A Survey and Analysis of the Literature on Information Systems Outsourcing

With the development and penetration of business information systems, information systems outsourcing (IS Outsourcing) has attracted more and more interests from both managers and IT vendors. Meanwhile, there is an increasing number of theoretical research papers in academic journals. This paper reviews major theoretical research papers in this area and classifies them from the perspectives of research topics, research methods, journal categories, and theoretical foundations. Based on this review, we propose some directions for future research in IS outsourcing

A Study of Information Systems Outsourcing Risks

Despite the considerable growth of Information Systems (IS) outsourcing in recent years, this trend is still the object of strong criticism. This study has as its aim to show the main risks computer outsourcing entails for the largest Spanish firms. In order to achieve that aim, we have reviewed the previous literature on this topic and later analysed the results of a survey covering 5,000 firms. According to the firms under analysis, the main concern in relation to IS outsourcing is the excessive dependence on the provider this type of contract may generate. Nevertheless, some characteristics of firms (mainly their size) somehow determine what risks are seen as the most relevant. The conclusions also suggest that total outsourcing can turn out to be a very dangerous strategy, mainly due to the dependence it creates. This is why IS managers should consider other alternatives such as having multiple providers or resorting to selective outsourcing

The Refugee Problem: An International Legal Tangle

Change is constant and computing paradigm is no exception. It has witnessed major shifts right from centralized client server systems to widely distributed systems. This time the locus of change in the computing paradigm is moving towards virtualization, paving way to cloud computing. Cloud computing aims at providing computing services to its users as an utility. It allows its authenticated users to access a wide range of highly scalable computing capabilities and services via the internet on a pay-per-usage basis. Organisations not only view these benefits as cost-saving strategies, but also aim at improving the competitive advantages using cloud computing. Hence, this has given rise to a new horizon in IT/IS outsourcing. With a collaboration of cloud computing and outsourcing emerged a new concept called cloudsourcing. Cloudsourcing can be termed as the next generation outsourcing and the next phase of cloud computing promising benefits from both the areas. Cloudsourcing is outsourcing traditional business via the cloud infrastructure. Though there is pompous popularity surrounding this new technology, there is much hesitation in adopting it due to the inherent security issues. This paper discusses in detail the security issues and possible solution to the same. As this is a new concept, not much work is identified to be done in providing a set of guidelines to adopt cloudsourcing that are very specific to information security. This work intends to fill this aperture by building a set of well-defined information security guidelines, which can be termed as a novel. For this purpose, design science research method proposed by Hevner et al is used so as to accomplish this goal. Initially, a literature study is done after which an exploratory study comprising of interviews is done to gather qualitative data. The results of the exploratory interview is tested for correctness and evaluated based on an evaluation study comprising a survey based questionnaire. The analysis of the evaluation study results provides the final results. In such an attempt, the identified countermeasures to risks are classified into three groups namely, organisational, technical and regulatory and compliance guidelines. Hence the end results constituting the set of information security guidelines are classified into the above mentioned groups. This work is assumed to contribute to our understanding of information security in cloudsourcing and in supporting IT decision makers, IT project managers and security executives of organisations for a smooth and secure transition towards cloudsourcing their business

Information systems outsourcing risks: a study of large firms

Purpose – Despite the considerable growth of information systems (IS) outsourcing in recent years, this trend is still the object of strong criticism. This study has as its aim to show the main risks computer outsourcing entails in the case of the largest Spanish firms. Design/methodology/approach – In order to achieve that aim, reviews the previous literature on this topic and later analyses the results of a survey carried out using a questionnaire that was answered by 357 firms. Findings – According to the firms under analysis, the main concern in relation to IS outsourcing is the excessive dependence on the provider this type of contract can generate. Nevertheless, some characteristics of firms (mainly their size) determine to some extent what risks are seen as the most relevant. Originality/value – The conclusions suggest that total outsourcing can turn out to be a very dangerous strategy, mainly due to the dependence it creates. This is why IS managers should consider other alternatives such as having multiple providers or resorting to selective outsourcing

How the Supply Chain Management Practices influence on Operational Performance? A Case of Manufacturing Firms in Sri Lanka

Most organisations in different sectors are implementing Supply Chain Management Practices (SCMPs) to create faster, more effective, and cost-beneficial relationships between business partners, to increase their Operational Performances.  Even though the firms use SCMPs, their knowledge regarding the effectiveness of these practices is questionable. The aim of this study was to identify the most influential SCMPs on the Operational Performances of the Sri Lankan manufacturing industry. As to the literature and due to the high level of applicability in the manufacturing sector, five factors; Supply Relationship Management, Customer Relationship Management, Information Sharing, Logistics, and Outsourcing of Services were selected to conceptualize the current study. The Operational Performance of a Manufacturing organization has defined as the performance related to the quality, cost, delivery, and flexibility to change the volume. This was a cross-sectional questionnaire based survey which is quantitative in nature and primarily concerned with the testing of hypotheses. A set of 37 close-ended questions used to collect data from 200 randomly selected organizations. However, due to the difficulties faced in the pandemic environment, the success rate was 58.5%. Results of the Correlation Analysis confirmed the relationships hypothesized according to the theoretical behaviour with positive relationships significant at a 1% level. The strongest relationship shows between Logistics and Operational Performances (0.832). Regression Analysis showed significant impacts of Supplier Relationship Management (β=0.276) and Logistics (β=0.261) on the Operational Performance. Customer Relationship Management, Information Sharing, and outsourcing were not showed a significant impact on the Operational Performance at the 5% level. The adequacy of the fitted model is 67% and the RMSE is 0.236. The residual analysis also ensured the accuracy of the model with normally distributed residuals, free of Multi-collinearity, and having homoscedasticity which emphasises the constant variance of the residuals. The findings emphasise that if the SCMPs is running at a righteous level, an organization can keep their Operational Performances at a higher level. However, only the Supplier Relationship and Logistic activities are the factors significantly influencing the Operational Performances of the Manufacturing sector in Sri Lanka.  Similar to the facts highlighted in the literature, the responses of the current study also showed a poor level of handling and utilizing customer feedback for the development of Sri Lankan organizations. Information sharing also showed a poor focus on integrating and enhancing the IT systems. The uncontrollable circumstances due to outsourcing the services lead to a poor level of operational performance at the finale. This research contributes to the existing Supply Chain Management literature by providing empirical evidence from the Sri Lankan manufacturing industry

The impact of business process outsourcing on firm performance and the influence of governance : a long term study in the German banking industry

Does BPO pay off at the firm-level? Although there are several studies which analyze the potential benefits of BPO, there is a virtual absence of research papers on BPO outcomes. Based on an analysis of 137 Business process outsourcing (BPO) ventures at 254 German banks in a period between 1994 and 2005, we found that the outsourcer's financial performance in terms of profitability and cost efficiency was increased significantly compared to industry peers without BPO. The increase stems not from workforce reductions but rather from increased employee productivity. Further, we show how BPO governance ensures BPO success: individually negotiated outsourcing contracts help to improve cost efficiency and profitability measures. Relational governance based on trust has only positive effects on profitability. Keywords: Business Process Outsourcing, firm performance, firm characteristics, banking, German banks, governance JEL Classifications: G21, L14, L21, L2

Examining client perceptions of partnership quality and its dimensions in an IT outsourcing relationship

This paper reports on an empirical study of the multidimensionality of partnership quality in IT outsourcing arrangements and the relationships between these dimensions of partnership quality. A two-phase national survey was conducted to collect empirical data to confirm the dimensions of partnership quality in an IT outsourcing arrangement from the client organisation perspective and to identify the significant relationships between these dimensions using a second generation multivariate analysis technique—partial least squares (PLS). The findings from results of the data analyses show that inter-organisational trust, shared business understanding and to a lesser extent, functional and dysfunctional conflict between the client organisation and the outsourcing vendor in an IT outsourcing relationship are the key determinants of partnership quality. The key outcome variable for high partnership quality between the client organisation and the outsourcing vendor in an IT outsourcing relationship is mutual beneficial sharing of risks and benefits. Commitment in an IT outsourcing relationship is confirmed as a multidimensional construct of behaviour commitment and temporal/continuance commitment and was found to be influenced by the other dimensions of partnership quality. The key findings of this study provide support for the notion that trust and shared business understanding are key drivers in the IT outsourcing partnership style relationship ensuring that the sharing of risks and benefits are realised and conflict is minimised leading to a high quality and ultimately successful partnership between the client organisation and the outsourcing vendor. Furthermore our findings indicate that behavioural commitment to the contractual obligations of an IT outsourcing relationship sustains an ongoing temporal commitment to the partnership between the client organisation and the outsourcing vendor

Transmission losses cost allocation in restructed electricity market environment

During these recent decades, the restructuring system of electricity market has been taken places around the whole world. Due to the restructuring (deregulation), the electrical power system has been divided into three separates categories according to the function. First stage of power system is the generation companies (GENCOs), followed by transmission companies (TRANSCOs) and distribution companies (DISCOs). The competitive environment will be handling by a non-profit entity, independent system operator (ISO) that functioning as the system securities that have to make sure that the power system continues to operate in a stable and economical manner. However, restructuring system can give effect during the energy transmission. One of the transmission issues is regarding the power losses. To overcome the losses, generators must generate more power. The issue regarding the transmission losses in deregulated system is how to allocate it to the user and charge them in fair ways as in for instance the pool trading model, it is hard to trace the power contribution and losses of each user in transmission line. In addition, the users didn’t want to pay the losses, it means that the ISO have to responsible for the losses and it will be unfair to put the responsible to ISO alone. Therefore, in this project, the allocation of transmission losses and loss cost methods which are the pro-rata and proportional sharing method will be investigated. Comparison between those methods will be done in order to identify which types of method that reflect an efficient and fair way to distribute the cost of the transmission losses to the user. These chosen methods will be tested on IEEE bus system

Control, Process Facilitation, and Requirements Change in Offshore Requirements Analysis: The Provider Perspective

Process, technology, and project factors have been increasingly driving organizations to offshore early software development phases, such as requirements analysis. This emerging trend necessitates greater control and process facilitation between client and vendor sites. The effectiveness of control and facilitation has, however, not been examined within the context of requirements analysis and change. In this study, we examine the role of control and facilitation in managing changing requirements and on success of requirements gathering in the Indian offshore software development environment. Firms found that control by client-site coordinators had a positive impact on requirements analysis success while vender site-coordinators did not have similar influence. Process facilitation by client site-coordinators affected requirements phase success indirectly through control. The study concludes with recommendations for research and practice

Domestic Outsourcing in the United States: A Research Agenda to Assess Trends and Effects on Job Quality

The goal of this paper is to develop a comprehensive research agenda to analyze trends in domestic outsourcing in the U.S. -- firms' use of contractors and independent contractors -- and its effects on job quality and inequality. In the process, we review definitions of outsourcing, the available scant empirical research, and limitations of existing data sources. We also summarize theories that attempt to explain why firms contract out for certain functions and assess their predictions about likely impacts on job quality. We then lay out in detail a major research initiative on domestic outsourcing, discussing the questions it should answer and providing a menu of research methodologies and potential data sources. Such a research investment will be a critical resource for policymakers and other stakeholders as they seek solutions to problems arising from the changing nature of work