To outsource or not to outsource!

In this article we will take a look at the phenomena of outsourcing as an overarching business concept that is, in short, about contracting of a specific bit of our business to a third part organisation. Consequently, outsourcing is a natural part of the make, share or buy continuum, as illustrated in Figure 1. We would, therefore, argue that outsourcing is not a new business phenomena as it has been commonly practiced since the early times of industrialisation, even though recently it has been enjoying renewed attention fuelled by the globalising forces

Decision Support Tools for Cloud Migration in the Enterprise

This paper describes two tools that aim to support decision making during the migration of IT systems to the cloud. The first is a modeling tool that produces cost estimates of using public IaaS clouds. The tool enables IT architects to model their applications, data and infrastructure requirements in addition to their computational resource usage patterns. The tool can be used to compare the cost of different cloud providers, deployment options and usage scenarios. The second tool is a spreadsheet that outlines the benefits and risks of using IaaS clouds from an enterprise perspective; this tool provides a starting point for risk assessment. Two case studies were used to evaluate the tools. The tools were useful as they informed decision makers about the costs, benefits and risks of using the cloud.Comment: To appear in IEEE CLOUD 201

Control, Process Facilitation, and Requirements Change in Offshore Requirements Analysis: The Provider Perspective

Process, technology, and project factors have been increasingly driving organizations to offshore early software development phases, such as requirements analysis. This emerging trend necessitates greater control and process facilitation between client and vendor sites. The effectiveness of control and facilitation has, however, not been examined within the context of requirements analysis and change. In this study, we examine the role of control and facilitation in managing changing requirements and on success of requirements gathering in the Indian offshore software development environment. Firms found that control by client-site coordinators had a positive impact on requirements analysis success while vender site-coordinators did not have similar influence. Process facilitation by client site-coordinators affected requirements phase success indirectly through control. The study concludes with recommendations for research and practice

The Use of Hosted Enterprise Applications by SMEs: A Dual Market and User Perspective

YesThis deliberately dual perspective paper seeks to deepen our understanding of the engagement of SMEs in hosted enterprise applications in the UK. The emergence and development of the ASP sector has attracted much interest and highly optimistic forecasts for revenues. The paper starts by considering ICT adoption by SMEs in general before reviewing the provision of hosted enterprise applications in the US and UK (market perspective). The study is extended by qualitative empirical data collected by semi-structured interviews with SME users of hosted enterprise applications (user perspective) and subsequent analysis in order to develop the key findings and conclusions. From an SME user perspective the key findings to emerge from the study include: i) confirmation that ICT infrastructure was no longer a barrier to adoption, ii) the pragmatic approach taken to security issues, iii) the use of both multiple information systems and multiple service providers, iv) the financial attractiveness of the rental model and v) the intention to continue or extend the use of hosted applications. It also highlights the opportunity for gaining competitive advantage by using hosted enterprise applications to reduce costs. There are very few empirical studies of hosted applications which take deliberately market and SME user perspectives - this paper makes an important contribution in this emerging field

Learning from Other Economies: The Unique Institutional and Policy Experiments Down Under

This paper argues that detailed studies of particular economies, such as Bob Gregory%u2019s work on Australia, are relevant to all of economics. The paper builds on the concept of a model species from biology to develop the notion of a model economy %u2013 one whose experiences illuminate fundamental economic issues; examines the criterion for an economy to serve as a model economy; and describes three areas %u2013 labour relations and the awards system of wage-setting, marketizing public services and growth through immigration and natural resources %u2013 where Australian experience provides insights into economic behaviour and the operation of markets broadly.

The impact of human capital outsourcing on human capital management practices in Karachi pharmaceutical industry

Purpose: The aim of this research is to examine relationship between Human Capital Management (HRM) and Human Resource (HR) Outsourcing in the Pharmaceutical sector. The specific objective is to find out that how important is HRM for an Organization to perform its operations more efficiently, and at what level Human Resource Outsourcing is affecting it. Literature review: Literature review shows that HR outsourcing has positive impact on HRM for an Organization to perform its operations more efficiently. Methods: In order to conduct this research the methodology that has been used is quantitative in nature and closed ended Questionnaire was used to collect data. The universe of study was the employees of Pharmaceutical industry in Karachi Pakistan. The responses of each respondent were thoroughly analyzed by using SPSS software, and the results show that there is a negative relationship between the Human Capital Management (Gaining Knowledge, Current Trend of Business Environment, Organization Managing Their Human Asset and Practices and Policies Regarding Human Resource) and HR Outsourcing. Conclusions: It is concluded that all Independent Variables have the strongest Positive correlation with each other. There are lots of constraints, which any organization faces in terms of time, finance and, in some cases factors like strategic focus.Human Capital Management, Karachi, Pharmaceutical, Outsourcing