TY - CHAP A1 - Strasser, Artur A1 - Westner, Markus T1 - Knowledge Transfer in IS Offshoring BT - Processes, Roles, and Success Factors T2 - Proceedings of the 19th Pacific Asia Conference on Information Systems (PACIS 2015) Singapore, July 5-9 N2 - IS offshoring research regarding knowledge transfer processes, roles involved, as well as influencing factors is characterized by its diverse and heterogeneous nature. Covering the last fifteen years of IS offshoring research, this paper provides a consolidated view of the field of study. It presents a generic knowledge transfer process consisting of four stages and five milestones. These stages are characterized and evaluated according to their relevance for knowledge transfer, the types of knowledge transferred, the main activities and methods for transfer and testing, as well as the goals pursued. Furthermore, we aggregate the diverse literature findings relating to individuals who facilitate knowledge transfer processes into a general role. We label this role “offshore coordinator” and present its core tasks and necessary skills. In addition, we identify and cluster core factors that influence success or failure of knowledge transfer. In summary, our study answers calls to discontinue with empirically derived definitions in favor of theory-based conceptualization of the IS offshoring research field with respect to knowledge transfer processes, roles, and success factors. Future studies can build on these results and examine questions with respect to particular characteristics of knowledge transfer processes and their influencing success and failure factors. KW - Offshoring KW - Knowledge transfer KW - Knowledge management KW - Information systems KW - Betriebliches Informationssystem KW - Offshoring KW - Wissensmanagement Y1 - 2015 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:898-opus4-835 UR - https://aisel.aisnet.org/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1046&context=pacis2015 SP - 1 EP - 15 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Strasser, Artur A1 - Westner, Markus T1 - Information systems offshoring BT - Results of a systematic literature review JF - Journal of Information Technology Management N2 - An increasing amount of IS offshoring research has been published during the last four years. This paper presents a comprehensive view of the field of study from a managerial point of view. It provides a consolidated view of the field of study between 2010 and 2013 based on a manual search comprising 69 selected journals and 9 conferences, as well as a search using 6 journal databases. The literature review ensures continuity of research by connecting to a comprehensive literature analysis covering the years 1999 to 2009. This way it consolidates and critically reflects the state of the research of the last 14 years. Overall, we compiled 95 relevant publications originating from leading IS journals and IS conference proceedings. The results indicate that IS offshoring research is largely non-theory based, using almost entirely empirical data and interpretive research methods and -to a smaller extent -positivist research designs. The ISO research of the last 14 years focuses on the implementation stages "how" and "outcome" while the pre-implementation-stages “why”, “what”, and “which” are comparatively sparsely researched. Future studies should apply a more theory-driven approach with a greater attention on pre-implementation aspects of information systems offshoring. In addition, future research should investigate the special nature of near- and onshoring, captive offshoring as well asagile (project) management techniques suitable for ISO. KW - Betriebliches Informationssystem KW - Offshoring KW - Literaturbericht KW - Offshoring KW - Nearshoring KW - Information systems KW - Information technology KW - Literature review Y1 - 2015 UR - http://jitm.ubalt.edu/XXVI-2/article5.pdf VL - 26 IS - 2 SP - 70 EP - 142 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Bary, Benedikt von A1 - Westner, Markus T1 - Information Systems Backsourcing BT - A Literature Review JF - Journal of Information Technology Management N2 - Information systems backsourcing describes the transferof previously outsourced activities, assets, or personnel back to the originating companyto regain ownership and control. While there is much research on information systems outsourcing, the topic of backsourcing information systemsis still an emerging research area. Therefore, ourpaper aims to explore and synthesizethe existing literature on information systemsbacksourcing, since there is no exhaustiveliteraturereview of the state of the research to our knowledge available yet. In this paper, wecreate a framework to structure the existing research along the overallbacksourcing process. We identifydifferent motivators, such asexpectation gaps, orinternal and external organizational changes, leading towards a backsourcing decision, and factors positively or negatively influencing this decision. Additionally, we derive implementation success factors based on the existing literature to guide companies through the backsourcing process.We also differentiate the term backsourcing from related, sometimes synonymously used terms, by emphasizing the change of ownership back to the company of originas the main criterion.Additionally, we discuss opportunities for future research in the field of information systems backsourcing. KW - Betriebliches Informationssystem KW - Insourcing KW - Literaturbericht KW - Backsourcing KW - Backshoring KW - Reshoring KW - Inshoring KW - Information systems KW - Information technology KW - Literature review Y1 - 2018 UR - http://jitm.ubalt.edu/XXIX-1/article4.pdf VL - 29 IS - 1 SP - 62 EP - 78 PB - University of Tehran ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Westner, Markus A1 - Strahringer, Susanne T1 - Evaluation criteria for selecting offshoring candidates BT - An analysis of practices in German businesses JF - Journal of Information Technology Management N2 - The identification of suitable applications or projects is a main initial step in any software development or maintenance related IS offshoring arrangement. This paper examines evaluation criteria and their importance for selecting application or project candidates for offshoring. Based on a literature analysis and interviews with 47 experts from 36 different German companies describing 64 case examples, we find that in contrast to the literature, “size”, “codification”, and “language” are perceived as important selection criteria by experts. Case examples additionally show that “business specificity” seems to be a main reason for application or project failures, that “business criticality” appears to be less important than suggested by the literature, and that adequate “size” might be a necessary prerequisite, but seems not to be a sufficient criterion for an application’s or project’s suitability for offshoring. These differences in comparison to findings from the literature may be explained by cultural and language differences. KW - Offshoring KW - Nearshoring KW - Outsourcing KW - What to offshore KW - Selection criteria KW - Information systems KW - Betriebliches Informationssystem KW - Offshoring KW - Projekt KW - Evaluation Y1 - 2008 UR - http://jitm.ubalt.edu/XIX-4/article2.pdf VL - 19 IS - 4 SP - 16 EP - 34 ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Bary, Benedikt von A1 - Westner, Markus A1 - Strahringer, Susanne T1 - Do researchers investigate what practitioners deem relevant? BT - Gaps between research and practice in the field of information systems backsourcing T2 - Proceedings of the 20th IEEE International Conference on Business Informatics (IEEE CBI 2018): Vienna, Austria, 11-14 July N2 - There is a common understanding amongst academics that information systems (IS) research sometimes has limited relevance for practitioners. This can be explained by the fact that research lags behind the fast moving IS environment, has limited practical applicability and is hard to access. We have focused on the research area of IS backsourcing, and analyzed practitioner literature to increase our understanding of topics of interest for practitioners, to determine a potential gap between academic and practitioner literature, and to identify future research directions in this field. We observed that most publications are either news or background articles, focusing on describing backsourcing cases. Additionally, we identified four recurring themes, namely reasons for backsourcing, presentation of survey results, discussion of industry trends, and backsourcing success stories. The main reasons identified to trigger backsourcing decisions are cost savings, quality improvements, and increasing control and flexibility. By comparing our findings with academic literature on IS backsourcing, we conclude that generally both literature types cover similar topics. However, researchers have a more formulative or interpretive focus than the often descriptive practitioner literature. Academic literature also examines a broader range of topics, while practitioner literature has a narrower focus. Additionally, we observe one difference regarding applied terminology: while researchers employ the term backsourcing, practitioners mostly use back in-house or insourcing. Our paper contributes to facilitating the exchange between academics and practitioners, presents topics to consider when aiming to increase practical relevance and provides researchers with concrete directions for future research within the field of IS backsourcing. KW - Betriebliches Informationssystem KW - Backsourcing KW - Anwendung KW - Literaturbericht KW - Information systems KW - Backsourcing KW - Practical applicability Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1109/CBI.2018.00014 SP - 40 EP - 49 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Strahringer, Susanne A1 - Westner, Markus A1 - Bary, Benedikt von T1 - IT-Backsourcing JF - Das Wirtschaftsstudium : wisu N2 - The importance of information systems (IS) for companies has grown rapidly over the recent years. For example, companies from various industries are focusing their efforts to digitize business models, to adopt agile forms of collaboration, and to leverage automation of routine tasks. This forces companies to review their IS sourcing strategies and to potentially consider alternatives for current outsourcing contracts. One potential option could be to backsource IS services currently performed by external vendors. Based on empirical observations, previous academics defined it as the repatriation of all assets, activities, and skills needed to perform IS services back in-house, which had been outsourced previously to one or multiple vendors. The distinctive characteristic of backsourcing is the change in ownership back to the mother organization. This distinguishes the term backsourcing from similar terms, e.g., backshoring, reshoring, or relocating, which rather focus on the change in location of the service delivery. At the initial sourcing decision, the strategy to outsource an IS service was considered most promising. However, certain developments both inside the company, but also on a broader industry level may lead to a re-evaluation of the situation and thus to an adjustment of the original sourcing strategy. Over the last years, there has been a strong increase in cloud-based services and a shift towards the deployment of standardized, almost “industrialized” applications as services. Before, large companies leveraged their size in realizing economies of scale within their sourcing volumes. The raise of cloud computing as well as standardization of service delivery decreased those benefits and led towards a decline in large outsourcing contracts across a variety of services and a growth of multi-sourcing of individual IS services from the respective “best-in-breed” vendors for shorter time periods. Besides sourcing the best vendor for each service, companies that implement multi-sourcing strategies additionally aim for cost benefits due to an increased competition between vendors, and an increase in agility and adaptability. At the same time, a move towards multi-sourcing strategies with shorter contract durations leads to an increase in so-called “second generation sourcing decisions”, namely whether to continue outsourcing a respective service or to bring the service back in-house. Given the developments within the IS environment, this research projects aims at understanding why IS services are backsourced and which factors influence a company’s decision to backsource an IS service. KW - Betriebliches Informationssystem KW - Insourcing KW - IT-Backsourcing KW - Information systems KW - Outsourcing KW - Rückverlagerung KW - Auslagerung Y1 - 2019 IS - 6 SP - 702 EP - 706 PB - Lange ; Mohr CY - Düsseldorf ; Tübingen ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Kobus, Jörn A1 - Westner, Markus T1 - Lean Management of IT Organizations BT - A Literature Review T2 - Proceedings of the 19th Pacific Asia Conference in Information Systems (PACIS 2015), Singapore, Jul 5-9 N2 - Lean Management has been successfully applied by companies around the world, mainly in production/manufacturing functions. Recently, the interest to investigate a wider application of Lean Management especially in service functions increased. However, it is not clear how Lean Management can be applied to IT organizations. Therefore, this study aims to provide an overview on common characteristics and future research directions. A literature review on existing scholarly research from January 2004 to June 2014 is conducted. Using a database-driven search approach, a total of 1,206 research contributions are found of which 49 were identified as relevant. Results indicate a low theory grounding of mostly formulative and interpretative research items. This implies that research on Lean Management of IT organizations is still at its nascent state. Content-wise, five research themes emerge. The majority of research investigates IT organizations in a role to support Lean Management in production/manufacturing functions (determining “what to work on”), therefore more research on how Lean Management can be applied to IT organizations themselves (determining “how to work”) could be beneficial. Future research could also try to build on Change Management theories, as the implementation of Lean Management is of transformational character. KW - Lean Management KW - Lean IT KW - Information technology KW - Information systems KW - Lean knowledge work KW - Lean services KW - Application development KW - Application maintenance KW - Infrastructure services KW - Lean Management KW - Informationstechnik Y1 - 2015 UR - https://aisel.aisnet.org/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1084&context=pacis2015 ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Kobus, Jörn A1 - Westner, Markus T1 - Lean Management of IT Organizations BT - Implementation Success Factors and Theoretical Foundation T2 - Proceedings of the 21th Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS 2015), Puerto Rico, August 13-15 N2 - Lean Management has been successfully applied in production/manufacturing functions since more than four decades. Recently, the interest to investigate Lean Management also in service functions increased. Therefore, this study aims to (1) Consolidate critical success factors (CSFs) for the implementation of Lean Management of IT organizations; and (2) Describe a theoretical foundation for these CSFs. With respect to (1) a database-driven search was conducted. CSFs then were extracted and categorized. In total 13 CSF groups were assigned to three dimensions: Mindset and behavior; Organization and skills; and Process facilitation and performance management. To understand underlying mechanisms better, and with respect to (2) we related existing (IS) theory to identified groups of CSFs. Especially, five theoretical concepts are discussed: Absorptive capacity, Agency theory, Cognitive dissonance, Dynamic capabilities, and System dynamics. Future research needs to validate the results of (1) and (2) empirically in IT functions. KW - Lean Management KW - Lean IT KW - Information technology KW - Information systems KW - critical success factors KW - Lean knowledge work KW - Lean services KW - Application development KW - Application maintenance KW - Infrastructure services KW - Lean Management KW - Informationstechnik KW - Erfolgsfaktor Y1 - 2015 UR - https://aisel.aisnet.org/amcis2015/StrategicUse/GeneralPresentations/3/ SP - 1 EP - 17 ER -