Process Outsourcing Research Articles

Third-party management in software development: proposal of a methodology

Outsourcing allows organizations to reduce costs, optimize the use of resources, provide added value in services and goods, and concentrate on achieving the strategic objectives of the business. However, many software projects have failed due to the lack of knowledge of the factors involved in its planning. Some of these elements are poor communication with the supplier, weak monitoring of the status of tasks, lack of active participation of users and stakeholders at all stages of the process, and software quality assurance. Consequently, this research aims to aid the management of the outsourcing process and proposes a methodology for its management during system development. The methodology comprises 7 phases, each one with its inputs, tasks, and outputs, which are used by the following stages. In summary, it synthesizes the best practices for the management of third parties.

Due diligence – kluczowy etap w procesach fuzji i przejęć

Celem artykułu jest krytycznadyskusja o istniejących definicjach procesu due diligence oraz wskazanie różnic pomiędzy nimi na tle aktualnych praktyk rynkowych. Na podstawie dostępnych publikacji oraz doświadczeniach autora z praktyki, przeprowadzono analizę metod używanych w realizacji tychże procesów. Wskazano, że dotychczasowy zakres stosowania procesów due dilligence należy poszerzyć o coraz bardziej popularne w działalności przedsiębiorstw procesy outsourcingowe, które również wymagają dokładnej analizy przejmowanego obszaru biznesowego (w przypadku tzw. BPO – Business Process Outsourcing). Niniejsza publikacja powstała na bazie wieloletnich doświadczeń zdobytych przez autora w pracy przy realizacji projektów fuzji i przejęć. W drugiej części zostały zaprezentowane sugestie autora związane z prowadzeniem projektów due diligence, ze szczególnym uwzględnieniem struktury organizacyjnej, analizy ryzyka i raportu podsumowującego badanie. W opinii autora, ich wdrożenie ma szansę przełożyć się na poprawienie współczynnika udanych fuzji i przejęć.

Some Considerations about Outsourcing Strategies

Outsourcing represents a huge economic opportunity for a developing any economy. First, the paper presents elements of outsourcing and how the process affects those. Second, are showed several situations that can be used for implemented an outsourcing strategy. The meaning of presenting those different ways how an outsourcing process can be accomplished is to highlight the idea that outsourcing is better to be adapted to the context, because outsourcing includes a wide spectrum of activities, from operationally process to the firms’ functions.

Designing an Herbarium Digitisation Workflow with Built-In Image Quality Management.

Digitisation of natural history collections has evolved from creating databases for the recording of specimens’ catalogue and label data to include digital images of specimens. This has been driven by several important factors, such as a need to increase global accessibility to specimens and to preserve the original specimens by limiting their manual handling. The size of the collections pointed to the need of high throughput digitisation workflows. However, digital imaging of large numbers of fragile specimens is an expensive and time-consuming process that should be performed only once. To achieve this, the digital images produced need to be useful for the largest set of applications possible and have a potentially unlimited shelf life. The constraints on digitisation speed need to be balanced against the applicability and longevity of the images, which, in turn, depend directly on the quality of those images. As a result, the quality criteria that specimen images need to fulfil influence the design, implementation and execution of digitisation workflows. Different standards and guidelines for producing quality research images from specimens have been proposed; however, their actual adaptation to suit the needs of different types of specimens requires further analysis. This paper presents the digitisation workflow implemented by Meise Botanic Garden (MBG). This workflow is relevant because of its modular design, its strong focus on image quality assessment, its flexibility that allows combining in-house and outsourced digitisation, processing, preservation and publishing facilities and its capacity to evolve for integrating alternative components from different sources. The design and operation of the digitisation workflow is provided to showcase how it was derived, with particular attention to the built-in audit trail within the workflow, which ensures the scalable production of high-quality specimen images and how this audit trail ensures that new modules do not affect either the speed of imaging or the quality of the images produced.

Dynamic traceable CP‐ABE with revocation for outsourced big data in cloud storage

SummaryCiphertext‐policy attribute‐based encryption (CP‐ABE) is the recommended best practice for outsourced big data access control in the cloud environment. However, most of the existing CP‐ABE schemes do not address the issue of tracing and revoking the malicious user who leaks the secret key for profit, which in turn reduces the security of the CP‐ABE schemes. In this paper, we propose a dynamic traceable CP‐ABE with revocation (DTCP‐ABE) for outsourced big data in cloud storage. DTCP‐ABE scheme dynamically traces who decrypts the ciphertext during the outsourced decryption process, which helps to find the malicious user who leaks the secret key. Our scheme also automatically revokes the malicious users once they are identified. We prove that our scheme is secure against chosen‐plaintext, secret key forging, user collision, and proxy attacks. Furthermore, our scheme also achieves backward revocation security. Performance evaluation proves that our DTCP‐ABE scheme is efficient than other existing schemes.

Cycle time reduction in outsourcing process: case of an Indian aerospace industry

This paper reports a case study of an Indian aerospace industry, XYZ Aeronautics Limited, with an objective to bring reduction in cycle time of outsourcing process. The focus is to identify bottleneck areas and investigate into the improvement opportunities. The paper enriches the present body of knowledge by contributing a methodology and its application for a real-life case study to understand the implications of outsourcing on operational planning. The analysis reported in this research is based on the available knowledge and extensive experience gained while working in the outsourcing department of the case organization for a long period of time. The research integrates action research, longitudinal case study research, and simulation for the detailed and scientific analysis of the problem for a case organization. The study employs a six-step analysis approach for investigating the outsourcing-related issues in case organization. The simulation study has helped to reduce the average cycle time of purchase order placement to 69 days, i.e., improvement by 33.65% over the present 104 days. This would enable the case organization to conduct “what-if” analysis and evaluate the implications of bringing improvements in select bottleneck areas for reducing cycle time of outsourcing process. The investigation is expected to help managers to negotiate on appropriate dimensions with vendors and convince them for the adoption of e-sourcing, e-contract, and e-catalog technologies.

Improving the insurance claim processing process using Six Sigma methodology

This is a case study on reducing the daily backlog % of accident and injury claims of an outsourced insurance claim processing process. The analysis showed that the fluctuations in claim volumes and ineffective utilisation of executives and processing time are the major causes of the high backlog. The solution developed is to forecast the daily claim volumes using dynamic regression and optimise the utilisation of processing time of executives using integer programming. The implementation of the solution improved the Cpk of accident claim processing from 0.21 to 1.18 and that of injury claims from 0.322 to 1.44. The solution also enabled in redeploying some of the highly skilled executives to other assignments during Thursdays and Fridays of the week. The methodology can be used for optimising any multiple task processing process by executives of varying skill levels.

Outsourcing Strategy and Financial Performance of Quoted Commercial Banks in Nigeria

This study investigates the impact of outsourcing on the financial performance of commercial banks in Nigeria over the period 2013 – 2018, while adopting a panel research design. The sample of the study covers the commercial banks with international authorization in Nigeria. These eight commercial banks represent the tier one banks. This set of commercial banks continue to grow in customer deposits, branch spread and loan issuance. They are considered to be the strongest banks. Financial performance was captured by using profit before tax, profit after tax and earnings per share as proxies, while the independent variable- outsourcing was denominated by the annual expenditure on outsourcing. All data was collected from the companies’ annual reports. The models were estimated using the Pooled Ordinary Least Squares method. The stata software was used in model estimation. Results from this study generally indicate that outsourcing has a positive impact on all the measures of financial performance. Based on the findings, the researchers recommend that outsourcing can contribute more to performance, if companies manage the outsourcing process better and involve the employees in the decision. Keywords : Business Processing Outsourcing, total outsourcing, partial outsourcing, core activities, non-core activities DOI : 10.7176/EJBM/12-3-08 Publication date: January 31 st 2020

Logistics outsourcing in fresh vegetable and fruit sector

In this study, logistics outsourcing practices in fresh vegetables and fruits sector are discussed with the customer firm perspective. The benefits of the companies from the logistics outsourcing process, the problems they face in the process management and the expectations and evaluations for the process are tried to be put forward with an exploratory approach. The required data were collected through surveys carried out with companies operating in the fresh vegetable and fruits sector. The Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) method has also been used to determine the criteria that are effective in selecting the service provider company, which is considered to be directly effective on the success of the outsourcing process. The research findings show that the most important obstacles to maximizing the benefits of the companies from the process are the lack of a planned structure for logistics outsourcing and the traditional management understanding of the company managers. This situation makes the logistics outsourcing process of the companies in the sector not an effective competitive strategy but rather an alternative to deal with cyclical fluctuations. For all these reasons, the expectations of the companies for the process are not fully met and the benefits from the process are realized at more limited levels.

Green Logistics Outsourcing Employing Multi Criteria Decision Making and Quality Function Deployment in the Petrochemical Industry

The present study seeks to provide a comprehensive and coherent model for assessing and ranking the outsourcing green logistics, while identifying the indigenous factors involved in the outsourcing process. The employed research methodology is a hybrid fuzzy multi criteria decision making for distinguishing relationships between factors and their degree of importance and combines the techniques quality function deployment (QFD). The results showed that among the main factors “government green decision making” is the most influential and “quality” is the most susceptible factor. The highest weight allocates to “customer satisfaction”. The results of house of quality showed that the “convenient and appropriate logistics services” ranked as first, the “implementation of transportation infrastructure for green policies” ranked as second, “having the necessary expertise and experience in similar industries” ranked third which reflects the importance of these requirements comparing to other requirements. The calculation results indicate that the fourth supplier is the final choice of decision making process.

The Archivists’ Understanding of New Public Management and Outsourcing of Government Information: The Case of Sweden

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the archivists’ understanding of New Public Management (NPM) and its impact on their role as gatekeepers of government information. The paper therefore presents the views of the archivists who traditionally manage the creation, capture and organisation of information at the Swedish Transport Board (STB). Government information is key to institutional transparency and hence the stringent legal framework that governs it. Sweden is considered a highly transparent country and through its Press Act, which dates as far back as the 1766, all its citizens enjoy the right to access government information. This way, citizens can follow and scrutinise the government processes, which increases openness and trust in government institutions. However, this image of Sweden as open and transparent was challenged by the “Transportgate IT scandal,” which put it in the limelight of both national and international media. The scandal was due to outsourcing. Global governments these days operate under increased financial constraints, demands for efficiency and environmentally sustainable solutions and are therefore engaged in the outsourcing of government functions. Outsourcing is a strategy within New Public Management and is regarded as a solution to the above-mentioned constraints. Outsourcing is being done within the growing popularity of NPM, which is the adoption of methods and best practice from the private sector. However, among the challenges that outsourcing poses is data/information security. Yet, one of the building stones of trust in government institutions is secure and trustworthy government information. As the “Transportgate IT scandal” unfolded, the focus was on IT security and there was a total lack of discussion on the information contained in the systems. This paper used a case study as a method to explore the above issues. It applied a literature review and interviews as data gathering techniques. The results confirmed that the archivists had a full understanding of NPM and its impact on the management of government information. They are supposed to play a key role in the management of government information, but they were not at all involved in the outsourcing process. There is a danger that this development might impact the trust citizens have in government institutions since access to government information might be compromised. Therefore, outsourcing of government information should involve all the stakeholders and there should be well-formulated clauses to protect it.

Exploring the effect of internal and external integration on the performance of professional service outsourcing

PurposeThis paper aims to investigate how the professional service outsourcing (PSO) firm’s external knowledge integration with global clients, internal integration across various functional units and the synergistic effects between them in improving PSO performance.Design/methodology/approachDrawing on the theory of organizational learning, a conceptual framework is proposed with hypothesized relationships. The relationships in this conceptual model were tested using a structural equation model (SEM) to analyze a survey dataset including 192 Indian-based professional service providers.FindingsA service provider’s performance is positively associated with its external integration with global clients and internal integration across various functional units. Synergistic effect is generated from balanced high-level external and internal integration in improving PSO performance.Research limitations/implicationsThis study contributes to the much-needed efforts in studying PSO, a new and fast-growing cross-border professional service activity, and provides helpful managerial implications to practicing global clients and offshore PSO service providers on how to successfully manage and govern the outsourcing process to achieve expected benefits.Originality/valueThis study focuses on offshore service provider’s viewpoint to extend traditional supply-chain integration regarding cooperative and mutually beneficial mechanisms to the context of PSO.

Sustainability and Impact of Lean Six Sigma Practices: Learnings From Some KPO/BPO Organizations

Sustainability is a major challenge while introducing changes to the organizational way of working. The paper studies sustainability of Lean Six Sigma (LSS) implementations in KPO/BPO (Knowledge Process Outsourcing/Business Process Outsourcing) industry. Five such case organizations that have implemented Lean Six Sigma practices in their Indian operations are studied. An exploratory case study method is adopted. The KPO/BPO case organizations are evaluated from four dimensions of people, process, technology and operational outcomes. Impact of Lean Six Sigma (LSS) practices on above four dimensions helps us to study and understand the underlying nature of relationships. Current study demonstrates some critical aspects that impact the sustainability of LSS implementations in case organizations. Business alignment, leadership commitment, tailoring LSS knowledge, and post implementation actions are some of the factors that play a critical role in the sustainability of LSS. This research has limitations of the case study method as it is limited to five case organization. Hence, the generalizations of findings and conclusions must be done cautiously. Further similar empirical studies in KPO/BPO’s can possibly give more insights into independent and dependent factors and the correlations between them. This study has significant managerial and academic implications as the KPO/BPO industry is a growing sector of Indian economy. Published literature on LSS implementation in services sector has picked up over last decade, but there is very little literature in KPO/BPO sector. This paper is an attempt by researchers to contribute to this key area.

Business Process Management and Outsourcing

This paper investigates to appoint the fundamental information about outsourcing implications and emphasizes the essential gains and drawbacks of this paper. The objective of the work is to picture the impact of outsourcing on organizational performance and profitability through risk management and alyzing, comprehending the factors, which influence the process of outsourcing. Studying the efficiency of organizational performance and analyzing the attitude of companies for their improvement using outsourcing is another objective of this research. The aim of outsourcing in corporate/ industry is to evaluate the improvement in the performance of the organizations that was mentioned by researchers in literature. Researchers had analyzed the outsourcing and its implication as an important strategy of company many years ago. The outcome is established to demonstrate outsourcing framework from different prospective. Performance effects are inquired by level of operating profit, acquiring margin return on shareholders’ capital and diminution in employment cost can be the significance of outsourcing, which have been followed by organizations. The liquidity of companies that increase by passage of time is the indication of profit. Moreover, managing the risk is the essential aspect for earning profitability of the project.

Outsourcing Strategies of Established Firms and Sustainable Competitiveness: Medical Device Firms

Successful outsourcing strategy is a key enabler of sustainable competitiveness of established firms engaged in technology-intensive business. This study proposes a research framework of a successful outsourcing process composed of resources, dynamic capabilities and created values, from a review of relevant literature and in-depth case study of four leading medical device firms. The research results specify four outsourcing types according to the characteristics of outsourced resources, and their alignment with resources owned by the outsourcer. Each type of outsourcing is positively affected by the outsourcer’s dynamic capabilities, namely sensing, integrating capability, absorptive capability and technology transfer capability. In addition, the significance of the outsourcee’s size according to each outsourcing type is also found. As a result of successful outsourcing experience, the outsourcer can reap the benefits of enhanced dynamic capabilities, i.e., market-oriented innovation, strategic flexibility, agility and increased efficiency, thereby creating a virtuous cycle of sustainable competitiveness in a volatile environment.

Employees' Outsourcing Perceptions and Satisfaction: The Case of Libya Oil Company

Purpose: The aim of this study is to explore the perceptions of employees working for the Oil Transportation Department of Libya Oil Company regarding their future outsourcing and their current payment satisfaction. Design/Methodology/Approach : In fact, employees' power has increased dramatically and it cannot be ignored or neglected after the Libyan revolution in February 2011. Despite the fact that outsourcing improves performance, quality, and reduces costs, workers are usually significantly affected within the strategies considered by outsourcing. The literature shows that the employees affected in such outsourcing processes suffer from many problems. The effect of an aggressive culture, such as the Libyan context, on outsourcing employees requires more investigation. One hundred eighty-four workers, from two different operational sites, out of 300, participated in filling in the questionnaire regarding their perceptions of being outsourced to contractors. Findings: The results show that employees perceive outsourcing negatively, and the results indicate that there is a significant relation between the perceived outsourcing impact on individuals and on profession with their payment satisfaction. Practical Implications: Management should consider their employees' perceptions as well before outsourcing. Originality/Value: Executing the strategy of outsourcing employees to contractors seems to be difficult, if not impossible, in an aggressive working environment.

Outsourcing contact centers: internal branding challenges and consequences

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to develop a deeper understanding of the philosophy adopted by organizations in making the decision to outsource contact centers or not.Design/methodology/approachA phenomenological study was used to develop an understanding of industry participants’ experience of the outsourcing of contact centers in South Africa. Ten in-depth interviews were conducted. Content analysis identified key thoughts and common themes. This was used to develop a model for outsourcing.FindingsEvidence was found to support three propositions developed from the literature regarding the reasons for and the unintended consequences of outsourcing. A model was developed to illustrate how costs can be reduced by outsourcing under different conditions of “headcount constraints” and “failure costs” of customer relationship management.Research limitations/implicationsThe study was conducted in a single emerging market. Future research should confirm the validity of this model in other markets.Practical implicationsOutsourcing contact centers can lead to a loss of control over CRM and internal brand management. This can be avoided by paying considerable attention to the governance of the contract. There are two key messages for managers: to resist the short-term attraction of potential cost savings and marketing must play an active role in the outsourcing decision.Originality/valueNew knowledge is provided about the philosophy adopted by organizations when outsourcing contact centers. A model is presented to guide managers in the outsourcing decision-making process.

Issues of strategic management of Russian innovative organizations’ intellectual property

The purpose of this work is to substantiate the necessity of transition to the strategic management of intellectual property in the context of the modern status, goals and tasks of the innovative development of the Russian economy, which have been set out in the Scientific and Technological Development Strategy of the Russian Federation for 2017–2019 as well as in the context of the Main Lines of Activities of the Government of the Russian Federation for the period up to 2024. The main criteria of a successful integration of the Russian innovative economy into the global economy should be involvement of the Russian organizations as technologies owners in the global outsourcing processes as well as the Russian share in the global system of growth and application of the new knowledge – “a saving box” of new inventions and other objects of the industrial property, created as a result of intellectual work. The development process of intellectual property management strategies for assurance of technological leadership in the selected lines of the scientific and technological development is worth of separate research. The paper considers the economic content of the intellectual property as an immaterial capital as well as its role as a factor of creation of unique advantages and assurance of the long-term competitiveness of an innovative organization on the basis of technological leadership. The analysis of a spectrum of innovative strategies has been carried out by use of a matrix “The Novelty of Innovations – the Demand for Intellectual Deliverables”. A sample comparative estimate of innovation resources of Russia and the countries, leading the IP market has been conducted, relying on the Russian and global statistical data. The stages of the transition to the strategic management of the intellectual property of innovative organizations on the basis of the World Intellectual Property Organization’s guidelines and the Russian business practice have been determined.

Outsourcing and insourcing of organizational activities: the role of outsourcing process mechanisms

ABSTRACTThe decision to outsource organizational activities is studied widely, but research on the insourcing of outsourced activities is scarce. We study the outsourcing decision as a process, and investigate the influences of organizational mechanisms on its sustainability. We argue that organizational learning from the outsourcing decision process could over time result in competencies that enhance the sustainability of outsourcing decisions. We examine outsourcing and insourcing processes longitudinally. The results indicate that the outsourcing process mechanisms, especially the mechanisms associated with implementing the outsourcing decision, predict insourcing. We discuss the implications for future research on outsourcing and insourcing of public services.

‘I don’t clean up after myself’: epistemic ignorance, responsibility and the politics of the outsourcing of domestic cleaning

In this article, I propose to look at the organisation of reproductive labour in the ‘global North’ through a lens of epistemic ignorance. Focusing on the process of outsourcing, I argue that it creates forms of irresponsibility, and with it, epistemic ignorance. The devaluation of domestic work and the degradation of domestic workers is shaped by gendered and colonial ideologies, and Western epistemologies. These epistemologies underpin a strong subject/object split and buffer the denial of existing interdependencies. I problematise those epistemologies by drawing on feminist care ethics, accounts of relational selves and relational responsibility, and alternative epistemologies. Grounding that discussion on vignettes from an in-depth study of heterosexual couples in Austrian households who outsource domestic work, I argue that the systematic failure to see what and who we are connected to in the domestic realm is shaped by gendered and racialised privilege, and driven by an epistemology of separation. My argument will unfold in two steps. First, I use the concept of the skin as an example of how the beliefs in an independent, autonomous self and a strong subject/object split disguise connectedness and relationality. This leads me to the second step, in which I explicate my notion of semipermeable membranes – a thinking together of ontological permeability and ethical responsiveness. I argue that active forms of ‘unknowing’ at work in ‘mundane,’ everyday, domestic performances have far-reaching consequences.