Outsourcing information systems: Drawing lessons from a banking case study

Financial and costs benefits are often put forward as the reasons why organisations decide to outsource. Emerging patterns and trends indicate that today’s outsourcing decisions are often motivated by factors other than cost. Thus, the decision-making process is more complex than it may at first appear. This paper presents findings from a case study from an organisation in the UK banking sector that was motivated to outsource aspects of its information technology/information system (IT/IS). The underlying motives and decision-making process that influenced the bank outsource its IT/IS are presented and discussed. Findings from the case study suggest political perspectives, as well as human and organisational issues influenced the bank’s strategic decision-making to outsource certain aspects of its business. An examination of the case study findings suggests that cost alone is not always responsible for decisions to outsource, as it was found the bank’s outsourcing decision was driven by a series of complex, interrelated motives in a bid to reduce the risks and uncertainties of managing its own technology. Considering the complex nature of the outsourcing process a frame of reference that can be used to assist managers with their decision to outsource IT/IS is propagated. The case study is used to present an organisation’s experiences as to how and why it decided to outsource its IS and thus offers a learning opportunity for other organisations facing similar difficulties. In addition, the case study findings highlight the need to focus greater attention on discriminating between the short and long-term consequences of IT/IS decision-makin

Year 2000: A Reality Check

The paper examines the risks, cost, size, implications, and likely outcomes of the Year 2000 or Y2K Problem, as well as the lessons learned, opportunities, and silver linings of Y2K projects. The MIS academic community has largely missed a unique opportunity to be relevant to practitioners as well as our communities. Fortunately, it is not too late since knowledgeable and rational voices are needed to help communities, and the people and enterprises in them, intelligently deal with the challenges of Y2K. Strangely, in spite of billions of bytes of data about year 2000 problem appearing each week, we still know surprisingly little about the reality of the Y2K risks we face. And there is little chance that a complete assessment of even the greatest risks faced by our enterprises and communities can be made, let alone repairs completed. Then there are the global risks of Y2K, and the thorny fact that most Y2K risks are beyond our direct control anyway. So what can ethical, conscientious, and concerned MIS professionals do about this situation? How can we help our communities reduce risks, appropriately plan for contingencies, and quickly manage failures? With only a few months to go, this may be the last chance we have to be relevant, enhance our collective credibility, and genuinely help improve IS practices

Information Outlook, October 1999

Volume 3, Issue 10https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/sla_io_1999/1009/thumbnail.jp

Research opportunities in joint interoperability testing

The Department of Defense requires that all command, control, communications and computers intelligence (C4I) systems and automated information systems-(AIS) be interoperable between the services. The Joint Interoperability Test Command (JITC) is responsible for testing and certifying the joint interoperability of these systems. The design of joint interoperability tests and the analysis of data that they produce offer many opportunities for NPS faculty and students to collaborate with JITC on research projects of mutual interest. This paper outlines a spectrum of potential research opportunities, encompassing probability and statistics, modeling and simulation, computer science, information technology, electrical engineering, human factors, and specialized subject matter related to intelligence, communications, and missile defense systems

Mapping factors influencing EAI adoption in the local government authorities on different phases of the adoption lifecycle

Several private and public organisations have adopted Enterprise Application Integration (EAI), however, its application in the Local Government Authorities (LGAs) is limited. Although, there exist few EAI adoption models, these models mainly focus on a number of different factors (e.g. benefits, barriers, cost) influencing the decision making process for EAI adoption. Moreover, these models do not illustrate which factor(s) influence the decision making process for EAI adoption on the adoption lifecycle phases. Literature indicates that the adoption process involves a sequence of phases an organisation passes through before taking the decision for adoption. This exemplifies that LGAs may also have to pass through several adoption phases before taking the decision to adopt EAI. However, due to the: (a) multiplicity of diverse EAI adoption factors and (b) not able to recognise which factor(s) influence EAI on adoption lifecycle phases, it may not be easy for LGAs to take decisions to adopt EAI by merely focusing on different factors. This may impede the decision making process for EAI adoption in LGAs. Notwithstanding, the implications of EAI have yet to be assessed, leaving scope for timeliness and novel research. Therefore, it is of high importance to investigate this area within LGAs and result in research that contributes towards successful EAI adoption. This paper makes a step forward as it: (a) investigates and proposes four adoption lifecycle phases, (b) validates the adoption lifecycle phases and (c) mapping the factors influencing EAI adoption on the adoption lifecycle phases, through a case study. Hence, it significantly contributes to the body of knowledge and practice. In doing so, providing sufficient support to the decision makers for speeding up the decision making process for EAI adoption in LGAs

The ERP Purchase Decision: Influential Business and IT Factors

Our objective for this paper is to identify a parsimonious set of business and IT factors that are associated with the purchase of ERP systems. A survey instrument of 36 items that describe potential ERP package capabilities is developed after a review of prior literature. Based on factor analyses of the survey responses from 122 senior IS managers, four business factors (data integration, new ways of doing business, global capabilities, flexibility/agility) and four IT factors (IT purchasing, IT cost reduction, IT expertise, IT architecture) are identified. We also confirm that many of the ERP purchases in the last half of the 1990s were at least partially motivated by the avoidance of Year 2000 maintenance costs

What Drives Waves in Information Systems: The Organizing Vision Perspective

Waves of fashionable ideas shape the practice and research of information systems (IS). What forces drive idea waves in IS? This research takes the first step to empirically study IS idea waves in inter-organizational com- munities through the lens of organizing visions. Introduced by Swanson and Ramiller (1997), an organizing vision is a focal community idea for applying information technologies in organizations. Each organizing vision is produced and sustained through a discourse whose popularity often runs a wave-like lifecycle. By studying the discourse promoting enterprise resource planning (ERP), I examine the influence of four forces on the upswing phase of an organizing vision discourse wave: (1) a business problematic highlighted by discourse, (2) the early market for an IS innovation, (3) core technologies, and (4) the collapse of old organizing visions in a problem domain. A better understanding of the relationship between key forces and organizing vision development will help both practitioners and researchers monitor and relate to the exciting waves in our field

Identifying critical success factors of ERP systems at the higher education sector

In response to a range of contextual drivers, the worldwide adoption of ERP Systems in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) has increased substantially over the past decade. Though the difficulties and high failure rate in implementing ERP systems at university environments have been cited in the literature, research on critical success factors (CSFs) for ERP implementations in this context is rare and fragmented. This paper is part of a larger research effort that aims to contribute to understanding the phenomenon of ERP implementations and evaluations in HEIs in the Australasian region; it identifies, previously reported, critical success factors (CSFs) in relation to ERP system implementations and discusses the importance of these factors

SOX And ERP Adoption

The objective of this paper is to examine the relationship between the implementation of the Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) legislation and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems, and to investigate the impact that the passage of this legislation has had on the decision for companies to adopt ERP technology.  The legislation itself is discussed, along with an analysis of ERP systems, including their components, their advantages and disadvantages, and the critical factors and crucial components which must be present for the successful deployment of such systems.  This paper explores the contributory effect of SOX on ERP adoption.  The authors concluded that SOX merely accelerated an inevitable process.  The best managers will always find and use the best tools to maximize benefits to their organizations.  The requirements of Sarbanes-Oxley forced companies to rethink their processes and technology, and therefore may have provided the final incentive for companies to commit to ERP

Implementing Electronic Services Transnational Guidelines and Perspectives

Electronic services to citizens are a growing concern to governments all over the world, not inthe least in the domains of social security and labor market. It was at the Montreal Conference of the ISSA –the International Social Security Association – in 1999 that many organizations in many countries showedto be grappling with many questions concerning the implementation of electronic service delivery. In orderto elaborate on experiences of implementation, the ISSA and three Dutch member organizations arranged anexpert work shop on implementation strategies for E-government in social security in the Autumn of 2000.This report summarizes the experts conclusions on strategies, methods, do´s and don´ts. It emphasizes theimportance of a mix of technological, political, legislational and organizational prerequisites.The considerations encompass the following domains or perspectives:(i) Infrastructure, being the technical devices such as network components, servers, protocols, instrumentsfor client identification, which needs some cooperation or coordination between social securityorganizations;(ii) Data management, which poses the question how governments can avoid to ask citizens or employersfor the same information twice;(iii) Standards and responsibilities, dealing with scope, and with how they are to be established,implemented and maintained;(iv) Client appreciation, one of the key issues when designing the services, which ones and how;(v) Issues of flexibility, which are related to changes in legislation, in technical standards and clientappreciation; and last but not least:(vi) Costs and benefits, the context of justification for investments.For each domain or theme, context, goals and experiences are stated first. Only a few examples aredescribed in the report itself. Each theme ends with do´s and don´ts, aiming at the promotion of action, atthe reduction not the ignorance of complexity. A range of illustrative cases is described in a separateappendix