CHAPTER 19 OUTSOURCING IN THE 21st CENTURY

OUTSOURCING PROJECTS

Insourcing ( in - house development ) - is a common approach using the professional expertise within an organization to develop and maintain the organization's information technology systems.

Outsourcing - is an arrangement by which one organization provides a service or services for another organization that chooses not to perform them in-house.

 

 

 

 

Three different forms of outsourcing options a project must consider

1. Onshore outsourcing - engaging another company within the same country for services.
2. Nearshore outsourcing - contracting an outsourcing arrangement with a company in a nearby country. Often this country will share a border with the native country.
3. Offshore outsourcing - using organizations from developing countries to write code and develop  systems. In offshore outsourcing the country is geographically far away.

 

Influential drivers affecting the growth of outsourcing market

 

• core compentencies
• financial savings
• rapid growth
• industry changes
• the internet
• globalization

Outsourcing benefits

1. increased quality and efficiency
2. reduced operating expenses
3. outsourcing non-core processes
4. reduced exposure to risk
5. economies of scle, expertise, and best practices
6. access to advanced technologies
7. increased flexibility
8. avoid costly outlay of capital funds
9. reduces headcount and associated overhead expense
10. reduced time to market for products or services

 

Outsourcing Challenges  

• contract length

1. difficulties in getting out of a contract
2. problems in foreseeing future needs
3. problems in reforming an internal IT department after the contract is finished
• competitive edge
• confidentiality
• scope definition

CHAPTER 15 CREATING COLLABORATIVE PARTNERSHIPS

WEB 2.0 ADVANTAGES OF BUSINESS 2.0

* web 2.0 ( business 2.0) is the next generation of internet use- a more mature, distinctive communications platform characterized by new qualities such as collaboration, sharing and free.

CONTENT SHARING THROUGH OPEN SOURCING

*Open system consists of nonproprietary hardware and software based on publicly known standards that allow third parties to create add-on products to plug into or inter-operate with the systems.
*Source code contains instructions written by a programmer specifying the actions to be performed by computer software.
*Open source refers to any software whose source code is made available free for any third party to review and modify.

CHARACTERISTICS OF BUSINESS 2.0

1. USER-CONTRIBUTED CONTENT

- user contributed content ( user-generated content) is created and updated by many users for many users.
- reputation systems where buyers post feedback on sellers.

     2.  COLLABORATION INSIDE THE ORGANIZATION

- collaboration systems is a set of tools that supports the works of team or groups by facilitating the sharing and flow of information.
- collective intelligence is collaborating and tapping into the core knowledge of all employees, partners, and customers.
- knowledge management ( KM) which involves capturing, classifying , evaluating, retrieving, and sharing information assets in a way that provides context for effective decisions and actions. 
 - knowledge management systems ( KMS) supports the capturing , organizations and dissemination of knowledge throughout an organization.

Explicit knowledge - consists of anything that can be documented, archived, and codified, often with the help of IT.
Tacit knowledge - knowledge contained in people heads. 

   3.    COLLABORATION OUTSIDE THE ORGANIZATIONS

• asynchronous communications  communications such as email in which the message and the response do not occurs at the same time.
• synchronous communication communications that occurs at the same time such as IM or chat.  

SOCIAL TAGGING 

• Tags - are specific keywords or phrases incorporated into website content for means of               classification or taxonomy.
• Social tagging - describe the collaborative activity of making shared online content with                                 keywords or tags as a way to organize it for future navigation, filtering,or  search.
• Folksonomy - is similar to taxonomy except that crowdsourcing determines the tags or                              keyword-based classification system.
• Website bookmark - is a locally stored URL or the address of a file or Internet page                                                saved as a shortcut.
• Social bookmarking - allows users to share,organize,search and manage bookmarks.

BUSINESS 2.0 TOOLS FOR COLLABORATING

1. Blog is an online journals that allows users to post their own comments, graphics and video. 
2. Wikis - web-based tools that make it easy for users to add, remove, and change online content
3. mashups is a website or web applications that uses content from more than one source to create a completely new product or service.

CHAPTER 14 EBUSINESS

EBUSINESS MODEL
* A business model is a plan that details how a company creates, delivers, and generates revenues.
* An ebusiness model is a plan that details how a company creates, delivers, and generates revenues on the internet.

EBUSINESS FORMS AND REVENUE GENERATING STRATEGIES

1. content providers
2. infomediaries
3. online marketplace
4. portals
5. service providers
6. transaction brokers.

EBUSINESS TOOLS FOR CONNECTING AND COMMUNICATING

1. Email
2. Instant message
3. Podcasting
4. Videoconferencing
5. Web conferencing
6. Content management systems

THE CHALLENGES OF EBUSINESS

1. identifying limited market segments
2. managing consumer trust
3. ensuring consumer protection
4. adhering to taxation rules