Chapter 19 : Outsourcing in the 21st Century

Outsourcing Projects

• Insourcing is a common approach using the professional expertise within an organization to develop and maintain the organization's information technology systems
• Outsourcing is an arrangement by which one organization provides a service or services for another organization that chooses not to perform them in-house

Outsourcing benefits

• Increased quality and efficiency of a process, service, or function
• Reduces operating expenses
• Resources focused on core profit-generating competencies
• Reduces exposure to risks involved with large capital investments
• Access to outsourcing service provider's economies of scale
• Access to outsourcing service provider's expertise and best-in-class-practise
• Access to advanced technologies
• Increased flexibility with the ability to respond quickly to changing market demand
• costly outlay of capital funds
• Reduced head count and associated overhead expense
• Reduced frustration and expense related to hiring and retaining employees in an exceptionally tight job market
• Reduced time to market to products or services

Outsourcing challenges

• Contract length
• Competitive edge 
• Confidentiality
• Scope definition

                  

Chapter 15 : Creating Collaborative Partnerships

Web 2.0 : Advantages of Business 2.0

• Web 2.0 is the next generation of internet use

Content sharing through open sourcing

• Source code contains instructions written by a programmer specifying the actions to be performed by computer software
• Open source refers to any software whose source code is made available free for any third party to review and modify

User-contributed content

• Created and updated by many users for many users
• One of the most popular forms of user-generated content is a reputation system, where buyers post feedback on sellers

Collaboration inside the organization 

• A set of tools that supports the work of teams or groups by facilitating the sharing and flow of the information
• Collective intelligence is collaborating and tapping into the core knowledge of all employees, partners, and customers
• A knowledge management systems (KMS) supports the capturing, organization, and dissemination of knowledge throughout the organizations

Collaboration outside the organization

• The most common form of collective intelligence found outside the organization is crowdsourcing, which refers to the wisdom of the crowd

Networking Communities with Business 2.0

• Social media refers to websites that rely on user participation and user-contributed content, such as Facebook
• Social networking is the practice of expanding your business and social contacts by constructing a personal networ
• Social networking analysis (SNA) maps group contacts identifying who knows each other and who works together
• Social tagging describes the collaborative activity of marking shared online content with keywords or tags as a way to organize it for future navigation, filtering, or search 
• Website bookmark is a locally stored URL or the address of a file or internet page saved as a shortcut
• Social bookmarking allows users to share, organize, search, and manage bookmarks

Business 2.0 Tools for Collaborating

• Blogs
• Wikis
• Mashups

The Challenges of Business 2.0

• Technology dependence
• Information vandalism
• Violations of copyright and plagarism

Chapter 14 : Ebusiness

EBUSINESS MODELS

- An ebusiness model is a plan that details how a company creates, delivers, and generates revenues.

- Ebusiness models fall into one of four categories which is :

Business-to-Business (B2B)

- Applies to businesses buying from and selling to each other over the internet.

- Electronic marketplace (e-marketplace) are interactive business communities providing a central market where multiple buyers and sellers can engage in e-business activities

Business-to-Consumer (B2C)

- Applies to any business that sells its products or services directly to consumers online

- Common B2C e-business models include:

• e-shop – a version of a retail store where customers can shop at any hour of the day without leaving their home or office
• e-mall – consists of a number of e-shops; it serves as a gateway through which a visitor can access other e-shops

- Business types:

• Brick-and-mortar business
• Pure-play business
• Click-and-mortar business

Consumer-to-Business (C2B)

- Applies to any consumer who sells a product or service to a business on the internet

-   Priceline.com is an example of a C2B e-business model

-   The demand for C2B e-business will increase over the next few years due to customer’s desire for greater convenience and lower prices

Consumer to consumer (C2C)

-  Applies to consumers offering goods and services to each other on the internet.

- C2C communities include:

• Communities of interest - People interact with each other on specific topics, such as golfing and stamp collecting
• Communities of relations - People come together to share certain life experiences, such as cancer patients, senior citizens, and car enthusiasts
• Communities of fantasy - People participate in imaginary environments, such as fantasy football teams and playing one-on-one with Michael Jordan

Ebusiness Tools for Connecting and Communicating

•  Email
• Instant messaging
• Podcasting
• Videoconferencing
•  Web conferencing
• Content management systems

The Challenges of Ebusiness

•   Identifying limited market segments
•   Managing consumer trust
•  Ensuring consumer protection
• Adhering to taxation rules