CHAPTER 15: OUTSOURCING IN THE 21st CENTURY

OUTSOURCING PROJECTS

• Insourcing (in-house-development) – a common approach using the professional expertise within an organization to develop and maintain the organization's information technology systems
• Outsourcing – an arrangement by which one organization provides a service or services for another organization that chooses not to perform them in-house
• Reasons companies outsourcing

• Onshore outsourcing – engaging another company within the same country for services
• Nearshore outsourcing – contracting an outsourcing arrangement with a company in a nearby country
• Offshore outsourcing – using organizations from developing countries to write code and develop systems

Factors driving outsourcing growth include:

• Core competencies
• Many companies have recently begun to consider outsourcing as a means to fuel revenue growth rather than just a cost-cutting measure.
• Financial savings
• It is typically cheaper to hire workers in China and India than similar workers in the United States.
• Rapid growth
• an organization is able to acquire best-practices process expertise. This facilitates the design, building, training, and deployment of business processes or functions.
• Industry changes
• High levels of reorganization across industries have increased demand for outsourcing to better focus on core competencies.
• The Internet
• The pervasive nature of the Internet as an effective sales channel has allowed clients to become more comfortable with outsourcing.
• Globalization
• As markets open worldwide, competition heats up. Companies may engage outsourcing service providers to deliver international services
• According to Pricewaterhouse Coopers “Businesses that outsource are growing faster, larger, and more profitable than those that do not”
• Most organizations outsource their noncore business functions, such as payroll and IT

• Outsourcing Benefits
• Increased quality and efficiency
• Reduced operating expenses
• Outsourcing non-core processes
• Reduced exposure to risk
• Economies of scale, expertise, and best practices
• Access to advanced technologies
• Increased flexibility
• Avoid costly outlay of capital funds
• Reduced headcount and associated overhead expense
• Reduced time to market for products or services
•  Outsourcing Challenges
• Contract length
• Most outsourcing contracts span several years and cause the issues discussed above
• Difficulties in getting out of a contract
• Problems in foreseeing future needs
• Problems in reforming an internal IT department after the contract is finished
• Competitive edge
• Effective and innovative use of IT can be lost when using an outsourcing service provider
• Confidentiality
• Confidential information might be breached by an outsourcing service provider, especially one that provides services to competitors 
• Scope definition
• Scope creep is a common problem with outsourcing agreements

CHAPTER 14: CREATING COLLABORATIVE PARTNERSHIPS

• Teams, Partnerships, and Alliances

• Organizations create and use teams, partnerships, and alliances to:
• Undertake new initiatives
• Address both minor and major problems
• Capitalize on significant opportunities
• Organizations create teams, partnerships, and alliances both internally with employees and externally with other organizations
• Collaboration:

• Collaboration system – supports the work of teams by facilitating the sharing and flow of information
• Organizations form alliances and partnerships with other organizations based on their core competency
• Core competency – an organization’s key strength, a business function that it does better than any of its competitors
• Core competency strategy – organization chooses to focus specifically on its core competency and forms partnerships with other organizations to handle nonstrategic business processes

• Information technology can make a business partnership easier to establish and manage
• Information partnership – occurs when two or more organizations cooperate by integrating their IT systems, thereby providing customers with the best of what each can offer
• The Internet has dramatically increased the ease and availability for IT-enabled organizational alliances and partnerships

Collaboration Systems

• Collaboration solves specific business tasks such as telecommuting, online meetings, deploying applications, and remote project and sales management
• Collaboration system – an
• IT-based set of tools that supports
• the work of teams by facilitating
• the sharing and flow of information
• Two categories of collaboration
• Unstructured collaboration (information collaboration) - includes document exchange, shared whiteboards, discussion forums, and e-mail
• Structured collaboration (process collaboration) - involves shared participation in business processes such as workflow in which knowledge is hardcoded as rules
• Collaboration Systems

• Collaborative business functions

• Collaboration systems include:
• Knowledge management systems
• Content management systems
• Workflow management systems
• Groupware systems
• Knowledge Management Systems
• Knowledge management (KM) – involves capturing, classifying, evaluating, retrieving, and sharing information assets in a way that provides context for effective decisions and actions
• Knowledge management system – supports the capturing and use of an organization’s “know-how”
• Explicit and Tacit Knowledge
• Intellectual and knowledge-based assets fall into two categories
• Explicit knowledge – consists of anything that can be documented, archived, and codified, often with the help of IT
• Tacit knowledge - knowledge contained in people’s heads
• The following are two best practices for transferring or recreating tacit knowledge
• Shadowing – less experienced staff observe more experienced staff to learn how their more experienced counterparts approach their work
• Joint problem solving – a novice and expert work together on a project

• Reasons why organizations launch knowledge management programs

• KM Technologies

• Knowledge management systems include:
• Knowledge repositories (databases)
• Expertise tools
• E-learning applications
• Discussion and chat technologies
• Search and data mining tools
• KM and Social Networking
• Finding out how information flows through an organization
• Social Networking 

• Social networking analysis (SNA) – a process of mapping a group’s contacts (whether personal or professional) to identify who knows whom and who works with whom
• SNA provides a clear picture of how employees and divisions work together and can help identify key experts
• Social Networking 

CONTENT MANAGEMENT

• Content management system (CMS) – provides tools to manage the creation, storage, editing, and publication of information in a collaborative environment
• CMS marketplace includes:
• Document management system (DMS)
• Digital asset management system (DAM)
• Web content management system (WCM)

• Document management system (DMS)

• Supports the electronic capturing, storage, distribution, archival,  and accessing of documents
• Digital asset management system (DAM)
• Similar to DMS, generally works with binary rather than text files, such as multimedia files types.
• Web content management system (WCM)
• Adds an additional layer to document and digital asset management that enables publishing content both to intranets and to public Web sites
• Content management system vendor overview

WORKING WIKIS

• Wikis - Web-based tools that make it easy for users to add, remove, and change online content
• Business wikis - collaborative Web pages that allow users to edit documents, share ideas, or monitor the status of a project
• Business wikis

• Workflow Management Systems
• Work activities can be performed in series or in parallel that involves people and automated computer systems
• Workflow – defines all the steps or business rules, from beginning to end, required for a business process
• Workflow management system – facilitates the automation and management of business processes and controls the movement of work through the business process
• Messaging-based workflow system – sends work assignments through an e-mail system
• Database-based workflow system – stores documents in a central location and automatically asks the team members to access the document when it is their turn to edit the document
• Groupware Systems

• Groupware technologies

• Groupware – software that supports team interaction and dynamics including calendaring, scheduling, and videoconferencing

VIDEOCONFERENCING

• Videoconference - a set of interactive telecommunication technologies that allow two or more locations to interact via two-way video and audio transmissions simultaneously.

WEB CONFERENCING

• Web conferencing - blends audio, video, and document-sharing technologies to create virtual meeting rooms where people “gather” at a password-protected Web site.

INSTANT MESSAGING

• E-mail is the dominant form of collaboration application, but real-time collaboration tools like instant messaging are creating a new communication dynamic
• Instant messaging - type of communications service that enables someone to create a kind of private chat room with another individual to communicate in real-time over the Internet

CHAPTER 13: E-BUSINESS

The Internet is a powerful channel that presents new opportunities for an organization to:

• Touch customers
• Enrich products and services with information
• Reduce costs

E-Commerce & E-Business

• How do e-commerce and e-business differ?
• E-commerce – the buying and selling of goods and services over the Internet (online transactions)
• E-business – the conducting of business on the Internet including, not only buying and selling, but also serving customers and collaborating with business partners (online transactions, serving customers and collaborating with business partner)

Business-to-Business (B2B)

• Electronic marketplace (e-marketplace) – interactive business communities providing a central market where multiple buyers and sellers can engage in e-business activities

Electronic marketplaces, or e-marketplaces, present structures for conducting commercial exchange, consolidating supply chains, and creating new sales channels

Their primary goal is to increase market efficiency by tightening and automating the relationship between buyers and sellers

Existing e-marketplaces allow access to various mechanisms in which to buy and sell almost anything, from services to direct materials

Business-to-Consumer (B2C)

• Common B2C e-business models include:
• e-shop – a version of a retail store where customers can shop at any hour of the day without leaving their home or office

•  e-mall – consists of a number of e-shops; it serves as a gateway through which a visitor can access other e-shops

Business types:

Brick-and-mortar business- operates in a physical store without an Internet presence. Eg: Bata.

Pure-play business- a business that operates on the Internet only without a physical store. Examples include fashionvalet.com.

Click-and-mortar business– a business that operates in a physical store and on the Internet .Eg: Hijabs by Hanami

Consumer-to-Business (C2B)

• Priceline.com is an example of a C2B e-business model
• The demand for C2B e-business will increase over the next few years due to customer’s desire for greater convenience and lower prices

Consumer-to-Consumer (C2C)

• Online auctions
• Electronic auction (e-auction) - Sellers and buyers solicit consecutive bids from each other and prices are determined dynamically
• Forward auction - Sellers use as a selling channel to many buyers and the highest bid wins
• Reverse auction - Buyers use to purchase a product or service, selecting the seller with the lowest bid
• C2C communities include:
• Communities of interest - People interact with each other on specific topics, such as golfing and stamp collecting
• Communities of relations - People come together to share certain life experiences, such as cancer patients, senior citizens, and car enthusiasts
• Communities of fantasy - People participate in imaginary environments, such as fantasy football teams and playing one-on-one with Michael Jordan

E-Business Benefits

• include:
• Highly accessible
• Businesses can operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year
• Increased customer loyalty
• Additional channels to contact, respond to, and access customers helps contribute to customer loyalty
• Improved information content
• In the past, customers had to order catalogs or travel to a physical facility before they could compare price and product attributes. Electronic catalogs and Web pages present customers with updated information in real-time about goods, services, and prices
• Increased convenience
• E-business automates and improves many of the activities that make up a buying experience
• Increased global reach
• Businesses, both small and large, can reach new markets
• Decreased cost
• The cost of conducting business on the Internet is substantially smaller than traditional forms of business communication

E-Business Challenges

• include:
• Identifying Limited Market Segments
• The main challenge of e-business is the lack of growth in some sectors due to product or service limitation.
• Managing Consumer Trust
• Internet marketers must develop a trustworthy relationship to make that initial sale and generate customer loyalty.
• Ensuring Consumer Protection
• Implement Internet Security, protect from misuse of customer information.
• Managing Consumer Trust
• Companies that operate online must obey a patchwork of rules about which customers are subject to sales tax on their purchase and which are not.

Mashups

• Web mashup - a Web site or Web application that uses content from more than one source to create a completely new service
• Application programming interface (API) - a set of routines, protocols, and tools for building software applications
• Mashup editor - WSYIWYGs (What You See Is What You Get) for mashups

CHAPTER 12: INTEGRATING THE ORGANIZATION FROM END TO END – ENTERPRISE RESOURSE PLANNING

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)

• At the heart of all ERP systems is a database, when a user enters or updates information in one module, it is immediately and automatically updated throughout the entire system

• ERP systems automate business processes

 Integrating SCM, CRM, and ERP

• SCM, CRM, and ERP are the backbone of e-business
• Integration of these applications is the key to success for many companies
• Integration allows the unlocking of information to make it available to any user, anywhere, anytime
• SCM and CRM market overviews

  Integration Tools

• Many companies purchase modules from an ERP vendor, an SCM vendor, and a CRM vendor and must integrate the different modules together
• Middleware – several different types of software which sit in the middle of and provide connectivity between two or more software applications
• Enterprise application integration (EAI) middleware – packages together commonly used functionality which reduced the time necessary to develop solutions that integrate applications from multiple vendors
•   Data points where SCM, CRM, and ERP integrate

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)

• ERP systems must integrate various organization processes and be:
• Flexible
• Modular and open
• Comprehensive
• Beyond the company

1. Flexible – must be able to quickly respond to the changing needs of the organization
2. Modular and open – must have an open system architecture, meaning that any module can be interface, with or detached whenever required without affecting the other modules.
3. Comprehensive – must be able to support a variety of organizational functions for a wide range of businesses
4. Beyond the company – must support external partnerships and collaboration efforts

CHAPTER 11: Building a Customer-Centric Organization – Customer Relationship Management

Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

• RM enables an organization to:
• Provide better customer service
• Make call centers more efficient
• Cross sell products more effectively
• Help sales staff close deals faster
• Simplify marketing and sales processes
• Discover new customers
• Increase customer revenues

Recency, Frequency, and Monetary Value

• Organizations can find their most valuable customers through “RFM” - Recency, Frequency, and Monetary value
• How recently a customer purchased items (Recency)
• How frequently a customer purchased items (Frequency)
• How much a customer spends on each purchase (Monetary Value)

The Evolution of CRM

• CRM reporting technology – help organizations identify their customers across other applications
• CRM analysis technologies – help organization segment their customers into categories such as best and worst customers
• CRM predicting technologies – help organizations make predictions regarding customer behavior such as which customers are at risk of leaving

Customer Relationship Management’s Explosive Growth

• CRM Business Drivers

• Forecasts for CRM Spending (in billions)

Using Analytical CRM to Enhance Decisions

• Operational CRM – supports traditional transactional processing for day-to-day front-office operations or systems that deal directly with the customers
• Analytical CRM – supports back-office operations and strategic analysis and includes all systems that do not deal directly with the customers
• Operational CRM and analytical CRM

 Customer Relationship Management Success Factors

• CRM success factors include:
• Clearly communicate the CRM strategy
• Define information needs and flows
• Build an integrated view of the customer
• Implement in iterations
• Scalability for organizational growth

CHAPTER 10: EXTENDING THE ORGANIZATION – SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT

BASICS OF SUPPLY CHAIN

• Three main links:

• Materials flow from suppliers and their “upstream” suppliers at all levels
• Transformation of materials into semi-finished and finished products through the organization’s own production process
• Distribution of products to customers and their “downstream” customers at all levels

• Plan
• A company must have a plan for managing all the resources that go toward meeting customer demand for products or services.

• Source
• Companies must carefully choose reliable suppliers that will deliver goods and services required for making products.

• Make
• This is the step where companies manufacture their products or services. This can include scheduling the activities necessary for production, testing, packaging, and preparing for delivery.

• Deliver (Logistics)
• Companies must be able to receive orders from customers, fulfil the orders via a network of warehouses, pick transportation companies to deliver the products, and implement a billing and invoicing system to facilitate payments.

• Return
• This is typically the most problematic step in the supply chain. Companies must create a network for receiving defective and excess products and support customers who have problems with delivered products.

IT's Roles in the Supply Chain

• Visibility - more visible models of different ways to do things in the supply chain have emerged.  High visibility in the supply chain is changing industries, as Wal-Mart demonstrated
• Supply Chain Visibility - the ability to view all areas up and down the supply chain
• Consumer Behavior :
• Companies can respond faster and more effectively to consumer demands through supply chain enhances
• Once an organization understands customer demand and its effect on the supply chain it can begin to estimate the impact that its supply chain will have on its customers and ultimately the organizations performance
• Demand planning software – generates demand forecasts using statistical tools and forecasting techniques
• Competition :
• Supply chain planning (SCP) software– uses advanced mathematical algorithms to improve the flow and efficiency of the supply chain
• Supply chain execution (SCE) software – automates the different steps and stages of the supply chain
• SCP and SCE in the supply chain







• Speed
• Three factors fostering speed

• Supply Chain Management 


• Success Factors

• SCM industry best practices include:
• Make the sale to suppliers
• Wean employees off traditional business practices
• Ensure the SCM system supports the organizational goals
• Deploy in incremental phases and measure and communicate success
• Be future oriented
• SCM Success Stories
• Top reasons why more and more executives are turning to SCM to manage their extended enterprises
• Numerous decision support systems (DSSs) are being built to assist decision makers in the design and operation of integrated supply chains
• DSSs allow managers to examine performance and relationships over the supply chain and among:
• Suppliers
• Manufacturers
• Distributors
• Other factors that optimize supply chain performance

CHAPTER 9: ENABLING THE ORGANIZATION – DECISION MAKING

•   Reasons for the growth of decision-making information systems:

• Model – a simplified representation or abstraction of reality.
• IT systems in an enterprise:

 Transaction Processing Systems(TPS)

• Moving up through the organizational pyramid users move from requiring transactional information to analytical information.

• Transaction processing system - the basic business system that serves the operational level (analysts) in an organization
• Online transaction processing (OLTP) – the capturing of transaction and event information using technology to (1) process the information according to defined business rules, (2) store the information, (3) update existing information to reflect the new information
• Online analytical processing (OLAP) – the manipulation of information to create business intelligence in support of strategic decision making

Decision Support Systems(DSS)

• Models information to support managers and business professionals during the decision-making process.
• Three quantitative models used by DSSs include:
• Sensitivity analysis – the study of the impact that changes in one (or more) parts of the model have on other parts of the model. 
• What-if analysis – checks the impact of a change in an assumption on the proposed solution.
• Goal-seeking analysis – finds the inputs necessary to achieve a goal such as a desired level of output. 
• Interaction between TPS and DSS

Executive Information Systems

• A specialized DSS that supports senior level executives within the organization
• Most EISs offering the following capabilities:
• Consolidation – involves the aggregation of information and features simple roll-ups to complex groupings of interrelated information.
• Drill-down – enables users to get details, and details of details, of information. 
• Slice-and-dice – looks at information from different perspectives.
• Interaction between a TPS and an EIS

• Digital dashboard – integrates information from multiple components and presents it in a unified display

• Intelligent system – various commercial applications of artificial intelligence
• Artificial intelligence (AI) – simulates human intelligence such as the ability to reason and learn

•  Four most common categories of AI include:
• Expert system – computerized advisory programs that imitate the reasoning processes of experts in solving difficult problems. Eg: Playing Chess.
• Neural Network – attempts to emulate the way the human brain works. Eg: Finance industry uses neural network to review loan applications and create patterns or profiles of applications that fall into two categories – approved or denied.
• Fuzzy logic – a mathematical method of handling imprecise or subjective information. Eg: Washing machines that determine by themselves how much water to use or how long to wash.
• Genetic algorithm – an artificial intelligent system that mimics the evolutionary, survival-of-the-fittest process to generate increasingly better solutions to a problem.
• Intelligent agent – special-purposed knowledge-based information system that accomplishes specific tasks on behalf of its users

• Data Mining - includes many forms of AI such as neural networks and expert systems.

- END OF CHAPTER 9-