IS Governance (Business)

Dubai stands as the Middle East's premier destination for spectacular events, from intimate gatherings to grand corporate celebrations. The city's stunning venues, world-class infrastructure, and multicultural atmosphere create the perfect backdrop for unforgettable experiences. However, navigating Dubai's competitive event landscape requires expertise, cultural sensitivity, and meticulous planning to ensure your event stands out and delivers exceptional results. Professional event management has become essential for success in Dubai's dynamic marketplace. The city's rapid growth as a global business hub has elevated expectations for event quality, creativity, and execution. Whether you're planning a product launch, annual conference, or exclusive networking event, partnering with experienced professionals ensures your investment delivers maximum impact while avoiding common pitfalls that can derail even well-intentioned celebrations.

Local area networks (LAN) are by definition organization-internal communication networks. Thus they are typically used, built and maintained internally. However, even this area of IT can not escape the effects of external networking. Local area network managers can draw benefits from product and service offerings from markets and electronic commerce. This article builds a taxonomy of local area management tasks, and discusses which of these can and should be outsourced to electronic markets, and which should be kept inhouse. Our focus is on eSupport, also here on the delivery of local area management services through the Internet. eSupport is an important incredient in the e-applications of the Internet. The article rests on a research project of LAN management practices in ten organizations.

Transformational outsourcing is redefined as a strategic evolution from cost-centric models to deep, collaborative partnerships
that drive organizational innovation and change. This approach highlights the importance for IT firms to engage in outsourcing
that not only achieves cost efficiency but also promotes strategic growth and competitive advantage, focusing on leveraging
core competencies. The analysis explores into the advantages and potential downsides of IT outsourcing, stressing the
necessity for meticulous planning and execution to overcome challenges such as vendor selection, communication gaps, and
risk management, thereby enabling IT companies to boost efficiency, spur innovation, and maintain competitiveness in the
fast-paced tech environment.

Global monitoring, and other drivers of high level reporting standards, have brought increasing pressure to embed Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in the day-to-day operations of many multinational companies. This move toward overt and targeted CSR responses and public reporting is prompting the strategic alignment of CSR with core business. Although driven in part by regulation, CSR initiatives and practice help demonstrate the moral authority of the corporate citizen. Practicing and publicly reporting CSR, presents an organization as ethical and worthy of trust, and in doing so, captures the good will, empathy and trust of stakeholders especially clients, customers and labor, in home countries. The development and maintenance of trust is integral to o↵shoring success. This research questions how the strategic practice of CSR by organizations, operating global in-house centers (GICs), contributes to relationship management in OBPO by positioning sta↵ in GICs as stakeholders.

Research has reported mixed relationships between different Information Technology Outsourcing (ITO) (e.g. 'total' and 'selective') approaches and organizational performance. Most ITO research takes a reductionist approach, which only examines unidirectional linear relationships between specific ITO attributes and organizational performance. Configurational theory as an alternative approach has been suggested. This study employs a theory-driven and empirically-grounded list of attributes to construct ITO configurations. Then it uses a set-theoretic method to empirically examine the ITO configurationorganizational outcome relationship. Data were collected through a survey administered to the members of the International Association of Outsourcing Professionals (IAOP). Our findings suggest five different ITO configurations that lead to cost reduction, capability enhancement, and innovation. The theoretical foundation for ITO research and configurational approach is reviewed next. We then suggest five key attributes of ITO configurations and three common organizational outcomes. Thereafter, we present our findings and put forth several implications for ITO studies.

For some time now more rigorous and extensive debates about outsourcing and development have taken place. This has occurred due to unfavourable policy formulation and implementation which has resulted in the increased poverty levels and low economic growth rates that are believed to characterise developing countries. However, changes from ‘neoliberal’ philosophy and zeal about specifically market-driven approaches have created room for more informed discussions to take place. This study evaluated contextualizing outsourcing and development from a theoretical and practical perspective through the use of secondary data collection method. The findings suggest that there is a relationship between development and the practice of outsourcing. Domestic and offshore outsourcing strategically executed can yield successful outcomes. Key aspects that should be considered to ensure successful outsourcing outcomes are outsourcing relationships, ensuring post-purchase satisfaction, managing the c...

Outsourcing has become very sophisticated and technology intensive. This is attributed to the demand for enhanced productivity and the maintenance of standards. It cannot be emphasised enough that skilled personnel is a key requirement when conducting outsourcing. This article investigates The Dynamics and Complexity of Outsourcing through the use of secondary method of data collection. The key findings suggest that the increase in outsourcing of core and non-core activities creates business opportunities. The successful management of outsourcing relationships, the adoption of Total Quality Management (TQM) and the skillful compilation of outsourcing contracts are considered to be of paramount importance in attaining successful outsourcing outcomes. Outsourcing creates jobs with minimal remuneration for vendor companies to attain higher profits and job loss of permanent personnel which is a complex issue to address. Union leaders globally have viewed outsourcing as unfavourable for ...

015-0344 Security risks in service offshoring/outsourcing: an assessment model based on the Failure Mode and Effect Analysis Guido Nassimbeni, University of Udine, Via delle scienze 208, 33100 Udine, Italy nassimbeni@uniud.it, +39 320 4366017 Marco Sartor, University of Udine, Via delle Scienze 208, 33100 Udine, Italy sartor1@uniud.it , +39 328 2198896 Daiana Dus, CASCC, Via Bogino 9, 10123 Torino, Italy daianadus@libero.it, +39 348 7643665 POMS 21st Annual Conference Vancouver, Canada May 7 to May 10, 2010

The successful implementation of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems is significantly predicated on establishing customer trust, a challenge particularly accentuated in mainland China due to its distinct business and legal environment and a noted high failure rate of ERP projects. Whereas contracts and transaction-specific investments are common strategies to build this trust, their effectiveness remains contested in the existing literature. Specifically, the underlying mechanisms through which detailed contracts influence trust are still not clearly understood. To address these gaps, our study employs signaling theory to conceptualize a model that elucidates how contract completeness, vendor contract compliance, and transaction-specific investment act as trust-building signals in ERP vendor–vendee relationships within the Chinese context. Furthermore, we introduce ownership type as an additional variable, evaluating its influence in shaping customer trust. Our empirical analysis draws on data from 208 Chinese organizations engaged in ERP implementations, revealing nuanced findings. Notably, the vendor’s ownership type, quantified by the degree of foreign ownership, negatively moderates both the results of contract completeness on contract compliance and the subsequent mediation effect on trust, thereby highlighting the critical influence of cultural factors. This study is among the pioneering empirical investigations into the synergistic roles of contract compliance and ownership type in mediating the relationship between contract completeness and trust. Our insights provide a robust foundation for understanding the complexities of contractual and relational governance in ERP vendor–vendee relationships, and we recommend targeted strategies for both vendors and customers to enhance trust in this critical business domain.

Amid swift technological progress and a global work environment, companies are turning to IT outsourcing to enhance productivity, drive innovation, and gain a competitive edge. However, excelling in IT outsourcing demands more than technical expertise—it requires a diverse skill set for effective project management, risk mitigation, and goal achievement.



"Mastering the Outsource: Essential Skills for Leading Successful IT Projects" is a comprehensive guide tailored for professionals overseeing IT outsourcing projects. It equips them with the knowledge and skills necessary for success.



Recognizing the complexity of the IT outsourcing landscape, this guide emphasizes the need to collaborate with multiple teams, manage intricate technical aspects, and facilitate seamless communication across diverse regions and cultures. Project leaders must possess a robust skill set to tackle these challenges and ensure productive, sustainable outsourcing relationships aligned with organizational objectives.



Explore the critical skills essential for managing IT outsourcing projects effectively in this insightful guid

Outsourcing has become very sophisticated and technology intensive. This is attributed to the demand for enhanced productivity and the maintenance of standards. It cannot be emphasised enough that skilled personnel is a key requirement when conducting outsourcing. This article investigates The Dynamics and Complexity of Outsourcing through the use of secondary method of data collection. The key findings suggest that the increase in outsourcing of core and non-core activities creates business opportunities. The successful management of outsourcing relationships, the adoption of Total Quality Management (TQM) and the skillful compilation of outsourcing contracts are considered to be of paramount importance in attaining successful outsourcing outcomes. Outsourcing creates jobs with minimal remuneration for vendor companies to attain higher profits and job loss of permanent personnel which is a complex issue to address. Union leaders globally have viewed outsourcing as unfavourable for their members. The challenge however lies in identifying suitable formulae to compensate retrenched workers and the compilation of favourable remuneration packages for outsourcing personnel. In conclusion, supply chains open markets globally allowing free trade to take place which consequently results in increased economic growth and development.

This work introduces the CRUDI Framework for management and decision support in Information Systems investments, based in the proposed CRUDI Matrix. The CRUDI Matrix is an abstraction idealized from the CRUD Matrix which was extended by an extra dimension: the Importance dimension. The CRUDI example application presented in this paper generates relevant information regarding issues such as the importance and the priorities in information systems projects, to ensure better alignment with the business needs and better Return On Investments (ROI). We also propose a survey to collect the relative importance of each process based in the APQC list, using as example the banking industry.

Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) has become an essential business strategic alternative to face competitive business environment as a results of increasing demands for consumer satisfactions and substitutes products and services in tandem with the rapid changes in technology and globalization. However many firms are reluctant or slow in adopting BPO despite many evidences on the advantages of implementing BPO. The study was to investigate BPO awareness among the managers and decision makers of State Owned Enterprises (SOEs) or widely known in Malaysia as the Government Linked Companies (GLCs) which lead to assessing the level of BPO adoption within their organization. The study was also to unearth the primary drivers and barriers to consider in implementing BPO in their organization. A total of 38 managers or decision makers were responding to the study. Those managers were from three main functions which have been classified as the support and back end processes namely the managers or head or Human Resources, Finance and Customer Services. The study has found that majority of the SOEs managers were aware of BPO will become more prevalent in the future years. Focus on core competency and lowering costs and maximizing efficiency were the primary motivations to adopt BPO, whilst the cultural resistance to change and managing risks were thee main barrier to implement BPO. The study has also found that the drivers behind the increasing uses of BPO were lower price and improve of technology to support BPO

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) applications are changing the way businesses are run. IT Offshoring is changing the way IT Organizations are run. However, both ERP implementations and IT offshoring are fraught with risks. When both ERP implementation and IT offshoring happen together, the risks get even more pronounced. The paper presents the critical susses factors of offshoring ERP implementation which are common in ERP as well as in offshoring case. The study is carried out with the sample interviews conducted in Switzerland. The findings revels that eight factor are critical while considering offshoring ERP implementation, namely customer interaction skills, business process skills, ERP package skills, scalability, language, project management, choice of work to be offshored, personnel split between onsite/offshore are. We used semistructured open ended interviews with interpretive analysis for identifying the factors.

Transformational outsourcing represents a strategic shift from traditional cost-focused outsourcing to a more profound and collaborative approach. It involves partnering with service providers to accomplish routine tasks and drive substantial organizational change and innovation. The report discusses the significance of pursuing transformational outsourcing for IT companies, highlighting its role in achieving strategic growth, competitive advantage, and cost-efficiency while enabling a focus on core competencies. It explores the pros and cons of IT outsourcing, emphasizing the benefits of cost savings, global talent access, scalability, and challenges related to quality, control, and data security. Additionally, the report identifies some critical reasons why outsourcing efforts may fail in achieving organizational goals, including poor vendor selection, communication issues, unclear objectives, resistance to change, and inadequate risk management. When carefully planned and executed, transformational outsourcing offers IT companies a pathway to enhance efficiency and foster innovation and competitiveness in a rapidly evolving technology landscape.

Transformational outsourcing is redefined as a strategic evolution from cost-centric models to deep, collaborative partnerships
that drive organizational innovation and change. This approach highlights the importance for IT firms to engage in outsourcing
that not only achieves cost efficiency but also promotes strategic growth and competitive advantage, focusing on leveraging
core competencies. The analysis explores into the advantages and potential downsides of IT outsourcing, stressing the
necessity for meticulous planning and execution to overcome challenges such as vendor selection, communication gaps, and
risk management, thereby enabling IT companies to boost efficiency, spur innovation, and maintain competitiveness in the
fast-paced tech environment.

In today's dynamic healthcare environment, the need for a comprehensive Enterprise Risk Management function has become increasingly evident. This paper aims to provide an analysis of the evolution of risk management in healthcare groups, particularly in the context of mergers and structural changes within the organization. This paper will explore the case for establishing an ERM function as a crucial change management driver and deployer to effectively navigate these challenges. By delving into the potential benefits and strategic implications, this paper will present a compelling argument for the integration of an ERM function within healthcare groups.

Research has reported mixed relationships between different Information Technology Outsourcing (ITO) (e.g. 'total' and 'selective') approaches and organizational performance. Most ITO research takes a reductionist approach, which only examines unidirectional linear relationships between specific ITO attributes and organizational performance. Configurational theory as an alternative approach has been suggested. This study employs a theory-driven and empirically-grounded list of attributes to construct ITO configurations. Then it uses a set-theoretic method to empirically examine the ITO configurationorganizational outcome relationship. Data were collected through a survey administered to the members of the International Association of Outsourcing Professionals (IAOP). Our findings suggest five different ITO configurations that lead to cost reduction, capability enhancement, and innovation. The theoretical foundation for ITO research and configurational approach is reviewed next. We then suggest five key attributes of ITO configurations and three common organizational outcomes. Thereafter, we present our findings and put forth several implications for ITO studies.

This chapter reflects on the findings from a comparative analysis of the cases comprising this issue, summarizing and expanding on key findings from these in relation to the evaluation market framework. Major implications of the findings for evaluation practice are considered. The chapter concludes with an outline of a future research agenda for the evaluation marketplace.

This paper discusses the complexities involved in managing and monitoring the delivery of IT services in a multiparty outsourcing environment. The complexities identified are grouped into four categories and are tabulated. A discussion on an attempt to model a multiparty outsourcing scenario using UML is also presented and explained using an illustration. Such a model when supplemented by a performance evaluation tool can enable an organization to manage the provision of IT services in a multiparty outsourcing environment more effectively.

List of Tables vii List of Figures ix Acknowledgments x Note on Case Study Contributors xi The handbook of global outsourcing and offshoring The main objectives of this book Therefore, this book offers a broad perspective on various issues relating to the sourcing of systems and business processes in a national and global context. The key objectives of the book are to: 1. assess the impacts of global sourcing on business; 2. assess the risks and benefits for the firm from engaging in sourcing activities; 3. devise a plan to outsource a system or a process from a client viewpoint; 4. devise a plan to offer services from a vendor viewpoint; 5. ensure sustainability over the lifecycle of an outsourcing relationship; 6. raise awareness to recent developments in the global sourcing arena. This book will, therefore, examine both the client's and the vendor's involvement in sourcing relationships by emphasizing not only the capabilities that each side should develop prior to entering a relationship but also what they should develop as a result of their interactions with each other.

Increasingly organizations are outsourcing their business processes to offshore locations. The goals cited include cost savings, achieving strategic focus, alleviating skills shortages and seeking to implement best practices. Current reports from actual outsourcing case studies indicate that many organizational goals remain unfulfilled. This paper proposes to study the impacts of BPO on the client organization using Coordination Theory. A case study of an organization, which outsourced its service delivery process and subsequently insourced parts of it, is presented. The case study supports the existence of strategic and operational gaps between the client and vendor organizations, which negatively impact the BPO. A follow up empirical study is being pursued to quantitatively measure the success of BPO using three costs - vulnerability, coordination and production for different categories of processes. The results of this study will have implications for the selection of business pr...

This study examines the question on why firms outsource particular information systems (IS) functions to varying degrees. It is the first to simultaneously examine three theoretical perspectives that represent different rationales for and against IS outsourcing. The first of these perspectives is new to the IS outsourcing literature. It acknowledges the systemic character of the IS function, i.e. that IS performance critically depends on various sub-functions working together effectively. Such systemic influences may be affected through outsourcing particular IS functions. Accordingly, they are considered as determinants that reflect the extent to which systemic influences are better recognized through in-house as opposed to external service provisioning. In order to examine the relative importance of systemic influences in the outsourcing decision they are contrasted against two more established ones; the one holds that the outsourcing decision is based on a cost comparison includi...

This chapter reflects on the findings from a comparative analysis of the cases comprising this issue, summarizing and expanding on key findings from these in relation to the evaluation market framework. Major implications of the findings for evaluation practice are considered. The chapter concludes with an outline of a future research agenda for the evaluation marketplace.

(2024). "The influence of ERP-vendor contract compliance and transaction-specific investment on vendee trust: A signaling theory perspective," Information & Management (I&M) (accepted 22-Jan-2024). If you have any questions, would like a copy of the final version of the article, or would like copies of other articles we've published, please contact any of us directly, as follows:

Information technology (IT) projects in the government (public) sector experience significant challenges. Despite decades of research, the adoption of formal methods, the use of external suppliers and packaged software, these remediation attempts have not appeared to have reduced nor mitigated the problems faced when the public sector undertakes large IT projects. Previous studies have examined the causes of IT project failure, in particular these have focused on factor analysis. A relatively limited number of studies have investigated the contribution of IT competence, and even fewer have considered the role and contribution of non-IT executives in IT project outcomes. This study sought a deeper understanding of what drives the behaviour of large-scale IT projects, and has identified a lack of technical competence and narcissistic leadership as drivers of poor project outcomes.

We report findings from an analysis of 234 firm boundary decisions that a manufacturing firm has made during a 10 year period. Extensive interviews with all major decision makers allow us to examine (a) who was involved in each boundary decision, and (b) how the firm arrived at a particular transactional choice in each decision. We find that decision makers extensively adapt decision structures in order to effectively make governance mode choices. They adapt hierarchy span, i.e. the number of hierarchical levels involved, and expertise span, i.e. the number of same-level decision makers with dissimilar knowledge basis. We observe that decision makers heavily rely on varying hierarchy and expertise span in order to improve the quality of the decision outcome. Central to the adaption of decision structures is that decision makers, over time and as novelty decreases, substitute hierarchy span with expertise span. We conclude that this substitution mechanism is core for our understanding of how decision structures are used when firms attempt to achieve transactional alignment.

This article compares and contrasts two classical decision-making approaches used in outsourcing specific public services. We perform content analysis of semi-structured interviews with public managers who are engaged in contracting for different public services, and find that incremental or small step-by-step decision-making is more likely to be observed in the outsourcing of “soft” or human services. Rational decision-making on the hand is more likely for “hard” services including janitorial services, public works, bridge design, street striping, parks maintenance, strategic planning, refrigeration experts, and food services. Our findings also indicate that some services can be outsourced using both decision-making approaches in certain cases. Using comparative analysis, we identify three factors associated with incremental decision-making across the organizations in our sample. All organizations that outsourced services using incremental models of decision-making had a for-profit...

I n April 2014, Swati Bhargava, Dean of the National Institute of Management (NIM), suggested to Col S R Rao, VSM (Retd.), the Administrative Officer (AO) of NIM that a comprehensive review of security contracts of the last four years of NIM be conducted. A number of administrative and operational issues were plaguing the management of security services at NIM. Swati suggested that Col Rao find an innovative and effective solution to this problem. National Institute of Management NIM was setup in 1996 by the Government of India (GoI) to impart quality education in management. In a short span of time, NIM established itself as a premier institute of management in the central part of India. In 2014, it had a student strength of 1,500. A team of 400 staff and 80 faculty contributed to the administrative and academic activities of NIM. Its residential campus (193.4 acres) was adjacent to an industrial park and was 20 km away from the city. The campus topography was in three interconnected concentric levels. The top level was used for academic and administrative activities. The middle level housed residential facilities (for faculty and staff families). Fifty faculty members and an equal number of staff and their families lived on the campus. The student hostels were spread between the middle and base levels. The base level also provided space for utilities, a sports complex and two ancient temples.

An economic phenomenon that is defined by the movement of industrial activity from developed to emerging nations has occurred during the past two decades. This technique may be seen as the huge firms' solution to the issue of production costs that were steadily growing along with rising living standards and compensation. This paper seeks to study outsourcing from the standpoint of its evolution as well as the benefits and drawbacks that come with it. On the other hand, this research essay aims to define the concept's foundations and explore its applicability to the public sector. Overall, research on outsourcing has shown that outsourcing can provide significant benefits in terms of cost savings, flexibility, and quality, but it also presents challenges in terms of managing relationships, maintaining control, and managing the human resources aspects of outsourcing. Companies need to carefully consider the potential benefits and risks of outsourcing before deciding whether to...

The European Union has introduced a new General Data Protection Regulation that regulates all aspects of privacy and data protection for the data of European citizens. To transition to the new rules, companies and public institutions were given two years to adapt their systems and controls. Due to the large area of changes the GDPR requires, many companies are facing severe problems to adapt the rules to be ready for enforcement. This marks the purpose of this study which is to look into compliance practices in the implementation of GDPR requirements. This includes a prospect of compliance mechanisms that may remain insufficiently addressed when the regulation comes into force on May 25, 2018. The study is conducted in Sweden and aims to investigate the situation in corporations and not in public institutions. Mixed methods have been applied by surveying and interviewing Swedish GDPR experts and consultants to gain an understanding of their view by using capability maturity scales to assess a variety of security processes and controls. The analysis shows a low implementation in GDPR requirements while having seen improvements over the past two years of transition. It points out that a holistic strategy towards compliance is mostly missing and many companies face obstacles that are difficult to overcome in a short period. This may result in non-compliance in many Swedish corporations after the regulation comes into force on May 25.

Despite claims in the trade literature that a number of recommended practices have been proved to lead to IT outsourcing success, few of these practices have been subject to disconfirmatory research. Even fewer have been tested statistically to determine whether they generalize to wider populations, or to determine the magnitude of their effect. In this paper, several recommended outsourcing practices associated with service level agreements (SLAs) and benchmarking are investigated. These practices are recommended extensively on the basis of case study research, yet they do have downsides, and they add substantially to the transaction costs of outsourcing. Based on a large survey of organizations engaged in IT outsourcing, this paper established that developing detailed SLAs did improve cost and service outcome, and that clients who met with vendors more frequently to renegotiate service levels reported greater outsourcing success. The research also established that benchmarking bot...

This paper presents a paradigmatic case of Strategic Outsourcing-the case of an industrial firm that specialized in producing packages / containers for its industrial clients in modular manufacturing units located in the clients' premises, wall-to-wall or even inside their factories. The company provides a complete in house service in various dimensions: package / container development (CAD-CAM, quick prototyping, mould and packaging design), production (JIT), quality control, technical advice, all integrated with each of its clients operations. These solutions are provided to clients that operate in a variety of industries: food and drink stuff, body care, home care, lubricants, and PET pre-moulding. The analysis of the case shows fluid firm boundaries as there seems to be a great deal of integration with its clients in terms of operating competences and dynamic capabilities in production activities in order to sustain the close vertical buyer-supplier relationships. We discuss the supplier-client relationship, the organizational and administrative tasks and the main characteristics of this industrial and services outsourcing. The research seeks to discuss how companies may develop and manage such characteristics and to debate the outsourcing theory or the boundaries of the firm. The case study research is based on managers' interviews, observation of the production activities and the analysis of documental material.

For information and printed versions please see www.vanharen.net Implementing IT Governance-A Practical Guide to Global Best Practices in IT Management None of this is easy, or obvious, and this pragmatic and actionable 'how to' guide is intended to draw from about 200 current and emerging best practice sources, and over 20 IT governance best practice case studies, some of which are featured in the book. The purpose of the book is not to repeat in greater detail, what has been published previously. Instead, it aims to describe each of the major IT governance components as part of an overall comprehensive framework and roadmap, in sufficient detail for executives, managers and professionals; to serve as a guideline and starting point for any organization in any industry; to develop and tailor a workable and realistic approach to its environment, strategies, priorities, capabilities and available resources; and to transition IT organizations to a higher level of maturity, effectiveness and responsiveness. Introduction to IT/business alignment, planning, execution and governance Scope and definition of enterprise governance and its relationship to business and IT governance According to the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC), "enterprise governance constitutes the entire accountability framework of the organization."-International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) Enterprise governance is the set of responsibilities and practices exercised by the Board and executive management, with the goal of providing strategic direction, ensuring that plans and objectives are achieved, assessing that risks are proactively managed, and assuring that the enterprise's resources are used responsibly. Enterprise governance deals with the separation of ownership and control of an organization, while business governance focuses on the direction and control of the business, and IT governance focuses on the direction and control of IT. Figure 1.2 compares and differentiates the key characteristics of enterprise versus business versus IT governance. Select issues addressed by a panel of CIOs of global organizations, such as Pepsi, GE, Ogilvy and Mather and Footstar, at a recent Society for Information Management (SIM) Chapter meeting (Selig,

Claims that information technology can be a source of competitive advantage, which populated business literature in the late 1980s, have been largely discredited. Nonetheless, business executives continue to look for ways to apply information technology strategically to their businesses. Reporting on a two-year study of IT management practices, the authors note that some firms do appear to generate competitive advantage from their IT, but the advantage results from their IT capabilities, not from their IT applications. Specifically, a firm delivers value from IT by building and leveraging three assets: highly competent IT human resources, a reusable technology infrastructure, and a strong IT-business partner relationship. These three assets are interrelated in the sense that they tend to strengthenor weaken-one another. Together, they allow a firm to apply information technology to strategic business needs faster and more cost effectively than the competition. This paper describes the characteristics of strong IT assets and offers strategies for developing them.

For some time now more rigorous and extensive debates about outsourcing and development have taken place. This has occurred due to unfavourable policy formulation and implementation which has resulted in the increased poverty levels and low economic growth rates that are believed to characterise developing countries. However, changes from ‘neoliberal’ philosophy and zeal about specifically market-driven approaches have created room for more informed discussions to take place. This study evaluated contextualizing outsourcing and development from a theoretical and practical perspective through the use of secondary data collection method. The findings suggest that there is a relationship between development and the practice of outsourcing. Domestic and offshore outsourcing strategically executed can yield successful outcomes. Key aspects that should be considered to ensure successful outsourcing outcomes are outsourcing relationships, ensuring post-purchase satisfaction, managing the c...

An understanding of information technology outsourcing risks, risk categories and their relationships, has been developed over the years from multiple research and theoretical perspectives. These perspectives are not well integrated, however, and do little to develop a common and shared understanding of sourcing risks for organisations. This means that IT sourcing decisions are not well supported by a coherent and well-understood body of knowledge. To start to address the shortcoming, we have conducted three workshops with skilled practitioners and academics to supplement our current understanding of sourcing risk, risk categories and their relationships. From these workshops we have developed an integrated ontological view of sourcing risk which defines the relationships between sixteen risk categories and over hundred and fifty risks, and maps the relationships between them. To facilitate this integrated ontological view we have applied the commonly using OWL and the Protégé-tool to our workshop data..

IT outsourcing is a complex endeavour with multiple sources of risks. The body of knowledge on the subject is vast but scattered. Our project aims to create an integrated risk and controls framework. This paper discusses the multidimensional nature of outsourcing risks that needs to be addressed when such framework is developed. This paper presents findings from two workshops where risks, their classifications and dimensions where discussed by a group of experienced risk practitioners. The results highlight that practitioners see strategy, stakeholders and the different phases of the outsourcing as important dimensions that create risk and need to be addressed when organisations are planning or running an outsourcing venture. This research confirms that there are a number of dimensions in IT outsourcing risk and it has provided depth to the understanding of these dimensions.

This paper contributes to the field by applying the Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) for building a model,which improves the understanding of the role of project setup and communication in the transitionphase of projects involving global virtual teams.Although research has highlighted the importance of knowledge transfer in offshore outsourced projects, the literature says little about real-world knowledgetransfer problems experienced by project managers and provides little guidance for developing solutions. In this paper, we investigate knowledge transfer problems in the transition phase of offshore outsourcedsoftware projects and how setup of the phaseinfluences unstructured knowledge transfer. Using the SSM, we identify relevant constructs and relationships and build a conceptual model. This highlights the importance of an appropriate communication inception as a basis for relationship building and defines a new construct, 'knowledge discourse', whichsignifies the importance of two-way interaction for the transfer of unstructured knowledge.