Contracts and Partnerships in the Outsourcing of IT

This paper reports on a recent research study conceming the outsourcing of information technology activities in the United Kingdom. The study involved a large survey and a set of detailed case studies based on large and medium sized organizations. In particular the issues of contracts and partnerships are examined, which is identified as one of the key elements in successful outsourcing. The authors show the variety of approaches and perceptions that exist concerning these issues, and conclude that &ere Is much misunderstanding, particularly in relation to partnership. The paper concludes by creating a framework for helping to identify and examine the interrelationship between contractual arrangements, the required degree of contractual definition, and the characteristics of the area being outsourcecl

An Organizational Change Perspective of SMEs Web Presence Involving Strategies

Firms are constantly evolving their Web presence. The premise of this study is that monitoring the behaviour of Web sites gives insights into the actual evolving strategies and motivations behind Internet investments in organizations. A variety of models have been utilized to study the progression of adoption of Internet technologies from different perspectives (e.g. Stages of Growth models). However, from the organizational change perspective there is little research to explain why and how organizations continually evolve their Web presence. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to present a framework to characterize and model the evolution of the Web presence of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the UK and undertake its preliminary validation by monitoring the evolution of a sample of Web sites. A total of 185 Web sites from SMEs were collected and monitored over an 18- month period in order to study the process and content of their change. In addition, 25 telephone interviews were undertaken to ascertain the drivers of the change and complement the previous quantitative observations

Mapping the Information Systems Curricula in UK Universities

Information Systems (IS) undergraduate student numbers in the UK have reduced by half in the last five years. An increasing number of researchers have been pondering the possible relationship between the modernity of IS curricula and its attractiveness to potential students. To support the debate about IS curricula in the UK and elsewhere, this study provides a comprehensive review of the provision of IS courses across the UK which has not been carried out before on such a large scale. The review focuses on classifying IS courses using two separate classification methods, one of which draws on the UK Quality Assurance Agency’s (QAA) Subject Benchmark Statement for Computing (SBSC), and a second that is based on the well established IS 2002 model curriculum. Results are compiled by attributing subjects to categories that have been extended to ensure the accurate reflection of the content of courses, taking into account the variations that exist in terms of module sizes, naming conventions and core/option module relationships. Overall, programming, project management and database design are shown to be the most popular IS subjects offered in the UK. The analysis of the results incorporates limitations that affect the interpretation of the data by highlighting the inherent complexities that exist in trying to measure wide-ranging curricula that borrow subjects from different fields. The findings presented should support IS academics, researchers and course designers in their quest to improve curricula and the IS discipline whose future prospects are tied to the recruitment of adequate numbers of students

Theoretical Approaches to Study SMEs eBusiness Progression

It has been suggested that the adoption of Internet technologies by SMEs follows an ordered sequence of stages and staged models to describe it. These models postulate that businesses move in stages from basic use of the Internet to the full integration of business systems and redesign of business processes. The European Union and the UK government appear to believe in such models and have used them in their e-business adoption encouragement policies for SMEs. However, despite the efforts of governments and the various support programs, the attainment of the advanced stages of e-commerce by SMEs is very low. Indeed, several studies into the state of e-business in the UK report a decline in the number of SMEs implementing e-trading and even using website and e-mail. Hence, perhaps these adoption models need to be questioned and even revised. There are a number of authors that have already critized these models suggesting that they are too general and do not take into account the diversity of SMEs. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to conduct an analysis of the Stages of Growth model looking at its weaknesses and strengths in the context of the progression of Internet technologies adoption by SMEs in the UK. In addition, alternative explanations of e-business progression will be presented and an interpretative multi-theoretical framework to study this evolution will be suggested

Reflections on Teaching Information Systems Analysis and Design: From Then to Now!

David Avison and Guy Fitzgerald have had over 30 years\u27 experience teaching information systems development methodologies, techniques and tools at the old UK polytechnics, universities and business schools in the UK, France, Australia and the United States in faculties of commerce, management, engineering, science and mathematics in many departments, including (even) that of Information Systems. During this time they have both also had several years\u27 experience in practice, acting as consultant and researcher (and this followed some years as full time systems analysts in a number of companies). In this opinion piece, they discuss their experience with Melissa Cole, who has completed her first year teaching the subject, to see if there is any common ground (or indeed differences) which they could share. The following agreed \u27reflections\u27 were formed following several discussions between the three of us. We follow conventional wisdom and use the magic number 7 for our reflections

Towards a Framework for Realizing Healthcare Management Benefits Through the Integration of Patient\u27s Information

Business Intelligence (BI) applications, including customer relationship management systems, decision support systems, analytical processing systems, and data mining systems, have captured the attention of practitioners and researchers for the last few years. Health care organizations, which are data driven and in which quality and integration of data is of paramount importance, have adopted BI applications to help and assist healthcare managers in improving the quality of the information input to the decision process. Based on preliminary data collection results, it is found that high quality data is essential to successful BI performance and that technological support for data acquisition, analysis and deployment are not widespread. Yet, business organizations are not investing in improving data quality and data integration. In this paper the authors propose a framework for evaluating the quality and integration of patient’s data for BI applications in healthcare organizations. In doing so, a range of potential benefits is highlighted. Even though this framework is in an early stage of development, it intends to present existing solutions for evaluating the above issues. The authors conclude that further research needs to be carried out to refine this framework, through model testing and case studies evaluation

User Disengagement And The Turnaround Of A Failing Project

This paper reports on an in-depth case study of a large and strategic IT development project facing business user disengagement and potential system rejection. Somewhat belatedly senior management recognised the threat and appointed a new project manager with a brief to rescue the project whilst keeping to the original implementation deadline. Much to almost everyone\u27s surprise the new project manager, and his radical approach, produced the required significant results. The paper examines the changes instigated by the new project manager and a group of newly appointed Business Analysts (BAs). The approach, based on participation ideas, utilized an adapted state modelling technique, and was framed within the agile informed management approach, succeeded in achieving an emergence of business users’ belief and the feeling that they could not just influence the system but design it in a way that was needed by the business and that would support the current required workflows as well as for the future, which was somewhat uncertain. The detail of the approach is described and the way in which the disengagement and turnaround was achieved is provided. The paper concludes by outlining the contributions of the case and the approach and suggesting a relevance not only to the systems development and participation literature but potentially to the concept of systems ownership and Psychological Ownership (PO) which it could be argued were invoked in the case