Notes on IT outsourcing
1. Trends in outsourcing
2. Reasons for IT outsourcing
2.1 short-term reasons
* Reduce or control operating costs
* Make capital fund available
* Cash infusion
* Resources are not available internally
* Functions difficult to manage or out of control
2.2 long-term reasons
* Improve business focus
* Access world-class capabilities
* Accelerate reengineering benefits
* Share risks
* Free resources for other purposes
Re: Antonnucci and Tucker III (1998) "IT Outsourcing: current trends, benefits and risks" Infomation Stragey: The Executive's Journal, Winter
Friday 26 July 2013
Sunday 21 July 2013
About Hotel Technology Next Generation (HTNG) certification
The following brief note is on Hotal Technology Next Generation (HTNG) Certification:
Primary website: HTNG
The main benefits of the HTNG certification initiative is:
a. Easier interoperability among systems used in hospitality, based on its open standards across hotel systems
b. HTNG certification promotes software purchasers' confidence in purchasing hotel software products, e.g. software products' completeness
c. HTNG certification specifications facilitate software purchasers' evaluattion on hotel software products
d. Software clients can obtain information about the HTNG certification, thus reducing uncertainty in software product evaluation
e. HTNG Register maintains and enforce ongoing conformance by registered software vendors with it.
Try to review the content of HTNG website with the literature on IT standardization; Examine what have been discussed in the IT standardization literature and the (a) find out whether the concepts and viewpoints in the academic literature are mentioned in the HTNG documents; and (b) try to evaluate the ideas and viewpoints in the HTNG documents using notions and theories from the academic literature on IT standardization (i.e. to conduct a theory-driven analysis).
Primary website: HTNG
The main benefits of the HTNG certification initiative is:
a. Easier interoperability among systems used in hospitality, based on its open standards across hotel systems
b. HTNG certification promotes software purchasers' confidence in purchasing hotel software products, e.g. software products' completeness
c. HTNG certification specifications facilitate software purchasers' evaluattion on hotel software products
d. Software clients can obtain information about the HTNG certification, thus reducing uncertainty in software product evaluation
e. HTNG Register maintains and enforce ongoing conformance by registered software vendors with it.
Try to review the content of HTNG website with the literature on IT standardization; Examine what have been discussed in the IT standardization literature and the (a) find out whether the concepts and viewpoints in the academic literature are mentioned in the HTNG documents; and (b) try to evaluate the ideas and viewpoints in the HTNG documents using notions and theories from the academic literature on IT standardization (i.e. to conduct a theory-driven analysis).
Saturday 20 July 2013
Standardization in IT - a brief notes on literature
The following readings are on the topic of standardization in Information Technology:
Jacobs, K. "Information Technology Standards, Standard Setting and Standard Research"
* Advantages of Industry consortia to set standards
* Standardization becomes more important with increasing economic and corporate globalization
* Governments push standards to support domestic firms
* Standards are not just rooted in technical deliberation, but also result from a process of social interactions between stakeholders
* Do standard hamper progress and stand in the way of technical innovation?
* Standardization is costly business and time consuming, so "Why participate at all?": because: (a) avoid technological dead-ends. (b) reduce dependency on vendors, (c) promote universality
* A review of the standard setting process
* In IT most new systems emerge from standardization processes; Constructive Technology Assessment's 'technology forcing' strategy aims at applying external pressure on a technical development.
* Slow, cumbersome, compromise laden and hidden agendas are popular attributes when it comes to characterising the formal standardisation processes in the ICT domain.
Morell, J.A. (1994) "Standards and the market acceptance of information technology: An exploration of relationship" Computer Standards & Interfaces Vol. 16, pp. 321-329.
Three questions are raised:
Q1: How do standards affect the acceptance of technology?
Q2: How can a standars setting process be guided successfully from conception to completion?
Q3: How do (i) standards, (ii) standard setting processes, and (iii) technology acceptance interact with each other?
Model of the standards process (characteristics of technology; market structure; vendor strategies)-> standard setting process -> standard acceptance -> technology acceptance
Standards affect technology in the following manner:
* assurance of performance
* communication between buyer and seller
* compatibility with existing technology
* compatibililty with future technology
* cost
* features
* development of ancilliary technologies
* how a technology will be used
Factors that affect the acceptance of standards:
* single vendor's ability to dominate a market
* impact of standards on vendor-customer relationships
* impact of the standard on an installed base
*ability of customers to drive standards
* impact on compatibility
* competing standards
How the characteristics of technology affect the standard setting process (e.g. whether the standards are accepted)
* network externalities
* stage of technological development
* consequence for compatibility and integration
Jacobs, K. "Information Technology Standards, Standard Setting and Standard Research"
* Advantages of Industry consortia to set standards
* Standardization becomes more important with increasing economic and corporate globalization
* Governments push standards to support domestic firms
* Standards are not just rooted in technical deliberation, but also result from a process of social interactions between stakeholders
* Do standard hamper progress and stand in the way of technical innovation?
* Standardization is costly business and time consuming, so "Why participate at all?": because: (a) avoid technological dead-ends. (b) reduce dependency on vendors, (c) promote universality
* A review of the standard setting process
* In IT most new systems emerge from standardization processes; Constructive Technology Assessment's 'technology forcing' strategy aims at applying external pressure on a technical development.
* Slow, cumbersome, compromise laden and hidden agendas are popular attributes when it comes to characterising the formal standardisation processes in the ICT domain.
Morell, J.A. (1994) "Standards and the market acceptance of information technology: An exploration of relationship" Computer Standards & Interfaces Vol. 16, pp. 321-329.
Three questions are raised:
Q1: How do standards affect the acceptance of technology?
Q2: How can a standars setting process be guided successfully from conception to completion?
Q3: How do (i) standards, (ii) standard setting processes, and (iii) technology acceptance interact with each other?
Model of the standards process (characteristics of technology; market structure; vendor strategies)-> standard setting process -> standard acceptance -> technology acceptance
Standards affect technology in the following manner:
* assurance of performance
* communication between buyer and seller
* compatibility with existing technology
* compatibililty with future technology
* cost
* features
* development of ancilliary technologies
* how a technology will be used
Factors that affect the acceptance of standards:
* single vendor's ability to dominate a market
* impact of standards on vendor-customer relationships
* impact of the standard on an installed base
*ability of customers to drive standards
* impact on compatibility
* competing standards
How the characteristics of technology affect the standard setting process (e.g. whether the standards are accepted)
* network externalities
* stage of technological development
* consequence for compatibility and integration
Information Technology investment in enterprises - a literature list
The following references are on the topic of Information Technology investment:
a. Peppard, J., Ward, J. and Daniel, E. (2006) "Managing the Realization of Business Benefits from IT Investments" A paper submitted to MIT sloan Management Review, April.
* Benefits-dependency framework: IT-enablers->Enabling changes->Business changes->Benefits->Investment objectives
* Problem-based investments vs Innovation-based investments
b. Dempsey, J., Dvorak, R.E., Holen, E., Mark, D. and Meehan III, M.F. (1998)"A Hard and Soft look at IT investments" The Mckinsey Quarterly No. 1., pp. 126-137
c. Dehning, B., Richardson, V.J., and Stratopoulos, T. (2005) "Information technology investments and firm value" Information & Management 42, pp. 989-1008.
d. Klecun, E. and Cornford, T. (2005) "A critical approach to evaluation" European Journal of Information Systems 14, pp. 229-243.
* Different perspectives on evaluation: critical, socio-technical, social constructivism, hermeneutic
e. Jones, S. and Hughes, J. (2001) "Understanding IS evaluation as a complex social process: a case study of a UK local authority" European Journal of Information Systems 10, pp. 189-203.
* Ideal type characteristics of approaches to IS evaluation: formal IS evaluation approach vs situated hermeneutic IS evaluation approach
f. Dehning, B., Richardson, V.J., and Stratopoulos, T. (2005) "Information technology investments and firm value" Information & Management 42, pp. 989-1008
* IT competitive response model
a. Peppard, J., Ward, J. and Daniel, E. (2006) "Managing the Realization of Business Benefits from IT Investments" A paper submitted to MIT sloan Management Review, April.
* Benefits-dependency framework: IT-enablers->Enabling changes->Business changes->Benefits->Investment objectives
* Problem-based investments vs Innovation-based investments
b. Dempsey, J., Dvorak, R.E., Holen, E., Mark, D. and Meehan III, M.F. (1998)"A Hard and Soft look at IT investments" The Mckinsey Quarterly No. 1., pp. 126-137
c. Dehning, B., Richardson, V.J., and Stratopoulos, T. (2005) "Information technology investments and firm value" Information & Management 42, pp. 989-1008.
d. Klecun, E. and Cornford, T. (2005) "A critical approach to evaluation" European Journal of Information Systems 14, pp. 229-243.
* Different perspectives on evaluation: critical, socio-technical, social constructivism, hermeneutic
e. Jones, S. and Hughes, J. (2001) "Understanding IS evaluation as a complex social process: a case study of a UK local authority" European Journal of Information Systems 10, pp. 189-203.
* Ideal type characteristics of approaches to IS evaluation: formal IS evaluation approach vs situated hermeneutic IS evaluation approach
f. Dehning, B., Richardson, V.J., and Stratopoulos, T. (2005) "Information technology investments and firm value" Information & Management 42, pp. 989-1008
* IT competitive response model
Sunday 14 July 2013
Final year dissertation system turned awry
This case is based on my recent personal experience:
Part-time dissertation supervisors are requested to produce a set of dissertation proposals and to make presentations to pat-time students' who will then adopt/ adapt the supervisors' proposals to prepare their own proposals.
Part-time dissertation supervisors are required to contact dissertation students to arrange meetings, and, subsequently, file meeting reports/ progress logs withe the education centre.
Dssertation supervisors are required to do the turnitin checking for plagiarism on the students' works.
Disseration supervisors are "advised" to introduce students to client systems for conduting case study research.
Dissertation superivors are invited to attend buffets to meet part-time students.
Disseration supervisors are to be paid after certain milestones have been reached, e.g. after students made their proposal presentatins to the academic panel (and dissertatin supervisors are requested to join the academic panel)
Essentially, the dissertation supervision and tracking system is quite bureaucratic and all the admistrative workload has been offloaded to the dissertation supervisors.
One problem is that students have been much spoilt by the supervision system; when I send emails to students to arrange for meetings, the students do not reply; when I share some of the e-resources to them via emails, they never say "thank you". When I finally meet the students at restaurants, they do not bother to order drink and they, again, do not say "thank you" for your supervisory effort. Very often, they just ask me while my dissertation proposals can work, and not, why their own dissertation proposals are good enough... these students are passive and are not committed to study..
The local university administrative team will not be supportive to you; they are mainly concerned about running the formal supervision system according to the rules.. After making effort to try to work with the supervisory system, I finally give up.
Note: do not just pay attention to the reputation of the university or the quaification/ profile of the Programme leader... an education programme and its administrative system (including the people in charge) can be quite corrupted.
Part-time dissertation supervisors are requested to produce a set of dissertation proposals and to make presentations to pat-time students' who will then adopt/ adapt the supervisors' proposals to prepare their own proposals.
Part-time dissertation supervisors are required to contact dissertation students to arrange meetings, and, subsequently, file meeting reports/ progress logs withe the education centre.
Dssertation supervisors are required to do the turnitin checking for plagiarism on the students' works.
Disseration supervisors are "advised" to introduce students to client systems for conduting case study research.
Dissertation superivors are invited to attend buffets to meet part-time students.
Disseration supervisors are to be paid after certain milestones have been reached, e.g. after students made their proposal presentatins to the academic panel (and dissertatin supervisors are requested to join the academic panel)
Essentially, the dissertation supervision and tracking system is quite bureaucratic and all the admistrative workload has been offloaded to the dissertation supervisors.
One problem is that students have been much spoilt by the supervision system; when I send emails to students to arrange for meetings, the students do not reply; when I share some of the e-resources to them via emails, they never say "thank you". When I finally meet the students at restaurants, they do not bother to order drink and they, again, do not say "thank you" for your supervisory effort. Very often, they just ask me while my dissertation proposals can work, and not, why their own dissertation proposals are good enough... these students are passive and are not committed to study..
The local university administrative team will not be supportive to you; they are mainly concerned about running the formal supervision system according to the rules.. After making effort to try to work with the supervisory system, I finally give up.
Note: do not just pay attention to the reputation of the university or the quaification/ profile of the Programme leader... an education programme and its administrative system (including the people in charge) can be quite corrupted.
Friday 12 July 2013
The role of Personal Website - my case
From my recent exercise on establishing my personal website, I form the view that a personal website, being self-focused, quite handily make up a hub that links up all the other Internet-based social media resources, e.g. Facebook, Google +,Twitter, and LinkedIn. It does have a major limitation to users of my presonal website because, to access the resources as indicated in my personal website, users need to also have their own accounts with Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google +. I am also concerned about the reliability of the website hosting company, e.g. whether it will be out of business in the future.
So far, I am reasonably happy with my digital social media platforms. Recently, Blogger.com where I post blog articles appears to have some technical problems with creation of blog articles.. I hope this problem will be resolved soon.
So far, I am reasonably happy with my digital social media platforms. Recently, Blogger.com where I post blog articles appears to have some technical problems with creation of blog articles.. I hope this problem will be resolved soon.
A chat on studying for professional accounting exam
Student: Should I take the ACCA exam or the HKICPA one?
Professor: Take the ACCA exam first.
Student: My friends say that HKICPA is better....
... Professor: Probably; I also heard that Harvard U is better than Hull U... Is it important?
Student: It seems you do not like HKICPA...
Professor: Like?? This is a different kind of question... I like good foods and movies... As to HKICPA, it is a good qualification... I suggest that you study for Accounting exam step by step... you could always sit for some conversion programme of HKICPA to become a member of HKICPA, after finishing your ACCA exam...
Student: Is it true that if I want to be a CPA, I need to sit of HKICPA in HK?
Professor: Sure, if you want to a CPA in HK... if your main goal is to get rich... you really need to buy Mark Six..
Student: Yes, I do.. it is really nice to talk with you..
Professor: Tks.. also have a chat with Uncle Chow...
Student: Sure, I will talk with Uncle Chow and then I will come back to you..
Professor: That's all right..
Professor: Take the ACCA exam first.
Student: My friends say that HKICPA is better....
... Professor: Probably; I also heard that Harvard U is better than Hull U... Is it important?
Student: It seems you do not like HKICPA...
Professor: Like?? This is a different kind of question... I like good foods and movies... As to HKICPA, it is a good qualification... I suggest that you study for Accounting exam step by step... you could always sit for some conversion programme of HKICPA to become a member of HKICPA, after finishing your ACCA exam...
Student: Is it true that if I want to be a CPA, I need to sit of HKICPA in HK?
Professor: Sure, if you want to a CPA in HK... if your main goal is to get rich... you really need to buy Mark Six..
Student: Yes, I do.. it is really nice to talk with you..
Professor: Tks.. also have a chat with Uncle Chow...
Student: Sure, I will talk with Uncle Chow and then I will come back to you..
Professor: That's all right..
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