What are the Most Important Classes of Information Systems for eSourcing Service Providers? Experiences from Three Case Studies in the Chinese eSourcing Market

Information and Communications Technology (ICT)-enabled international sourcing of software-intensive systems and services (eSourcing) is increasingly used as a means of adding value, reducing costs, sharing risks, and achieving strategic aims. To maximally reap the benefits from eSourcing and mitigate the risks, providers and clients have to be aware of and build capabilities for the entire eSourcing life-cycle. China is in a remarkable position to become a superpower for eSourcing service provisioning within the next 10 years. Yet, the extant literature does not offer a comprehensive enough guidance for eSourcing management in the Chinese context. This research project will probe the eSourcing life-cycle in Information and Communications Technology Outsourcing (ICTO), Business Process Outsourcing (BPO), and Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO) contexts. It will provide as generalizable scientific knowledge as possible concerning the most important business practices and classes of information systems for eSourcing service providers from the viewpoint of service provisioning, breakdown recovery, and the redesign of the eSourcing life-cycle

A framework and tool to manage Cloud Computing service quality

Cloud Computing has generated considerable interest in both companies specialized in Information and Communication Technology and business context in general. The Sourcing Capability Maturity Model for service (e-SCM) is a capability model for offshore outsourcing services between clients and providers that offers appropriate strategies to enhance Cloud Computing implementation. It intends to achieve the required quality of service and develop an effective working relationship between clients and providers. Moreover, quality evaluation framework is a framework to control the quality of any product and/or process. It offers a tool support that can generate software artifacts to manage any type of product and service efficiently and effectively. Thus, the aim of this paper was to make this framework and tool support available to manage Cloud Computing service quality between clients and providers by means of e-SCM.Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación TIN2013-46928-C3-3-RJunta de Andalucía TIC-578

Shared Understanding Within Large Information Systems Projects

This research responds to calls for practice-based research in the field of project management. Undertaken during the development of a sizable public information systems project, it examines the extent to which the professionals engaged in the project shared a common understanding of important matters such as its goals, structure and clients. The literature review examines the history of project management and its methodologies, the reasons that information systems projects fail, the concept of uncertainty and shared understanding, and risk associated with the development of large scale information systems. The fieldwork was conducted in 2010. The research adopts an interpretive position and the methodology centred on two series of structured interviews held some eight months apart. Analysis of responses found a low level of shared understanding about all matters investigated amongst the professionals developing the IS. The overall conclusion of the research is that no evidence was found that the participants in a programme or project have a common, shared understanding of current endeavours and the future envisaged end state. Therefore any project activity that depends on a single shared understanding such as the definition of deliverables and management of the business case, may be ill-founded. Further research into the topic of shared understanding in the context of IS programmes and projects is recommended

Metamodels of information technology best practices frameworks

This article deals with the generation and application of ontological metamodels of frameworks of best practices in IT. The ontological metamodels represent the logical structures and fundamental semantics of framework models and constitute adequate tools for the analysis, adaptation, comparison and integration of the frameworks of best practices in IT. The MetaFrame methodology for the construction of the metamodels, founded on the discipline of the conceptual metamodelling and on the extended Entity/Relationship methodology is described herein, as well as the metamodels of the best practices for the outsourcing of IT, the eSCM-SP v2.01 (eSourcing Capability Model for Service Providers) and the eSCM-CL v1.1 (eSourcing Capability Model for Client Organizations), constructed according to the MetaFrame methodology

Knowledge Transfer in a Management Process for Outsourced Agile Software Development

The outsourcing of IT services is a reality in the Brazilian Government administration. One of the critical aspects of outsourcing software development services is the transfer of knowledge. The purpose of \ this work was to define procedures for knowledge transfer in an outsourced software development \ process based on the Scrum framework. This is a descriptive research, in which elements for knowledge \ transfer were identified from a systematic review of the literature, eSCM practices, agile software development services contracts, and the Brazilian normative. The definition of procedures involved activities, tasks and artifacts, based on the SECI model and bibliographic and documentary research. The main contribution of this paper is showing how these knowledge transfer elements can be introduced in an outsourced agile development process, through the application of the SECI model

Knowledge Worker Behavioral Responses and Job Outcomes in Mandatory Enterprise System Use Contexts

The three essays that comprise my dissertation are drawn from a longitudinal field study of the work process innovation of sourcing professionals at a large multinational paper products and related chemicals manufacturing firm. The focus of this study is an examination of how characteristics of the work process innovation context impact enterprise system (ES) acceptance, rich ES use behavior and the resulting individual-level job outcomes realized by knowledge workers in a strategic business process. The ES, an enterprise sourcing application, was introduced to innovate the work processes of employees who perform the sourcing business process. Over a period of 12 months, we collected survey data at four points in time (pre-implementation, immediately following training on the new system; following six months of use; and, following 12 months of use) to trace the innovation process as it unfolded. The three essays that comprise my dissertation focus on three key gaps in understanding and make three corresponding key contributions. The first research essay focuses on the transition from an emphasis on behavioral intention to mental acceptance in mandatory use environments. This essay contributes to the technology acceptance literature by finding that work process characteristics and implementation characteristics are exogenous to beliefs about the technology and that these beliefs are important to understanding mental acceptance as well in mandatory use contexts. The second and third research essays emphasize the transition from lean use concepts to conceptualizing, defining and measuring rich use behaviors and show that use must be captured and elaborated on in context. This is pursued through the development of two rich use constructs reflective of the sourcing work context and the complementary finding of countervailing factors in the work process that may impede the positive impact of rich use behaviors on job benefits

Sourcing and Supplier Management - A digital perspective

Digital transformation is increasingly critical to an organization’s competitiveness [1]. It affects many IT management activities and requires organizations to adapt their business models, rethink their strategy, and collaborate with the business ecosystem to provide more innovative products and services. The way that the organization manages and engages with its suppliers is becoming an increasingly important strategic driver in digital transformation initiatives