Ready, willing and capable How can SMEs gain competitive advantage from using Internet-based technologies? Ready, willing and capable How can SMEs gain competitive advantage from using Internet-based technologies?

SMEs can potentially gain competitive advantage from Internet-based technologies, because these require less investment and are more flexible than traditional Information Technologies. However, availability of IT resources is not enough. Organisations need particular competencies in order to deploy their resources effectively. Strategic application of these competencies can than lead to distinct organisational capabilities which provide competitive advantages. This paper presents a case study of a small organisation that was keen to exploit the potential of Internet-based technologies to help them compete in a very tough environment. It was found that Internet-based technologies enabled tactical quick-wins and hold the promise of potential strategic benefits through the creation of distinctive IT resources. However, it was shown that there was a need to develop competencies, particularly around capturing business needs as well as vendor management, before strategic capabilities could be realised. As SMEs have to be responsive to dynamic environments, these competencies and capabilities need to be enhanced and maintained by embedding IS management in overall management processes

What Dynamic Capability are Needed to Implement E-Business

The study focuses on what capabilities are needed to implement electronic business (E-Business) successfully. We utilize an E-business innovation model to analyse the key differences in both business technology and business model dimensions between brick-and-mortar business and E-Business. The results indicate that the nature of the innovation from brick-and-mortar business to E-business is a radical change for the incumbents. A set of dynamic capabilities of exploiting and implementing E-business is identified. These results provide great insight for practitioners and scholars for enhancing their understanding of E-business innovation and provide guidelines to help incumbents adapt to new E-business applications

Routines, Reconfiguration and the Contribution of Business Analytics to Organisational Performance

Availability of large volumes of data in the firms has given a rise in interest in the potential use of business analytics applications. Research has investigated the potential of business analytics to deliver improved performance and competitive advantage at the firm level. However, a theoretical framework identifying the organisational factors which enables the firms to realise those performance gains and competitive advantage has not been clearly articulated. This paper proposes a theoretical framework identifying the organisational factors involved in realising performance gains and competitive advantage from business analytics. This paper draws on the foundational works of dynamic capabilities, routines and effective use to develop a research model. The data collected to test the research model is described along with the analytical strategies to test the model. Implications for research and practice are discussed

Performing Under Pressure: IT Execution in a $1.4bn Business Transformation

This teaching case provides a practical illustration of the challenges in executing large-scale ITbased change. It describes how the Commonwealth Bank of Australia replaced its service and sales systems between 2003 and 2006 with the goal of collating a “single view of client”. The case is an exemplar of staged incremental development. The sponsor set up multiple work streams and ran them as independently as possible. Regular releases delivered incremental change to the business, incorporated lessons learned, and added further functionality. This had implications for architecture, software development, training, testing, and risk management. There were significant change management challenges. The case provides students with insights into program management in IT transformations, architecture, project management, software delivery lifecycles, risk management, logistics and IT infrastructure

Offshoring effectiveness: Measurement and improvement with optimization approach.

This study takes a refreshing look at IT outsourcing from a vendor\u27s perspective and discusses best practices required to effectively manage offshore business needs and offshoring effectiveness. We have conducted a detailed investigation to learn why outsourcing ventures fail, how to effectively measure up to service provider capability, and how to deliver strategic value to the end customer. Extant literature does not talk about the vendor\u27s issues and problems in outsourcing, and our investigation emphasized the vendor\u27s perspective on offshoring strategy and offshore resource effectiveness as the two important differentiators in a make-or-buy decision. Measurement metrics for each of the two items were devised to estimate their effect on offshoring effectiveness. We spoke to some of the top 10 IT vendors in India, collected offshoring data from both clients and vendors, and used the data to validate our decision framework. The framework helps us to investigate current industry practices in IT outsourcing, identify issues and problems beyond the obvious advantages of outsourcing, and propose measures to assess offshoring effectiveness. The investigation gave us an opportunity to record the best IT practices as well as suggest possible improvements in the service or product delivery cycle to enhance customer experience

Evolving IS capabilities to leverage the external IT services market

When making Information Technology (IT) outsourcing decisions, organizations must decide what to outsource and what to keep in-house. A robust stream of research describes which Information Systems (IS) human resource capabilities are core to exploiting IT successfully. Our core IS capabilities framework, for example, presents nine capabilities: leadership, informed buying, business systems thinking, relationship building, contract facilitation, architecture planning and design, vendor development, contract monitoring, and making technology work. In this article, we focus on how these core IS capabilities can be evolved over time to leverage the external IT services market. We have found that senior executives use three organizational mechanisms to evolve capabilities: process, culture, and structure. We describe how three organizations have used these mechanisms to evolve the nine capabilities in our framework. In two cases, the organizations signed large outsourcing agreements only to discover, down the road, that they lacked the IS capabilities to leverage their agreements. In short, they had to play catch-up. In the third case, IS bolstered its core IS capabilities in preparation for selective outsourcing. We see four factors in successfully evolving core IS capabilities: (1) leverage the three mechanisms to develop IS capabilities, (2) prioritize development of core IS capabilities, (3) outsource lower-risk services while developing core IS capabilities, and (4) to catch up, keep the end goal in mind while evolving the core IS capabilities

The Effects of Capabilities and Governance on Information Technology and Business Process Outsourcing Performance: Client and Provider Perspectives

Research on information technology outsourcing (ITO) and business process outsourcing (BPO) has consistently found that client firm capabilities, provider firm capabilities, and governance mechanisms (contractual and relational) are key determinants of outsourcing performance. These key determinants work together to affect outsourcing performance, however, the information systems (IS) literature has investigated them in a separate manner. This study contributes to the body of IS knowledge by examining capabilities and governance mechanisms influence on outsourcing performance independently and jointly. Based on resource-based theory, transaction cost economics, and relational exchange theories, we develop a research model to examine the independent and joint effects of one client\u27s capabilities (i.e., client\u27s provider management capability), three provider\u27s capabilities (i.e., human resources management, risk management, and innovativeness), and two governance mechanisms (contractual and relational governance) on two indicators of outsourcing performance (i.e., provider\u27s service quality, and client\u27s economic benefits). Survey data gathered from 306 practitioners in 21 client firms and 20 provider firms is used to test the research model. Our results indicate that service quality and client’s economic benefits have different sets of determinants. Service quality is determined by three provider\u27s capabilities and relational governance. Client’s economic benefits are determined by contractual and relational governance, client\u27s provider management capability, and provider’s service quality. Our findings also provides evidence that service quality fully mediates the relationships among three provider\u27s capabilities and outsourcing performance. Further, our analyses suggest that there are negative interaction effects between capabilities and governance mechanisms on outsourcing performance. More specifically, in the presence of strong governance mechanisms, the positive effects of client\u27s and provider\u27s capabilities on outsourcing performance are reduced. Last, we also reveal that clients and providers differ in how they view the independent and joint effects of capabilities and governance mechanisms on outsourcing performance. This study provides some important implications for researchers and practitioners pertaining to effective governance of outsourcing arrangements and offers directions for future research

Challenges of outsourcing systems integration - Lessons learned from the public sector

Purpose of the study The purpose of this study was to identify the challenges of outsourcing systems integration by examining systems integrator service offered to the public sector. The focus was turned also to organizational and strategic aspects of integration instead of mere technical ones. The challenges were looked from external perspective through transaction cost economics and from internal one through capabilities. With internal challenges the goal was to identify if they relate to the customer, the service provider or if they are shared between the two. Methodology The research framework was built based on previous research in the fields of TCE, capabilities, information systems outsourcing and service co-production. The research was conducted as a single case study concentrating on one large systems integration service provider to gain full understanding of the complex research phenomena. The main data collecting was done through semi-structured interviews to enable modifying the questions according to the interviewee. Additional data sources were public reports, newspaper articles, workshop and case company internal material. Furthermore, the research is abductive, which means that some of the theoretical discussions were revised after pilot interviews. Findings The key findings of the study include the description of the external and internal challenges of systems integration. The external challenges relate to the characteristics of the service and the transactions, which combined with outsourcing, would require long lasting relationships or elaborate contracts. When the customer is a public organization, long lasting relationships are challenging due to competitive bidding. The internal challenges are due to lack of capabilities. Most of the capabilities required for successful service production are shared between the service provider and the customer because of the co-creative nature of the service. From a skills perspective, interpersonal and communication skills were identified to be more critical than technical skills

Accident versus Essence: Investigating the Relationship Among Information Systems Development and Requirements Capabilities and Perceptions of Enterprise Architecture

Information systems (IS) are indelibly linked to the global economy and are indispensable to society and organizations. Despite the decisive function of IS in organizations today, IS development problems continue to plague organizations. The failure to get the system requirements right is considered to be one of the primary, if not the most significant, reasons for this high IS failure rate. Getting requirements right is most notably identified with Frederick Brooks' contention that requirements are the essence of what IT professionals do, all the rest being accidents or risk management. However, enterprise architecture (EA) may also provide the discipline to bridge the gap between effective requirements, organizational objectives, and the actual IS implementations. The intent of this research is to examine the relationship between IS development capabilities and requirements analysis and design capabilities within the context of enterprise architecture. To accomplish this, a survey of IT professionals within the Society for Information Management (SIM) was conducted. Results indicate support for the hypothesized relationship between IS development and requirements capabilities. The hypothesized relationships with the organizational demographics were not supported nor was the hypothesized positive relationship between requirements capabilities and EA perceptions. However, the nature of the relationship of requirements and EA provided important insight into the relationship leading to several explanations as to its meaning and contributions to research and practice. This research contributes to IS development knowledge by providing evidence of the essential role of requirements in IS development capabilities and in IS development maturity. Furthermore, contributions to the nascent field of EA research and practice include key insight into EA maturity, EA implementation success, and the role of IT professionals in EA teams. Moreover, these results provide a template and research plan of action to pursue further EA research in exploring EA maturity models and critical success factors, and the state of practice of EA in organization