Determinants of relationship quality for IS/IT outsourcing success in public sector

Relationship has become an influential aspect for the success of IS/IT outsourcing projects. Although some studies have explored the issues of IS/IT outsourcing relationship in the past, these studies are limited to the private sectors. Whereas, studies implicate that the issues related to private and public sectors should be addressed differently. Therefore the main purpose of this study is to examine the IS/IT outsourcing relationship in the public sector by determining relationship quality factors. Based on the social exchange and the relational exchange theories a relationship model is proposed and hypotheses are tested. Ninety three IS/IT outsourcing projects in the public sector of Korea are examined and the results indicate that the outsourcing success is greatly determined by relationship quality. This study will serve as useful guidelines in understanding how to develop a successful IS/IT outsourcing relationships for IT practitioners in the public sector and the vendors undertaking those outsourced projects.     

IT outsourcing: frameworks for conceptualizing practice and perception

This paper seeks to conceptualize theory and practice of information technology (IT)‐based outsourcing. It uses four conceptual frameworks in this respect – core competencies, transaction cost economics, agency theory and partnership – in an empirical comparison of IT outsourcing in the public and private sectors within the UK. The qualitative research methodology involved interviews with IT managers in both sectors and documentary analysis of outsourcing vendors’ literature. The findings suggest that practices and perceptions of IT outsourcing found in the two sectors support the basic principles of some frameworks more than others, e.g. core competencies, transaction cost economics and agency theory are well developed with partnerships less so. However, using all four frameworks improves understanding of multifaceted strategic practice in fundamentally different types of organization and helps to expose some issues which have not emerged in previous outsourcing studies.     

Organizational software piracy: an empirical assessment

Application of Information Technology (IT) has had a significant impact on all aspects of business. Due to technology, the ease with which software can be pirated is increasing and is leading to increased concern for copyright protection. This paper reviews and discusses software piracy issues from a global perspective and reports the findings of a survey concerning the impact of sectors like government, private and academic in Turkey. Although software piracy has long been attracting the interest of academics, no quantitative research has ever been realized in this field in the country. Elsewhere also, most of the software piracy-related studies are from individuals' perspectives and are limited to students, academics, cost, and attitudes. Very few have reported findings related to IT professionals and organizations. The survey was conducted among IT managers of large-scale organizations from different sectors such as the government, private and academic community. Based on the survey of 162 IT managers, the results indicated that sectors have significant impact on software piracy to some extent.     

Organizational software piracy: an empirical assessment

Application of Information Technology (IT) has had a significant impact on all aspects of business. Due to technology, the ease with which software can be pirated is increasing and is leading to increased concern for copyright protection. This paper reviews and discusses software piracy issues from a global perspective and reports the findings of a survey concerning the impact of sectors like government, private and academic in Turkey. Although software piracy has long been attracting the interest of academics, no quantitative research has ever been realized in this field in the country. Elsewhere also, most of the software piracy-related studies are from individuals' perspectives and are limited to students, academics, cost, and attitudes. Very few have reported findings related to IT professionals and organizations. The survey was conducted among IT managers of large-scale organizations from different sectors such as the government, private and academic community. Based on the survey of 162 IT managers, the results indicated that sectors have significant impact on software piracy to some extent.     

Harmonisierung divergierender organisationaler Kulturen in ?ffentlich-privaten IT-Partnerschaften

The cooperation of public and private sector organizations is a viable option for decision makers in the public sector for improving information technology (IT) infrastructures, acquiring innovation, and increasing management know-how. Effective partnering in public?Cprivate partnerships (PPP) is difficult though, because the involved stakeholder groups have divergent interests and organizational cultures. Using institutional logics as meta-theoretical lens, this exploratory, interpretive case study analyzes an IT PPP in Germany. The results reveal public- and private-side organizational culture differences and how the partners aligned their cultural differences by the development and legitimization of a partnership norm as well as the necessary partnership practices. The case analysis also illustrates how public sector and private sector organizations succeeded with the transition of public sector and private sector employees into a partnership organization and the management of different organizational cultures.     

Ethical behavior issues in software use: An analysis of public and private sectors

Ethical issues related to information systems are important to the information technology (IT) professionals. These issues are also significant for organizations and societies. Although considerable literature on IT and related ethical issues exists, a review of this literature has found little empirical research on ethical practices within the government and private sector organizations. Therefore, the objective of this paper is to draw inferences regarding such practices currently in these sectors. The research results indicate a significant correlation between the code of ethics and the attitude of professionals towards the unethical use of software in government and private sector organizations. These also indicate significant differences in government and private sectors.     

Does Domberger's theory of ‘The Contracting Organization’ explain why organizations outsource IT and the levels of satisfaction achieved?

This paper contributes an interpretation of Domberger's theory of The Contracting Organization for use in an IT outsourcing context, then presents a preliminary test of the validity of that theory using data from an Australian survey of 235 senior IT managers. Our conclusion is that Domberger's theory appears to be a useful lens for understanding IT outsourcing, and that further research using purpose-collected data is therefore warranted. Phrased differently, Domberger's four types of benefit of contracting – namely Specialization, Market Discipline, Flexibility, and Cost Savings – appear to be a good way of summarizing senior IT managers’ explanations of why their organizations chose to outsource IT. The paper also conducts a preliminary test of the extent to which these four factors explain the purchasing organization's satisfaction with IT outsourcing.     

Ideologies implicated in IT innovation in government: A critical discourse analysis of Mexico's international trade administration

We develop a perspective of IT innovation in the public sector as a process that involves three complementary areas of ideology and concomitant dispute: first, the widespread view of e‐government as a transformative force that leads to major improvements of public sector functions for the benefit of society at large; second, ideologies concerning the substantive policies enacted by public sector organizations; and third, ideology regarding public sector modernization. Our research examines how the objectives of IT projects and their actual effects in government are influenced by such ideologies and contestations that surround them. We develop our theoretical contribution with a critical discourse analysis that traces the ideological underpinnings of two consecutive IT projects for the administration of international trade in Mexico. This analysis associates the objectives of the IT projects with the emergence and ensuing contestation in Mexican politics of two ideologies: the first ideology concerns free international trade as imperative for economic development; the second ideology concerns public sector modernization that sought to overcome historically formed dysfunctionalities of public administration bureaucracies by adopting management practices from the private sector. The analysis then identifies the effects of the ideologically shaped IT projects on two key values of public administration: efficiency and legality. The insights of this research on the role of ideology in IT innovation complement organizational perspectives of e‐government; socio‐cognitive perspectives that focus on ideas and meaning, such as technology frames and organizing visions; and perspectives that focus on politics in IT innovation.     

Validation of the ISS-QUAL and the role of gender,age and education on it service quality in the public sector

Public organizations have invested heavily in information technology (IT) and have created internal specialized IT services departments which must be managed from the perspective of the provision of services. The people involved in these organizations can be grouped by demographic characteristics such as gender, age and level of formal education. Thus, the study has two objectives. The first is to test, in the context of the public sector, the validity of the ISS-QUAL, a new scale developed to measure the IT service quality provided by internal IT departments. The second objective is to analyze the role of the variables of gender, age and the level of education of public servants on the perception of IT service quality provided by internal departments. For this purpose, we used structural equation modeling to perform a confirmatory factorial analysis with a sample of 879 IT users, as well as to identify the role of gender, age and level of users’ formal education on perceived service quality. The results confirm the validity and the high explanatory power of the ISS-QUAL within the scope of public organizations, and indicate that the demographic characteristics of public servants differentially affect service quality factors. The study presents the implications of the results for researchers in the field and for managers of internal IT departments in the public sector.     

Information systems sourcing: examining the privatization option in USA public administration

The process and content of decision-making on sourcing information systems (IS) is assessed. Two case histories from the USA public sector are examined in detail. We find that outsourcing IS problems, as opposed to tasks, rarely works in either private or public sectors. The findings suggest that both sectors must develop similar IS competencies before considering sourcing decisions. These include fostering relationships with senior management, bench-marking performance, creating shared IS objectives, understanding requirements, diagnosing IS problems, evaluating in-house versus market capabilities and, in the case of outsourcing, developing competencies in contract negotiation and post-contract management. The major difference between public and private sector sourcing was found to be that public sector agencies faced more environmental constraints, including dictated budgets and requirements, and restrictions on civil servant salaries.     

Improving retention strategies for IT professionals working in the public sector

Despite much research interest, effective retention of IT professionals has proved difficult for many public sector organizations. By concentrating on intention to leave, researchers may not have provided a clear way to formulate effective retention strategies. Consequently, we used intention to stay as an alternative lens to identify factors that can reduce turnover of IT professionals. Our findings indicated that attitudes, perceived behavioral control (PBC), and identification with the organization all had a statistically significant relationship with intention to stay; attitude was the strongest. It was concluded that existing retention strategies needed to be refocused on the issues that make IT staff stay; a number of practical recommendations for IT managers are presented.     

Myths about outsourcing to application service providers

Which applications are organizations outsourcing to ASPs? What did they hope to gain? And what are the critical success factors for organizations using ASPs? To assess these issues we cosponsored a study to assess organizational attitudes and adoption metrics for ASPs. Our survey garnered 256 usable responses from businesses regarding their use of ASPs. The study indicated that a significant number of respondents believed ASPs offer a fast-track way of implementing IT projects. However, 80 percent also favored internal implementation for core IT projects, which suggests that other factors still present a substantial barrier to ASP adoption. Nevertheless, companies are outsourcing some core applications - such as supply chain management and e-commerce - and several non-core applications. This outsourcing implies that companies perceive a significant benefit to ASP adoption. The message for users is unambiguous: to succeed, understand how Internet outsourcing works for your company, benchmark against successful ASP adopters, and establish a common criterion for evaluating an ASP     

Analysing four types of IT sourcing decisions in the context of scale, client/supplier interdependency and risk mitigation

The main thrust of the article is to distinguish between four types of IT sourcing decision: total outsourcing; multiple-supplier sourcing; joint venture/strategic alliance sourcing; and insourcing. To illustrate each type, detailed case histories are used that analyse the reasons why specific IT sourcing decisions were adopted. Here, we consider total outsourcing at the London Stock Exchange; multiple-supplier sourcing at ICI plc; joint venture project sourcing at CRESTCo Ltd; and insourcing at the Royal Bank of Scotland. The trend towards outsourcing is increasing in all industrial and commercial sectors. However, client organizations need to become more aware of some of the pitfalls, particularly in respect of large-scale outsourcing deals to single or multiple suppliers. This is because the move to IT outsourcing engenders the need to develop new capabilities and skills to manage complex commercial contracts. We therefore conclude that, while many IT outsourcing contracts followed rationalization, cost-cutting and disappointing results from in-house IT provision, short-termism and current uncertainties over market, business and political conditions pose problems for many organizations in deciding future outsourcing arrangements.     

Risk mitigation in IT outsourcing strategy revisited: longitudinal case research at LISA

The origins and history of a single case study of large-scale Information Technology (IT) outsourcing in the 1994–99 period is investigated in the United Kingdom Defence sector. Such deals are high risk and the paper describes types of risk and how the client organization sought to mitigate these. These risks and mitigation approaches are then analysed against a distinctive risk framework formulated for IT outsourcing. Risks emerging in terms of type and scope of outsourcing, vendor selection criteria and process, the role of the contract, retained capabilities and management processes, and partnering and relationship dimensions are then assessed against prior research findings. Two additional distinctive risks are identified from the case history arising from the public sector context and supplier long-term market strategy. A contribution of the paper is the revised risk framework for analysing IT outsourcing that is then presented. Finally, the implications of these findings for future research and practice are highlighted.     

Transforming the it Organization for the State of Virginia

State government IT organizations have traditionally been quite decentralized, but several factors are currently moving them toward increased centralization. Based on research primarily from private sector organizations, this article first describes some advantages and disadvantages associated with various IS governance designs. Following a brief discussion of special governance issues in state governments, the current transformation underway for the IT organization in the state of Virginia is then presented, along with a discussion of key success factors.     

IT outsourcing in insurance services: risk, creative contracting and business advantage

Abstract. Risks in IT outsourcing have received little systematic academic attention, despite growing evidence of wide disappointment and difficulty as well as some successes in outsourcing IT. This paper explores the 1993–98 case history of Polaris, a software intermediary in the European insurance sector. Despite the considerable risks inherent in outsourcing business-critical technology, Polaris was found to be achieving business advantage from such a strategy. This paper details 10 major risk areas in IT outsourcing distilled from previous research. It focuses on the sourcing, contractual and management choices made at Polaris. It assesses, against prior research findings, the degree to which these choices mitigated short- and long-term risk, and whether learning points flow from the analysis for other IT outsourcing arrangements.     

Information systems outsourcing decisions using a group decision-making approach

Outsourcing refers to a company that contracts with another company to provide services that might otherwise be performed by in-house employees. Information system (IS) outsourcing policies define the criteria that organizations utilize to decide upon the scope and degree of reliance of their IS capabilities upon external sources. IS outsourcing is an innovative organizational tool for IS management in both private and public sector organizations. In this paper, an interactive group decision-making methodology is proposed to select/rank IS providers under multiple criteria. A measure for the consensus level of the group preferences is developed to satisfy an acceptable level of group agreement and reliability. The Spearman coefficients for both the aggregated rank order and each DM's rank order have also been calculated. The group and the individual evaluations are gathered through a fuzzy TOPSIS approach. The proposed methodology is applied in the largest office furniture manufacturer in Konya-Turkey. Eight alternative IS providers are evaluated based on seven criteria by five decision makers. Sensitivity analyses are also provided to see the effects of parameter changes on the final decision.     

The impact of knowledge sharing,organizational capability and partnership quality on IS outsourcing success

In recent studies, there has been much interest in knowledge sharing between the service receiver and provider through an outsourcing partnership and its effect on Information Systems (IS) outsourcing success. This study examines the relationship between knowledge sharing and outsourcing success. The effect of the ability of the service receiver to absorb the needed knowledge and of companies to build a partnership on these relationships are modeled and hypotheses defined. These were tested using a sample of 195 public sector organizations in Korea. Findings indicate that all hypothesized paths in the model are significant.     

Asps: Do They Work?

Application service providers (ASPs) offer and manage outsourcing application services to many organizations via the Internet. Organizations outsource applications to ASPs to reduce upgrade and maintenance costs and to focus their efforts on core competencies. To that end, it is essential for CIOs and senior IT executives to understand the dynamics of the ASP market, services provided, and outsourcing trends within their particular industries. This study identifies the critical success factors (CSFs) for ASPs to sustain the fierce competition in the outsourcing market. the CSFs include delivery of applications, efficiency in responding to demands, management of resources, assurance of 24/7 access, meeting IT needs, and economic distribution of applications. Moreover, the study highlights issues of concern involved in outsourcing internal applications via the Internet, such as security, reliability, quality of service, employees' concerns, and existing infrastructure, and provides managers with an action plan to address these concerns.     

The ins and outs of IT outsourcing

Many IT managers are struggling with the question of whether and how to outsource various functions. Businesses of all sizes are seriously considering shifting some IT assets to a third party. In today's fast-paced IT environment, technology and skill sets change very quickly. In reality, IT managers have no choice but to prepare for a future that includes outsourcing. IT staff have long been pressured to cut costs. But now, they're also expected to discover new revenue streams. To meet these bottom-line objectives, IT managers must deal with change, manage complexity, and find skilled workers. That's where outsourcing is seen to greatly improve the efficiency of an IT operation