Search results for "Outsourcing"
showing 10 items of 101 documents
Low Degree of Separation Does Not Guarantee Easy Coordination
2012
In the times of increased global competition, software companies are forced to search for more effective development practices and often team up with onshore and offshore partners to develop faster and better products. In this paper we empirically explore a highly distributed onshore development project with a complex coordination structure. Our findings demonstrate that onshore development projects are not protected from coordination and communication challenges and task allocation complexities. Previously reported qualitative findings regarding organizational problems in this paper are supplemented with quantitative measurements of the true coordination delays and additional analysis of c…
A DSS for Strategic Planning
2005
This chapter presents an innovative approach for assisting entrepreneurs in making long term capacity decisions in Advanced Manufacturing Systems (AMSs). AMSs require high investment costs in manufacturing equipment, human resources and technology knowledge. Such high investments together with the wideness and the variability of the competition scenario contribute to increase the perception of the risk for industrial entrepreneurs especially in SMEs. This problem could be approached by providing the entrepreneur with a Decision Support System (DSS) able to assist her/him in making long term capacity decision in AMS. The DSS proposed in this chapter allows the entrepreneur to plan its produc…
A Predictive Approach for the Efficient Distribution of Agent-Based Systems on a Hybrid-Cloud
2018
International audience; Hybrid clouds are increasingly used to outsource non-critical applications to public clouds. However, the main challenge within such environments, is to ensure a cost-efficient distribution of the systems between the resources that are on/off premises. For Multi Agent Systems (MAS), this challenge is deepened due to irregular workload progress and intensive communication between the agents, which may result in high computing and data transfer costs. Thus, in this paper we propose a generic framework for adaptive cost-efficient deployment of MAS with a special focus on hybrid clouds. The framework is based mainly on the use of a performance evaluation process that con…
Vietnam as an emerging destination for offshore outsourcing of software development for finnish companies: A conceptual perspective
2009
Companies are constantly under pressure to produce software products more efficiently and within tight budgets. Offshore outsourcing has been seen as one solution to the dilemma, and lucrative outsourcing businesses have evolved in many countries, such as India, China and Russia. Vietnam is now emerging within this global outsourcing sector. This study investigates Vietnam as an offshore outsourcing destination for Finnish companies for developing their software products and related services. The research was undertaken by reviewing the literature of a) offshore outsourcing, b) offshore software production, c) information technology industry in developing countries, especially in Vietnam an…
Workshop on Global Outsourcing of Software Development
2010
Global outsourcing is a pertinent issue in today’s business world. Increasingly, software and non-software organizations from private and public sectors are attempting to develop some or all of their software through global outsourcing in order to enhance innovation, reduce development time and cost, improve quality and productivity, adapt to changing global economic and market conditions, to name a few. Global outsourcing is composed of near shore outsourcing (the software development work is done by the service provider in a nearby country) and offshore outsourcing (the development work is done in a very far away country). Global outsourcing is gaining significant importance, as it can pr…
Internal Public Audit in the Financial Crisis Context
2013
Abstract The financial crisis effects have left their mark on the area of internal audit, but the attention on the responsibility that internal auditors could have in preventing the onset of such a crisis is quite low. Audit plays a vital role in the entities functioning by contributing to economic credibility. In this paper we have presented the role and objectives of internal audit, the organization and activity of internal audit in local government in Romania, the outsourced system and how it helped in preventing and/or managing the economic downturn.
Shaping inter-firm collaboration in new product development in the automobile industry: A trade-off between a transaction and relational-based approa…
2008
Abstract Shaping collaboration in the new product development (NPD) has always been a very difficult task, especially in complex industries like the automobile one. This complexity is particularly true during the engineering phase of the NPD process, where different complex systems are to be designed in a collaborative way. Basically, two-kind of approaches have been observed in the literature and industry: one is more related to market transactions, specifically the west car-company style, the other is more relational based, as in the Japanese car-company style. Now, the increasing globalisation of the industry asks for a merge of the two approaches; indeed, the increasing use of standard …
Fine slicing of the value chain and offshoring of essential activities: empirical evidence from European multinationals
2014
The offshoring of more advanced activities is increasing and a debate about the limits of offshoring has emerged. Companies are fine-slicing their value chains, and moving beyond the offshoring of peripheral and non-core activities to the offshoring of advanced and essential activities that are closer to their core (e.g. research, design and product development). The challenge is to understand the limits of offshoring and the most appropriate modes of offshoring. The purpose of this paper is to analyze what activities are offshorable and how best to govern offshored activities. We argue that companies are redefining their core activities and in this process, some essential activities previo…
Linking design management skills and design function organization: An empirical study of Spanish and Italian ceramic tile producers
2007
Abstract Design management is an increasingly important concept, research into which is very scarce. This paper deals with the fit between design management skills and design function organization, ranging from solely in-house to solely outsourced and including a mixture of the two. We carried out a survey in the Spanish and Italian ceramic tile industry, to which 177 product development managers responded. Our results revealed that companies have different degrees of design management skills depending on the approach to design function organization. Solely in-house design approach companies are the most skilled firms and solely outsourced ones are the least skilled. Despite the fact that t…
Socio-technical Congruence Sabotaged by a Hidden Onshore Outsourcing Relationship: Lessons Learned from an Empirical Study
2012
Despite the popularity of outsourcing arrangements, distributed software development is still regarded as a complex endeavor. Complexity primarily comes from the challenges in communication and coordination among participating organizations. In this paper we discuss lessons learned from participatory research carried out in a highly distributed onshore outsourcing project. Previous research established that socio-technical congruence principles alleviate distributed work. In practice we have found that alignment between the systems structure and organizational structure can be studied from different abstraction levels and also during different phases of project lifecycle. We have found that…