Drivers influencing shared services adoption

Organizations seeking improvements in their performance are increasingly exploring alternative models and approaches for providing support services; one such approach being Shared Services. Shared Services has the potential to provide positive and powerful impact to the organizations with the support of Information Systems (IS) as the platform for Shared Services application and implementation. Due to this situation, Shared Services is becoming one of the choices in IS area for researcher to conduct a research. Shared Services results a lot of positive outcomes especially improving on the organizations financial expenses. Although various studies have been identified in discussing about the benefits of Shared Services, drivers of Shared Services that influence its adoption have received little research attention. This paper has identified several drivers that influence organizations to adopt Shared Services. By using NVivo as a tool to analyze the content from selected journal articles, 5 drivers of Shared Services adoption were identified. This suggesting the strength and benefits in adopting shared service. By identifying the drivers, it could encourage the top management as the decision maker to implement Shared Services in their organization. Thus, this could lead to the business operation to operate more effectively

Shared service centre experience : the social relation of the shared service centre employees

The aim of this master thesis is to analyze the social relationship of the Porto Excellence Centre employees who work in a shared service centre of COFCO, the leader of the agricultural and food industry in China, and one of the world's leading agri-product traders with global footprints. The research for this paper includes a literature review, an interview, an online survey and the personal experience of the author as an intern in the company where the analyses was made. The main results indicate that the work the employees of the Porto Excellence Office and the units they provide services do require for both parties to be in constant interaction. Moreover, it was also identified that the social relations between the employees of the Porto Excellence Office were formed in a remote working context due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Overall, the social relation between the employees of the Porto Excellence Office and the units they provide services to is manly professional and rarely personal. The shared service centre is fundamental for COFCO International operations.Nesta tese de mestrado é analisada a relação social dos funcionários do Centro de Excelência do Porto que trabalham no shared service centre da COFCO, líder na indústria agrícola e alimentar na China e um dos principais comerciantes mundiais em agro-produtos. O estudo do tema inclui uma revisão de literatura, uma entrevista, um questionário online e a experiência pessoal da autora como estagiária na empresa onde a análise foi realizada. Os principais resultados indicam que o trabalho dos colaboradores do Centro de Excelência do Porto e das unidades às quais prestam serviços requerem que ambas as partes estejam em constante contacto. Além disso, foi também identificado que a relação social entre os colaboradores do Centro de Excelência do Porto se formou em contexto de teletrabalho devido à pandemia de Covid-19. No geral, a relação entre os colaboradores do Centro de Excelência do Porto e as unidades às quais prestam serviços é maioritariamente profissional e raramente pessoal. O shared service centre é fundamental para as operações da COFCO International

Inhibiting Factors For E-Government Adoption: The Pakistan Context

Developing countries are facing immense challenges in moving to electronic forms of government (e-Government) for integrated service provision. This research considers an Asian economy, within an underdeveloped context, through a particular focus upon Pakistan. This region, over many years, has experienced economic and political instability, poor governance and deteriorating government institutions. Consequently, there is a need to reconsider the tiers of government, in particular Local Government (LG), including their internal operational activities through the potentially beneficial adoption of e-Government systems. There is clearly a requirement to deliver end-to-end ‘joined-up’ public services in this respect to key stakeholders, e.g. citizens. This research identifies factors which inhibits e-Government adoption and proposes an achievable approach to enacting Information and Communication Technology (ICT) enabled delivery of services. The contribution is to identify the significant problems of meeting stakeholder demands which are attributed to several issues within LGs’ organisational, social, operational, political, strategic, and technological structures

ICT shared service framework for E-government among organizations

Information and Communications Technology (ICT) shared service is defined as sharing of ICT service by different units within an organization or multiple organizations, which can occur from different locations. Inter-organizational ICT shared service helps to improve decision making in delivering service to users besides improving working relationship between staffs through collaboration between government organizations. However, current research lacks a holistic view of how to implement an appropriate inter-organizational ICT shared service in e-government. This research developed an ICT shared service framework for e-government among organizations as a guideline to improve service and enlarge ICT shared service. Qualitative data were collected from a single case study comprising multiple organizations. Data were gathered from the practitioners of service provider who have experience in using and managing single service both on e-government intraorganizational and inter-organizational ICT shared service. The interviews also involved representatives from other organizations who have experience in using and managing single service of inter-organizational ICT shared service. Qualitative data analysis interactive model was used to analyze the interview results. Success factors and challenges were identified based on service stakeholders’ views. In addition, Resource Dependence Theory (RDT) and Dependency Network Diagram (DND) as well as success factors and challenges were analyzed to identify the dependencies between stakeholders. These dependencies were used to formulate the proposed framework. The stages of Watson and Mundy’s e-government framework were used as the basis in developing the framework due to its suitability for organization to test the feasibility of the service. It consists of three stages: initiation, infusion and customization focusing on stakeholders’ involvement and their dependencies in every stage. Next, the framework was verified by practitioners using walkthrough of a different case study. The aim of this framework is to help organizations to clearly identify their process chain and dependency with other organizations during implementing inter-organizational ICT shared service through the thorough step-bystep process. This Inter-Organizational ICT Shared Service Framework for EGovernment has been designed to allow an experienced and knowledgeable organization in intra-organizational ICT shared service to expand their service to be used by multiple organizations

Implementation of Shared Services in Multinational Corporations : Insights into challenges and successes

In recent years, a large number of multinational corporations have been implementing shared services aiming to streamline business processes, reduce costs and improve efficiency. In order to ensure successful transition to shared services, it is important to understand how the implementation process is done and what has the most significant influence on the outcomes. The main objective of this research is to investigate how to facilitate successful implementation of shared services, providing insights into challenges and successes of the large multinational corporations operating in the industrial engineering sector. The main research question of this study is divided into two questions, namely ‘What facilitates successful implementation of shared services?’ and ‘How is the implementation of shared services done by the companies within the industrial engineering sector?’. These questions are answered through discovering the most critical success factors, the process and the phases of the implementation and the most common challenges that companies encounter during implementation. This study adapts the qualitative research approach, enabling the researcher to profoundly explore the phenomenon and expand the current understanding of the shared services. The case study method has been selected for this research and the representatives of four case companies have been interviewed. The interviews were conducted with eight managers, who have been leading or participating in transition to shared services, based on the predefined open-ended questions which facilitated insightful discussion on the topic. The empirical data states that support and sponsorship of senior management is crucial to succeed in the implementation of such complex initiatives. It was also concluded that sufficient and suitable transition resources are vital to ensure fast-paced transition and high-quality deliverables. And most importantly, the findings of this research emphasise the importance of the focus on the end-to-end processes and the end user in order to maximise process efficiency, and thereby, better leverage benefits of the shared services business model, and ensure proper utilisation of new services. Thus, this study provides important managerial implications, enabling leaders to increase probability of successful implementation of shared services, as well as offers suggestions for future academic research

Utfordringer ved interessenthåndtering i interorganisatoriske digitaliseringsprosjekt

Master's thesis in Management (ORG917)Basert på nevnte utfordringer er følgende problemstilling definert: Hva er sentrale utfordringer ved interessenthåndteringen i komplekse IKT prosjekter og hvordan kan det påvirke gevinstrealiseringen? Det er valgt en kvalitativ case-studie av et komplekst, interorganisatoriskdigitaliseringsprosjekt som tilnærming til min forskning, og det er gjennomførtintervjuer med interessenter både i og utenfor prosjektorganisasjonen. Respondentene representerer også flere ulike nivå og roller i deltakerorganisasjonene for å få en bedre forståelse for hvilke utfordringer slike komplekse prosjekt kan møte. Organisasjonene og prosjektet anses å være et godt utgangspunkt for å belyse de utfordringene som kan oppstå ved interessenthåndteringen i interorganisatoriske digitaliseringsprosjek

An examination of factors impacting the Implementation of Information Technology Shared Services (ITSS) in UK local government bodies

The Conservative and Liberal Democrats coalition government was formed in the year 2010 and embarked on austerity measures aimed at reducing the UK’s budget deficit. Among the measures that were proposed was the need for local governments to find ways of reducing their cost of operations. One way of reducing costs was through sharing resources. This measure was proposed in the Gershon report, commissioned by the central government. Information technology is a vital resource for running the operations of local governments. Sharing of information technology became crucial in facilitating sharing of other resources by Local Government bodies. There is, however, the need to take into consideration a number of factors in order to ensure that sharing of Information technology (Information Technology Shared Services – ITSS) resources is successful. Factor consideration involves implementation processes that take into account the constraints or facilitators that can be categorised into Technological, Organisational and Environmental categories. Through the review of academic literature, government records, news articles and from the interviews that were held with respondents from Local Government bodies, using advanced qualitative research method and Nvivo as an analytical tool, it was found that beside the reduction of costs and efficiency motives, sharing of Information Technology also impacted work culture and changes to internal processes. The main contribution of this thesis is that Information Technology Shared Services led to long term (or permanence of) association among Local Councils. This degree of permanence of association is beneficial for meeting the main objectives of each council, but also has the potential to lead to loss of autonomy by individual local authorities. Local government managers (management bodies) had to consider the ‘How? When? What?’ questions in order to implement the sharing of information technology resources. This research proposes further examination of the Technological, Organisational and Environmental (TOE) framework through the prism of a Technology Sharing Implementation Framework (TSIF). The proposed framework examines the impacts of TOE factors on implementing sharing of information technology processes / resources and why these factors have to be examined jointly, not disparately, when seeking to implement information technology resources. Mention has been made about examining these factors by assigning weights on them and using quantitative measures to show the importance of the factors. Implementation process of ITSS has been proposed for local government managers

E-Governance: Strategy for Mitigating Non-Inclusion of Citizens in Policy Making in Nigeria

The Nigerian federation that currently has 36 states structure adopted the Weberian Public Administrative system before now as an ideal way of running government, which was characterized with the traditional way of doing things without recourse to the deployment of Information Communication Technology (ICT). Today e-governance is seen as a paradigm shift from the previous way of governance. Research has shown that, the adoption and implementation of e-governance is more likely to bring about effective service delivery, mitigate corruption and ultimately enhance citizens’ participation in governmental affairs. However, it has been argued that infrastructure such as regular electricity power and access to the Internet, in addition to a society with high rate of literacy level are required to effectively implement and realize the potentials of e-governance for improved delivery of services. Due to the difficulties currently experienced, developing nations need to adequately prepare for the implementation of e-governance on the platform of Information Communication Technology (ICT). Hence, this study seeks to examine whether the adoption and implementation of e-governance in the context of Nigeria would mitigate the hitherto non-inclusion of citizens in the formulation and implementation of government policies aimed at enhanced development. To achieve the objective of the study, data were sourced and analyzed majorly by examining government websites of 20 states in the Nigerian federation to ascertain if there are venues for citizens to interact with government in the area of policy making and feedback on government actions, as a way of promoting participatory governance. The study revealed that the adoption and implementation of e-governance in the country is yet to fully take place. This is due to lack of infrastructure, low level of literacy rate and government inability to provide the necessary infrastructure for e-governance to materialize. The paper therefore, recommends among others the need for the Federal Government to involve a sound and clear policy on how to go about the adoption and implementation of egovernance through deliberate effort at increasing budgetary allocation towards infrastructural development and mass education of citizens

The Impact of e-Democracy in Political Stability of Nigeria

The history of the Nigerian electoral process has been hitherto characterized by violence stemming from disputes in election outcomes. For instance, violence erupted across some states in Northern Nigeria when results indicated that a candidate who was popular in that part of the country was losing the election leading to avoidable loss of lives. Beside, this dispute in election outcome lingers for a long time in litigation at the electoral tribunals which distracts effective governance. However, the increasing penetrating use of ICTs in Nigeria is evident in the electoral processes with consequent shift in the behavior of actors in the democratic processes, thus changing the ways Nigerians react to election outcomes. This paper examines the trend in the use ICT in the Nigerian political system and its impact on the stability of the polity. It assesses the role of ICT in recent electoral processes and compares its impact on the outcome of the process in lieu of previous experiences in the Nigeria. Furthermore, the paper also examines the challenges and risks of implementing e-Democracy in Nigeria and its relationship to the economy in the light of the socio-economic situation of the country. The paper adopted qualitative approach in data gathering and analysis. From the findings, the paper observed that e-democracy is largely dependent on the level of ICT adoption, which is still at its lowest ebb in the country. It recognizes the challenges in the provision of ICT infrastructure and argues that appropriate low-cost infrastructure applicable to the Nigerian condition can be made available to implement e-democracy and thus arouse the interest of the populace in governance, increase the number of voters, and enhance transparency, probity and accountability, and participation in governance as well as help stabilize the nascent democrac

Surmounting Boundaries: Closing The Governance Gap Governance Arrangements In Public Sector Ict Shared Services

Hundreds of millions of dollars of public money have been spent creating Public Sector ICT Shared Services (PSISS) based on expectations of improved customer service and cost reduction. Unfortunately, the promised benefits have often failed to materialise and governance has been identified as a barrier to PSISS success. The research first locates the concerns that governance, and in particular arrangements for governing PSISS, is contributing to PSISS failure in the academic and practice literatures on PSISS governance. Our current knowledge of PSISS governance is principally informed by literature from three domains: management, public administration and information systems. These domains, to an extent, exist in silos with unique traditions, perspectives and knowledge claims. As a result, how it informs the governance of PSISS could be at best unhelpful and even confusing to practitioners. This state of knowledge is not assisted by “how to govern” guides that obscure their different theoretical origins and do not appear to address the complexity of PSISS governance. Despite this apparent lack of coherent frameworks in the academic and practice literatures, practitioners are expected to use this literature to develop governance arrangements and perform effective PSISS governance. This lack of coherence led me to ask my first research question: How do practitioners perceive PSISS governance in practice? Exploring how PSISS governance occurs in practice through the lived experience of PSISS governance practitioners led me to select grounded theory as an appropriate methodology and research design to examine 20 years of governance practice for an electronic identity (E-ID) PSISS in New Zealand. My grounded theory of practice enabled construction of a public sector governance model to explore vertical and collaborative governance arrangements through three perspectives: system strategy, delivery and assurance. The model has been extended to provide a system-wide public sector governance lens, which was used to reflexively explore current academic literature and seven practitioner informed critical public sector governance issues to answer my refined secondary research question: How have governance arrangements addressed critical issues in public sector governance