending on assumptions regarding uptake. There were no differences between the two costing variants meaning that from a health insurer perspective, there would be no additional costs if BPR was implemented on a wider scale in mental health care institutions. Conclusions: This was the first study to investigate BPR cost-effectiveness and budget impact. The results showed that BPR was not cost-effective compared to ACC. When interpreting the results, one must keep in mind that the cost-effectiveness of BPR was investigated in the area of social participation, while BPR was designed to offer support in all rehabilitation areas. Therefore, more studies are needed before definite conclusions can be drawn on the cost-effectiveness of the method as a whole.
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For the Dam tot damloop, a running event with 36,757 participants and 115,000 visitors, both an economic impact analysis (IEA) and a social cost benefit analysis (SCBA) are made to study the (broader) economic effects. Three overlapping geographical regions are studied and two new estimates of non-market goods are used. For the hosting cities the net social gain from the SCBA is at least three times the EIA’s economic impact. The larger the geographical area studied, the larger the differences between EIA and SCBA, because the EIA outcome falls and the SCBA outcome increases. A lower multiplier than 1 lowers the EIA much more than it lowers the SCBA. This study shows that an EIA is not suited for evaluating the welfare effects of public support for a sport event. The difference in outcome between EIA and SCBA is substantial. Valuing non-market effects is done infrequently but is crucial for understanding the welfare effects of policies supporting sport events. Organizing an event for social and city marketing benefits can be a better reason than organizing for the direct economic gains.
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Several studies show that logistics facilities have spread spatially from relatively concentrated clusters in the 1970s to geographically more decentralized patterns away from urban areas. The literature indicates that logistics costs are one of the major influences on changes in distribution structures, or locations and usage of logistics facilities. Quantitative modelling studies that aim to describe or predict these phenomena in relation to logistics costs are lacking, however. This is relevant to design more effective policies concerning spatial development, transport and infrastructure investments as well as for understanding environmental consequences of freight transport. The objective of this paper is to gain an understanding of the responsiveness of spatial logistics patterns to changes in these costs, using a quantitative model that links production and consumption points via distribution centers. The model is estimated to reproduce observed use of logistics facilities as well as related transport flows, for the case of the Netherlands. We apply the model to estimate the impacts of a number of scenarios on the spatial spreading of regional distribution activity, interregional vehicle movements and commodity flows. We estimate new cost elasticities, of the demand for trade and transport together, as well as specifically for the demand for the distribution facility services. The relatively low cost elasticity of transport services and high cost elasticity for the distribution services provide new insights for policy makers, relevant to understand the possible impacts of their policies on land use and freight flows.
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