THE IMPACT OF ADVISORY SERVICES ON CLIENTS AND VENDORS IN IT OUTSOURCING ENGAGEMENTS

Information technology outsourcing (ITO) continues to be an important market and research topic in 2016. The client-vendor relationship has been identified as one of the key driver to foster successful outsourcing engagements. But another stakeholder besides client and vendor that presumably highly influences this relationship is neglected in ITO research so far: the advisor. This research-in-progress paper propose to investigate how and why advisory services impact the relationship of clients and vendors and the project success in ITO engagements. To answer our research question, we build on principal-agent theory and social exchange theory as our theoretical lenses to explain the impact of advisory services on the client-vendor relationship. We develop our preliminary research model with three hypotheses and introduce our research design using a case study-based, mixed-method approach. Our planned outcome is a model explaining the role of advisors for improving ITO success. We conclude with an outlook about our next steps and the study’s planned contributions

Opening the Black Box of Advisors in Information Technology Outsourcing: An Advisory Activity Model

Information technology outsourcing (ITO) is an important market phenomenon and research topic. Recently, research has identified advisors as a key driver for successful ITO engagements. In this paper, we investigate the activities of third-party advisors in ITO engagements for the first time. We used an exploratory qualitative research approach and conducted 14 expert interviews with experienced industry practitioners. In analyzing the data, we identified 104 activities that serve as the basis for a novel IT advisory activity model for ITO. We also identified common viewpoints among the practitioners and matched them with findings from other research studies based on a literature review. Our model provides interesting insights into ITO and the role that advisors play in client-vendor relationships. This study delivers a basis for further research about advisors’ influence on clients and vendors in the ITO context

Challenges of Client-Vendor Relationships in Information Technology Outsourcing Engagements: An Interpretive Structural Modelling Approach

The client-vendor relationship is a key success factor for information technology outsourcing projects. Although many studies have been published about this concept, many of them have focused on a set of particular elements and have not investigated the relationship and dependencies between them. This research paper provides an overview about existing challenges for client-vendor relationships and discovers relationships between them by applying the ISM methodology. We conducted a literature research to gather and analyze relevant articles and identified 11 relevant challenges. Based on the literature research and 20 questionnaire responses we gathered from experts, we used interpretive structural modelling to discover the relevance and the contextual relationships among the identified challenges. The findings of this study reveal that three challenges, namely (1) lack of experience, (2) lack of good management practices and processes, and (3) lack of contractual objects can be treated as key elements for establishing a client-vendor relationship. We discuss further research directions and explain why all other identified challenges have high dependencies on each other

Flattening the World of Legal Services? The Ethical and Liability Minefields of Offshoring Legal and Law-Related Services

This article examines offshore outsourcing of legal and law-related services as the newest twist in the international market for legal services. We consider the impact of offshore outsourcing on the profession generally and analyze the ethical issues raised by offshore outsourcing, both as it exists today and as the practice may develop in the future. The article begins by situating offshore outsourcing in the framework of relationships created in the context of delivery of legal services. This framework is used, in turn, to construct a structure of analysis for the ethical implications of offshore outsourcing. Lawyers who outsource to offshore providers must conduct an investigation to ensure that the referral is appropriate. We also consider the potential reputation and economic benefits and disadvantages to law firms and legal departments in outsourcing offshore. We find that offshore outsourcing creates new opportunities for non-U.S. lawyers without putting them on equal footing with lawyers trained and licensed in the U.S. Instead, as with many aspects of globalization, offshore outsourcing emphasizes the divisions already present in the legal profession

Flattening the World of Legal Services? The Ethical and Liability Minefields of Offshoring Legal and Law-Related Services

This article examines offshore outsourcing of legal and law-related services as the newest twist in the international market for legal services. We consider the impact of offshore outsourcing on the profession generally and analyze the ethical issues raised by offshore outsourcing, both as it exists today and as the practice may develop in the future. The article begins by situating offshore outsourcing in the framework of relationships created in the context of delivery of legal services. This framework is used, in turn, to construct a structure of analysis for the ethical implications of offshore outsourcing. Lawyers who outsource to offshore providers must conduct an investigation to ensure that the referral is appropriate. We also consider the potential reputation and economic benefits and disadvantages to law firms and legal departments in outsourcing offshore. We find that offshore outsourcing creates new opportunities for non-U.S. lawyers without putting them on equal footing with lawyers trained and licensed in the U.S. Instead, as with many aspects of globalization, offshore outsourcing emphasizes the divisions already present in the legal profession

Questions and Answers for Foundations on Proxy Voting

Discusses common questions about proxy voting, including legal issues, voting commingled funds, options for voting and for delegating voting authority; trends in foundations' involvement in shareholder advocacy; and examples of active foundations

Flattening the World of Legal Services? The Ethical and Liability Minefields of Offshoring Legal and Law-Related Services

This article examines offshore outsourcing of legal and law-related services as the newest twist in the international market for legal services. We consider the impact of offshore outsourcing on the profession generally and analyze the ethical issues raised by offshore outsourcing, both as it exists today and as the practice may develop in the future. The article begins by situating offshore outsourcing in the framework of relationships created in the context of delivery of legal services. This framework is used, in turn, to construct a structure of analysis for the ethical implications of offshore outsourcing. Lawyers who outsource to offshore providers must conduct an investigation to ensure that the referral is appropriate. We also consider the potential reputation and economic benefits and disadvantages to law firms and legal departments in outsourcing offshore. We find that offshore outsourcing creates new opportunities for non-U.S. lawyers without putting them on equal footing with lawyers trained and licensed in the U.S. Instead, as with many aspects of globalization, offshore outsourcing emphasizes the divisions already present in the legal profession

A Resource-Based Analysis of IT Oursourcing

This paper studies the relationships between the choice of a sourcing mode for information systems, the value of the resources used in systems development activities and the presence of those resources at sufficient level within the firm. The objective is to better understand the factors underlying the decision to keep the development of an information system inside the firm or to entrust it to an outside partner. A sourcing model is proposed using the resource-based theory. A case study is used to illustrate the concepts used in the research model. Data from this case illustrate how the model could be used to predict the appropriate sourcing mode, given the availability of the necessary resources and their strategic value. Ce document étudie les liens entre le choix d'un mode de gestion (interne ou impartition) et la valeur stratégique des ressources utilisées pour la conduite de l'activité évaluée. Les éléments de base de l'approche des ressources sont présentés et un modèle d'approvisionnement est dérivé de cette approche. Un cas est utilisé pour illustrer les concepts.Resource-based theory, software development, outsourcing, management of software development projects, Théorie fondée sur les compétences, développement de logiciels, impartition, gestion de projets de développement de systèmes

Moving Towards an Integrated Framework of IT-Outsourcing Success

Offshore information technology outsourcing is a popular strategic choice for businesses today. Firms are increasingly outsourcing their complex information technology-based projects, business processes, and services to offshore locations to achieve competitive advantage. Traditionally, offshore information technology outsourcing was a means to reduce costs and/or increase efficiencies by focusing on core activities. Recently, the emphasis has shifted to pursuing it as a strategy for cooperative advantage through resource sharing and building long-term relationships with the offshore partners. However, many such offshore outsourcing relationships fail due to a lack of understanding and proper operationalization of the critical success factors that influence global client–vendor partnerships. In the current study, the authors draw upon existing literature to identify popular theoretical perspectives and key operational, environmental, and relational factors influencing the success of offshore information technology outsourcing relationship. A framework of offshore information technology outsourcing success is then developed by integrating these theoretical perspectives and critical success factors. Exploratory data suggests that the proposed framework is valid for understanding offshore information technology outsourcing success and has important implications for theory and practice

Property management strategies for institutional investors in the '90s

Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 1996.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 91-92).by John A. Willand.M.S