Governance of Offshore IT Outsourcing at Shell Global Functions IT-BAM Development and Application of a Governance Framework to Improve Outsourcing Relationships

The lack of effective IT governance is widely recognized as a key inhibitor to successful global IT outsourcing relationships. In this study we present the development and application of a governance framework to improve outsourcing relationships. The approach used to developing an IT governance framework includes a meta model and a customization process to fit the framework to the target organization. The IT governance framework consists of four different elements (1) organisational structures, (2) joint processes between in- and outsourcer, (3) responsibilities that link roles to processes and (4) a diverse set of control indicators to measure the success of the relationship. The IT governance framework is put in practice in Shell GFIT BAM, a part of Shell that concluded to have a lack of management control over at least one of their outsourcing relationships. In a workshop the governance framework was used to perform a gap analysis between the current and desired governance. Several gaps were identified in the way roles and responsibilities are assigned and joint processes are set-up. Moreover, this workshop also showed the usefulness and usability of the IT governance framework in structuring, providing input and managing stakeholders in the discussions around IT governance

Designing Refillable Packaging: A Qualitative Approach

In recognition of the fact that current packaging design fails to address the resource reductions needed to support the sustainability agenda (INCPEN, 2001; Environmental Services Association, 2004), a 2 year collaborative research project between Loughborough University and The Boots Company, funded by DEFRA, was set up to investigate the feasibility of developing refillable packaging systems which appeal to the consumer whilst reducing the overall sustainability impact. The overall aim of the project – ‘Refillable Packaging Systems’, reported on in this paper was to develop a refillable packaging system for a ‘body wash’ product and to investigate its feasibility with respect to consumer acceptance (female customers, aged 21-40) and sustainability improvements. In order to achieve the project aim a broad range of qualitative methods were used. This paper details the methods used to collate background understanding, develop design concepts and test the viability of the design solutions. It reflects on why they were used, how effective they were and on the benefits of combining these different methods at different stages. The paper concludes that combining together an array of design related qualitative methods, of the nature described, can produce rich and valuable outcomes. The project demonstrates that this approach can lead to the development of a more detailed understanding of the topic under investigation and open up discussion by creating demonstrator products which can be handled, critiqued and examined. Keywords: Packaging; Design Methods; Questionnaire; Visual Templates; Prototyping; Consumer Workshops</p

Strategies for Developing Sustainable Design Practice for Students and SME Professionals

Designers and engineers seem finally to be awakening to the challenge that sustainable development has given. Educators and students alike are keenly aware of the need to become more effective in the training and practice of their specific disciplines with respect to sustainability. \noindent In the past four years since this research has developed, there has been a marked change in the mass market appeal for sustainable products and services. Implementation of sustainable design practice from both recent graduates and also innovative small and medium enterprises (SMEs) at a local level is slow. One would assume that the consumer drive would push a change in design practice but perhaps the complexities of sustainable design along with the lack of experience in the field are providing barriers to designers and marketers alike. In addition the SME sector alone makes up the bulk of industry within the European Union (EU) varying in some countries from 80-95% of the total numbers of companies (Tukker et al. 2000). These industries by their nature find it difficult to dedicate expertise solely to sustainable development issues. The strategy outlined in this paper intended to introduce concepts of sustainable design thinking and practice to both SMEs and undergraduate students. \noindent This current and ongoing research qualitatively assesses appropriate models for educating for sustainable design thinking with SME employees and undergraduate design students. The sample groups include Industrial Design and Product Design undergraduate students in Ireland at the Institute of Technology, Carlow (IT Carlow), The University of Limerick (UL) and a sample of SMEs in the South East of Ireland, with broad national participation from other students of design and professionals from industry. Current levels of understanding of students and SME professionals of key environmental and social issues are measured

Design in the new Do-It-Yourself age: trialing workshops for repairing

Traces of a renovated interest in Do-It-Yourself (DIY) have been observed in relation to technological advances and lowered prices facilitating the access to the practice at different levels of skills. This research envisaged the DIY trend as an opportunity to foster sustainable impact in a society where everyone can and does design. In this paper the role of Design in this ‘new’ DIY age is addressed. In particular professional designer as facilitator in investigated when supporting the DIY practitioners in repairing, reusing and in general practices prolonging product lifespan (RE-DIY). The facilitator role is studied through action research approach by setting four workshops in Italy in which designers supported practitioners in repairing and repurposing in ideal workspaces. The repairing workshops validated the hypothesis of a positive contribution by design in supporting the development of RE-DIY practice by optimizing resources (e.g. saving materials), informing on processing (e.g. 3D printing), increasing quality (e.g. refining the aesthetics). Critical components of the workshops have been identified such as the relevance of facilities, availability of time, emotional attachment to the item. These can be overtaken through the use of professional Design expertise based on abductive approach, finding an ordering principle and reasoning on multiple levels

Adopting building information modeling (BIM) as collaboration platform in the design industry

This paper discusses the preliminary findings of an ongoing research project aimed at developing a technological, operational and strategic analysis of adopting BIM in AEC/FM (Architecture-Engineering-Construction/Facility Management) industry as a collaboration tool. Outcomes of the project will provide specifications and guidelines as well as establish industry standards for implementing BIM in practice. This research primarily focuses on BIM model servers as a collaboration platform, and hence the guidelines are aimed at enhancing collaboration capabilities. This paper reports on the findings from: (1) a critical review of latest BIM literature and commercial applications, and (2) workshops with focus groups on changing work-practice, role of technology, current perception and expectations of BIM. Layout for case studies being undertaken is presented. These findings provide a base to develop comprehensive software specifications and national guidelines for BIM with particular emphasis on BIM model servers as collaboration platforms

The e-Framework and a service oriented approach

Article describing the JISC e-Framework, which is intended to assist educational institutions and research organisations to "harness the potential of ICT to realise their strategic goals" by recognising that there are benefits to be gained from the use of small modular tools and web services that can be combined and applied in different ways

Strategy Workshops and Strategic Change

Despite the attention that strategic change as a topic of research has received, there remain considerable difficulties in conceptualizing the actual sources of strategic change. Strategy workshops represent one obvious and explicit research site since organizations often use such events as a means of effecting or initiating strategic change. This paper examines empirical data from ninety-nine strategy workshops in ten separate organizations to address the research question: Do strategy workshops produce strategic change? The paper concludes that workshops can produce change but that one-off workshops are much less effective than a series of workshops. The data presented indicates that the elapsed duration of the entire series of workshops, the frequency of workshops, the scope and autonomy of the unit concerned, and the seniority of participants have an impact on the success or failure of the venture

Higher-Order Process Modeling: Product-Lining, Variability Modeling and Beyond

We present a graphical and dynamic framework for binding and execution of business) process models. It is tailored to integrate 1) ad hoc processes modeled graphically, 2) third party services discovered in the (Inter)net, and 3) (dynamically) synthesized process chains that solve situation-specific tasks, with the synthesis taking place not only at design time, but also at runtime. Key to our approach is the introduction of type-safe stacked second-order execution contexts that allow for higher-order process modeling. Tamed by our underlying strict service-oriented notion of abstraction, this approach is tailored also to be used by application experts with little technical knowledge: users can select, modify, construct and then pass (component) processes during process execution as if they were data. We illustrate the impact and essence of our framework along a concrete, realistic (business) process modeling scenario: the development of Springer's browser-based Online Conference Service (OCS). The most advanced feature of our new framework allows one to combine online synthesis with the integration of the synthesized process into the running application. This ability leads to a particularly flexible way of implementing self-adaption, and to a particularly concise and powerful way of achieving variability not only at design time, but also at runtime.Comment: In Proceedings Festschrift for Dave Schmidt, arXiv:1309.455

Exploring the benefits of integrating business model research within living lab projects

Business model and living lab research both have similar objectives – to maximize the probability of successful market introduction of innovative solutions – be it through different means. Yet, there are still only few studies or reports discussing both, with those studies that do touch the subject staying at a high level. iMinds Living Labs has gained a lot of experience in combined living lab and business model innovation projects and, rather than being competing approaches, our results have shown that these two research methodologies can be complementary, where the combined approach turns out to be more powerful than each individual approach used alone. The goal of this article is to promote the inclusion of business model research in a model of "a living lab as a service" (and vice versa) by explaining the benefits and by introducing a practical framework to implement such combined research tracks based on the experience at iMinds Living Labs over the past few years