Vendor Project Research Articles

A Framework for Evaluating Vendor Procurement in a Digital Health Project.

The eHealth Centre of Excellence, a Waterloo, Ontario-based organization that advances and promotes digital health initiatives in clinical care, developed and assessed an innovative evaluation procurement framework. The purpose of the framework was to assess and support long-term vendor-organization procurement partnerships to develop, improve and expand electronic referral (eReferral) solutions. The framework focused on six criteria: the quality of the eReferral solution, its implementation, the service provided, the extent of training and knowledge transfer, the quality of the vendor's team and the vendor's project experience. These domains were further defined by components and key performance indicators unique to the eReferral solution to accommodate the stakeholders' specified needs as well as change management challenges to create value for users and organizations in long-term relationships. The evaluation used both qualitative and quantitative methodologies. The framework used data from three sources: (1) the System Coordinated Access program and vendor team experience surveys that focused on the six criteria mentioned earlier; (2) key stakeholder interviews that focused on system quality, user satisfaction and perception of net benefits; and (3) a vendor scorecard that focused on deliverables and efficiencies. Vendor procurement should be viewed not as a process that ends when a vendor is selected but rather as a continuing and evolving relationship. Evaluation should assess the ability and willingness of vendors to support stakeholders and meet their needs, stimulate new ideas and adapt to changing environments and expanding systems. The model enabled recording of factors necessary for successful outcomes and provided a strategy to help select vendors for successful long-term partnerships.

The Influence of Justice Perceptions and Affective States on Project Managers’ Responses to Client Opportunism

The contribution of psychological factors in project relationships has received limited attention. Taking the standpoint of vendor project managers, we examine their justice perceptions, affect, and consequent behavior in response to client opportunism. Data collected from 182 respondents from the information technology industry reveal that vendor project managers perceive reduced distributive and interpersonal justice, and experience lower positive and higher negative affective states, resulting in more venting and disengagement and less constructive discussion and passive acceptance. Findings suggest that psychological factors can bring about detrimental behavior in client–vendor relationships. This has long-term implications for project relationships where client opportunism occurs.

The effective promotion of informal control in information systems offshoring projects

As firms increasingly engage in interorganizational information systems (IS) projects, including IS offshoring projects, the challenge for client firms of effectively exercising control across organizational boundaries becomes critical. Although the importance of informal controls (clan and self-control) in this context has been recognized, prior research has focused primarily on formal controls. Consequently, our understanding of the use of clan and self-control in interorganizational IS projects is scarce, and partly inconsistent or contradictory. This study focuses the client’s role in promoting informal controls in interorganizational projects involving distant client–vendor relationships as well as the effectiveness of such controls. We use matched-pair survey data from 86 IS offshoring projects involving client and vendor relationship managers. Our results show an interesting pattern: while clan control is considerably more difficult to promote than self-control in client–vendor project relationships, only clan control has a direct positive impact on project performance. Moreover, formal control modes, national cultural values, and project context factors moderate both the promotion and the effectiveness of informal controls. Our study’s main contributions lie in establishing the relevance of the distinction between informal control given and received, and the importance of the client’s role in promoting informal controls.

Client and Vendor Learning in Information Technology Outsourcing

This study investigates the factors influencing client and vendor learning and its downstream performance implications in Information Technology Outsourcing (ITO) projects. We propose client system development expertise and vendor project expertise, project’s strategic importance, and expectations of relationship continuity as the antecedents of client and vendor learning, and project success as its outcome. Furthermore, the moderation effects of the expectations of relationship continuity are examined on relationships of the antecedents with client and vendor learning. We test the hypotheses using data collected from 101 ITO project managers. The findings suggest overall positive impacts of the factors on client learning and vendor learning. As for the moderation effects of expectations of relationship continuity, strategic importance has a positive effect on client learning only whereas vendor project expertise has a positive effect on vendor learning only.

A Secure Knowledge Resource Management Theory for IT/IS Outsourcing

There is a delicate dance between outsourcing vendors and the secure management of their knowledge resources at play. The challenge for the vendor stems from their need to earn their clients trust by engendering high levels of confidence in their abilities to effectively deliver goods and services sought by the client without compromising the security of their knowledge resources. The potential for the outsourcing vendor project teams to interact with a diverse set of clients adds and even greater level of complexity. However, some IT/IS outsourcing vendors manage to successfully execute this balancing act. Given the socio-technical nature of this phenomenon the authors will look to institutional, resource-based view and managerial control theories as avenues via which they seek to gain some understanding as to how they secure their knowledge resources.

SU-E-T-228: The Beauty and the Beast: Transition from Film/paper Charts to Paperless Environment with a New TrueBeam/ARIA System in a Small Community Hospital on a Tight Budget.

To review the issues a physicist may encounter in a community hospital during the transition from film/paper charts to a paperless environment with ARIA and a TrueBeam LINAC. With a lean budget, it was necessary for the physics group to take on the project management responsibilities in order save costs. This work highlights the lessons learned during the planning and execution of our project. Like many hospitals around the county, our hospital was caught in the economic downturn and was unable to provide all of the capital necessary to upgrade to the radiation oncology department. However, with the support of the hospital foundation, a total of $6M was secured for new LINAC, ARIA and CT simulator. To save costs on facilities and computers, it was necessary for the physics group to be involved in creating architectural drawings for shielding calculations, finding a vendor to remove the old linac, assisting the foundation to raise money, submission of the 'Certificate of Need' approval with the state, negotiation with vendors, IT infrastructure, reviews with the general contractor and vendor's project team, and ultimately writing the commissioning reports for the new systems as well as developing new policies and procedures. During a period of 4 months, the old LINAC was removed, facility renovations made, the TrueBeam linac was installed, accepted, and commissioned and first patients were treated. In addition, we transitioned from a film/paper environment to a paperless environment. However, this was very stressful for staff and it may be advisable to stage such a project over a longer period of time. There was also significant lost revenue (∼$2M) during downtime of construction, installation, and commissioning. The radiation oncology department was upgraded (The Beauty) on a tight budget but at the cost of added stress (The Beast) to the staff.

Stakeholder Challenges in Information Systems Project Offshoring

This study of international information systems (IS) offshoring highlights the idea that project success or failure is often in the eye of the beholder and that proper attention needs to be provided to both client and vendor perspectives. This research contributes by identifying noteworthy IS offshoring challenges faced by client and vendor stakeholders. This research synthesizes key findings from eight dyadic case studies consisting of 56 interviews in total from both client and vendor firms detailing their offshore experiences. The case investigations lead to the discovery of nine unique challenges encountered by client and vendor stakeholders. The challenges include a wide assortment of economic, personal responsibilities/expectations, and organizational offshore project management issues. The reported challenges can suitably guide client and vendor project managers in managing international IS offshore projects as well guide academic researchers to better understand techniques for managing offshore IS projects.

Outsourced IT Projects from the Vendor Perspective

As outsourced and multinational IT projects become more common, managing risks for these projects is increasingly important. The research reported here examines key risks identified by Hong Kong vendor project managers working on both local and international package implementation projects. In addition to the typical risks that threaten project outcome success, respondents noted location-specific risks on their multinational projects. They also distinguished threats to the satisfactory process of the project, and threats to their own firms from competitors and from potential damage to their reputation arising from customer dissatisfaction with either the outcomes or the process of the project. Using an agency theory perspective, this broader focus is examined in the light of differing definitions of project success for clients and outsource providers.

Project Manager Roles in IT Outsourcing

:This article contributes to providing insight into the growing form of outsourcing by studying different managerial roles by IT project managers in outsourcing and termination projects. During the last several years outsourcing has emerged as a major issue in IT management. In this article we have examined which management roles are emphasized by the client's and vendor's project managers in both outsourcing as well as termination projects. The six managerial roles we applied were leader, resource allocator, spokesman, entrepreneur, liaison, and monitor. An important insight from this study is the need for a contingent approach to outsourcing projects and that the appropriate leadership role depends on the outsourcing perspective, time, and situation. Another result from this study is that external project manager roles are found to be significantly more important in outsourcing termination projects than in outsourcing projects. Although this paper is based on limited data, it lays the foundation for a framework of management roles in IT outsourcing projects. An engineering manager can use this article to better understand which roles project managers should emphasize in IT outsourcing and termination projects.

Don't forget the users when implementing systems in health!

The operating theatre management system (OTMS) was selected by a working party comprised of key stakeholders and clinical representatives from major metropolitan teaching hospitals in South Australia. The Whole of Health project was funded and facilitated by the South Australian Health Commission in cooperation with healthsite and vendor project teams. In essence, the project progressed as projects do. However, a fundamental issue identified by this project team was the critical nature of managing the people, or potential users of the application. This paper discusses some of the pitfalls experienced at the healthsite and how best to avoid them in the future.

Impacts of vendor project management methods on flexible manufacturing system implementation: A field study

Abstract This field study investigated the management systems developed by two vendors of flexible manufacturing systems (FMSs). The vendors had very different methods for managing the development and implementation of their FMSs. They also had very different levels of client satisfaction. The study's objectives were, first, to determine the management methods and project outcomes and, second, to investigate reasons appropriate vs. dysfunctional management methods evolved and were perpetuated. The study indicated that the vendors' project management methods for controlling their systems developments contributed to their contrasting rates of implementation problems. More importantly, the methods that each vendor evolved did not reflect the inherent project risks. Instead, the methods reflected the vendor's organizational structure and its expectations about its typical client's capabilities. The study illustrates that firms may not base their approaches for managing their systems developments on actual requirements as much as on their past experiences in marketing very different products, and also on their existing infrastracture. These approaches, however, may be inappropriate for supporting FMS development and client support.