The IS Model Curriculum and Offshoring: A Call for Revision

1. The IS Model Curriculum and Offshoring: A Call for Revision Bruce White, Quinnipiac University Bill Tastle, Ithaca College

2. Overview • Growth in Global IT Management (aka outsourcing / offshoring) • Factors for Global IT Management • IS2002 Curriculum • Global IT Management and IS2002

3. Global IT Management • Growing • Offshore outsourcing is frequently as a cost saving for companies • Can involve significant overhead in terms of managing / setting up • Need to be aware of cultural and other issues

4. Why Outsource1 • Reduce and control operating costs • Improve company focus • Gain access to world-class capabilities • Free internal resources for other purposes • Resources are not available internally • Accelerate reengineering benefits • Function difficult to manage/out of control • Make capital funds available • Share risks • Cash infusion 1 - From the Outsourcing Institute (1998)

5. 10 Factors for Successful Outsourcing2 • Understanding company goals and objectives • A strategic vision and plan • Selecting the right vendor • Ongoing management of the relationships • A properly structured contract • Open communication with affected individual/groups • Senior executive support and involvement • Careful attention to personnel issues • Near term financial justification • Use of outside expertise 2 - From the Outsourcing Institute (1998)

6. Fjermestad- Eight Factors3 • Alignment to business strategy • Management support • Culture • Infrastructure • Contracts • Strategic partnership • Governance • Economics 3 -Fjermestad, Jerry, Jo Ann Saitta, “A Strategic Management Framework for IT Outsourcing: A review of the Literature and the Development of a Success Factors Model”, Journal of Information Technology Cases and Applications, 2005

7. ACM President – skills needed • Sourcing methodology and processes • Strategy development • Project management • Risk management • Contract law • Financial analysis • Supplier selection and certification • Relationship development.

8. BUT … • The IS2002 model curriculum doesn’t directly talk about managing Global IT activities. • So – two questions: • Do we need to include Global IT management in the IS curriculum? • If so, HOW???

9. The first question • Do we need to include Global IT management in the IS curriculum? • We can’t just add courses to the IS Model curriculum. BUT … when do we add courses? • We added IS2002.2 Electronic Business Strategy and IS2002.9 Design and Implementation in New Environments in 2002 (not in IS’97).

10. Again … • Is outsourcing / offshoring / Global IT management a serious enough topic that it needs to be in the model curriculum? • Consider the recent discussion – including “The World is Flat” by Thomas Friedman. • Consider our enrollments (with tongue-in-cheek comment “All the IS jobs are being outsourced to India”).

11. Commentary: • As an IS educator, I think our graduates need to be exposed to global IT management (aka outsourcing) – and the issues surrounding it.

12. So … question 2 - HOW • How do we incorporate Global IT Management into the curriculum? • Three options: • A new required course (IS2002.11??) • Outside of IS (such as an international business course) – with maybe an elective in IS • Incorporating the concepts in the rest of IS2002

13. Option 1: A new course – IS2002.11 • While this might be the best approach (adding an entirely new course dedicated to outsourcing / Global IT management), not all schools can do this. • To illustrate, our program is in an AACSB business school – and we just can’t add any more credits to our IS major.

14. Option 2: Taught outside of IS • We do have a business school requirement for an international business course. • That is good – but may not be specific enough to address the IS outsourcing (and global IT management) questions.

15. Option 3: Incorporate concepts into IS2002 • The authors suggest that you can incorporate the global IT management concepts into existing courses.

16. Davis, Ein-Dor, King, Torzadeh topics • Gordon Davis, Philip Ein-Dor, William King, and Reza Torzadeh made a list of topics that could be covered in a graduate program emphasizing global IT management. • While their suggestions are more germane to graduate IS education, the authors will use it as a discussion starter. Davis, Gordon B., Phillip Ein-Dor, William R. King, Reza Torkzadeh (2004), “Information Technology Offshoring: Prospects, Challenges, Educational Requirements and Curriculum Implications”, ICIS, 2004

17. Davis, Ein-Dor, King, Torzadeh topics (part I) • Change Management • Design Methodologies • Project Management • Business Processes • Consumer Relationship Marketing (CRM) • Data Warehousing • Database Administration • Database Systems Planning • Electronic Commerce • Emerging Technologies and Technology Forecasting

18. Davis, Ein-Dor, King, Torzadeh topics (part II) • ERP Systems • Global Cultural Implications for IS • Globalization • IS Security • Management of Computer Personnel • Management of Telecommunications • Outsourcing • Systems Integration • Transborder EDI and Data Flows • Workflow and Collaborative Work

19. Incorporating into IS2002 • The authors suggest that you can incorporate many (if not all) of the Davis (et. al.) list into IS2002 undergraduate education. • We will now take you through each course of IS2002.

20. IS2002.1- Fundamentals of IS • Topics from Davis, Ein-Dor, King and Torkzadeh: • Global Cultural Implications for IS • Outsourcing • Globalization • (and many of the other topics to be lightly introduced)

21. IS 2002.2 – Electronic Business Strategy, Architecture and Design • Transborder EDI and Data Flows

22. IS2002.3 Information Systems Theory and Practice • Topics from Davis, Ein-Dor, King and Torkzadeh: • Business Processes • Customer Relationship Marketing • Electronic Commerce • Design Methodologies • ERP Systems • IS Security • Management of Computer Personnel • Workflow and Collaborative Work

23. IS2002.4/5 -Information Technology Hardware and System Software / Programming, Data, File and Object Structures • No specific outsourcing / offshoring concepts covered. • Although IS2002.4 and IS2002.5 may not explicitly have outsourcing / offshoring concepts, there may be assignments and applications that relate to outsourcing and offshoring.

24. IS 2002.6 – Networks and Telecommunication • From Davis (et. al.) • Management of Telecommunications

25. IS 2002.7 – Analysis and Logical Design • Topics from Davis, Ein-Dor, King and Torkzadeh: • Business Processes • Design methodologies • Workflow and Collaborative Work

26. IS 2002.8 – Physical Design and Implementation with DBMS • Topics from Davis, Ein-Dor, King and Torkzadeh: • Data Warehousing • Database Administration • Database Systems Planning • Systems Integration

27. IS 2002.9 – Physical Design and Implementation in Emerging Environment • Emerging Technologies and Technology Forecasting

28. IS 2002.10 – Project Management and Practice • Topics from Davis, Ein-Dor, King and Torkzadeh: • Change Design • Project Management • Systems Integration • Workflow and Collaborative Work • (and as the capstone course, this implicitly can incorporate many of the other topics)

29. Suggestions / comments • The authors suggest that with forethought, most of the important topics concerned with IS outsourcing (aka offshoring / global IT management) could be covered in the existing IS2002 model curriculum.

30. More suggestions / comments • As additional practical experiences for students, students in IS2002.10 Project Management could ‘manage’ students doing a development project in IS2002.4. • This could be taken a step further with students in IS2002.10 at University A could ‘manage’ students at University B in IS2002.4

31. And … a global experience. • And … even further, students in IS2002.10 at University A in the United States could ‘manage’ students in IS2002.4 Development at University F outside the United States – so to really experience the global IT management experience.

32. Conclusion • The authors have demonstrated that it could be possible to incorporate the concepts and learning skills needed to effectively manage global IT systems. • They suggest that further research into practical applications of such global skills might be beneficial to students and programs.

33. Questions