After examining past studies, I picked out the factors that I consider to be most relevant and most determining, and I propose five hypotheses.
H1: Business cost structure is positively correlated with the company’s propensity to outsource its information system.
Business cost structure refers to all the costs directly associated with the actual production and management of the company 's production line. Business cost structure is an important factor of an organization’s profitability; therefore, it is a significant determinant of business competence. Companies seek to produce output below the average cost in order to increase profit margin. In a competitive market, companies are constantly under a lot of pressure (Loh &
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Most of the prior studies support that the firm size is positively correlated with the probability of outsourcing, and the direct reason is product diversity. One study shows that the relationship is reversed for very large companies. In the study, very large companies are defined as companies with $50 million or more of revenue in a fiscal year. The study shows that there seems to be a positive relationship between the number of products and in-house data processing within very large companies. One of explanation for this is that large companies consider their data processing a strategic issue, which they are not willing to be outsourced. They also have the capability of performing it themselves because they have sufficient scale.
However, in the book Information System Outsourcing, the author found that smaller firms are more likely to outsource. Even the author used sample from a single industry, I think this is a valid perspective. Like I mentioned before, outsourcing may be particularly beneficial to small businesses, which may not be able to afford IT experts or the development of in-house expertise. When such tasks are outsourced, the small business gains access to new technology, which makes it possible for them to compete with larger companies (Ono & Stango, 2005).
Company size can be measured by number of employees or revenue. For the purpose of this paper, I select number
Because many businesses in the US have more often began outsourcing different business products instead of doing them in-house, it is important to understand why outsourcing may be the best option. Although many tie outsourcing to foreign markets, outsourcing can include both foreign and domestic markets. By entering into a contractual agreement, outsourcing allows organizations to pay for services they need. This gives the option for a business to get professionals to perform services for them that the business may not have the staff for. Outsourcing provides a cost saving-strategy that is usually more affordable. Ultimately,
Therefore, manufacturers face a trade-off between gain from the efficient technology and loss from paying the information rent. When a firm decides on in-house production instead of outsourcing, although a manufacturer can obtain the entire profit, it loses the gain from the cost efficiency of outsourcing. When outsourcing is selected, although a manufacturer can acquire the gain from cost efficiency, it is required to share the gain with the outsourcer.
Companies are increasingly outsourcing the management of information technology (IT) for reasons that include concern for cost and quality, lagging IT performance, supplier pressure, access to special technical and application skills, and other financial factors. The outsourcing solution is acceptable to large and small firms alike because strategic alliances are now more common and the IT environment is changing rapidly.
Cost has traditionally being a major influence on all business as all businesses desire to achieve maximum efficiency as it is a vital factor for businesses in order to reach the ultimate goal and success. Businesses sees cost as the key value to success and aims to become as much cost efficient as possible, by implementing a cost-leadership style approach to the operations variable cost or fixed cost ,while maintain the expected profit margin, business is able to gain a competitive advantage over their competitors in their target market. This is called cost-based competition. By determining the break-even point and applying cost saving strategies, to reducing cost, businesses who apply cost-based competition in their operations is able to maximize the profits and lead business to success.
Summary: The above article talks about how IT outsourcing is the most cost-effective way for companies to hire qualified individuals for specific jobs without having to commit to the significant cost or maintaining a year round in house team. IT outsourcing is
Companies that decide to outsource do so for a number of reasons. The primary reason is to achieve cost savings or better cost control over the outsourced function. Companies usually outsource to a vendor that specializes in a given function more efficiently than
Cost allocation is a very crucial procedure for many companies- not just production companies, but also in companies that provide service. Cost allocation has one purpose and that is to enable the determination of the cost of a product per unit in production companies and the cost of a provided service in service companies. Therefore, methods for cost allocation directly affect the service or product profitability assessment and at the same time sway segment and company profitability. The main problem is the choice of the cost allocation accounting approach. There are certain methods for cost allocation that do not apply the same to every company. If the method for
The vendors are investing in their employees by various training programs on different technologies. This gives a chance for the vendor to provide the outsourcing services to a company with the help of the well trained employees who are ready to work on the projects. Before outsourcing some of its products and services to a third part vendor, the company has to analyze all the factors that might result from the outsourcing decision, the advantages and disadvantages of the company both in short term and long term due to outsourcing. According to Aubuchon, outsourcing some of its products can be a good thing for a company and the judgment to outsource the services must not only based on the cost factor, but the company has to take all other significant factors into consideration (Aubuchon, 2014).
3. Industry Cost Structure Based on an analysis of the industry and a review of the financial statements of the key companies competing in it, the following cost structure analysis has been created. The Financial Services Cost Structure Analysis is shown in Figure 1.
Office Supply Incorporated (OSI) is a company in crisis, with challenges in its cost structure and poor IT performance. Outsourcing to Technology Infrastructure Solutions (TIS) is an opportunity to both reduce costs and complexity for the firm, but first must consider whether outsourcing is a good strategic fit for OSI. Outsourcing is known as the practice of turning over responsibility of some or all of organizations information systems to a foreign firm in order to stay competitive. Outsourcing is not new to the business world, as it dominated the manufacturing sector the past couple of decades. There are various advantages and disadvantages. Advantages include lower costs, better quality, and downsizing to focus on the
Scalability or flexibility: Outsourcing means that a company can stay lean and mean, which makes it easier to adapt to change. For example, companies don't have to invest a bunch of money and resources into a new plant and equipment that may become obsolete quickly. Instead, they can pass that risk off to the outsourcing
Outsourcing refers to hiring an outside, independent firm to perform a business function that internal employees might otherwise perform. Many organizations outsource jobs to specialized service companies, which frequently operate abroad. The outsourcing trend stands to continue; the latest wave of outsourcing impacts the information technology field. IT outsourcing includes data center operations, desktop and help desk support, software development, e-commerce outsourcing, software applications services, network operations and disaster recovery.2
Cost structure refers to the expenses that a company must be prepared to pay when manufacturing a product or providing a service. (MBA&Company, 2015) Differentiation in business means making the business or brand stand out by offering unique features, benefits, or services . This strategy means identifying the most important criteria used by buyers in the market and then designing product, service or other offerings in a way that best meets those criteria. (Chron Small Business, 2015) In other words, in order for a business to be successful, a company or an organization must consider using one or both competitive advantages for that company to enjoy the highest level of profitability within their industry.
Because of the important relationship between insourcing/outsourcing and competitiveness, organizations must consider many variables when considering an insourcing/outsourcing decision. This may include a detailed examination of a firm’s competency and costs, along with quality, delivery, technology, responsiveness, and continuous improvement requirements. Because of
As mentioned before, the business environment now is more and more globalization and more and more competitive. Company pursues more profit, so they must control their cost. They also do just-in-time (JIT) to achieve minimum inventory. They want to get more competitive advantages and better quality. And the technology is developing very quickly, it will cost a lot of money for company to change their technology. All of these pressures forcing company to use outsourcing.