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Building Successful Information Systems: Five Best Practices to Ensure Organizational Effectiveness and Profitability is a 10-chapter book published by the Business Expert Press in 2012 and written by Michael J. Savoie, the Director of the Center for Information Technology and Management in the Naveen Jindal School of Management at the University of Texas, Dallas. To optimize the use of computer systems for management purposes, the author advises managers to first understand their own business processes and information flows - then the company can apply the author's model, the "five rights of data," to build an effective system: the right data, in the right place, at the right time, reaching the right person, in the right format. By creating a strong system aligned with a company's specific information flow, managers can use information systems to support competitive strategy. The author illustrates this process through real-world examples and provides practical tools for corporate leaders. In Chapter 1, Where Do We Start? (10 pages), the author describes the computer as one component of an information system that should also include tools, methodologies, processes, and people. He argues that many companies run into problems when they rely on their computers as the center of the system and forget the importance of employee interaction. For example, a computer cannot determine if the data it is given is correct and up-to-date. Many companies also believe that automating a system will automatically solve their problems. The author states that managers must start with an understanding of the problem and evaluate the possible solutions before using computer-based resources to enhance the chosen solution. The author presents an illustrative example of how a faulty inventory control system caused problems for a company.

Building Successful Information Systems: Five Best Practices to Ensure Organizational Effectiveness and Profitability is a 10-chapter book published by the Business Expert Press in 2012 and written by Michael J. Savoie, the Director of the Center for Information Technology and Management in the Naveen Jindal School of Management at the University of Texas, Dallas. To optimize the use of computer systems for management purposes, the author advises managers to first understand their own business processes and information flows - then the company can apply the author's model, the "five rights of data," to build an effective system: the right data, in the right place, at the right time, reaching the right person, in the right format. By creating a strong system aligned with a company's specific information flow, managers can use information systems to support competitive strategy. The author illustrates this process through real-world examples and provides practical tools for corporate leaders. In Chapter 2, The Information Ladder (8 pages), the author focuses on decision-making and human interaction. He outlines four levels of information to demonstrate where employees fit into the system. While computers work at the first two levels: data (simple facts) and information (data organized with a shared meaning), the two higher levels on the ladder, knowledge and wisdom, require employee interaction. Knowledge, the author says, involves acting on information and wisdom involves experience based on that action.

Building Successful Information Systems: Five Best Practices to Ensure Organizational Effectiveness and Profitability is a 10-chapter book published by the Business Expert Press in 2012 and written by Michael J. Savoie, the Director of the Center for Information Technology and Management in the Naveen Jindal School of Management at the University of Texas, Dallas. To optimize the use of computer systems for management purposes, the author advises managers to first understand their own business processes and information flows - then the company can apply the author's model, the "five rights of data," to build an effective system: the right data, in the right place, at the right time, reaching the right person, in the right format. By creating a strong system aligned with a company's specific information flow, managers can use information systems to support competitive strategy. The author illustrates this process through real-world examples and provides practical tools for corporate leaders. Chapter 3, What Constitutes the Right Data? (10 pages), takes a closer look at the first step in the model of "data rights," getting the right data. Instead of trying to capture all imaginable data ("big data"), businesses need to be smart about identifying what data will actually help them achieve their strategic goals. Managers can begin to determine how to access the right data by creating a map to document how information flows in an organization, which will show any breakdowns that currently require human "workarounds." He provides a real-world example of a company whose information map exposed an inefficient system.

Building Successful Information Systems: Five Best Practices to Ensure Organizational Effectiveness and Profitability is a 10-chapter book published by the Business Expert Press in 2012 and written by Michael J. Savoie, the Director of the Center for Information Technology and Management in the Naveen Jindal School of Management at the University of Texas, Dallas. To optimize the use of computer systems for management purposes, the author advises managers to first understand their own business processes and information flows - then the company can apply the author's model, the "five rights of data," to build an effective system: the right data, in the right place, at the right time, reaching the right person, in the right format. By creating a strong system aligned with a company's specific information flow, managers can use information systems to support competitive strategy. The author illustrates this process through real-world examples and provides practical tools for corporate leaders. Chapter 4, How Do We Get Information to the Right Place? (4 pages), presents the second step of the model and outlines problems inherent in providing "24/7" data access. The author highlights significant security concerns, and suggests that a company evaluate its business to determine how essential constant data access is to their operation. A company should consider the sensitivity of the data and the need for verification before disseminating it, as well as setting an appropriate timeframe for employees to use the information. For example, will up-to-the minute information benefit a sales force? Is there an "off-hours" period of time when access is not utilized? Savoie proposes a four-tiered ranking system to help managers decide how to disseminate their information.

Building Successful Information Systems: Five Best Practices to Ensure Organizational Effectiveness and Profitability is a 10-chapter book published by the Business Expert Press in 2012 and written by Michael J. Savoie, the Director of the Center for Information Technology and Management in the Naveen Jindal School of Management at the University of Texas, Dallas. To optimize the use of computer systems for management purposes, the author advises managers to first understand their own business processes and information flows - then the company can apply the author's model, the "five rights of data," to build an effective system: the right data, in the right place, at the right time, reaching the right person, in the right format. By creating a strong system aligned with a company's specific information flow, managers can use information systems to support competitive strategy. The author illustrates this process through real-world examples and provides practical tools for corporate leaders. In Chapter 5, When Is the Right Time? (8 pages), the author explores the third step in his model, the timing of data delivery. While constant and immediate information access is common in today's business environment, it is also expensive, more vulnerable to security breaches, and risks information overload for employees. The author posits that a good information system should provide information as quickly as needed while allowing for system maintenance and data validation. Therefore, some companies may rightly decide not to provide "24/7" access. As the timeliness of data increases, so do the costs associated with data delivery, namely the information infrastructure required to enable faster data transfer and processing and the verification process to ensure accuracy.

Building Successful Information Systems: Five Best Practices to Ensure Organizational Effectiveness and Profitability is a 10-chapter book published by the Business Expert Press in 2012 and written by Michael J. Savoie, the Director of the Center for Information Technology and Management in the Naveen Jindal School of Management at the University of Texas, Dallas. To optimize the use of computer systems for management purposes, the author advises managers to first understand their own business processes and information flows - then the company can apply the author's model, the "five rights of data," to build an effective system: the right data, in the right place, at the right time, reaching the right person, in the right format. By creating a strong system aligned with a company's specific information flow, managers can use information systems to support competitive strategy. The author illustrates this process through real-world examples and provides practical tools for corporate leaders. Chapter 6, How Do We Identify the Right Person? (10 pages), addresses the issue of employee access to data, which is the fourth step in the model. The author discusses the inefficiencies and dangers a company faces when employees have access to data that is either irrelevant or not warranted by their positions. He presents a real-world example of how a CEO's inappropriate remark was leaked via social media when access to his account was inadvertently shared. Savoie recommends that a company avoid these risks by identifying the difference between what it thinks its information system is doing and what the system is actually doing. He demonstrates how to perform this analysis by comparing and analyzing the "rules" (what positions should have access to what information) and the "reality" (which employees actually have access to what information).

Building Successful Information Systems: Five Best Practices to Ensure Organizational Effectiveness and Profitability is a 10-chapter book published by the Business Expert Press in 2012 and written by Michael J. Savoie, the Director of the Center for Information Technology and Management in the Naveen Jindal School of Management at the University of Texas, Dallas. To optimize the use of computer systems for management purposes, the author advises managers to first understand their own business processes and information flows - then the company can apply the author's model, the "five rights of data," to build an effective system: the right data, in the right place, at the right time, reaching the right person, in the right format. By creating a strong system aligned with a company's specific information flow, managers can use information systems to support competitive strategy. The author illustrates this process through real-world examples and provides practical tools for corporate leaders. In Chapter 7, What Is the Right Format for the Information? (6 pages), the author looks at the fifth aspect of the model, which involves data presentation. He discusses the importance of knowing how the information consumer will receive and view the data, because different devices require different representation methods. Information that is easy to read on a large computer monitor may not be very usable on a smart phone, for example. The author also warns of overwhelming the user with too much information upfront and introduces the concept of a "dashboard" to summarize information at a high level while allowing the user to drill down to more data-heavy layers.

Building Successful Information Systems: Five Best Practices to Ensure Organizational Effectiveness and Profitability is a 10-chapter book published by the Business Expert Press in 2012 and written by Michael J. Savoie, the Director of the Center for Information Technology and Management in the Naveen Jindal School of Management at the University of Texas, Dallas. To optimize the use of computer systems for management purposes, the author advises managers to first understand their own business processes and information flows - then the company can apply the author's model, the "five rights of data," to build an effective system: the right data, in the right place, at the right time, reaching the right person, in the right format. By creating a strong system aligned with a company's specific information flow, managers can use information systems to support competitive strategy. The author illustrates this process through real-world examples and provides practical tools for corporate leaders. Chapter 8, Security (10 pages), explores the potential for cybercrime and how a company can protect against it. The author cites current research that shows how companies are not taking sufficient action to ensure data security. He describes the three most common causes of data exposure: negligence by a well-meaning insider, a targeted hack from an external source, and a data breech from a malicious insider. He provides seven practical steps that companies can take to prevent and mitigate the damage resulting from these data losses. Most important, says the author, is a change in mindset that provides for user access while employing newly emerging tools in the company's security platform.

Building Successful Information Systems: Five Best Practices to Ensure Organizational Effectiveness and Profitability is a 10-chapter book published by the Business Expert Press in 2012 and written by Michael J. Savoie, the Director of the Center for Information Technology and Management in the Naveen Jindal School of Management at the University of Texas, Dallas. To optimize the use of computer systems for management purposes, the author advises managers to first understand their own business processes and information flows - then the company can apply the author's model, the "five rights of data," to build an effective system: the right data, in the right place, at the right time, reaching the right person, in the right format. By creating a strong system aligned with a company's specific information flow, managers can use information systems to support competitive strategy. The author illustrates this process through real-world examples and provides practical tools for corporate leaders. In Chapter 9, Putting It All Together (10 pages), the author offers insight into how to approach the implementation of a new system given the fast pace of change in technology, market uncertainty, and customer expectations. The critical factor is for managers to design an information system that supports the overall business strategy rather than finding a new technology and making it fit into the current system. To start the design of an effective system, Savoie provides a set of five questions for managers to answer about their business. He then demonstrates how to create a model of the business, its processes, and the flow of information to highlight the issues a company should address. He also explains how to evaluate the success of a new information system by looking at key performance indicators in four areas: cost-benefit, productivity, morale, and profitability.

Building Successful Information Systems: Five Best Practices to Ensure Organizational Effectiveness and Profitability is a 10-chapter book published by the Business Expert Press in 2012 and written by Michael J. Savoie, the Director of the Center for Information Technology and Management in the Naveen Jindal School of Management at the University of Texas, Dallas. To optimize the use of computer systems for management purposes, the author advises managers to first understand their own business processes and information flows - then the company can apply the author's model, the "five rights of data," to build an effective system: the right data, in the right place, at the right time, reaching the right person, in the right format. By creating a strong system aligned with a company's specific information flow, managers can use information systems to support competitive strategy. The author illustrates this process through real-world examples and provides practical tools for corporate leaders. Chapter 10, Conclusion (6 pages), reviews the author's recommendations for designing an information systems that supports a company's competitive advantage. The author advises managers to focus on the business process at hand and view the technology as a tool for improvement. He poses three questions for managers to turn computer-based data into human-based wisdom by moving up the "information ladder." Finally, he provides a five-step "business process ladder" that outlines practical steps for managers to identify when and where changes in a company's information system would be beneficial.

Jim Bush, Executive Vice President of American Express (Amex) World Service, was confronted with a challenge in the mid 2000s: After working for Amex for 24 years, he began to worry that the company was focusing too much on cost reduction. Customer service was eroding as the company strove to stay competitive during hard economic times. In response, he led the organization in a large-scale reinvention of its customer service strategy with an initiative called Relationship Care. By empowering employees with technology and information, Amex greatly improved its customer service and profits. Moving forward, students must help Amex address the challenges of taking "Relationship Care" global.

Cell phones deliver an array of services--some for the first time--to India's vast population.

The call for new types of collaboration in outsourcing saw the development of the enterprise partnership model by Xchanging in 2001. The case looks at the history of one such partnership with BAE Systems. History shows why the model was attractive to BAE Systems against several other models. In Part 1 of the case, we look at and ask students to assess the in-house, fee-for-service outsourcing and management consultancy options for transforming HR through shared services. In Part 2, the case details the distinctive features of a joint-venture model that was eventually adopted and of the supplier competencies needed. We follow the relationship through the phases of preparation, realignment, streamlining, and continuous improvement, initially up to 2003. Students are asked to assess the model, progress, and what the future holds. In the third part of the case, we follow subsequent developments, including the change in the nature of outsourcing with BAE Systems from March 2007, the launch of Xchanging on the stock market in April 2007, its continued expansion, and its troubled history from 2010 to 2012. The case gives insight into the conduct of a distinctly different form of outsourcing, into how the client and the supplier deal with outsourcing over a number of years, and how a supplier navigates through a highly dynamic 21st century global environment while trying to expand its market services and revenue growth.

This case, GSB No. E-459, explores the SeaMicro CEO's decision of whether or not to sell the company in early 2012. SeaMicro, a developer of low-power servers, has risen quickly as an innovative and significant force in a server market dominated by giants, including HP and Dell. In the fall of 2011, the company is approached by AMD, the industry's second largest microprocessor manufacturer behind Intel. AMD has faced challenging times in the recent past and is looking to acquire SeaMicro as a way to reinvent itself and establish a leadership position in the rapidly growing cloud computing space. Andrew Feldman, SeaMicro's CEO, must consider the implications of his decision to sell in the context of a variety of factors including his fiduciary duty to his investors and employees, other strategic opportunities with the likes of Dell, Samsung and ARM, and his own future.

J-TRADING is a US-based arm of a Japanese keiretsu that is focused on commodity trading between the East and North America counting about 350 employees in the US. It has experienced problems with its information technology (IT) infrastructure and help-desk functions. IT employees were not motivated to work on these rather mundane tasks leading to quality and cost issues. J-TRADING CIO decided to solve the problem by outsourcing both functions. The case relays J-TRADING's outsourcing journey through its ups and downs discussing the process of vendor evaluation and selection, task transition, relationship management, and business outcomes. The case provides full financial details necessary for financial analysis and asks students to evaluate the sourcing decision itself as well as vendor selection and governance processes. It also asks students to elaborate on alternative sourcing approaches such as offshoring and cloud-based solutions.

Beyondsoft, a leading software outsourcing enterprises in China, began to make preparations for its overseas listing in 2004, including establishing a red-chip structure needed by overseas listing and introducing overseas institutional investors. However, a global financial crisis broke out when Beyondsoft was going to submit its listing application to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in 2007. As a result, Beyondsoft had no choice but to temporarily shelve the listing plan and to wholeheartedly cope with the sudden crisis. Only after Beyondsoft showed steady performance and cash flow in 2009 did its listing was put on agenda again. However, the U.S. capital market was no longer as booming as it had been in the past after the peak of the crisis, making it difficult to reopen a window for the listing in the U.S. To wait patiently, looking forward to the next boom in the U.S. capital market to come soon, or to turn to other overseas markets or resolutely give up the overseas listing plan and go back to the domestic A-share market? Beyondsoft President Ben Wang fell into repeated comparisons and options. Finally, Beyondsoft chose to return to the domestic A-share market and was successfully listed at the SME board of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange on January 6, 2012. The cases of Beyondsoft IPO include part (A) and part (B). (A) is used mainly for classroom discussion and (B) is an after-class reference for students

Supplement for case TU0032

Backsourcing, defined generally as bringing services outsourced to a third party back in-house, is now a growing phenomenon. The decision to backsource has several significant implications for an organization, as it requires the organization to manage organizational change, reintegrate knowledge, and develop new capabilities and competences. Taking into account there is very limited empirical evidence of how to successfully accomplish the backsourcing process, two case studies included in this teaching case offer additional insight into the process of backsourcing. To prepare students for case analysis, this teaching case starts by describing the backsourcing phenomenon, followed by an overview of the backsourcing trend, and includes a brief review of the relevant literature that mainly focuses on backsourcing decisions and touches on critical success factors for implementing a backsourcing initiative. This is followed by two case studies that describe two essentially different examples of backsourcing. The first case study (MediaCorp) deals with the example of backsourcing IT hosting services, which is considered a business process, whereas the second case study (ITServCorp) talks about bringing an IT product development back in-house. However, regardless of the nature of the backsourced activity, analysis of these two cases allows deeper understanding of the process through which the backsourcing initiative has been implemented. Therefore, while each case can be used separately to analyze different aspects of backsourcing, they also can be analyzed in a comparative manner to better understand the process of backsourcing.

This teaching case has been developed for a global consumer products company. Interviews from several outsourcing managers and executives within the company have contributed to the case. This case focuses on how a company can build innovation into an outsourcing relationship when it has not been explicitly stated in the outsourcing agreement. The two fictitious companies in this case are Bentley & Brooks (B&B) (the client) and AlphaCorp (the provider). Both companies are based on, but are not accurate portrayals of, actual companies that are anonymous. The case is a composite of several actual outsourcing cases between the two companies. B&B has outsourced much of their human resource operations and IT support. They have been frustrated that their global outsource provider, AlphaCorp, has not been able to bring innovation to the relationship. In the outsourcing contract, innovation was not expressly identified, but was certainly discussed during the outsourcing proposal and negotiations. In addition, the ability of AlphaCorp to deliver consistent quality of service on a global basis has been uneven, particularly in Latin America. You will be asked to take on the role of a B&B employee who is part of a team looking into the innovation problem. The team has been asked to provide answers to three key questions and to present their recommendations to a panel of senior executives of B&B.

This case describes a Chinese software outsourcing vendor's struggle with its market choices, in response to the rippling effect of the global financial crisis. It also introduces Chinese software outsourcing vendors' capability development, market conditions, and idiosyncrasies. ChiITech is representative of Chinese software vendors, in terms of its development history, environment conditions, experience of the financial crisis, and countermeasures. Students can learn about the evolution and current status of the China-Japan software outsourcing industry through this case, and more specifically how vendors make market choices in a highly volatile market.