Annotated Bibliography 

Outsourcing:

Ripin, K . M ., Sayles, L . R . (1999) . Insider strategies for outsourcing Information Systems : Building productive partnerships, avoiding seductive traps. N.Y : Oxford University Press. 

The above referenced book discusses how effective it is for executives to hire outsourcers to administer the complicated information systems that are critical to today's organizations. This book offers executives and managers experience-based guidelines that will enable them to avoid the seductive myths and illusions that distort contractor selection and new system planning decisions.

hapman, R . B ., Andrade, K . R . (1998) . Insourcing after the outsourcing : MIS survival guide. N.Y: American Management Association. 

The above referenced book discusses how the seduction of instant cost cutting has led many companies to adopt outsourcing without thinking of the downside. It presents a point of view on what happens when outsourcing goes wrong and costs go up, service goes down and customers jump ship.

Top 10 Reasons Companies Outsource. (n.d.). Retrieved March 30, 2003, from http://www.ixtsolutions.com/pdf/top_10_outsorcing_reasons.pdf. 

The above electronic reference describes the top ten reasons why companies outsource. Companies outsource for a variety of reasons. This document represents a compilation of a report covering a series of studies conducted by the Outsourcing Institute since 1991 in which over 1,200 companies were surveyed, as well as a 1995 Trends Report

Kliman, S . Jones, W. (July 4, 2001).  Managing Outsourcing Relationship for Value Creation.  Firmbuilder,  Retrieved 2/4/2003 from http://www.firmbuilder.com/articles/19/48/691/. 

The above electronic reference discusses the difficulties of establishing “great” outsourced relationships. It focuses on the following primary areas:

The working relationship challenges

The relationship management infrastructure  

Fox , G . (1999). Outsourcing Relationships and the Value Chain. Compass, Retrieved 2/4/2003 from http://209.238.236.162/pubs/outval.htm

The above electronic reference discusses mainly when outsourcing should be utilized. It focuses on how businesses and outsourcers work together to move outsourcing agreements beyond price-focused, commodity-based relationships to true value-added strategic partnerships

Customer Relationship Management (CRM):

Burnett, K . (2001) . Key customer relationship management : the definitive guide to winning, managing and developing key account business. London, N.Y : Financial Times Prentice Hall.

The above referenced book brings together all the resources needed to implement a CRM system and manage it to optimize a corporation’s relationships with its most critical customers. It provides definitive guidelines for CRM implementation, explaining exactly how to identify the risks and avoid the pitfalls.

Customer Relationship Management. (n.d.). Retrieved March 30, 2003, from

http://www.intechpr.com/sections/ProfessionalServices/CRM/default.htm .

The above electronic reference aids in giving a higher-level understanding of CRM. The description is valid for Intech’s implementation of CRM. However, the images present in this reference provide the reader with a clear description of CRM and its main components.

Freeland, J . G . (2002) . The Ultimate CRM Handbook : Strategies and concepts forbuilding enduring customer loyalty and profitability. N.Y : McGraw-Hill.

The above referenced book gives managers and senior executives the high-level perspective needed to build lasting, profitable bonds with their customers. It also provides techniques companies can use to:

• Establish more effective interactions with their customers
• Build lasting brand loyalty
• Dramatically improve the efficiency of their sales, marketing, and customer service operations

Dyche, J . (2001) . The CRM Handbook: A Business Guide to Customer Relationship Management. Boston, M.A : Addison-Wesley Pub Co.

The above reference is a textbook for managers on the mechanics of CRM. It provides lots of factual information, real case studies, carefully considered commentary, and reasoned criteria with which to evaluate CRM products and strategies. In the book the following topics are discussed:

• Relationship management (CRM)--as a business practice and as a set of technologies--explained for managers and corporate planners.
• CRM fundamentals
• CRM product selection
• Internal promotion of CRM

Gentle, M . (2002) . The CRM Project Management Handbook: Building Realistic Expectations and Managing Risk. London : Kogan Page Ltd.

The above referenced book discusses CRM, and how to separate the practical and how to scope and implement a project that delivers tangible results. This book helps managers: build their business case for CRM (and/or decide that if CRM is even something your company should pursue); understand and avoid the most common risks; set realistic goals for projects; and take a tactical approach.

Supply Chain Management (SCM)

Smith, T. (2002, August). Supply Chain Solidifies Customer Relations. Retrieved from http://www.internetweek.com/pages/Jergens2.

The above electronic reference aids in explaining how SCM solidifies customer relations. The author explained how Jergens needed different means to ensure customers would use its manufacturing components. One of its key solutions: making it as easy as possible for customers to download component models into their native design software.

Gould, L . P. (2003, January). Supply Chain Management – Buzzword or Potential Pot of Gold. (n.d.). Retrieved March 30, 2003, from http://www.foodboss.com/supplychain52001.htm .

The above electronic reference discusses the elements of the supply chain that must be integrated to recognize the tremendous improvements in customer service and cost reduction cut through a total organization.

Advantages of SCM. (n.d.). Retrieved March 30, 2003, from

http://www.ayaxi.com/main.asp?IDR=72&LANG=ENG .

The above electronic reference discusses SCM solutions. It provides a detailed diagram of the SCM solution, which is helpful in understanding a SCM solution at a higher level. Additionally, it lists the advantages provided by implementing a SCM solution.

Supply Chain Management Challenges. (n.d.). Retrieved March 30, 2003, from

http://www.sbs-usa.siemens.com/eb/eb-challenges.htm .

The above electronic reference discusses the challenges of integrating a SCM system. The challenges are categorized into globalization, dynamic markets and competition.

Slater . D , (Feb 1, 2000). By the numbers: Supply Chain Management Best Practices. CIO Magazine, Retrieved 2/4/2003 from http://www.cio.com/archive/020100/numbers.html.

The above electronic reference identifies three best practices that should be adhered to when integrating a supply chain management system. The three best practices elaborate on the following matters

1. Delivery performance to request
2. Cash-to-cash cycle time
3. Online Purchasing

Buxbaum, P. (2001, May 7^th). Measuring Alignment. ComputerWorld. Vol. 35 Issue 19, p46, 1p, 1c. Retrieved 30^th March 2003 from search.epnet.com/direct.asp?an=4543207&db=afh.

While assuming that business-IT alignment is absolutely necessary for an organization’s success, this article offers information on a methodology developed by information technology (IT) management professor Jerry Luftman that enables companies to self-assess the maturity of their business/IT strategic alignments. The author identifies six strategic categories and the characteristics of five maturity levels within each of them. While there are reservations if the methodology offers the best use of the CIO’s time, it has been largely well accepted by the industry, with a number of CIOs having expressed desire to implement it in their organizations.

Clemons, E. & Row, M. (1992, January). Information Technology and Industrial Cooperation. IEEE Publications. Retrieved 30^th March, 2003 from

http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/iel4/378/4718/00183372.pdf.

In this article, the author details the importance of cooperation in modern business environment. Some of the important observations made by the author in this article are:

• IT can play an important role in the process of industrial restructuring by altering the balance between the benefits and the costs or risks of cooperation

• IT has the capability to increase integration without necessarily increasing transaction risks, by reducing required sunk capital and reducing monitoring costs

The author presents a framework for investigating cooperative relationships based on extending transaction cost economics.

Luftman, J., Papp, R. & Brier, T. (2002, September). Enablers and Inhibitors of Business-IT Alignment. ABInsight. Retrieved 30^th March 2003 from http://www-1.ibm.com/ibm/palisades/abinsight/assets/PDFs/2002-Sep/article-4-print.pdf.

This is an important article in that it provides useful statistics of what is the current understanding of business-IT alignment in the industry. The paper presents and analyses the results of a multi-year study of strategic alignment. Data for the study were obtained from over 500 firms representing 15 industries who attended classes addressing alignment at IBM’s Advanced Business Institute. The paper provides insight into identifying areas that help or hinder business-IT alignment.

Luftman, J. N. (2003). Managing Information Technology.  Unpublished.

According to the author, achieving alignment is evolutionary and dynamic. It is a process that requires strong support from senior management, good working relationships, strong leadership, appropriate prioritization, trust, and effective communication, as well as a thorough understanding of the business and technical environments. Once the maturity of business-IT alignment is understood, an organization can identify opportunities for enhancing the harmonious relationship of business and IT. The article is of immense value for its suggested steps to be taken that concentrate organizational energy on maximizing alignment enablers and minimizing inhibitors.

Bradford, R. (2002, January). Strategic Alignment. Executive Excellence. Vol. 19 Issue 1, p8, 2p. Retrieved 22^nd March 2003 from http://search.epnet.com/direct.asp?an=5900165&db=f5h.

This article deals with business strategy and ground-level operations; more importantly, the alignment between the two. The author does a good job of identifying the importance of alignment and also presents five steps to maximize this alignment. Though the focus of the article is not business-IT alignment, most of the suggested steps are applicable in that scenario too. The steps enumerated in the article largely emphasize on building strategic alignment into the culture of the organization and its people.

Change Management

Goff, L. (2000, February 14). Change Management. ComputerWorld Quickstudy. Retrieved 23^rd March 2003 from http://www.computerworld.com/news/2000/story/0,11280,41308,00.html.

This article by ComputerWorld is a good starting point for information on change management. It addresses the basics of change management from the information technology perspective. It emphasizes that change management is based on the fact that it is people who make companies work, not technology alone. The article explains the anger, anxiety and frustration experienced by employees due to sudden changes in applications or processes and suggests the IT managers should put themselves in place of the affected employees to truly understand their reservations. The article goes on to suggest building blocks to successful change management with emphasis on the fact that people, processes and technology cannot be separated.

BPR Tutorial Series (2003). Change Management Activities for Executives. BPR Online Learning Center. Retrieved 23^rd March 2003 from http://www.prosci.com/tutorial-cm-sponsor.htm.

This article and others from this source are based on the “2003 Best Practices in Change Management” benchmarking study by Prosci in 2003 involving 288 organizations from 51 countries. It explains key executive activities for successful change management as well as the most common mistakes made by executive sponsors in unsuccessful cases. It lays special importance on effective communication with the project teams, stakeholders as well as other employees affected by the change.

BPR Tutorial Series (2003). Change Management – Success factors and obstacles. BPR Online Learning Center. Retrieved 23^rd March 2003 from http://www.prosci.com/tutorial-cm-factors.htm.

This article and others from this source are based on the “2003 Best Practices in Change Management” benchmarking study by Prosci in 2003 involving 288 organizations from 51 countries. This article identifies the key factors for success of change management as well as the obstacles in its path. It identifies effective and strong executive sponsorship as the single greatest contributor to project success. Also, the top obstacle to change was employee resistance at all levels. Surprisingly, the effectiveness or correctness of the actual business solution, process or system changes was cited only five times in over 200 responses in the survey.

Gomolski, B. (2003). Change management: Is it the right remedy for e-business growing pains? InfoWorld. Retrieved 23^rd March 2003 from http://archive.infoworld.com/articles/op/xml/00/12/04/001204opgartner.xml.

According to the author, “One of the main reasons e-business is so painful is that it involves major organizational change, and change hurts”. People are naturally reluctant to confront human emotions in the workplace. The author emphasizes the need to pay attention to human issues like fear, insecurity and betrayal besides the other logical reasons for a change. The author, a research director at Gartner, has identified five elements of change that, taken collectively, can help manage the behavioral implications of change. These five elements of change must be recognized and understood before a comprehensive change program can be instituted.

Fielden, T. (2001). Change management made easy, flexible. InfoWorld Test Centre. Retrieved 23^rd March 2003 from http://archive.infoworld.com/articles/tc/xml/01/03/26/010326tcclear.xml.

In this article the author introduces software packages available to make change management a more flexible and less painful process. Rational ClearQuest v2001 helps prevent software changes and defects from derailing large development projects. The article details many advantages of this software package and that of using software packages for change management as a whole.

Lewis, B. Controlling Change. InfoWorld Survival Guide. Retrieved 23^rd March 2003 from http://archive.infoworld.com/articles/op/xml/01/09/17/010917opsurvival.xml.

With a view to identify the psychological aspects of change management and its consequent effects on employees, this article does and excellent job of laying out steps that can be taken to specifically address the human concerns of any change. It proposes the need of an involvement plan for any successful change process and argues that people will only embrace those changes that they control. It also strongly suggests that the changes will be successful in their goal only if they benefit those affected by the change. The article ends with some personal experiences of the author that justify his claims in the article.

Kocharekar, R. (2000, August 18). Time for a Change. CIO Insight. Retrieved 23^rd March 2003 from http://www.intelligententerprise.com/000818/cio.shtml.

This article focuses on benchmarking IT capacity to change. It details both the traditional as well as activity-based approach to benchmarking. It details several factors that determine an organization’s ability to change such as IT staff skills, IT knowledge management, project management, financial management, etc. It argues that benchmarking has a gone a long way towards giving senior management assurance and comfort with their IT investments and is therefore important to view it as part of the IT service level.

Bunger, M. (2002, May 6). Intercompany Change Fuels Post-Recession Growth. Forrester TechStrategy Research. Retrieved 23^rd March 2003 from http://www.forrester.com/Research/PDF/0,5110,15042,00.pdf.

This article stresses cross-company application integration projects won’t see victory until their partners, people, and processes change as well – with inter-company change management. It mainly deals with cross-company initiatives like supply chain management projects and argues the true benefits of all such initiatives will not be realized till the value of effective change management is recognized. The article is particularly important for its detailing of differences between intra-company and inter-company change management.

Intra-organizational Relationships

Grigg, J. & Gomolski, B. (2001). Using Trust as a Weapon for Competitive Advantage. Gartner Symposium ITXPO 2001.

This paper focuses on using trust as a competitive weapon for competitive advantage. It stresses the factors for success in this knowledge economy are not the same as they used to be in the old economy driven by industrial processes. It outlines the need for trust and consequently better relationships to create an agile organization, better equipped to endure uncertainty. Respect, ownership and accountability of employees are critical according to the author to build morale and spur innovation. The focus of the article is to capitalize on people and their organizational relationships.

Henderson, J. (1990). Plugging Into Strategic Partnerships: The Critical Is Connection. Sloan Management Review, Spring90, Vol. 31 Issue 3, p7, 12p. Retrieved 30^th March 2003 from http://search.epnet.com/direct.asp?an=4010397&db=buh.

This article focuses on a study which explored the concept of building partnerships between line managers and information systems (IS) managers and specialists as a strategy for IS management. It details the role of line and IS managers, the dimensions of partnership-style relationships as well as a model of partnership. The article also explores the implications for line-IS relationships. Using interviews with executives, the author focuses both on external partnerships (relationships between managers in separate organizations) and on internal partnerships (relationships between line managers and information systems managers in the same organization) to create a descriptive model.

Two general observations resulting from this research are worth mentioning. First, all of the executives noted that while partnership is a concept easily invoked, it is very difficult to actually make it work. Second, many of the executives noted that a "partnership" relationship is not always appropriate. They argued a transaction-like relationship or a value-added service relationship is certainly a more viable option.

Young, C. (2003, January, 17). Driving Organizational Change: Key Issues. Gartner Research Note. Retrieved 30^th March 2003 from http://www.itap.purdue.edu/itresources/gartner/research/112600/112606/112606.html.

This article focuses on change management and the role that relationships play in making it successful. Organizational and behavioral change management are essential for enterprises faced with uncertain times, business paradigm changes or the need to accomplish great things with a diverse, globally dispersed workforce. The author argues in periods of high risk and uncertain changes, organizations can survive and thrive only with cooperation, trust and confidence of their people. The article is a part of the research by Gartner on various Workforce and Workplace issues.

Clemons, E. & Row, M. (1992, January). Information Technology and Industrial Cooperation. IEEE Publications. Retrieved 30^th March, 2003 from             http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/iel4/378/4718/00183372.pdf.

In this article, the author details the importance of cooperation in modern business environment. Some of the important observations made by the author in this article are:

• IT can play an important role in the process of industrial restructuring by altering the balance between the benefits and the costs or risks of cooperation
• IT has the capability to increase integration without necessarily increasing transaction risks, by reducing required sunk capital and reducing monitoring costs

The author presents a framework for investigating cooperative relationships based on extending transaction cost economics.