Background: Companies and organizations of today spend large amounts of money on IT-based business solutions. Such business solutions normally include business- consulting and software-creation (IT-related services). Due to the rapid development of the technology within this field of business the IT-customers find it difficult to select among potential suppliers on objective grounds.Purpose: To increase the understanding for the professionl approach of the people involved in the sales- and purchase process of IT-related services in a business-to-business context. The study is taking the buyers'as well as the sellers'perspective into account when analyzing the process. Method: The empirical findings were collected from eight companies in Linköping and Stockholm.

The aim of this study was to illuminate how social workers in social services work with the social phenomenon, homelessness in two municipalities. The study is based on qualitative semi-structured interviews with interviewees from a department of social services. Our theories that we used was resistant inequality, structural discrimination, exclusion, empowerment and representation. After compilation of our empirical our conclusions are that homelessness is a complex phenomenon. Social workers handles homelessness based on client?s needs and the work is individualized.

The purpose of this thesis is to discuss the possibilities of, and interest in, a digital download service at the music departments of the libraries. I chose to conduct my study at the city library of Gothenburg. I studied the legal download services that exist today and I did a statistical survey among the users of the music department, followed up by interviews to see how they took to the idea. From the inquiry I learned that a majority of the users was negative to having a digital service replacing the physical department, although a majority was positive to try a digital service. I also used the inquiry to compare the reasons for downloading music to the reasons for borrowing records from the library, but there was no significant difference.

Idag går utvecklingen mot alltmer distribuerade IT-system där en grupp datorer kommunicerar med varandra. Detta gäller för sökmotorer, beräkningsintensiva miljöer och även för den svenska försvarsmaktens ledningssystem.För att systemen ska kunna kommunicera så flexibelt som möjligt vill man ofta att kommunikationen ska ske enligt standardiserade protokoll vilka är oberoende av datorplattform, programmeringsspråk och transportprotokoll. Ett koncept som kan användas för denna sorts kommunikation är Web Services vilket är ett koncept där meddelanden skickas XML-formaterade över valfritt kommunikationsprotokoll.För att möjliggöra utbyte av känsligt data som inte får nås av obehöriga måste kommunikationen stöttas av ett flertal viktiga säkerhetsfunktioner. En av dessa funktioner är användarautentisering vilket innebär att användarens identitet kan verifieras.För att möjliggöra användarautentisering kan digitala certifikat och asymmetriska kryptooperationer användas, denna typ av operationer är prestandakrävande varför ?Single Sign On? eftersträvas.

This study is a semi-­structured, qualitative depth-­interview study investigating Swedish institutional investors' perception of the fact that companies purchase non-­audit services from its signing auditor and if they see this as a threat to auditor independence. The study focuses on independence in appearance rather than independence in fact. The study is based on the current media debate on auditor independence and aims to provide a deeper insight to enlighten legislators how users of audited financial information look at the problem. The study builds on agency theory's notion that there is an information asymmetry between management and shareholders, which the auditor is to reduce. The results show that Swedish institutional investors perceive that there is a threat to auditor independence when companies buy non­-audit services from its signing auditor.

The manufactory industry, due to decline in profit margins, is seeking new business opportunities by moving towards servitization and value-adding services in after-sales. We have therefore conducted a case study to investigate a manufacturing company in their current transformation towards servitization. By studying the management perspective, we aimed to understand how Information Technology, by adding value, could play a role in the transformation process. This study shows that information technology can take an integrating role, by supporting new value-adding services to provider and customer, as well as a co-creating role, where both provider and customer benefits by learning from each other, in the changing work process initiated by new services. The study has also shown that Information Technology, together with organization, information and people, are crucial components in the manufactory industry?s transformation towards servitization.  Furthermore, the study has also shown that the value chain has the potential to drastically change due to the value-adding that the information technology brings to the progress of servitization..

The main purpose of this essay was to study how the social service and the lawcourt have implemented the UN Convention on the Right of the Child, particularly incorporating the childs best interest in social services, child welfare investigations and the lawcourts judgement. We considered how the needs of the child, and the will and view of the child was documented. Also how the parents capacity and the environment factors, were documented in the social services investigations and the lawcourts judgement. The study was based both as a literature study and a document analysis. We analysed ten child welfare investigations from a social service office and their belonging lawcourt judgements.Our conclusion of the study is that the child is in focus both in the investigations and in judgement.

Allt större och större andel företag väljer att presentera och förmedla varor och tjänster via e-handel. En viktig aspekt vid e-handel är att kunden känner förtroende för e-handelsapplikationen och företaget. Denna rapport redogör för vilken inverkan multimediala inslag har för förtroendet av en e-handelsapplikation, vid initialt användande. En undersökning har genomförts med hjälp av en kooperativ utvärdering av fyra e-handelsapplikationer vilka innehåller olika typer av multimediala inslag har.Resultatet av undersökningen visar att multimediala inslag inverkar positivt på förtroendet för e-handelsapplikationer. Däremot finns indikationer på att för hög grad av multimedialt inslag inverkar negativt på förtroendet för e-handelsapplikationer..

The aim of this master thesis is to examine the opinions of the students of Linköping University regarding the role of the university library in their learning process. The study addresses the student?s expectations and satisfaction regarding the library services. The questions we seek to answer are: What are the students? conceptions of Linköping University Library as a part of their learning process? What expectations do the students have regarding Linköping University Library? Does the library fulfil the students? expectations? In what way has the library?s pedagogical ambition reached the students? What are the students? opinions about the user education? The study is based on a web survey complemented with interviews.

The amendment of a law which is expected to come may well have a significant impact on the Swedish real-estate broke market. The law change will probably have an effect in the number of ways real-estate brokers will compete as a result of the increasing variety of services offered. In order to gain competitive advantages brokers must be at the forefront in the development regarding the changing market. To do so requires that the company chooses an appropriate range of peripheral services that are profitable. The problem is to choose the ?right? services to convey. The purpose of this paper is to describe the services that are in demand for transmission and how the agents can work to meet the demand of this new market.

International trade in services has increased over the past 30 years as a result of progress in information and communication technology, increased focus on services from the manufacturing sector and the establishment of trade associations.The international market for healthcare services, also referred to as medical tourism, is growing more and more. Patients increasingly seeking treatment at other countries healthcare systems because of long queues within their own country or because it exists better prices for the same care abroad. However, this type of service exports occurs at a limited extent in Sweden.The purpose of this study is to highlight and analyze the conditions for Swedish service companies to export healthcare services. This, includes the challenges and opportunities that exist to expand the exports of these services.The approach for this study has been in the form of interviews with two market actors and written responses, from the same interview guide, with three market actors. These market participants are the so-called Care companies which export healthcare services in various counties, and the membership organization Swecare who work with export promotion activities for its members in the Swedish healthcare sector.

In 2006 there was a change in LMA (1994:37) that clarified the division of responsibility be-tween the Migration Board and the municipalities, concerning unaccompanied children. The social services should now be utmost responsible for the housing and care of these children, to assure that they gain the same standards and rights as all other children. The aim of this essay has been to examine how the division of responsibility has influenced the work of the social services and how they interpret their responsibility for the unaccompanied children. How do the social services investigate and make decisions concerning these children? Do these chil-dren have the same rights as other children? To answer these questions a legal study was made, followed by qualitative research interviews with four social services that receive unac-companied children.

In today s society, services are becoming more and more important. They are however, partly because of their immaterial nature, separated from traditional merchandise, why the marketing and producing of them differs. Quality errors in a service are often difficult to discover before the service is brought to a customer, since the producing and consuming of it often takes place simultaneously. Quality errors in a service process are called service failures or in Swedish tjänstefel. Nevertheless, with an effective service recovery process, dissatisfied customers can be turned into satisfied ones.

One of the social services primary missions is to protect children from suffering harm. Social service work should work based on the child?s best and have the child's perspective in mind. In all cases involving children, the focus is on the child's needs and interests and is regulated in Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). Both of the previous research and this study reveal the various markers that are evident in the social services handling of honor related cases.

The market for management consulting services is changing with an increased level of competition and more specialized service providers. At the same time there is a high level of companies that fail in their efforts to establish themselves on the market. This thesis sets out to give the reader an increased understanding of the complex characteristics of the market for these services, focusing more specifically on which factors that have an effect on the strategy development for companies within the industry. The thesis is also aimed at providing the reader with a deeper understanding of how developing consulting companies can tackle the specific challenges facing them. In order to meet the purpose of the thesis, we have applied relevant theories to a generic strategy model in order to develop a model that is applicable for the management consulting industry.