A preliminary study of key factors affecting management and evaluation of IT outsourcing contracts in hospitals

© 2015 by IGI Global. All rights reserved. Many hospitals are experiencing pressure to improve their operational efficiency and patient safety due to escalating costs and increased competition. In order to achieve these and other business objectives, hospitals have to outsource some of their Information Technology (IT) functions to external outsourcing contractors. The scope and range of IT-related outsourcing services are also increasing, as evidenced by the promotion of Applications Service Providers (ASP), Business-to-Business (B2B) integration, cloud-drive business and IT services, desktop and helpdesk, IT infrastructure services, and software development outsourcing. However, little attention has been paid by many hospitals to the key factors that affect their IT outsourcing decision-making and negotiation processes. This is important given that the IT outsourcing can play a key role in organizational success. Moreover, contract decision-making and negotiation processes in hospitals are particularly under-studied, especially in the management and evaluation of the IT outsourcing contracts. Hence, the main objectives of this chapter are to: (1) examine and identify some key factors affecting the management and evaluation of IT outsourcing contracts in Taiwanese hospitals; and (2) propose a set of recommendations to overcome or minimize the key issues identified in this study. One contribution of the study is the recommendations provided to deal with issues that are critical in the management and evaluation of IT outsourcing contracts in hospitals

Evaluating and managing electronic commerce and outsourcing projects in hospitals

© 2019, IGI Global. Despite the huge popularity of outsourcing in electronic commerce/IT in the past two decades, many hospitals have failed to realize the expected benefits from their outsourcing projects. Not surprisingly, the management of electronic commerce/IT outsourcing contracts has become one of the top management issues for hospitals executives in recent years. Hence, the purpose of this study was to provide an overview of outsourcing in electronic commerce/IT investment evaluation and benefits realization processes and practices in Australian and Taiwanese hospitals. Inherent in this study was the opportunity to compare such practices between a developed economy (Australia) and a newly industrialized economy (Taiwan). Several key electronic commerce/IT investment evaluation and outsourcing issues and challenges faced by Australian and Taiwanese hospitals will be presented. The results will assist hospital executives to develop their own approaches and strategies to better manage the opportunities and threats that exist in undertaking electronic commerce/IT outsourcing projects in Australian and Taiwanese hospitals