SME Selection Criteria for External IS/IT Consultants, including Swiss Universities of Applied Sciences

Working PaperIt does not matter whether small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have good, bad, or no IS/IT competencies. Almost all enlist the services of an external consultant at some point. External consultants can handle a wide range of tasks, from fixing an existing bug, to choosing new software or adapting a Business strategy in line with state-of-the-art technology. While there is some evidence that external assistance with IT projects is an effective course of action, so far no information has been available on what SMEs pay attention to when choosing their consultants. The aim of the preliminary study was therefore to establish SMEs’ selection criteria for hiring IS/IT consultants, to determine what competencies SMEs look for in their external consultants, and to find out if Swiss universities of applied sciences (UAS) are included in their selection process. For this purpose, interviews were conducted with 15 SMEs, most of which are based in the Swiss cantons of Zurich and Schaffhausen. Findings indicate that selection criteria vary considerably according to the size of the SMEs. The majority have never consulted a UAS

Skills Required by Consultants for Success within the Competitive Auto Sales Business Environments

Automobile sector is significant to the United States economy accounting for over 3 million jobs in total employment (Mondal, 2011). Sales personnel are essential for generating revenues to sustain the Auto sector. However, automobile sale consultants’ voluntary turnover rate approximates 34.7% costing dealerships about $75,000 per salesperson in annual total cost (Davieson, 2011). Guided by knowledge-based view, the purpose of this multiple case study was to explore skills required by some consultants in New York for success beyond five years within the competitive auto sales business environment. Data were collected through semi structured interviews from 20 participants who consulted in same auto dealership and succeeded at least 5 years. Data analysis involved coding techniques and cluster analysis. Member checking strengthened credibility and trustworthiness in interpreting participants’ responses. The 3 themes that emerged related to skills used by auto sales consultants for success including Technical knowledge, Interpersonal, and Salesmanship Skills. Findings may contribute to social change by specifying some skills which successful auto sales consultants use to improve performance, mitigate job loss and reduce turnover rate. Information may enhance product training to facilitate sales skills and increase revenue leading to prosperity of auto dealerships, their employees, and the locality

Informatics Research Institute (IRIS) September 2008 newsletter

2007-8 was a very busy year for IRIS. It was a bumper year for visiting Profs with Prof Michael Myers visiting from New Zealand, Prof Brian Fitzgerald visiting from University of Limerick, Ireland, Prof. Uzay Kaymak visiting from Erasmus University Netherlands and Prof Steve Sawyer visiting from Pennsylvania State University, USA. Their visits enriched our doctoral school, seminar programme workshops and our research. We were very lucky to have such a distinguished line up of visiting professors and we offer them hearty thanks and hope to keep ongoing research links with them

The social shaping of packaged software selection

As organisations increasingly engage in the selection, purchase, and adoption of packaged software products, howthese activities are carried out in practice becomes increasingly relevant for researchers and practitioners. Ourfocus in this paper is to propose a framework for understanding the packaged software selection process. Thefunctionalist literature on this area of study suggests a number of generic recommendations, which are based onrational assumptions about the process and view the decision making that takes place as producing the “besttechnology solution.’” To explore this, we conducted a longitudinal, in-depth study of packaged software selectionin a small organisation. For interpretation of the case, we draw upon the Social Construction of Technology, atheoretical framework arguing that technology is socially constituted and regarding the process of development ascontradictory and uncertain. We offer a number of contributions. First, we further our understanding of packagedsoftware selection with the critique that we offer of the functionalist literature, drawing insights from the emergingcritical/constructivist literature and expanding our domain of interest to encompass the wider environment. Second,we weave this together with our experiences in the field, drawing on social constructivism for theoretical support, todevelop a framework of packaged software selection that shows how various actors shape the process

Customer Relationship Management e as Pequenas e Médias Empresas: um estudo de múltiplos casos em empresas Portuguesas

ABSTRACTCustomer Relationship Management (CRM) emerges as a response to organizations that choose to adopt strategies of relationship marketing so as to offer customers a more personalized experience. The need for significant investments in the purchase of technological systems and to adapt the internal procedures causes the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to remain in a more traditional posture, unlike the large enterprises. However, increased competition, globalization of markets, technological development and the ephemerality of customer preferences have led many SMEs to rethink their business. This article seeks to answer the question “how CRM is adopted in the SMEs, for the purpose of analyzing the critical success factors relevant to the adoption of CRM in the SMEs?” Therefore case studies were made of three Portuguese enterprises. Interviews were conducted and secondary documents were analyzed to collect data. As the main contribution, an analysis was made of those critical success factors for the adoption of CRM which should be considered most important by the SMEs. In conclusion it was found that the enterprises studied during the project of CRM implementation had attributed greater importance to the following critical success factors, integration of information and data, efficient human resource management and support of top management. Furthermore, because of limited resources, it is important for these enterprises to plan the process of CRM in advance to ensure that the best choices in terms of technology are made

Classifying Organizational Adoption of Open Source Software: A Proposal

Part 1: Full PapersInternational audienceStaged adoption models are a common feature of information systems (IS) adoption literature, yet these are rarely used in open source software (OSS) adoption studies. In this paper, a staged model for classifying the organizational adoption of OSS is proposed, based upon a critical review of existing staged adoption models and factors identified from OSS adoption literature. Innovations in the proposed model include: defined transition pathways between stages, additional stages and a decomposition of cessation of use into four distinct pathways

CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT Y LAS PEQUEÑAS Y MEDIANAS EMPRESAS: UN ESTUDIO DE MÚLTIPLOS CASOS EN EMPRESAS PORTUGUESAS

O Customer Relationship Management (CRM) surge como resposta às organizações que decidem adotarestratégias de  marketing relacional para oferecer a seus clientes um atendimento mais personalizado. Anecessidade de investimentos significativos na compra de sistemas tecnológicos e na adaptação dos procedimentos internos fez com que as Pequenas e Médias Empresas (PME) se mantivessem num circuito mais tradicional, ao contrário das grandes empresas. No entanto, o aumento da concorrência, a globalizaçãodos mercados, o desenvolvimento tecnológico e a efemeridade  das preferências dos clientes têm levadomuitas PME a repensar seu negócio. Este artigo procura responder à pergunta “Como é efetuada a adopçãodo CRM nas PME?”, tendo como objetivo analisar os fatores críticos de sucesso para a adopção do CRM nasPME. Para tanto, foram realizados estudos de casos em três empresas portuguesas. Como fonte de coleta dedados, realizaram-se entrevistas e análise de documentos secundários. Como principal contributo, uma análise dos fatores críticos de sucesso mais relevantes para a adopção do CRM e que devem ser consideradospelas PME. Em conclusão,  obteve-se que  as empresas estudadas atribuíram maior importância, durante oprojeto de implementação do CRM, aos seguintes fatores críticos de sucesso: integração da informaçãodispersa, gestão eficiente de seus recursos humanos e apoio da gestão de topo. Adicionalmente, pelo facto deessas empresas disporem de poucos meios, concluiu-se que é necessário que os empresários atribuam uma importância significativa ao planeamento para que a PME possa efectuar as melhores escolhas em termostecnológicos.Customer Relationship Management (CRM) emerges as a response to organizations that choose to adoptstrategies of relationship marketing so as to o er customers a more personalized experience. The need forsignificant investments in the purchase of technological systems and to adapt the internal procedures causesthe Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to remain in a more traditional posture, unlike the largeenterprises. However, increased competition, globalization of markets, technological development and the ephemerality of customer preferences have led many SMEs to rethink their business. This article seeks toanswer the question "how CRM is adopted in the SMEs, for the purpose of analyzing the critical successfactors relevant to the adoption of CRM in the SMEs?" Therefore case studies were made of threePortuguese enterprises. Interviews were conducted and secondary documents were analyzed to collect data.As the main contribution, an analysis was made of those critical success factors for the adoption of CRMwhich should be considered most important by the SMEs. In conclusion it was found that the enterprisesstudied during the project of CRM implementation had attributed greater importance to the followingcritical success factors, integration of information and data, e icient human resource management andsupport of top management. Furthermore, because of limited resources, it is important for these enterprisesto plan the process of CRM in advance to ensure that the best choices in terms of technology are made.El Customer Relationship Management (CRM) surge como respuesta a las organizaciones que decidenadoptar estrategias de marketing relacional para ofrecer a sus clientes una atención más personalizada. Lanecesidad de inversiones significativas en la compra de sistemas tecnológicos y  en la adaptación de losprocedimientos internos hizo con que las Pequeñas y Medianas Empresas (PME) se mantuvieran en uncircuito más tradicional, al contrario de las grandes empresas. Sin embargo, el aumento de la competencia,la globalización de los mercados, el desarrollo tecnológico y lo efímero de las preferencias de los clienteshan llevado muchas PME a repensar su negocio. Este artículo  procura responder la pregunta “Cómo seefectúa la adopción del CRM en las PME?, teniendo como objetivo analizar los factores críticos de suceso para la adopción del CRM en las PME. Para tanto, fueron realizados estudios de casos  en tres empresasportuguesas. Como fuente de colecta de datos, se realizaron entrevistas y análisis de documentossecundarios. Como principal contribución, un análisis de los factores críticos de suceso más pertinentespara la adopción del CRM, que deben ser considerados por las PME. En conclusión, se obtuvo que lasempresas estudiadas atribuyeron mayor importancia, durante el proyecto de implantación del CRM, a lossiguientes factores críticos de suceso: integración de la información dispersa, gestión eficiente de susrecursos humanos y el apoyo de la gestión de tope. Adicionalmente, por el hecho  de que esas empresasdisponen de pocos medios, se concluyó que es necesario que los empresarios atribuyan una importanciasignificativa al planeamiento para que la PME pueda efectuar las mejores opciones en términostecnológico

The long sale: future-setting strategies for enterprise technologies

Markets for enterprise technologies are complex socio-technical arrangements where the nature of the goods or services available for exchange is frequently uncertain. Early offerings may appear obfuscated, in part ontologically due to contested boundary definitions, and in part through the intentional and unintentional work of sales actors. While it is difficult for actors to know what they are transacting with certainty before an exchange occurs, expectations are partly shaped in practice during a protracted and multipartite sales process. In the early stages, such technologies may be nothing more than ‘slideware’ or ‘vapourware’, with the promise of the offering yet to be realised. Suppliers are therefore faced with the challenge of how to bring an immature product to the serious attention of users. One such example which has dominated the ICT landscape in recent times is ‘cloud computing’, a vision for on-demand utility computing which on the one hand promised computing resources accessible like an infrastructure commodity such as electricity, but on the other declared by some as simply everything we already do in computing today. This thesis offers a longitudinal case study of the way in which a major ICT supplier, IBM, attempted to galvanise the market for its cloud-enabled products amongst user organisations. In doing so the supplier had the challenge of selling a model of outsourced services to organisations with deeply embedded ICT systems around which the sales processes had to be made to fit. The research centers on four empirical chapters which bring together contextual narratives of cloud computing, findings related to the sales work users do, the sales challenges encountered during crisis management, and the shadow activity that occurs during professional user groups and conferences. The discussion explains how actors work together to construct an imagined community of technology artefacts and practices that extends our understanding of how technology constituencies hold together without overt forms of control. The study draws together a number of years of fieldwork investigating user group events in the corporate ICT arena and a major UK customer implementation. These are explored through a mobile ethnography under the banner of a Biography of Artefacts and Practices (Pollock & Williams, 2008) making use of participant observation, and selective interviewing, with a particular focus on naturally occurring data