Home Notifications My Community BBA 3551-16P-5A19-S3, Information Systems Management Unit VII Unit VII Introduction Greetings!! You are almost done with this course!! Keep up the good work. In Unit VI, we covered information security and how to secure systems and data. This week we take an in-depth look at information systems management and outsourcing. While outsourcing may have a bad reputation when people think that jobs are being taken away from someone, it can offer many benefits to all organizations involved. Also, it does not necessarily take away jobs. In many instances, outsourcing simply restructures the organizations within an industry. When you think about outsourcing, remember that it does not always mean hiring workers outside the country. Outsourcing can occur between two organizations in the same city. Professor Bulloch Unit VII Study Guide Click the link above to open the unit study guide, which contains this unit's lesson and reading assignment(s). This information is necessary in order to complete this course. Unit VII Discussion Board Weight: 2% of course grade Grading Rubric Comment Due: Saturday, 05/11/2019 11:59 PM (CST) Response Due: Tuesday, 05/14/2019 11:59 PM (CST)     Go to Unit VII Discussion Board » Unit VII Case Study Weight: 11% of course grade Grading Rubric Due: Tuesday, 05/14/2019 11:59 PM (CST) Instructions Define what is meant by outsourcing. Explain how Peter Drucker’s statement (covered in the textbook in uCertify) about how one company’s back room is another company’s front room pertains to outsourcing. Use an example. Summarize the management advantages, cost reduction, and risk reduction of outsourcing. Summarize the outsourcing risks concerning control, long-term costs, and exit strategy. Discuss which company you would outsource to and why. Does distance matter?    As a manager of an organization, you will often need to find ways to cut costs. One way to cut costs is to outsource by hiring another organization to perform the service. Consider the scenario below. As a manager for the public outreach department, you realize that the current system for managing outreach issues is outdated. You would like to have a new outreach system developed using the Cloudera platform to help manage big data. However, no one in the organization has the expertise. You will have to outsource the project to save on costs and avoid management problems. Two companies have sent in a bid—one from Vancouver, Canada, and one from Mumbai, India. The bid from India was slightly lower than the bid from Canada. Compose a response that includes the elements listed below. Your case study must be at least two pages in length (not counting the title and reference pages), and you must use at least two references as a source for your essay. See the Suggested Reading section for some sample articles on outsourcing. Be sure to cite all sources used in.

1. Home Notifications My Community
BBA 3551-16P-5A19-S3, Information Systems Management
Unit VII
Unit VII Introduction
Greetings!! You are almost done with this
course!! Keep up the good work.
In Unit VI, we covered information security and
how to secure systems and data.
This week we take an in-depth look at
information systems management and
outsourcing. While outsourcing may have a
bad reputation when people think that jobs are
being taken away from someone, it can offer
many benefits to all organizations involved.
Also, it does not necessarily take away jobs. In
many instances, outsourcing simply
restructures the organizations within an
industry. When you think about outsourcing,
remember that it does not always mean hiring
workers outside the country. Outsourcing can
occur between two organizations in the same
city.
Professor Bulloch
Unit VII Study Guide

2. Click the link above to open the unit study
guide, which contains this unit's lesson and
reading assignment(s). This information is
necessary in order to complete this course.
Unit VII Discussion Board
Weight: 2% of course grade
Grading Rubric
Comment Due: Saturday, 05/11/2019
11:59 PM (CST)
Response Due: Tuesday, 05/14/2019
11:59 PM (CST)
Go to Unit VII Discussion Board »
Unit VII Case Study
Weight: 11% of course grade
Grading Rubric

3. Due: Tuesday, 05/14/2019 11:59 PM
(CST)
Instructions
Define what is meant by outsourcing.
Explain how Peter Drucker’s statement
(covered in the textbook in uCertify)
about how one company’s back room is
another company’s front room pertains
to outsourcing. Use an example.
Summarize the management
advantages, cost reduction, and risk
reduction of outsourcing.
Summarize the outsourcing risks
concerning control, long-term costs, and
exit strategy.
Discuss which company you would
outsource to and why. Does distance
matter?

4. As a manager of an organization, you will
often need to find ways to cut costs. One
way to cut costs is to outsource by hiring
another organization to perform the service.
Consider the scenario below.
As a manager for the public outreach
department, you realize that the current
system for managing outreach issues is
outdated. You would like to have a new
outreach system developed using the
Cloudera platform to help manage big data.
However, no one in the organization has the
expertise. You will have to outsource the
project to save on costs and avoid
management problems. Two companies

5. have sent in a bid—one from Vancouver,
Canada, and one from Mumbai, India. The
bid from India was slightly lower than the bid
from Canada. Compose a response that
includes the elements listed below.
Your case study must be at least two pages
in length (not counting the title and
reference pages), and you must use at least
two references as a source for your essay.
See the Suggested Reading section for
some sample articles on outsourcing. Be
sure to cite all sources used in APA format,
and format your essay in APA style.
Submit Unit VII Case Study »
�
›
� Logout�� Mary Katz
5/8/19, 10)53 AM
Page 1 of 1

6. BBA 3551, Information Systems Management
Course Learning Outcomes for Unit VII
Upon completion of this unit, students should be able to:
6. Assess the key issues involved in managing the components
of IT infrastructure.
6.1 Explore the concept of outsourcing, including the
advantages and risks it presents.
6.2 Apply the concept of outsourcing to a given scenario.
Course/Unit
Learning Outcomes
Learning Activity
6.1
Unit Lesson
Chapter 11
Unit VII Case Study
6.2
Unit Lesson
Chapter 11
Unit VII Case Study

7. Reading Assignment
Chapter 11: Information Systems Management
Unit Lesson
Managing Information Systems
The information systems (IS) function of an organization is
critical for organizational success. Because of this,
it is important to manage this asset responsibly. There are five
major functions to managing an IS department,
and they are even more critical for young startup IS
departments. You can learn about these functions in your
textbook in uCertify.
The readings for this unit discuss these major functions in
detail, so in this lesson, we will expand upon this to
take a closer look at effective leadership in IS. There are many
challenges facing managers and
organizational leaders today such as meeting organizational
goals and strategies, coping with changes in
business relationships and technology, encouraging innovation,
managing organizational knowledge,
managing an organizational environment that is embracing
mobility, and handling a workforce that is
becoming more virtual. Managing such a challenging and
diverse environment requires strong leadership,
but, unfortunately, many organizational leaders and managers
are not well equipped for the job (Kroenke &
Boyle, 2017).
In the past, organizations used the top-down, or hierarchical,
approach to manage IS in the organization. The

8. top-down approach is when upper management makes the
strategic decisions, and employees are expected
to follow along, restricted in their ability to be creative or show
initiative. This traditional style of leadership in
IS can be problematic in that upper management may not have
the experience or knowledge in IS to make
those types of decisions. Organizational leadership must
understand the nuances of IS and recognize that
they cannot force IS to conform to the methods of the rest of the
organization (Kroenke & Boyle, 2017).
UNIT VII STUDY GUIDE
Information Systems
Management
BBA 3551, Information Systems Management 2
UNIT x STUDY GUIDE
Title
By using the bottom-up approach, IS managers
and staff can act in a leadership capacity and
interact with upper management regarding IS
decisions (Figure 1). This is especially true when
there are new innovations to technology. IS
professionals will recognize the value of these
innovations and better understand how this new
technology could affect the organization’s future,

9. especially its competitive strategy.
Outsourcing
Outsourcing occurs when you hire another
company or organization to perform a service. The
textbook uses a good example of how outsourcing
can be used to help an organization perform a
service. In this example, Google, known as an
organization that provides search and mobile
application services, did not have the resources to
provide cafeteria services to its employees. In
order to provide this service to its employees, the company
hired an outside vendor that specialized in food
services to manage and maintain the employee cafeteria at
Google. This way, Google can use its resources
for its main function, providing search and mobile services
(Kroenke & Boyle, 2017).
The same concept applies to many organizations that do not
specialize in IS. Instead of obtaining and
maintaining IS resources, organizations can outsource IS
activities so that they can concentrate on their
essential function or front-room activities.
Outsourcing provides several advantages such as obtaining
expertise in an area in which the company lacks.
In the Augmented Reality Exercise System (ARES) scenario
discussed at the beginning of Chapter 11 in the
textbook, management understood that they needed to build an
application for this system but recognized
that they did not have the staff or the expertise to do this. To
solve the staff and management problem, they
outsourced this activity (Kroenke & Boyle, 2017).

10. Outsourcing can also help reduce costs. In the Google example
from the textbook, by outsourcing the
cafeteria activities to another company, Google will not have to
deal with the costs of training new cafeteria
employees or deal with the day-to-day costs of maintaining the
cafeteria. All of these costs would generally be
covered under a fixed-price cafeteria contract (Kroenke &
Boyle, 2017).
There are types of outsourcing, such as nearshore, offshore, and
onshore (work-at-home), which can provide
solutions for organizations that do not have the resources to
perform certain activities outside the realm of
their corporate function. Each of these will be discussed in the
following paragraphs.
Nearshore Outsourcing
Nearshore outsourcing occurs when a company outsources to a
nearby country such as from the United
States to Canada, Mexico, or Puerto Rico (Figure 2).
Figure 1: Daily Sprint meeting with management
(Klean Denmark, 2011)
BBA 3551, Information Systems Management 3
UNIT x STUDY GUIDE
Title

11. Nearshore outsourcing has several advantages. Because the
source of the work is being provided relatively close to the
company
requesting the service, there may be fewer time zone issues and
fewer cultural and/or language difficulties. Also, the
geographical
proximity makes communication and traveling between the two
countries easier (Gerbl, McIvor, Loane, & Humphreys, 2016).
This
would be especially advantageous for companies outsourcing
complex information technology (IT) projects that may require
frequent and ongoing communication between the two entities.
In
addition, in many cases, workers in nearshore organizations will
be
more highly trained than those in countries much further away
such
as in India and China, two of the top IT outsourcing
destinations for
many U.S. organizations (Oshri, Kotlarsky, & Willcocks, 2015).
Nearshore outsourcing also provides organizations with cost-
saving
benefits because work is sent to another location where workers
will
generally be paid lower wages. Another benefit is that, because
of
close proximity to the United States, foreign workers will be
awake
and working during the contracting organization’s hours of
business
should communication need to occur (Gerbl et al., 2016).
On the other hand, it may not always be a good idea to use
nearshore outsourcing. In some cases, it may be more expensive

12. because the costs of using foreign workers may not be
significantly
lower. Another thing to consider is time costs. Will the
nearshore
organization be able to operate independently, or will the
contracting company have to provide guidance and resources?
Another cost to consider is traveling costs. Will traveling
between
the two countries be necessary, and if so, how often (Gerbl et
al.,
2016)?
Nearshore outsourcing may not be feasible when the IT project
is
complex or if the tasks involved require management oversight
or direction from the contracting company
(Gerbl et al., 2016). Nearshore outsourcing would be ideal for
simple, day-to-day IT tasks such as customer
service (help desk), development, analytics, maintenance, and
production.
Figure 2: Nearshore outsourcing example
BBA 3551, Information Systems Management 4
UNIT x STUDY GUIDE
Title

13. Offshore Outsourcing
Offshore outsourcing is when an organization contracts another
company
to perform operations in a foreign country (Figure 3). For
example, a
company might outsource to Europe, Japan, South America, and
Asia.
Outsourcing to foreign countries can have some disadvantages.
One
disadvantage is cultural and/or language differences. Other
disadvantages
are time zone issues and the geographical distance, which could
make
communication and traveling between the two countries
difficult, time-
consuming, and expensive (Gerbl et al., 2016).
However, in many cases, workers at offshore organizations may
be highly
trained and generally paid lower wages, which can help reduce
costs for
the contracting organization. As in nearshore outsourcing, the
organization
must consider whether or not the offshore company can operate
independently or if it will need constant guidance and
resources. If traveling
may be required, consider the costs involved with that. If the
offshore
company cannot operate independently or if excessive traveling
may be
required, it might be better to use onshore outsourcing if the
bottom line is
to save money (Gerbl et al., 2016).

14. Similar to nearshore outsourcing, offshore outsourcing would
not be ideal
for complex IT projects that may require frequent and ongoing
communication. Again, much like nearshore outsourcing, it
might be best to
use offshore outsourcing for simple, day-to-day operations such
as help
desk, development, analytics, maintenance, and production
(Gerbl et al.,
2016).
Onshore Outsourcing
Onshore outsourcing is when operations are sent to another
company located within the organization’s home
country (Figure 4). In the Google example, Google outsourced
their cafeteria operations to another company
within the same locality. Several advantages to onshore
outsourcing are that there will not be any
cultural/language barriers, and communication can take place
during the time that the contracting company is
open for business. Traveling, if needed, can be managed
efficiently to improve the bottom line (Gerbl et al.,
2016).
However, onshore outsourcing has some disadvantages; the
main disadvantage is a decrease in cost
savings. In most cases, onshore outsourcing will not provide
cost savings because the direct labor costs can
be high (Gerbl et al., 2016). Although, in the case of Google, as
discussed above, by not having to expend
resources into managing and maintaining a cafeteria, Google
can use those resources for its own operations.

15. Figure 3: Offshore outsourcing
example
BBA 3551, Information Systems Management 5
UNIT x STUDY GUIDE
Title
Summary
IT assets are critical components of organizations and need to
be
managed efficiently. Organizational structure is also important.
Depending on the size and type of the organization, the
organizational
structure will determine the relationships between employees
and
managers. This relationship is important for how business
leaders
develop processes and systems that align with the
organization’s goals
and strategies.
One of the main reasons companies consider outsourcing is to
save
costs, gain expertise, and help free up time for managers.
Offshore
labor costs can be considerably less than wages for onshore and
nearshore locations. Outsourcing can also provide expertise for
the

16. company that lacks this resource, especially in the development
of
innovate products. Outsourcing also helps management focus on
the
company’s main operations instead of on functions in which
they do
not have the expertise.
Some of the disadvantages of outsourcing to foreign countries is
time
and cultural and language barriers. If travel is required, this
may be
expensive and difficult to manage efficiently. Another concern
is that
even though costs can be considerably less, there is no
guarantee that
the products or services will be of high quality.
References
Gerbl, M., McIvor, R., & Humphreys, P. (2016). Making the
business process outsourcing decision: Why
distance matters. International Journal of Operations &
Production Management, 36(9), 1037–1064.
Retrieved from https://search-proquest-
com.libraryresources.columbiasouthern.edu/docview/182644306
2?accountid=33337
Klean Denmark. (2011). Daily Sprint meeting [Image].
Retrieved from

17. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Daily_sprint_meeting.
jpg
Kroenke, D. M., & Boyle, R. J. (2017). Using MIS (10th ed.).
New York, NY: Pearson.
Oshri, I., Kotlarsky, J., & Willcocks, L. P. (2015). The
handbook of global outsourcing and offshoring (3rd ed.).
New York, NY: Palmgrave Macmillan.
Suggested Reading
In order to access the following resources, click the links
below.
The following articles all explore the topic of outsourcing and
are excellent materials that will help you
complete your assignment for this unit. You are encouraged to
review them.
Gerbl, M., McIvor, R., & Humphreys, P. (2016). Making the
business process outsourcing decision: Why
distance matters. International Journal of Operations &
Production Management, 36(9), 1037–1064.
Retrieved from https://search-proquest-
com.libraryresources.columbiasouthern.edu/docview/182644306
2?accountid=33337
Overby, S. (2017, February 17). Robotic process automation
makes nearshore outsourcing more attractive.

18. CIO. Retrieved from https://search-proquest-
com.libraryresources.columbiasouthern.edu/docview/186948227
3?accountid=33337
Figure 4: Onshore outsourcing example
https://search-proquest-
com.libraryresources.columbiasouthern.edu/docview/182644306
2?accountid=33337
https://search-proquest-
com.libraryresources.columbiasouthern.edu/docview/182644306
2?accountid=33337
https://search-proquest-
com.libraryresources.columbiasouthern.edu/docview/186948227
3?accountid=33337
https://search-proquest-
com.libraryresources.columbiasouthern.edu/docview/186948227
3?accountid=33337
BBA 3551, Information Systems Management 6
UNIT x STUDY GUIDE
Title
Persson, J. S., & Schlichter, B. R. (2015). Managing risk areas
in software developm offshoring: A CMMI level
5 case. JITTA: Journal of Information Technology Theory and
Application, 16(1), 5–23. Retrieved
from https://search-proquest-
com.libraryresources.columbiasouthern.edu/docview/169333044

19. 5?accountid=33337
Ryan, P. (2009). Outsourcing: A historical cost-saving
mainstay. CRM Magazine, 13(2), 34. Retrieved from
https://libraryresources.columbiasouthern.edu/login?url=http://s
earch.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direc
t=true&db=a9h&AN=36315837&site=ehost-live&scope=site
Learning Activities (Nongraded)
Nongraded Learning Activities are provided to aid students in
their course of study. You do not have to submit
them. If you have questions, contact your instructor for further
guidance and information.
To test your knowledge of the material covered in this unit,
complete the activities listed below.
Knowledge
The activities are located within the chapter readings in
uCertify. The Chapter 11 Active Review, Using Your
Knowledge, Collaboration Exercise, and Review Questions are
located at the end of the chapter. The cards

20. can be accessed by clicking on the Cards icon within uCertify,
which is located to the right of the chapter title,
and the icon in uCertify resembles the image shown below.
https://search-proquest-
com.libraryresources.columbiasouthern.edu/docview/169333044
5?accountid=33337
https://search-proquest-
com.libraryresources.columbiasouthern.edu/docview/169333044
5?accountid=33337
https://libraryresources.columbiasouthern.edu/login?url=http://s
earch.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=3631
5837&site=ehost-live&scope=site
https://libraryresources.columbiasouthern.edu/login?url=http://s
earch.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=3631
5837&site=ehost-live&scope=site