Prepare research papers "as if" to submit to ICIS 2015

Exercise: Prepare a first draft using whatever you have (in shared folder here)
Pointers on structure and grading criteria here.

ICIS 2015 call for papers is online (see http://icis2015.aisnet.org).

The 2015 conference theme is “Exploring the Information Frontier.”
Research tracks include:

• Conference Theme Track: Exploring the Information Frontier
• Breakout Ideas in IS
• Decision Analytics and Support
• E-Business and E-Government
• Economics and Value of IS
• General IS Topics
• Human Behavior in IS
• Human-Computer Interaction
• IS Curriculum and Education
• IS Design and Business Process Management
• IS Governance and Control
• IS in Healthcare
• IS Security and Privacy
• IS Strategy and Organizational Impacts
• IS Theory Development and Use
• IT Adoption and Use
• Managing IS Projects and IS Development
• Methodological and Philosophical Foundations of IS
• Panels
• Practice-oriented Research
• Social Media and Digital Collaborations
• Sustainability and Societal Impacts of IS

Conference Co Program Chairs are: Cathy Urquhart, Armin Heinzl and Traci Carte

Bringing Business Back

This video piece on BBC's World News channel illustrates how emotionally loaded and contested the field of outsourcing is. It also highlights some of the unexpected unforeseen consequences of broad outsourcing strategies, in this case the seeming permanent loss of knowledge and skills from society.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-31447904
A longer version (30") on BBC News Channel, the "Our World" programme, titled "Bringing Business Back" by reporter Natalia Antelava, flmed and edited by David Botti.

The video follows Antelava as she "travels across the US and to India to investigate whether the tide is turning on one of the biggest trends in globalisation - the outsourcing of work from the rich to the developing world."

Alumnus sets up sourcing enterprise based in Vietnam

An Alumnus of our programme has gathered a team of people and set up a sourcing enterprise based in Vietnam. Their web presences are http://outsourcewith.me, https://facebook.com/outsourcewithme and https://twitter.com/outsourcewithme.

Started in 2014 they plan on growing the business and expanding the range of outsourcing services on offer.

Wishing them all the best for the future.

Allen

Exercise: What is (out)sourcing? Part 2

Follow up to "What is (out)sourcing? Part 1"
Cluster industry activity/sourcing models/examples along a horizontal axis.

1. The lecturer claims (boldly) that the previous definitions are wrong!
2. Then ask students to take 5' to list examples of business activities or services or products that fit our evolving definition of (out)sourcing.

• ...
• ...
• ...
• ...

3. Draw a long axis on the whiteboard. Mark positions along the axis, "In-House internal capability" - "Outsourced supply" - "Marketplace transaction"

4. Above the axis cluster terms that distinguish the models/examples.

Some seed examples:
Electricity supply
Gas supply
Telephone
Internal phone extensions (PABX: private automatic branch exchange)
Mobile phone
Internal http
Public http
Internal email
Public email
Commercial printing
Desktop printing
Network printing
Customer support on customer sites
Customer telephone support
Customer support via internet
Information systems hardware...
Information systems software...
Database development...
Database management...
Software development...
Software maintenance...
Post/parcel delivery
Delivery of goods in locale/region
Delivery of goods in region/nation/international
Bulk shipments, sea freight
Bulk airfreight
Rail services:
Site rail transport
Regional rail transport
Claims processing
Sales process
Market analysis
Quality audit
Accounting services
HR activity
Banking activity
Regulatory compliance
Manufacturing goods
Research and development
(and the list goes on...)

Between the lines of the TCS story

TATA : From reference site to reference site

(1983?) 1984-1985: Projects with TKS for SNB: organisation size - 326: 13 member internal IT team.
TCS Delhi's first true offshoring project was through a partnership with Pierre Page's Teknosoft (TKS) on a joint development for the Swiss National Bank (SNB). This was SNB's largest technology project at that time. The SNB is Switzerland's central bank, acting in a banking regulation and policy role with responsibility for money supply, reserves, currency exchange, price stability and regulation of payment and securities settlement systems (link).

"Working with the Swiss presented us with our first experience of working with a demanding customer. Milestones for both sides were set, but there was no pressure on TCS to complete the project by a predetermined 'go live' date. Instead the bank trusted us as experts to define the schedule, after which they held us to it stringently."(Ramadorai, 2011: 60)

1989: SEGA: fixed price contract, 300 person-year, 3 year turnkey project.
TCS's winning of the Swiss SegaInterSettle (SEGA) project in 1989 was seen as the next defining moment for the burgeoning business of delivering offshore software and IT services. TCS, partnering with Teknosoft (TKS) competed for the business directly against Andersen Consulting. The pricing of the two bids ended up being quite similar (Ramadorai, 2011: 61). Andersen's strategy was to have its offshore development teams in Manila, the Philippines. TCS planned to offshore from India (Madras) but TCS had limited domain knowledge in 'depositories' so they sent a team on-site for 3 months in advance to understand the customer's requirements in order to prepare the bid.

SegaInterSettle (SEGA) required the development of a second generation real-time settlement system; a crucial piece of infrastructure for the Swiss financial system. It would be used to clear and settle bonds, equities.

"The settlement Communication System went live as planned in October 1993 and handled 4.6 million transactions in its first year of operations. It was a pace-setting and visionary project for the industry. Today, almost twenty years later, it continues to run flawlessly and remains one of the most sophisticated systems in the world in terms of technology, functionality and its architecture which was way ahead of its time." (Ramadorai, 2011: 62).

Exercise: What is (out)sourcing? Part 1

(this is also an icebreaker to encourage participation in a large lecture theatre environment)

Goal
Come up with a working definition of sourcing and outsourcing.

Instructions
1. Ask members of the class to define sourcing and outsourcing or give examples of global sourcing. (3 minutes)
2. Write down and display this list of definitions and examples.

Definitions

• "Outsourcing is the procurement of goods and services from external suppliers" (Mol, 2007)
• "Sourcing is the act through which work is contracted or delegated to an external or internal entity that could be physically located anywhere." (Oshri et. al, 2009)
• "Outsourcing is defined as contracting with a third service provider for the management and completion of a certain amount of work, for a specified length of time, cost, and level of service." (Oshri et. al, 2009)
• ...
• ...

Examples

• ...
• ...
• ...
• ...

Comments
There are no wrong answers, just build up a list, tabulate and provide back to the class

Definitions offered (edited) by each group (2015)

References:
Mol, M.J. Outsourcing: Design, Process and Performance Cambridge University Press, 2007.
Oshri, I., Kotlarsky, J., and Willcocks, L.P. The Handbook of Global Outsourcing and Offshoring Palgrave Macmillan, 2009, p. 266.

Footnote
The lecturer then makes a bold statement that in fact, these academic definitions are WRONG!
Follow up with the second part of this exercise with "What is (out)sourcing? Part 2". Possibly 2 or 3 weeks later.

Exercise: Egypt as an ideal OOS location

Exercise: 
In groups (~10 min)
Identify 2-3 key advantages of Egypt
Identify 2-3 key disadvantages of Egypt

Classroom discussion (~15min)

In light of these advantages and disadvantages, what type of work would you outsource or offshore to Egypt?

Thinking outside the box, what other destinations would you consider?

Summary of responses:

For:
Young working population 82M
Low cost of labour
Proximity to Europe
Language skills (multi-lingual)
Good exchange rates
IT infrastructure
Good numbers of knowledge workers
Corporation tax 25%
Open culture (high level of tolerance)

Against:
IT infrastructure
Unstable political landscape *
Lack of monetary supports for new business
Cultural conflict *
Corruption in government *
Climate conditions
Low standards of living for many
Low economic growth
Gender inequality
Unclear corporate policy environment for business

Other comments:
Suitable for the following kinds of business
Financial, accounting and HR
Manufacturing
Call centres and customer support
Technology R&D
Translation
BPO
Content providers
Law and legal services

Tech R&D requires: good infrastructure, low risk, low cost and good IPR protections