Business Information Management Strategy for the RBS Computer Failure

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

Part 1: Search the internet for the term "IT outsourcing". Find at least two articles that discuss outsourcing, whether beneficial or controversial. Summarize the articles and answer the following questions in a two to three page paper:

The only means for the IT companies to maintain business and to have minimal losses was to transfer their services overseas to India. Nonetheless, many of the people who had lost their IT jobs saw this as a disadvantage since they were the ones who had to either find another job that matched their skills or had to obtain new skills. Along with this, they, along with the majority of the workforce, saw outsourcing as something harmful to the American economy and that it caused increase in cost (Easterls, 166). These outlooks are not necessarily true, however.

In 1973, a monumental shift was prevailing where U.S. companies were sending low skilled jobs within the manufacturing industry to offshore countries to reduce labor cost while maximizing profits. The effect of the jobless manufacturing work force was a shift of those laborers to focus on and perfect the service industry of what it is today (Koch 1). During the high tech recessions of the late 1990s and a nominal expansion of the present time, the Information Technology industry, an industry which through continuous innovations enabled the companies and corporations of America to become more efficient and productive, is also facing the outsourcing similarity with manufacturing. While outsourcing

Competitive advantage is explained by Mahoney and Pandian (1992) as the function of industry analysis, organizational governance and the firm’s effects in the form of resource advantages and strategies. In order for a firm to be competitive it must adapt to the volatile business environment and through strategic management decisions establish a competitive advantage that will ultimately produce superior performance relative to its competitors (Akimova 2000).

Such is the change that is difficult for all entities to keep up with it - even for Tech companies is a heavy burden that limits and endanger their growth. This raises the question, “does our business needs to have in-house IT infrastructure or can be outsourced?”

The wrong IT can lock you into yesterday's practices, in effect 'fossilizing' your business. Many companies outsource in order to open up their IT to new levels of flexibility and adaptiveness. At Cap Gemini Ernst & Young, our global experience spanning all significant technologies and all business sectors empowers us to match your IT support to your ongoing business needs, however far and fast they might evolve.

Because of the rising cost of information systems functions in some firms, managers are finding ways on how to control these costs and are considering Information Technology as a capital expenditures/investments rather than as an operating cost of the firm. Controlling these costs by outsourcing are one of the options because some firms considered this option as cost effective than to maintain their own computer centre and information systems staff. Another concept of outsourcing IT systems is, to pay only for what it uses meaning the company will pay only the outsourcing partner according to the extent of computer processing that they needed rather than to build their own computer centre and not utilized or it is underutilized when there is no peak load. Some firms also outsourced because their information systems personnel can’t cope up with the rapid change of technology. But not all firms may have benefited from outsourcing, there are also disadvantages of outsourcing that a firm must carefully consider which may or can create serious problems for the company if they are not well understood, managed and taken for granted. Below are some of the most popular advantages and disadvantages of Computer Information Systems and Hardware

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

Also, in this paper, I will elaborate on a risk mitigation strategy. Outsourcing has risks and the information security team should ensure that the disaster recovery requirements of the outsourcing contract are sufficient and have been

Outsourcing IT services causes organizational risks that services recipients must have pay serious attention to. About a decade ago, very few companies had any experience with the contracting process. Much experienced has been gained outsourcing non-core process such as catering, security, logistics and treasury and archive services. in fact, many companies now have experienced with IT outsourcing itself, since they have contracted out their IT services before sometimes even to several consecutive suppliers.

A typical example would be the evolution of ERP function to improve financial reporting and transaction processing. Organizations have accepted this IT solution because it helps strengthen several business processes and provide opportunities for growth. However, implementing ERP solutions are somewhat demanding and time consuming, implementation may take several months before completion. Although outsourcing may pose as a best risk-mitigation approach to business solutions, there are also many challenges associated with outsourcing IT solutions. It is critical that before organizations make decisions on whether to outsource a section of their business, they understand the implications such as risks and benefits before going into contracts. The purpose of this paper is to describe outsourcing as it relates to IT solutions. Following the research questions, a background that discusses outsourcing is presented which addresses reasons for outsourcing IT solutions, benefits involved in outsourcing, risks involved in outsourcing IT projects and best practices of outsourcing ERP solutions. Also, a section of this paper discusses outsourcing as it relates to enterprise resource planning (ERP), this is because ERP is considered a big player in IT solutions provision, which have been adopted and implemented in their various IT infrastructure.

Competitive advantage is viewed as a explanation of a firm success and long-term survival. With knowing the firm and competitiors, competitive advantage can be established by delivering more value to the customers in a more efficient manner (Day and Wensley 1988; Porter 1985). However, to a competitive advantage, the firm should focusing on the customers needs instead of their internal operations (Czepiel 1992; Zeithaml 1988).

Competitive advantage is defined as a condition where a company is in a favorable position in order for it to be more profitable than its competitors. This can be done by selling the same goods as its competitors at a lower price or providing goods that give a greater value, which mean a high-quality product through differentiation (Business Dictionary, 2015). Every company needs to identify its competitive advantages in order for an organisation to be able to gain profit and to continue the business for a foreseeable future. Information systems (IS) have played an important role in helping organisations to achieve their objective and goals. Kroenke and Hooper (2013) suggested that, by recognizing the competitive strategy, it can determine the structure,

The challenges for outsourcing are many as there are two different companies working together. The risk of something going wrong is based on whether the communication between the two is good. Communication is the most important part of the cooperation between the two companies.