September 2016 (15:3) | MIS Quarterly Executive 179
Drawbacks of a Modular Structure for IT Multisourcing12
During the last decade, the modus operandi of IT outsourcing has undergone a major
transformation. While earlier outsourcing deals were primarily executed with a single vendor,
more recent deals often involve multiple vendors.3 When a firm contracts with multiple vendors
for IT projects and services, this is called IT multisourcing.4 Numerous global companies,
such as ABN AMRO, BP, Chevron, General Motors and Royal Dutch Shell, have adopted IT
multisourcing strategies to reap the potential benefits this approach has to offer. Compared to
traditional single-sourcing arrangements, key benefits include lower IT costs resulting from
vendor competition and best-of-breed services, higher IT service quality and lower vendor
dependency. Table 1 summarizes major benefits (and risks) of IT multisourcing.
The predominant approach to structuring IT multisourcing arrangements is based on the
concept of vendor modularity. This approach follows the same logic as single-sourcing models:
activities given to a vendor have to be “separable” from the activities performed by the client
and other vendors, respectively. As a consequence, after the initial bidding phase at the latest,
client firms tend to assign exclusive work areas to their multiple vendors. For example, in 2005,
Dutch bank ABN AMRO signed an IT multisourcing contract worth $2.2 billion over five years
1 Mary Lacity is the accepting senior editor for this article.
2 The first three authors contributed equally to this paper and are listed alphabetically. We acknowledge the support of the Dr. Theo
and Friedl Schoeller Research Center for Business and Society of the Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg (Germany)
for this research project.
3 Bapna, R., Barua, A., Mani, D. and Mehra, A. “Cooperation, Coordination, and Governance in Multisourcing: An Agenda for
Analytical and Empirical Research,” Information Systems Research (21:4), 2010, pp. 785-795.
4 Wiener, M. and Saunders, C. “Forced Coopetition in IT Multisourcing,” Journal of Strategic Information Systems (23:3), 2014,
pp. 210-225.
How adidas Realized Benefits from a
Contrary IT Multisourcing Strategy
In traditional IT outsourcing and multisourcing arrangements, clients isolate vendor
tasks, resulting in modular sourcing structures. But this approach can stifle vendor
competition, result in vendor lock-in and hinder organizational flexibility. This article
describes how adidas adopted a new type of multisourcing strategy, which embraces
vendor overlaps to overcome these constraints and deliver a range of benefits. We pro-
vide guidelines for implementing this new type of multisourcing strategy.1
Benoit A. Aubert²
Victoria University of Wellington
(New Zealand)
Martin Wiener
Bentley University
(U.S.)
Carol Saunders
Northern Arizona University
(U.S.)
Reinhard Denk & Tobias Wolfermann
adidas G.
Cloud Computing Role in Information technologyKHakash
Simply put, cloud computing is the delivery of computing services—including servers, storage, databases, networking, software, analytics, and intelligence—over the Internet (“the cloud”) to offer faster innovation, flexible resources, and economies of scale.
Information technology (IT) is part of the value chain and corporate strategy of companies (PORTER, 1998). This area has been highlighted by its rapid development being responsible for several technological innovations, which affect the strategic positioning of companies. In the 1970s the computing model based on both proprietary technology and high cost large computers, known as mainframes, contributed to the formation of oligopolies in companies providing IT services which provided data processing to consumer companies.
As we enter the digital economy, it becomes increasingly transparent that the information and data ecosphere will continue to be a complex environment for the foreseeable future, with information being provided from a variety of internal and external sources in the form of files, messages, queries and streams. It would be foolish for any organization to place their bets on any one platform to be their platform of choice because it is incongruent to the thought patterns of the consumers, suppliers, regulators, partners and financiers who will participate in their information ecosphere through data feeds, information requests and a host of other interfaces.
Rather, there is a role of each of these platforms which serve as the conduit for data and the transformation of data into information aligned with the value propositions of the organization. This writing is focused on the big data platform because there are some unique characteristics of the big data environment that require an approach different than many of the legacy environments that exist in organizations. Furthermore, while big data is the one environment that is new and requires these special handling characteristics, there will be future platforms with the same requirements as big data requires today, and hopefully lessons learned will be left to not revisit each of the challenges as the next transformational information ecosphere is made available.
Figure 1 The Fourth Industrial Revolution, World Economic Forum, InfoSight Partners, 2016
This time is different, in that information is the catalyst to achieving value and the platform ideally suited to house information not optimal for storage in the form of rows and columns is the big data environment. Understanding which information is delivered with intended consequences and having the management prowess to tune information shared with customers, prospects, suppliers, partners, regulators and financiers is critical for the digital economy. Additionally, it is specific to understand the challenges each platform housing information bring to the equation. This writing will focus on big data.
MECHANISMS FOR DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION IN THE EDUCATION AND HEALTHCARE SECTORS...IJNSA Journal
This paper argues for the consideration of a decentralized, open, interoperable identity framework as a secure, scalable, user-centered meta-platform capable of leveraging many aggregate network advantages and delivery options for education and healthcare providers. An overview of the shortfalls and vulnerabilities of the current Internet and systems for identity management is first explained, followed by a summary of the status of development and primary proponents of decentralized, blockchain-enabled, self-sovereign identification (SSI). An examination of the Key Event Receipt Infrastructure (KERI) open-source decentralized key management infrastructure (DKMI) and its primary root-of-trust in self-certifying identifiers (SCID) is evaluated. This paper recommends KERI for consideration as a potential meta-platform overlay and solution for both the education and health industries as a means of attaining their primary goal of being more user versus institution-centric in their core interactions and processes. Finally, some pathways for future research are recommended.
Cloud Computing Role in Information technologyKHakash
Simply put, cloud computing is the delivery of computing services—including servers, storage, databases, networking, software, analytics, and intelligence—over the Internet (“the cloud”) to offer faster innovation, flexible resources, and economies of scale.
Information technology (IT) is part of the value chain and corporate strategy of companies (PORTER, 1998). This area has been highlighted by its rapid development being responsible for several technological innovations, which affect the strategic positioning of companies. In the 1970s the computing model based on both proprietary technology and high cost large computers, known as mainframes, contributed to the formation of oligopolies in companies providing IT services which provided data processing to consumer companies.
As we enter the digital economy, it becomes increasingly transparent that the information and data ecosphere will continue to be a complex environment for the foreseeable future, with information being provided from a variety of internal and external sources in the form of files, messages, queries and streams. It would be foolish for any organization to place their bets on any one platform to be their platform of choice because it is incongruent to the thought patterns of the consumers, suppliers, regulators, partners and financiers who will participate in their information ecosphere through data feeds, information requests and a host of other interfaces.
Rather, there is a role of each of these platforms which serve as the conduit for data and the transformation of data into information aligned with the value propositions of the organization. This writing is focused on the big data platform because there are some unique characteristics of the big data environment that require an approach different than many of the legacy environments that exist in organizations. Furthermore, while big data is the one environment that is new and requires these special handling characteristics, there will be future platforms with the same requirements as big data requires today, and hopefully lessons learned will be left to not revisit each of the challenges as the next transformational information ecosphere is made available.
Figure 1 The Fourth Industrial Revolution, World Economic Forum, InfoSight Partners, 2016
This time is different, in that information is the catalyst to achieving value and the platform ideally suited to house information not optimal for storage in the form of rows and columns is the big data environment. Understanding which information is delivered with intended consequences and having the management prowess to tune information shared with customers, prospects, suppliers, partners, regulators and financiers is critical for the digital economy. Additionally, it is specific to understand the challenges each platform housing information bring to the equation. This writing will focus on big data.
MECHANISMS FOR DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION IN THE EDUCATION AND HEALTHCARE SECTORS...IJNSA Journal
This paper argues for the consideration of a decentralized, open, interoperable identity framework as a secure, scalable, user-centered meta-platform capable of leveraging many aggregate network advantages and delivery options for education and healthcare providers. An overview of the shortfalls and vulnerabilities of the current Internet and systems for identity management is first explained, followed by a summary of the status of development and primary proponents of decentralized, blockchain-enabled, self-sovereign identification (SSI). An examination of the Key Event Receipt Infrastructure (KERI) open-source decentralized key management infrastructure (DKMI) and its primary root-of-trust in self-certifying identifiers (SCID) is evaluated. This paper recommends KERI for consideration as a potential meta-platform overlay and solution for both the education and health industries as a means of attaining their primary goal of being more user versus institution-centric in their core interactions and processes. Finally, some pathways for future research are recommended.
Emerging data sharing models to promote financial service innovation june 201...Rafael Mazer
This report reviews the growing number of models that allow consumers to manage their personal and financial information. The global scan also considers these models' viability in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.
This study by SAS, targeted organisations that recognised they were well on their way to integrating IoT in their operations. We spoke to 75 teams who could draw from their experience of recent deployment or a sizeable proof-of-concept. These expert interviews were framed to draw out how deployments were scoped and sponsored, resourced and delivered.
https://www.sas.com/en_us/partners/find-a-partner/alliance-partners/ibm.html#
DATA MINING WITH CLUSTERING ON BIG DATA FOR SHOPPING MALL’S DATASETAM Publications
Big Data is the extremely large sets of data that their sizes are beyond the ability of capturing, managing, processing and storage by most software tools and people which is ever increasing day-by-day. In most enterprise scenarios the data is too big or it moves too fast that extremely exceeds current processing capacity. The term big data is also used by vendors, may refer to the technology which includes tools and processes that an organization requires to handle the large amounts of data and storage facilities. This advancement in technology leads to make relationship marketing a reality for today’s competitive world. But at the same time this huge amount of data cannot be analyzed in a traditional manner, by using manual data analysis. For this, technologies such as data warehousing and data mining have made customer relationship management as a new area where business firms can gain a competitive advantage for identifying their customer behaviors and needs. This paper mainly focuses on data mining technique that performs the extraction of hidden predictive information from large databases and organizations can identify valuable customers and predicts future user behaviors. This enables different organizations to make proactive, knowledge-driven decisions. Data mining tools answer business questions that in the past were too time-consuming, this makes customer relationship management possible. For this in this paper, we are trying explain the use of data mining technique to accomplish the goals of today’s customer relationship management and Decision making for different companies that deals with big data.
Information systems and competitive strategy by emanuel baisireEmanuel Baisire
The paper examines the impact of information systems technology in achieving competitive edge. The paper reviews several firms’ attempt to out-compete rivals through the use of information systems and streamlining production cost by adopting new business processes that are influenced by information systems. Many organizations have embraced the use of information systems to gain market share, increase customer loyalty and introduce new products to consumers The existence of transaction processing systems and decision support systems have eased the process in which important business decision are reached. The paper also links the impact and value of information systems in determining an ideal competitive strategy for a firm within an industry. It also examines how firms apply information systems technology to execute business processes.
Global cloud services market (service type, cloud type, end user and geograph...Allied Market Research
Cloud computing is the practice of sharing network of remote servers which are hosted on the Internet to store, process, share, and manage data rather than on a local server or a personal computer. The services provided by the cloud computing technology are referred to as cloud services.
If the CIO is to be valued as a strategic actor, how can he bring .docxsheronlewthwaite
If the CIO is to be valued as a strategic actor, how can he bring to the table the ethos ofalignment, bound to the demands of process strategic planning to move IT to the forefront of theorganization's future?Alignment refers to linkages within the business model that connect disparate parts of
the organization together through information technologies. There are two aspects to consider:
affordability and scale. Executing an enterprise-wide information system, generally through
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) process, is a significant capital investment. Not all units will
be mature enough to embrace ERP; the market may not have global solutions. Consequently,
alignment needs to be scalable (increase investment as demand increases), and agile (ready to
embrace quickly). What follows is an analysis of each of the readings available for this
discussion. After these critical reviews, I will provide a snapshot and invite you to tackle the
problem and the assessment of these reviews.
A. Bradley, J., J. Loucks, J. Macaulay, A. Noronha, & M. Wade. (2015, July). Disruptor and
Disrupted -- Strategy in the Digital Vortex. Global Center for Digital Business
Transformation. Retrieved from https://www.imd.org/dbt/whitepapers/disruptor-disrupted.
Citation: (Bradley et al., 2015: p#)
1. Major theme of the essay: To survive, companies need to recognize market forces
(disruptors) that threaten the corporation’s share of market value (disrupted). The ideas
examine the tensions between internal and external environments. The corporation must
be smart and ready to move quickly as threats emerge.
2. Arguments used to support this theme Value is created through cost, experience,
and platform (delivery). Intrusions into the market here referred to as digital disruptions or
the digital vortex, are “value vampires”. They succeed at the expense of others. Vampires
see opportunities in the digital vortex known as value vacancies. These opportunities are
short-lived and hard won. Disruptors join forces in the market to supply value. This is
known as combinational disruption. It is met by digital business agility. When a threat
emerges, dominant market forces exhibit digital agility: accessing information processing
systems that monitor the internal and external environments. Visualized, the system is an
iterative flow of data between the internal business environment (employees, operations,
information system assets) and the external business environment (customers, partners,
macroeconomics). Decisions are filtered by hyperawareness, informed decision making,
and fast execution (Nicolay, figure 1, p. 17). Hyperawareness simply means knowing
your market, emerging technologies, and shifts in consumer behavior.
Hyperawareness and informed decision making demand good data and big data
analysis that create actionable linkages. Informed decision making leads to poor
decisions when decision makers cannot surrender their own strategic biases. Biases are
defeated by listen ...
Big data is a broad term for data sets so large or complex that tr.docxhartrobert670
Big data is a broad term for data sets so large or complex that traditional data processing applications are inadequate. Challenges include analysis, capture, curation, search, sharing, storage, transfer, visualization, and information privacy. The term often refers simply to the use of predictive analytics or other certain advanced methods to extract value from data, and seldom to a particular size of data set.
Analysis of data sets can find new correlations, to "spot business trends, prevent diseases, combat crime and so on."[1] Scientists, practitioners of media and advertising and governments alike regularly meet difficulties with large data sets in areas including Internet search, finance and business informatics. Scientists encounter limitations in e-Science work, including meteorology, genomics,[2]connectomics, complex physics simulations,[3] and biological and environmental research.[4]
Data sets grow in size in part because they are increasingly being gathered by cheap and numerous information-sensing mobile devices, aerial (remote sensing), software logs, cameras, microphones, radio-frequency identification (RFID) readers, and wireless sensor networks.[5]
HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_data" \l "cite_note-6" [6]
HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_data" \l "cite_note-7" [7] The world's technological per-capita capacity to store information has roughly doubled every 40 months since the 1980s;[8] as of 2012, every day 2.5 exabytes (2.5×1018) of data were created;[9] The challenge for large enterprises is determining who should own big data initiatives that straddle the entire organization.[10]
Work with big data is necessarily uncommon; most analysis is of "PC size" data, on a desktop PC or notebook[11] that can handle the available data set.
Relational database management systems and desktop statistics and visualization packages often have difficulty handling big data. The work instead requires "massively parallel software running on tens, hundreds, or even thousands of servers".[12] What is considered "big data" varies depending on the capabilities of the users and their tools, and expanding capabilities make Big Data a moving target. Thus, what is considered to be "Big" in one year will become ordinary in later years. "For some organizations, facing hundreds of gigabytes of data for the first time may trigger a need to reconsider data management options. For others, it may take tens or hundreds of terabytes before data size becomes a significant consideration."[13]
Contents
· 1 Definition
· 2 Characteristics
· 3 Architecture
· 4 Technologies
· 5 Applications
· 5.1 Government
· 5.1.1 United States of America
· 5.1.2 India
· 5.1.3 United Kingdom
· 5.2 International development
· 5.3 Manufacturing
· 5.3.1 Cyber-Physical Models
· 5.4 Media
· 5.4.1 Internet of Things (IoT)
· 5.4.2 Technology
· 5.5 Private sector
· 5.5.1 Retail
· 5.5.2 Retail Banking
· 5.5.3 Real Estate
· 5.6 Science
· 5.6.1 Science and Resear ...
Are you making money on your data assets? You could be. And there is more than one way. Boost innovation, tap into new revenue streams and industry sectors. It’s time to see the potential of big data.
Issues Identify at least seven issues you see in the case1..docxbagotjesusa
Issues: Identify at least seven issues you see in the case
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
What is the Key issue you see in the case: __________________________
What facts pertain to the case: Identify at least three important facts that pertain to the case
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
What assumptions do you plan to make in your analysis: None is an acceptable answer
1.
2.
3
What people and organizations may have an impact on the case: There should be at least five.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
You are writing the case from the perspective of which person or organization:______________
What tools of Analysis would you use in this case: You only need to identify them and explain what information each will give you that you feel is important.
Based upon the above information – provide three alternatives
Alternative 1 is the Status Quo or to do nothing different that the current situation.
Identify at least three arguments in favor and three against this approach
Pros
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Cons
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Alternative 2 ____________________________________________________
Identify at least three arguments in favor and three against this approach
Pros
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Cons
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Alternative 3 ______________________________________________
Identify at least three arguments in favor and three against this approach
Pros
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Cons
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Given the information above select your recommended alternative and explain why you feel it is the best alternative: This should take three to five paragraphs and be based upon the information presented in your case.
.
Issues and disagreements between management and employees lead.docxbagotjesusa
Issues and disagreements between management and employees lead to formation of labor unions. Over the decades, the role of labor unions has been interpreted in various ways by employees across the globe.
What are some of the reasons employees join labor unions?
Did you ever belong to a labor union? If you did, do you think union membership benefited you?
If you've never belonged to a union, do you think it would have benefited you in your current or past employment? Why or why not?
.
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Emerging data sharing models to promote financial service innovation june 201...Rafael Mazer
This report reviews the growing number of models that allow consumers to manage their personal and financial information. The global scan also considers these models' viability in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.
This study by SAS, targeted organisations that recognised they were well on their way to integrating IoT in their operations. We spoke to 75 teams who could draw from their experience of recent deployment or a sizeable proof-of-concept. These expert interviews were framed to draw out how deployments were scoped and sponsored, resourced and delivered.
https://www.sas.com/en_us/partners/find-a-partner/alliance-partners/ibm.html#
DATA MINING WITH CLUSTERING ON BIG DATA FOR SHOPPING MALL’S DATASETAM Publications
Big Data is the extremely large sets of data that their sizes are beyond the ability of capturing, managing, processing and storage by most software tools and people which is ever increasing day-by-day. In most enterprise scenarios the data is too big or it moves too fast that extremely exceeds current processing capacity. The term big data is also used by vendors, may refer to the technology which includes tools and processes that an organization requires to handle the large amounts of data and storage facilities. This advancement in technology leads to make relationship marketing a reality for today’s competitive world. But at the same time this huge amount of data cannot be analyzed in a traditional manner, by using manual data analysis. For this, technologies such as data warehousing and data mining have made customer relationship management as a new area where business firms can gain a competitive advantage for identifying their customer behaviors and needs. This paper mainly focuses on data mining technique that performs the extraction of hidden predictive information from large databases and organizations can identify valuable customers and predicts future user behaviors. This enables different organizations to make proactive, knowledge-driven decisions. Data mining tools answer business questions that in the past were too time-consuming, this makes customer relationship management possible. For this in this paper, we are trying explain the use of data mining technique to accomplish the goals of today’s customer relationship management and Decision making for different companies that deals with big data.
Information systems and competitive strategy by emanuel baisireEmanuel Baisire
The paper examines the impact of information systems technology in achieving competitive edge. The paper reviews several firms’ attempt to out-compete rivals through the use of information systems and streamlining production cost by adopting new business processes that are influenced by information systems. Many organizations have embraced the use of information systems to gain market share, increase customer loyalty and introduce new products to consumers The existence of transaction processing systems and decision support systems have eased the process in which important business decision are reached. The paper also links the impact and value of information systems in determining an ideal competitive strategy for a firm within an industry. It also examines how firms apply information systems technology to execute business processes.
Global cloud services market (service type, cloud type, end user and geograph...Allied Market Research
Cloud computing is the practice of sharing network of remote servers which are hosted on the Internet to store, process, share, and manage data rather than on a local server or a personal computer. The services provided by the cloud computing technology are referred to as cloud services.
If the CIO is to be valued as a strategic actor, how can he bring .docxsheronlewthwaite
If the CIO is to be valued as a strategic actor, how can he bring to the table the ethos ofalignment, bound to the demands of process strategic planning to move IT to the forefront of theorganization's future?Alignment refers to linkages within the business model that connect disparate parts of
the organization together through information technologies. There are two aspects to consider:
affordability and scale. Executing an enterprise-wide information system, generally through
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) process, is a significant capital investment. Not all units will
be mature enough to embrace ERP; the market may not have global solutions. Consequently,
alignment needs to be scalable (increase investment as demand increases), and agile (ready to
embrace quickly). What follows is an analysis of each of the readings available for this
discussion. After these critical reviews, I will provide a snapshot and invite you to tackle the
problem and the assessment of these reviews.
A. Bradley, J., J. Loucks, J. Macaulay, A. Noronha, & M. Wade. (2015, July). Disruptor and
Disrupted -- Strategy in the Digital Vortex. Global Center for Digital Business
Transformation. Retrieved from https://www.imd.org/dbt/whitepapers/disruptor-disrupted.
Citation: (Bradley et al., 2015: p#)
1. Major theme of the essay: To survive, companies need to recognize market forces
(disruptors) that threaten the corporation’s share of market value (disrupted). The ideas
examine the tensions between internal and external environments. The corporation must
be smart and ready to move quickly as threats emerge.
2. Arguments used to support this theme Value is created through cost, experience,
and platform (delivery). Intrusions into the market here referred to as digital disruptions or
the digital vortex, are “value vampires”. They succeed at the expense of others. Vampires
see opportunities in the digital vortex known as value vacancies. These opportunities are
short-lived and hard won. Disruptors join forces in the market to supply value. This is
known as combinational disruption. It is met by digital business agility. When a threat
emerges, dominant market forces exhibit digital agility: accessing information processing
systems that monitor the internal and external environments. Visualized, the system is an
iterative flow of data between the internal business environment (employees, operations,
information system assets) and the external business environment (customers, partners,
macroeconomics). Decisions are filtered by hyperawareness, informed decision making,
and fast execution (Nicolay, figure 1, p. 17). Hyperawareness simply means knowing
your market, emerging technologies, and shifts in consumer behavior.
Hyperawareness and informed decision making demand good data and big data
analysis that create actionable linkages. Informed decision making leads to poor
decisions when decision makers cannot surrender their own strategic biases. Biases are
defeated by listen ...
Big data is a broad term for data sets so large or complex that tr.docxhartrobert670
Big data is a broad term for data sets so large or complex that traditional data processing applications are inadequate. Challenges include analysis, capture, curation, search, sharing, storage, transfer, visualization, and information privacy. The term often refers simply to the use of predictive analytics or other certain advanced methods to extract value from data, and seldom to a particular size of data set.
Analysis of data sets can find new correlations, to "spot business trends, prevent diseases, combat crime and so on."[1] Scientists, practitioners of media and advertising and governments alike regularly meet difficulties with large data sets in areas including Internet search, finance and business informatics. Scientists encounter limitations in e-Science work, including meteorology, genomics,[2]connectomics, complex physics simulations,[3] and biological and environmental research.[4]
Data sets grow in size in part because they are increasingly being gathered by cheap and numerous information-sensing mobile devices, aerial (remote sensing), software logs, cameras, microphones, radio-frequency identification (RFID) readers, and wireless sensor networks.[5]
HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_data" \l "cite_note-6" [6]
HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_data" \l "cite_note-7" [7] The world's technological per-capita capacity to store information has roughly doubled every 40 months since the 1980s;[8] as of 2012, every day 2.5 exabytes (2.5×1018) of data were created;[9] The challenge for large enterprises is determining who should own big data initiatives that straddle the entire organization.[10]
Work with big data is necessarily uncommon; most analysis is of "PC size" data, on a desktop PC or notebook[11] that can handle the available data set.
Relational database management systems and desktop statistics and visualization packages often have difficulty handling big data. The work instead requires "massively parallel software running on tens, hundreds, or even thousands of servers".[12] What is considered "big data" varies depending on the capabilities of the users and their tools, and expanding capabilities make Big Data a moving target. Thus, what is considered to be "Big" in one year will become ordinary in later years. "For some organizations, facing hundreds of gigabytes of data for the first time may trigger a need to reconsider data management options. For others, it may take tens or hundreds of terabytes before data size becomes a significant consideration."[13]
Contents
· 1 Definition
· 2 Characteristics
· 3 Architecture
· 4 Technologies
· 5 Applications
· 5.1 Government
· 5.1.1 United States of America
· 5.1.2 India
· 5.1.3 United Kingdom
· 5.2 International development
· 5.3 Manufacturing
· 5.3.1 Cyber-Physical Models
· 5.4 Media
· 5.4.1 Internet of Things (IoT)
· 5.4.2 Technology
· 5.5 Private sector
· 5.5.1 Retail
· 5.5.2 Retail Banking
· 5.5.3 Real Estate
· 5.6 Science
· 5.6.1 Science and Resear ...
Are you making money on your data assets? You could be. And there is more than one way. Boost innovation, tap into new revenue streams and industry sectors. It’s time to see the potential of big data.
Issues Identify at least seven issues you see in the case1..docxbagotjesusa
Issues: Identify at least seven issues you see in the case
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
What is the Key issue you see in the case: __________________________
What facts pertain to the case: Identify at least three important facts that pertain to the case
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
What assumptions do you plan to make in your analysis: None is an acceptable answer
1.
2.
3
What people and organizations may have an impact on the case: There should be at least five.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
You are writing the case from the perspective of which person or organization:______________
What tools of Analysis would you use in this case: You only need to identify them and explain what information each will give you that you feel is important.
Based upon the above information – provide three alternatives
Alternative 1 is the Status Quo or to do nothing different that the current situation.
Identify at least three arguments in favor and three against this approach
Pros
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Cons
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Alternative 2 ____________________________________________________
Identify at least three arguments in favor and three against this approach
Pros
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Cons
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Alternative 3 ______________________________________________
Identify at least three arguments in favor and three against this approach
Pros
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Cons
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Given the information above select your recommended alternative and explain why you feel it is the best alternative: This should take three to five paragraphs and be based upon the information presented in your case.
.
Issues and disagreements between management and employees lead.docxbagotjesusa
Issues and disagreements between management and employees lead to formation of labor unions. Over the decades, the role of labor unions has been interpreted in various ways by employees across the globe.
What are some of the reasons employees join labor unions?
Did you ever belong to a labor union? If you did, do you think union membership benefited you?
If you've never belonged to a union, do you think it would have benefited you in your current or past employment? Why or why not?
.
ISSA Journal September 2008Article Title Article Author.docxbagotjesusa
ISSA Journal | September 2008Article Title | Article Author
1�1�
ISSA The Global Voice of Information Security
Extending the McCumber Cube
to Model Network Defense
By Sean M. Price – ISSA member Northern Virginia, USA chapter
This article proposes an extension to the McCumber
Cube information security model to determine the best
countermeasures to achieve a desired security goal.
Confidentiality, integrity, and availability are the se-curity services of a system. In other words they are the security goals of system defense, intangible at-
tributes� providing assurances for the information protected.
Each service is realized when the appropriate countermea-
sures for a given information state are in place. But, it is not
enough to select countermeasures ad hoc. Countermeasures
should be selected to defend a system and its information
against specific types of attacks. When attacks against partic-
ular information states are considered, the necessary coun-
termeasures can be selected to achieve the desired security
service or goal. This article proposes an extension to the Mc-
Cumber Cube information security model as a way for the
security practitioner to consider the best countermeasures to
achieve the desired security goal.
Security models
Models are useful tools to help understand complex topics. A
well-developed model can often be represented graphically,
allowing a deeper understanding of the relationships of the
components that make the whole. A formal security model
is broadly applicable and rigorously developed using formal
methods.2 In contrast, an informal model is considered lack-
ing one or both of these qualities. There are a variety of in-
formal models in the information security world which are
regularly used by security practitioners to understand basic
information and concepts.
� Security goals often lack explicit definitions and are difficult to quantify. They are
usually based on policies with broad interpretations and tend to be qualitative. It is
true that security goals emerge from the confluence of information states and coun-
termeasures which have measurable attributes. But, the subjective nature of security
goals combined with informal modeling characterizes their attributes as intangible.
2 P. T. Devanbu and S. Stubblebine, “Software Engineering for Security: A Roadmap,”
Proceedings of the Conference on The Future of Software Engineering (2000), 227-239.
One such informal model is the generally accepted risk as-
sessment framework. This model is used to assess risk by
estimating asset values, vulnerabilities, threats with their
likelihood of exploiting a vulnerability, and losses. Figure �
illustrates this model. Note that this commonly used model
requires a substantial amount of estimating on the part of
the risk assessment participants. This is problematic when
reliable estimates cannot be obtained. Another problem with
this model is that it does not guide th.
ISOL 536Security Architecture and DesignThreat Modeling.docxbagotjesusa
ISOL 536
Security Architecture and Design
Threat Modeling
Session 6a
“Processing Threats”
Agenda
• When to find threats
• Playing chess
• How to approach software
• Tracking threats and assumptions
• Customer/vendor
• The API threat model
• Reading: Chapter 7
When to Find Threats
• Start at the beginning of your project
– Create a model of what you’re building
– Do a first pass for threats
• Dig deep as you work through features
– Think about how threats apply to your mitigations
• Check your design & model matches as you
get close to shipping
Attackers Respond to Your Defenses
Playing Chess
• The ideal attacker will follow the road you
defend
– Ideal attackers are like spherical cows — they’re a
useful model for some things
• Real attackers will go around your defenses
• Your defenses need to be broad and deep
“Orders of Mitigation”
Order Threat Mitigation
1st Window smashing Reinforced glass
2nd Window smashing Alarm
3rd Cut alarm wire Heartbeat signal
4th Fake heartbeat Cryptographic signal integrity
By Example:
• Thus window smashing is a first order threat, cutting
alarm wire, a third-order threat
• Easy to get stuck arguing about orders
• Are both stronger glass & alarms 1st order
mitigations? (Who cares?!)
• Focus on the concept of interplay between
mitigations & further attacks
How to Approach Software
• Depth first
– The most fun and “instinctual”
– Keep following threats to see where they go
– Can be useful skill development, promoting “flow”
• Breadth first
– The most conservative use of time
• Best when time is limited
– Most likely to result in good coverage
Tracking Threats and Assumptions
• There are an infinite number of ways to
structure this
• Use the one that works reliably for you
• (Hope doesn’t work reliably)
Example Threat Tracking Tables
Diagram Element Threat Type Threat Bug ID
Data flow #4, web
server to business
logic
Tampering Add orders without
payment checks
4553 “Need
integrity controls on
channel”
Info disclosure Payment
instruments sent in
clear
4554 “need crypto”
#PCI
Threat Type Diagram Element(s) Threat Bug ID
Tampering Web browser Attacker modifies
our JavaScript order
checking
4556 “Add order-
checking logic to
server”
Data flow #2 from
browser to server
Failure to
authenticate
4557 “Add enforce
HTTPS everywhere”
Both are fine, help you iterate over diagrams in different ways
Example Assumption Tracking
Assumption Impact if it’s
wrong
Who to talk
to
Who’s
following up
Follow-up
by date
Bug #
It’s ok to
ignore
denial of
service
within the
data center
Availability
will be
below spec
Alice Bob April 15 4555
• Impact is sometimes so obvious it’s not worth filling out
• Who to talk to is not always obvious, it’s ok to start out blank
• Tracking assumptions in bugs helps you not lose track
• Treat the assumption as a bug – you need to resolve it
The Customer/Vendor Boundary
• There is always.
ISOL 533 Project Part 1OverviewWrite paper in sections.docxbagotjesusa
ISOL 533 Project Part 1
Overview
Write paper in sections
Understand the company
Find similar situations
Research and apply possible solutions
Research and find other issues
Health network inc
You are an Information Technology (IT) intern
Health Network Inc.
Headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota
Two other locations
Portland Oregon
Arlington Virginia
Over 600 employees
$500 million USD annual revenue
Data centers
Each location is near a data center
Managed by a third-party vendor
Production centers located at the data centers
Health network’s Three products
HNetExchange
Handles secure electronic medical messages between
Large customers such as hospitals and
Small customers such as clinics
HNetPay
Web Portal to support secure payments
Accepts various payment methods
HNetConnect
Allows customers to find Doctors
Contains profiles of doctors, clinics and patients
Health networks IT network
Three corporate data centers
Over 1000 data severs
650 corporate laptops
Other mobile devices
Management request
Current risk assessment outdated
Your assignment is to create a new one
Additional threats may be found during re-evaluation
No budget has been set on the project
Threats identified
Loss of company data due to hardware being removed from production systems
Loss of company information on lost or stolen company-owned assets, such as mobile devices and laptops
Loss of customers due to production outages caused by various events, such as natural disasters, change management, unstable software, and so on
Internet threats due to company products being accessible on the Internet
Insider threats
Changes in regulatory landscape that may impact operations
Part 1 project assignment
Conduct a risk assessment based on the information from this presentation
Write a 5-page paper properly APA formatted
Your paper should include
The Scope of the risk assessment i.e. assets, people, processes, and technologies
Tools used to conduct the risk assessment
Risk assessment findings
Business Impact Analysis
.
Is the United States of America a democracyDetailed Outline.docxbagotjesusa
Is the United States of America a democracy?
Detailed Outline:
-Introduction (2-3 Paragraphs):
Define and discuss the criteria for democracy.
What does a country need to be democratic?
-Thesis Statement (1 Paragraph):
Clearly state whether or not you think America is a democracy. Briefly preview the three pieces of evidence you are going to use. Your thesis statement is your argument. It must be clear and strongly stated so I know what you are arguing.
-Supporting Evidence 1 (1-3 Paragraphs)
Using Freedom House’s 2021 (2020 if 21 is not available)analysis of the U.S., support your argument regarding democracy in the U.S analysis of the U.S., support your argument regarding democracy in the U.S.
Supporting Evidence 2 (1-3 Paragraphs)
Choose a news article and explain the event covered in the article and how it
supports your argument.
Supporting Evidence 3 (1-3 Paragraphs)
Choose another news article
-Conclusion (1-2 Paragraphs)
Summarize your supporting evidence and how it supports your overall argument. This should include a brief discussion about how the other argument could be right
Citations: You will need outside sources for this paper. All sources must be properly cited. This means that the sources need to be parenthetically cited in the text of the paper and need to be included in a bibliography page. You are not allowed to use any user edit web sites (Wikipedia, Yahoo Answers, Ask.com, etc.) or social media as sources
4-5 papers
.
Islamic Profession of Faith (There is no God but God and Muhammad is.docxbagotjesusa
Islamic Profession of Faith (There is no God but God and Muhammad is his prophet.)
1. [contextualize] How are they a reflection of the time and culture which produced them?
2. [evaluate] What were the implications of these beliefs and values during the Middle Ages?
3. [compare] How do the beliefs and values of these cultures compare to your own?
.
IS-365 Writing Rubric Last updated January 15, 2018 .docxbagotjesusa
IS-365 Writing Rubric
Last updated: January 15, 2018
Student:
Score (out of 50):
General Comments:
Other comments are embedded in the document.
Criterion <- Higher - Quality - Lower ->
Persuasiveness The reader is
compelled by solid
critical reasoning,
appropriate usage of
sources, and
consideration of
alternative
viewpoints.
The document is
logical and coherent
enough that the
reader can accept its
points and
conclusions
Gaps in logic and
uncritical review of
sources cause the
reader to have some
doubts about the
points made by the
document, or
whether they’re
relevant to the
question asked.
The reader is unsure
of what the document
is trying to
communicate, or is
wholly unconvinced
by its arguments
Not
applicable
Evidence and support Exceptional use of
authoritative and
relevant sources,
properly cited,
providing strong
support of the
document’s points
Sufficient relevant
and authoritative
sources give
confidence that the
document is based
on adequate
research
Sources are
insufficient in
number, not
authoritative, not
relevant, or
improperly cited
No sources are used,
undermining the
document’s
foundations
Not
applicable
Writing Word choices, flow
of logic, and
sentence and
paragraph structure
engage the reader,
making for a
pleasurable
experience
Writing is clear and
adequately fulfills
the document’s
purpose
Some issues with
word choice and
sentence and
paragraph structure
interfere with the
conveyance of the
document’s ideas
Frequent questionable
choices in writing
make it difficult to
read and understand
Not
applicable
Language Essentially free of
language errors
Minor errors in
grammar,
punctuation, or
spelling
Noticeable language
errors that detract
from the readability
of the document
Significant language
errors that call the
credibility of the
document into
question
Not
applicable
Formatting (heading
styles, fonts, margins,
white space, tables
and graphics)
Professional and
consistent formatting
that enhances
readability.
Appropriate use of
tables and graphics.
Generally acceptable
formatting choices.
Some missed
opportunities for
displaying data via
tables or graphics.
Inconsistent or
questionable
formatting choices
that detract from the
document’s
readability
Critical formatting
issues that make the
document
unprofessional-
looking
Not
applicable
Page 1
Page 1
Page 2
(Name deleted)
IS-365
Art Fifer
2/17/2017
Technical Documents for Varying Audiences
In this paper, I’ll be exploring the differences in presenting technical communications to audiences of varying knowledge. The topic of these two general summaries will be the manner in which computers connect to each other, including summaries of several communication protocols, how information traverses the network, and how it arrives at its destination and is read by th.
ISAS 600 – Database Project Phase III RubricAs the final ste.docxbagotjesusa
ISAS 600 – Database Project Phase III Rubric
As the final step to your proposed database, you submitted your Project Plan. This document should communicate how you intend to complete the project. Include timelines and resources required.
Area
Does not meet expectations
Meets expectations
Exceeds expectations
A. Analysis - how will you determine the needs of the database
Did not identify appropriate plan for analysis phase
Identified appropriate plan for analysis phase
Identified appropriate plan for analysis phase and included additional content
Design - what process will you use to design the database (tables, forms, queries, reports)
Did not sufficiently identify detail on the appropriate process for design phase
Identified appropriate process for design phase
Identified appropriate process for design phase and included additional detail
Prototype/End user feedback - Will you show users a prototype before building the system?
Did not sufficiently identify method for feedback and prototypes during building of the system
Identified method for feedback and prototypes during building of the system
Identified method for feedback and prototypes during building of the system and provided additional detail
Coding - what process will you use to build the database?
Did not sufficiently identify appropriate process for coding the database
Identified appropriate process for coding the database
Identified appropriate process for coding the database and provided additional detail.
Testing - How will you test it?
to build the database?
Did not sufficiently identify appropriate process for testing the database
Identified appropriate process for testing the database
Identified appropriate process for testing the database and provided additional detail.
User Acceptance - describe the final step of determining if you met the user's needs?
Did not sufficiently identify an appropriate process for User Acceptance phase - How to determine if the database meets user’s needs.
Identified appropriate process for User Acceptance phase - How to determine if the database meets user’s needs.
Identified appropriate process for User Acceptance phase - How to determine if the database meets user’s needs. Answer provided additional detail
Training - what is the plan for training end users?
Did not identify appropriate detail for training plan
Identified appropriate detail for training plan
Identified appropriate detail for a training plan and provided additional detail.
Project close out - what steps will you take to finalize the project?
Did not sufficiently identify appropriate steps for closing out the project
Identified appropriate steps for closing out the project
Identified appropriate steps for closing out the project and provided additional detail.
Entity Relationship Diagram1
ERD:
Normalization:
1NF:
For the 1st NF we will have to check the tables’ attributes, like there must not be any multivalued attribute, if there is any multivalued at.
Is teenage pregnancy a social problem How does this topic reflect.docxbagotjesusa
Is teenage pregnancy a social problem? How does this topic reflect the social construction of problems? How does social location impact if you view this as a social problem?
Explain why media representation of social problems is an important issue using the example of teenage pregnancy. What is an example of a problematic representation? Does this vary across race, ethnicity, religion, socioeconomic status and gender?
.
Is Texas so conservative- (at least for the time being)- as many pun.docxbagotjesusa
Is Texas so conservative- (at least for the time being)- as many pundits and observers claim? Or is that just an opinion not supported by analysis and facts? Not only does Texas vote Republican in many elections but has done so for many years. It is also the birthplace of the so-called Tea Party movement and of Ron Paul's campaigns for president. Texas also appears to espouse conservative approaches to government and to issues. You will need to define in a concrete and operational way what conservative means as conservative is more than voting behavior or party affiliation.
Texas is the 2nd largest state in population compared to California and.like California made up of many differing migrant and immigrant groups. Texas like California was also part of Northern Mexico. but Texas is very, very different from California in voting behavior and positions on social issues. Why? Texas and California are good comparisons or are they? Provide explanations of the differences and similarities in this ideological context
Texas was once "Democratic" but even that was not really the case in terms of either past or current Democratic ideals and goals but a historic reaction to the consequences of the civil war and the fact that Texas was on the losing side in that war and of the attempt to defend agrarian interests in the form of slavery.. Being Democratic from post civil war to the middle of the 20th century in part meant for decades being in favor of inequality for minorities and defenders in spirit, if not in fact, of slavery.net
So Texas was never "Democratic" and never a more liberal interpretation of reality but a reflection of conservative thought and a particular view of individualistic man.
Is Texas conservative and why? ( you will need a social, cultural, historical and economic analysis here
with supporting evidence)?
? Need much more than opinions here.
.
Irreplaceable Personal Objects and Cultural IdentityThink of .docxbagotjesusa
Irreplaceable: Personal Objects and Cultural Identity
Think of a
personal object
that is
irreplaceable
to you.
Please answer the following:
1. Describe the item and tell a brief story, memory, or ritual related to the item.
2. How does this possession influence your identity?
3. How does this item represent your cultural identity?
4. How is your selection of this item influenced by your identity and culture?
Instructions:
please answer all 4 questions accordingly. Each answer should have the question re-typed following the answer. A minimum of 500 words in all excluding the re-typed questions. No reference is needed.
.
IRB is an important step in research. State the required components .docxbagotjesusa
IRB is an important step in research. State the required components one should look for in a project to determine if IRB submission is needed. Discuss an example of a research study found in one of your literature review articles that needed IRB approval. Specifically, describe why IRB approval was needed in this instance.
.
irem.org/jpm | jpm® | 47
AND
REWARD
RISK
>>
BY KRISTIN GUNDERSON HUNT
THE FIGHT TO FILL VACANT COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE SPACE IN RECENT YEARS
HAS FORCED REAL ESTATE OWNERS AND MANAGERS TO CONSIDER NEW USES
FOR THEIR PROPERTIES—EVEN IF THEY REQUIRE TAKING ADDITIONAL RISKS.
especially vacancies,” said Janice
Ochenkowski, managing director
for Jones Lang LaSalle and the com-
mercial real estate firm’s director of
global risk management in Chicago.
“But property owners and manag-
ers have been very creative in how
to use their existing facilities.”
Traditional retail stores have been
transformed into everything from
medical office space and churches
to fitness centers and breweries. In
addition, special events and pop-
up stores are more commonplace;
traditional office spaces have been
converted to daycare centers; in-
dustrial warehouses are being used
as practice facilities for youth base-
ball teams; and the list goes on.
“From a risk management per-
spective, these new uses can bring
new challenges,” Ochenkowski said.
“However, it is the primary goal
of the risk manager to support the
business, which means we need to
be more creative in the way we deal
with these risks.”
DOESN’T MEAN YOU HAVE TO WALK AWAY.”–JANICE OCHENKOWSKI, JONES
LANG LASAL
LE
DO THE ASSESSMENT HONESTLY. JUST BECAUSE THERE IS A HI
GHER RISK
“DON’T BE AFRAID TO THINK ABOUT WHAT THE RISKS ARE.
the tough economy has resulted in a lot of challenges—“
DUE DILIGENCE
The risks associated with new-use tenants are as varied as the tenants them-
selves.
First and foremost, certain tenants could present additional life safety
risks, said Jeffrey Shearman, a Pittsburgh-based senior risk engineering con-
sultant and real estate industry practice leader for commercial insurance
provider, Zurich.
For example, restaurant tenants create increased exposure to fire; church
and/or educational institutions might spur egress concerns because they en-
courage large gatherings in spaces formerly used for different occupancy;
and hazardous waste can be a risk with some medical tenants.
“You have to recognize that certain types of work are going to create cer-
tain types of hazards,” Shearman said.
Beyond life safety risks, certain tenants might be more susceptible than
previous tenants to codes and regulations imposed by state or federal laws,
such as licensing regulations for daycares or American Disabilities Act re-
quirements for medical tenants, said Pat Pollan, CPM, principal at Pollan
Hausman Real Estate Services in Houston.
New-use tenant risks don’t stop there: financial risks also exist. Replac-
ing a unique tenant with a similar occupant after the lease expires can be
difficult—a particular concern if a lot of money was spent customizing the
space for an alternative use.
“It’s not just the risk of liability, it’s the risk of the tenant going out of busi-
ness and losing any money you put into the tenant, or its space, .
IoT References:
https://www.techrepublic.com/article/how-to-secure-your-iot-devices-from-botnets-and-other-threats/
https://www.peerbits.com/blog/biggest-iot-security-challenges.html
https://www.bankinfosecurity.asia/securing-iot-devices-challenges-a-11138
https://www.sumologic.com/blog/iot-security/
https://news.ihsmarkit.com/press-release/number-connected-iot-devices-will-surge-125-billion-2030-ihs-markit-says
https://cdn.ihs.com/www/pdf/IoT_ebook.pdf
https://go.armis.com/hubfs/Buyers%E2%80%99%20Guide%20to%20IoT%20Security%20-Final.pdf
https://www.techrepublic.com/article/smart-farming-how-iot-robotics-and-ai-are-tackling-one-of-the-biggest-problems-of-the-century/
Video Resources:What is the Internet of Things (IoT) and how can we secure it?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_X6IP1-NDc
What is the problem with IoT security? - Gary explains
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3yrk4TaIQQ
Classmate 1
The Rise of the Republican Party
The Republican Party was formed due to a split in the Whig Party. The anti-slavery
“Conscience Whigs” split from the pro-slavery “Cotton Whigs”. Some anti-slavery Whigs joined
the American “Know-Nothing” Party, while the remainder joined with independent Democrats
and Free-Soilers to form a new party, the Republicans. The initial members stood for one
principle: the exclusion of slavery from the western territories (Shi, p. 462). Knowing the
Republicans ideology, we will look at how the events leading up to the Kansas-Nebraska Act led
to greater political division that eventually caused the formation of the Republican Party and it’s
rise to the presidency in 1860.
In the 1850’s, America was becoming increasingly divided between those for and against
slavery. The Compromise of 1850 had temporarily appeased both sides by admitting California
as a free state, allowing no slavery restrictions in New Mexico and Utah, paying Texas,
abolishing slave trade but no slavery in the District of Columbia, establishing the Fugitive Slave
Act, and denying congress authority to interfere with interstate slave trade (Shi, p. 457). This
Fugitive Slave Act was highly contested, although very few slaves were returned to the south
under this Act. In fact, it ended up uniting anti-slavery people, more than aiding the South. It was
during this time that Uncle Tom’s Cabin was written, selling more than a million copies
worldwide and detailing the harsh brutality of slavery (Shi, p. 460-461).
In the mid-1850’s, the Kansas-Nebraska Act was passed. The main reason for it was to the
settle the vast territory west of Missouri and Iowa, and to create a transcontinental railroad to
capitalize on Asian markets and goods. New territories brought up questions of whether slavery
would be allowed, with many supporting “popular sovereignty” where voters chose whether they
would have slavery or not. The issue here was that the 1820 Missouri Compromise had said there
would be no new slaver.
In two paragraphs, respond to the prompt below. Journal entries .docxbagotjesusa
In two paragraphs, respond to the prompt below. Journal entries must contain proper grammar, spelling and capitalization.
Consider the communication pattern within your family of origin. How does your family's conversation orientation (how open your family is to discuss a range of topics) and conformity orientation (how strongly your family reinforces the uniformity of attitudes, values and beliefs) affect your interactions with your partner? If you don't think there is any effect, explain your reasoning.
.
Investigative Statement AnalysisInitial statement given by Ted K.docxbagotjesusa
Investigative Statement Analysis
Initial statement given by Ted Kennedy in reference to the accident that occurred on July 18, 1969 in Chappaquiddick, Massachusetts.
Date:
October 30, 2007
Analyst Comments:
Narrative Balance: The Prologue begins with sentence #1 and ends with sentence #3. The Central Issue begins with sentence #4 and ends with sentence #9. The Epilogue begins with sentence #10 and ends with sentence #14. Thus the breakdown is:
Prologue = 3 sentences
Central Issue = 6 sentences
Epilogue = 5 sentences
The narrative is somewhat unbalanced due to the short Prologue and thus can be considered to be possibly deceptive on its face. It is not unbalanced enough to say this conclusively.
Mean Length of Unit:
The narrative has 14 sentences and 237 words, thus giving a MLU of 16.9 rounded to 17. Thus any sentences 23 words or longer and any sentences 11 words or less can be considered deceptive on their face.
Structure of Analysis:
The actual sentences from the narrative are in bold italicized type. After each sentence are the number of words in the sentence, whether or not it is deceptive on its face, and the analyst’s comments. All of these will be in normal type.
1.
On July 18th, 1969, at approximately 11:15 P.M. in Chappaquiddick, Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, I was driving my car on Main Street on my way to get the ferry back to Edgartown.
30 words – Deceptive on its face. There is no mention of the passenger in this sentence. All of the pronouns are singular. It is “my car” “on my way”, etc. When the passenger is mentioned later, it is almost an afterthought. The deception in this sentence may be the last part of the sentence where he relates why he was driving the car. He very well may have been driving for some reason other than to get the ferry. This would be an area to be further explored in an interview.
2.
I was unfamiliar with the road and turned right onto Dike Road, instead of bearing hard left on Main Street.
20 words. “I was unfamiliar with the road” is an explanatory phrase telling us why he ended up on Dike Road. The phrase “instead of bearing hard left on Main Street” is a strange way of phrasing. Most people would say something like “instead of staying on Main Street.”
3.
After proceeding for approximately one-half mile on Dike Road I descended a hill and came upon a narrow bridge.
20 words. There is nothing particularly deceptive about this sentence. The phrasing of the sentence is very formal. The phrasing is almost like a police type report or a legal/lawyer way of phrasing. It also appears that the phrase “came upon a narrow bridge” is almost a passive way of phrasing that indicates he was taken by surprise and had no control over what he was doing.
4.
The car went off the side of the bridge.
9 words – This sentence is deceptive on its face. This is the very first sentence of the Central Issue. It is interesting to note that four of the six s.
Investigating Happiness at College SNAPSHOT T.docxbagotjesusa
Investigating Happiness at College
SNAPSHOT:
TOPIC Either a specific group related to college or a factor within
college life that possibly affects a specified group of college
students or students in general.
PITCH Present your topic and your research question to the class—
shark tank! Sound too scary? How about guppy tank ?).
Tentative due date: 2/5 & 2/7
ESSAY 1 The prospectus and the annotated bibliography.
Tentative due date: 2/21
ESSAY 2 Change in your topic or conducting your own study
Tentative due date: 3/16
ESSAY 3 Argument about a specific controversy within your topic
Tentative due date: 4/6
ESSAY 4 Answers and argues your refined research question about the
importance of your topic.
Tentative due date: 4/24
♥ Rough drafts with reflections about what is working and not working and
WHY will be required for the prospectus and essays 2 and 3. The work
on the rough draft and the reflections will count toward your essay grade.
♥ Final reflections submitted the class period after you submit your final
draft for essays 2-4 will also count as part of your essay grade.
♥ You will upload your drafts on Moodle. You will be asked to identify the
portions of the sources you used and submit hard copies of your sources
in a folder or files of your sources online.
Investigating Happiness at College:
Some questions that will help you form your own research
questions:
● Is happiness a necessity or a perk in college life?
● What do the expectations of happiness and the pursuit of
happiness reveal about a specific college group, college
students in general, or another college-related group?
● Considering both on-campus factors and off-campus factors
(at least at first), what most influences your group’s
happiness (or unhappiness)?
● Is there one major factor (on campus or off campus) you
would want to investigate that affects students’ happiness?
● How do the expectations about happiness that society has in
general or a certain specific segment of society (for
instance, parents) has, relate to college or college students?
● How much do preconceived notions and expectations about
college life affect student happiness?
● Hard work is hard to enjoy. So how do students balance that
hard work with the .
Investigate Development Case Death with Dignity Physician-Assiste.docxbagotjesusa
Investigate Development Case: Death with Dignity / Physician-Assisted Suicide
MAKE A DECISION: Is Ben's decision making being affected by his depression?
Yes
No
Why? Give reasons for why you chose the way you did. Consider the following factors in your reasons:
The effects of depression on decision making
Other stresses in Ben's life contributing to his state of mind
Ben's current quality of life
The family's values and beliefs
Your own values and beliefs
Please see attachment
.
Operation “Blue Star” is the only event in the history of Independent India where the state went into war with its own people. Even after about 40 years it is not clear if it was culmination of states anger over people of the region, a political game of power or start of dictatorial chapter in the democratic setup.
The people of Punjab felt alienated from main stream due to denial of their just demands during a long democratic struggle since independence. As it happen all over the word, it led to militant struggle with great loss of lives of military, police and civilian personnel. Killing of Indira Gandhi and massacre of innocent Sikhs in Delhi and other India cities was also associated with this movement.
How to Make a Field invisible in Odoo 17Celine George
It is possible to hide or invisible some fields in odoo. Commonly using “invisible” attribute in the field definition to invisible the fields. This slide will show how to make a field invisible in odoo 17.
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The empire's roots lie in the city of Rome, founded, according to legend, by Romulus in 753 BCE. Over centuries, Rome evolved from a small settlement to a formidable republic, characterized by a complex political system with elected officials and checks on power. However, internal strife, class conflicts, and military ambitions paved the way for the end of the Republic. Julius Caesar’s dictatorship and subsequent assassination in 44 BCE created a power vacuum, leading to a civil war. Octavian, later Augustus, emerged victorious, heralding the Roman Empire’s birth.
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Basic phrases for greeting and assisting costumers
September 2016 (153) MIS Quarterly Executive 179Drawb.docx
1. September 2016 (15:3) | MIS Quarterly Executive 179
Drawbacks of a Modular Structure for IT Multisourcing12
During the last decade, the modus operandi of IT outsourcing
has undergone a major
transformation. While earlier outsourcing deals were primarily
executed with a single vendor,
more recent deals often involve multiple vendors.3 When a firm
contracts with multiple vendors
for IT projects and services, this is called IT multisourcing.4
Numerous global companies,
such as ABN AMRO, BP, Chevron, General Motors and Royal
Dutch Shell, have adopted IT
multisourcing strategies to reap the potential benefits this
approach has to offer. Compared to
traditional single-sourcing arrangements, key benefits include
lower IT costs resulting from
vendor competition and best-of-breed services, higher IT
service quality and lower vendor
dependency. Table 1 summarizes major benefits (and risks) of
IT multisourcing.
The predominant approach to structuring IT multisourcing
arrangements is based on the
concept of vendor modularity. This approach follows the same
logic as single-sourcing models:
activities given to a vendor have to be “separable” from the
activities performed by the client
and other vendors, respectively. As a consequence, after the
initial bidding phase at the latest,
client firms tend to assign exclusive work areas to their multiple
2. vendors. For example, in 2005,
Dutch bank ABN AMRO signed an IT multisourcing contract
worth $2.2 billion over five years
1 Mary Lacity is the accepting senior editor for this article.
2 The first three authors contributed equally to
this paper and are listed alphabetically. We
acknowledge the support of the Dr. Theo
and Friedl Schoeller Research Center for Business
and Society of the Friedrich-Alexander University
Erlangen-Nürnberg (Germany)
for this research project.
3 Bapna, R., Barua, A., Mani, D. and Mehra, A.
“Cooperation, Coordination, and Governance in
Multisourcing: An Agenda for
Analytical and Empirical Research,” Information Systems
Research (21:4), 2010, pp. 785-795.
4 Wiener, M. and Saunders, C. “Forced Coopetition
in IT Multisourcing,” Journal of Strategic Information
Systems (23:3), 2014,
pp. 210-225.
How adidas Realized Benefits from a
Contrary IT Multisourcing Strategy
In traditional IT outsourcing and multisourcing arrangements,
clients isolate vendor
tasks, resulting in modular sourcing structures. But this
approach can stifle vendor
competition, result in vendor lock-in and hinder organizational
flexibility. This article
describes how adidas adopted a new type of multisourcing
strategy, which embraces
vendor overlaps to overcome these constraints and deliver a
range of benefits. We pro-
vide guidelines for implementing this new type of multisourcing
strategy.1
4. multisourcing deal with AT&T for network and
telecommunications, T-Systems for hosting and
storage and EDS for end-user computing and
infrastructure services.7
By assigning dedicated work areas
(“modules”) to each vendor, IT multisourcing
clients employ a traditional way to deal with
complexity in organizations and to limit
coordination costs. They break down large sets
of IT activities into modules to make them more
manageable. Each module’s internal activities
can be treated as a “black box” and thus can be
optimized without considering other modules’
activities.8 Moreover, each module produces
an outcome that is basically independent of
the client’s other activities. In other words,
each module has few overlaps (if any) with
other activities of the firm, and any links that
do exist are easy to identify. Furthermore, each
outsourced module communicates with other
5 Levina, N. and Su, N. “Global Multisourcing
Strategy: The
Emergence of a Supplier Portfolio in Services
Offshoring,” Decision
Sciences (39:4), 2008, pp. 541-570.
6 “Multisourcing, the way ahead?,” ValueNotes,
February 25, 2008,
available at
http://www.sourcingnotes.com/content/view/293/76/.
7 Chapman, S. “Shell signs $4B multisupplier
outsourcing deal,”
Computerworld UK, March 31, 2008, available at
http://www.
computerworld.com/s/article/9073378/Shell_signs_4B_multisup
5. -
plier_outsourcing_deal.
8 Blackorby, C., Primont, D. and Russell, R. R.
Duality, Separabil-
ity, and Functional Structure: Theory and Economic
Applications,
1978, North-Holland.
modules through a limited set of well-defined
interfaces.9
The positive relationship between modularity
and outsourcing has been observed in a variety
of contexts, for example in car manufacturing,10
microcomputer production11 and pharmaceutical
R&D.12 Similarly in information systems, the
modular nature of IT activities has been shown
to facilitate outsourcing.13 Put differently, when
establishing IT outsourcing arrangements, and IT
multisourcing arrangements in particular, clients
aim to maximize vendor modularity (i.e., reduce
vendor overlaps) to decrease coordination efforts
on their part and clarify vendor accountabilities.
However, there may be a possible downside
in assuming that single-sourcing strategies can
always be successfully applied to IT multisourcing
scenarios. In particular, can the modularity
strategy that works so well in single-sourcing
arrangements be generalized to multisourcing?
A possible problem with modularity in IT
9 Langlois, R. N. “Modularity in Technology and
Organization,”
Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization (49:1), 2002,
pp.
6. 19-37.
10 MacDuffie, J. P. “Modularity-as-Property,
Modularization-as-
Process, and Modularity-as-Frame: Lessons from
Product Architec-
ture Initiatives in the Global Automotive Industry,”
Global Strategy
Journal (3:1), 2013, pp. 8-40.
11 Langlois, R. N. and Robertson, P. L. “Networks
and Innovation
in a Modular System: Lessons from the
Microcomputer and Stereo
Component Industries,” Research Policy (21:4), 1992,
pp. 297-313.
12 Howells, J., Gagliardi, D. and Malik, K. “The
Growth and Man-
agement of R&D Outsourcing: Evidence from UK
Pharmaceuticals,”
R&D Management (38:2), 2008, pp. 205-219.
13 Aubert, B. A., Houde, J. F., Patry, M. and
Rivard, S. “A Multi-
Level Investigation of Information Technology
Outsourcing,”
Journal of Strategic Information Systems (21:3), 2012, pp.
233-244;
Tiwana, A. “Does Technological Modularity Substitute
for Control?
A Study of Alliance Performance in Software
Outsourcing,” Strategic
Management Journal (29:7), 2008, pp. 769-780.
Table 1: IT Multisourcing Benefits and Risks5
Benefits Risks
• Increased vendor competition in terms of
7. price, quality, reliability, innovativeness, etc.
• Best-of-breed services
• Reduced operational and strategic risk (lower
vendor dependency)
• Increased ability to find the best-fitting vendor
(in terms of cost, quality, innovativeness, etc.)
• Decreased incentive for vendors to make
client-specific investments (relationship
building, knowledge, technology, etc.)
• Decreased incentive for client to make
vendor-specific investments (see above)
• Increased management overhead/transaction
costs (vendor contracting, coordination, etc.)
September 2016 (15:3) | MIS Quarterly Executive 181
How adidas Realized Benefits from a Contrary IT Multisourcing
Strategy
multisourcing arrangements is that it can
limit the level of ongoing competition among
vendors—a frequently cited key benefit of IT
multisourcing.14 In other words, with modularity,
the client runs the risk of creating multiple
vendor work silos with limited or no competition
within each silo. Furthermore, modularity makes
it very difficult to modify the overall architecture
since each module has to remain compatible with
8. the other modules, and no party has control over
all the components.15
Modularity could also increase the client’s
dependency on a vendor because the vendor
responsible for a module may come to “own” it.
If the module’s activities are really managed as
a black box, it may be difficult for the client to
assess them properly.
These downsides of a modular approach
raise the question of how an IT multisourcing
arrangement can be structured to tap the full
potential of multisourcing, including intense
vendor competition, greater client flexibility and
reduced vendor dependency. In existing modular
IT multisourcing models employed by global
companies such as ABN AMRO and Royal Dutch
Shell, vendor competition is largely limited to the
initial bidding phase.
In contrast to these more partnership-oriented
modular approaches, our case study of the adidas
Group (see Appendix for research methodology)
describes a novel and arguably more “aggressive”
IT multisourcing approach, which embraces
overlaps in vendor skills and work areas. This
approach enabled adidas Global IT to achieve
high levels of both ongoing vendor competition
and cooperation among its vendors, thereby
leveraging the benefits of IT multisourcing while
also minimizing many of the risks and challenges
associated with such a sourcing strategy. The
case of adidas thus provides a unique window
for assessing the use of vendor overlaps in IT
multisourcing.
9. However, allowing overlaps in vendor work
areas increases the number of interfaces and the
overall level of complexity and therefore requires
considerable coordination. Overlapping vendor
activities may also increase the difficulty in
14 Bapna, R. et al., op. cit., 2010; Levina, N.
and Su, N., op. cit.,
2008.
15 Langlois, R. N. and Robertson, P. L., op. cit.,
1992.
clarifying responsibilities, which makes vendor
monitoring more difficult as well.16
adidas Business and IT
Background
The adidas Group is a major player in the
global sporting goods industry. With more
than 50,000 employees worldwide and annual
revenues of about 15 billion euros ($16.6
billion),17 adidas is currently the second biggest
sporting goods company, behind the market
leader, Nike. Its product line includes 20,000
diverse items and is updated twice yearly to
respond to the highly competitive environment.
Globalized markets and increased competitive
pressure in the sporting goods industry forced
industry players to work to tight profit margins
and be very conscious of cost. To save on costs,
adidas (like its main competitors, such as
Nike) relied heavily on outsourcing for product
manufacturing. For example, since 1993, the bulk
10. of adidas’ production has been outsourced to
suppliers in Asia. Against this backdrop, it is not
surprising that corporate strategists at adidas
also saw the value of IT outsourcing, including IT
offshoring, as a viable cost-cutting tool.
Since the late 1990s, the strategic focus of
the adidas Group has shifted from being a pure
wholesaler to engaging in direct interactions
with end consumers around the globe. As a pure
wholesaler, adidas sold containers of sporting
goods to major retailing partners, but entered
the retail business in the late 1990s by opening
its own retail stores and launching its own
e-commerce platforms. In 2010, adidas operated
more than 1,350 retail concept stores worldwide.
The strategic shift from wholesaling to
retailing significantly increased the demand for
more flexible, more innovative and consumer-
oriented IT solutions. As a consequence, IT was
no longer regarded only as a mere operational
tool, but also as an important contributor to
competitive differentiation and value creation.
This change is also reflected in the new mission
statement of adidas Global IT, the internal IT
organization of the adidas Group: “Building a
16 Alchian, A. A. and Demsetz, H. “Production,
Information Costs,
and Economic Organization,” American Economic Review
(62:5),
1972, pp. 777-795.
17 Euro/dollar conversion rate as of early July
2016.
12. In Phase 1, IT work was outsourced on a CoE
basis, with each CoE having to use at least two
vendors within its area. This led to many vendor
overlaps and interfaces. Following a restructure
of adidas Global IT into “horizontal” cross-CoE
IT functions, there were fewer but larger vendor
overlaps in Phase 2 of the journey.
Phase 1: Introducing IT Multisourcing
(2011-2013)
In 2009, around the time that adidas Global
IT realized that India1’s performance was
declining, a new CIO joined the adidas Group. To
create a highly competitive vendor environment,
he introduced a new IT multisourcing strategy
in 2011. This strategy runs contrary to well-
established industry practices because it
embraces vendor overlaps (as opposed to vendor
modularity). Specifically, the CIO and his senior
management team decided to contract with two
additional offshore Tier-2 vendors. One, which we
call India2, is a medium-sized, Indian company
certified as Level 5 of the Capability Maturity
Model Integration (CMMI) model and is “hungry”
for work and willing to offer highly competitive
pricing. The second, which we call Belarus, is
a medium-sized, CMMI Level 4 company from
Eastern Europe. Its culture is similar to that
at adidas’ German headquarters. The vendor
selection process was orchestrated carefully to
ensure that India2 and Belarus have skillsets
that overlap significantly with the former single
vendor, India1. This ensured that each vendor
13. Figure 1: Single Vendor Outsourcing at adidas
IT CoE
Sales & Retail
IT CoE
eCommerce
IT CoE
Operations &
Corporate
Marketing
IT CoE
Group Function
& Cross-
Functional
Business
Infrastructure
Development
Support
Testing
Integration
15. Support
Integration
September 2016 (15:3) | MIS Quarterly Executive 183
How adidas Realized Benefits from a Contrary IT Multisourcing
Strategy
was able to take on virtually any project or
service in adidas’ entire IT portfolio.
The wide overlaps in vendor skillsets meant
that adidas Global IT could assign IT projects
and services to the three vendors in a way that
was characterized by vendor overlaps. Most
importantly, each vertical unit (CoE) in adidas
Global IT had to work with at least two of the
three vendors. Moreover, within a vertical, two
vendors often had to work together to provide
support services for a single software application.
For example, one vendor might be responsible
for first- and second-level support, while
another was responsible for third-level support.
And sometimes, all three vendors had to work
together on one project:
“There are projects where we have seen all
companies working on the same project.”
Regional Director, India2
adidas’ CIO emphasized that vendor overlaps
were created intentionally in the IT multisourcing
16. arrangement:
“… it was absolutely intentional that there
is a significant overlap, and, in fact, we
push some of [the vendors] to increase the
overlap. So, ideally, for every single [task],
in any area of my organization, I have all
three of them bidding.” CIO, adidas
By embracing significant overlaps among
vendor skills and tasks, adidas Global IT ensured
that each vendor was simultaneously competing
and cooperating with the other two vendors.
The resulting vendor overlaps were numerous
but often small when considering the size of each
work component awarded through a request
for proposal (RfP). More specifically, although
the infrastructure teams were shared among the
various CoEs, the vendors’ development, testing,
integration and support teams were embedded
into each vertical unit. Thus, the vendor overlaps
were created at a very granular level (see Figure
2). This does not mean, however, that vendors
performed exactly the same type of activities,
which could have led to management challenges
when responsibility for the work needed to
be determined. Rather, vendors were assigned
to different but interfacing areas of work. For
example, in one project:
“[India1] was more focused on the functional
aspect of the delivery, and [Belarus] was
more on the technical aspect of the delivery.
So, there is no mix in the same sort of a
role, but it’s a mixed team delivering the
17. project. So, from that perspective, … adidas
has been successful in keeping two parties
where we are not stepping on one another.”
Group Project Manager, India1
Figure 2: Vendor Overlaps and Interfaces in Phase 1
IT CoE
Sales & Retail
IT CoE
eCommerce
IT CoE
Operations &
Corporate
Marketing
IT CoE
Group Function
& Cross-
Functional
Business
Infrastructure
…
20. Moreover, because of the vertical CoEs, the
vendor work packages were closely aligned
with the requirements of the respective CoEs,
as highlighted by adidas Global IT’s Senior Vice
President: “The multisourcing structure was highly
successful in terms of driving business alignment
and business satisfaction.”
The significant overlaps between the vendors’
areas of work could have led to haggling and
conflicts among the vendors. However, in part
because the vendors had significant business with
adidas, relationships among vendors remained
constructive, and they collaborated to find
solutions to problems:
“In the end, you will have a couple of
software developers from two different
companies that need to find a solution
for whatever problem they have … very,
very few times [did] I have an escalation
from one of my guys, working on the
account, where they felt that [they were]
being treated unfairly by another vendor.”
Account Manager, Belarus
Even when a new vendor took business
away from the original vendor, the relationship
between the two remained professional:
“There are some cases where we need to
transition out services. … So, in those cases,
we have gone as far as inviting [India1]
people to [India2] to [help with the]
transition. … Surprisingly, it was not very
21. hostile … it’s a very friendly environment.”
Regional Director, India2
Using multiple and overlapping vendors was
especially favorable to the two new vendors, and
ultimately to adidas Global IT. Because of the
overlaps, India2 and Belarus were able to learn
from India1 and get up to speed on the various
work areas at adidas in a relatively short period
of time. This enabled them to compete with the
former single vendor as equals, to develop new
competencies (that they could also market to
other clients) and to make innovative suggestions
on how to improve IT operations at adidas.18
Nevertheless, the collaborative vendor
environment did not mean that there was no
pressure applied by adidas on the vendors. Even
some of the joint meetings, required to coordinate
the vendor overlaps, were used to apply subtle
pressure on vendors:
“Weekly, I have so-called technical
architects meetings where I am sitting
together with my guys, and I invite [India1]
and [Belarus]. … [When] you have [them]
sitting at the same table … everyone tries
to present himself or herself in the best
manner, tries to present his or her company
in a good light.” Senior Manager Wholesale
ERP, adidas
In summary, by introducing IT multisourcing
and by deliberately implementing a multisourcing
structure that embraced vendor overlaps,
22. adidas Global IT significantly increased vendor
competition and decreased its dependency on
any of the vendors. Although the vendor overlaps
led to intense competition, they also created an
environment that fostered vendor collaboration
and learning.
However, adidas’ multisourcing structure
also had some drawbacks. For example, the high
level of decentralization led to required skills,
such as Java developers, being replicated in each
CoE. This replication limited greatly the vendors’
ability to exploit economies of scale and scope,
making the work for adidas less attractive for the
vendors.
18 Nonaka, I. “Redundant, Overlapping Organization:
A Japanese
Approach to Managing the Innovation Process,”
California Manage-
ment Review (32:3), 1990, pp. 27-38.
September 2016 (15:3) | MIS Quarterly Executive 185
How adidas Realized Benefits from a Contrary IT Multisourcing
Strategy
In addition, by creating a high number of
vendor interfaces that had to be managed, the
structure led to increased transaction costs for
both adidas and the vendors. These costs arose
in three ways. First, even when the vendors had
different work streams within an IT project or for
an IT service (e.g., development vs. testing, first-
23. or second-level support vs. third-level support),
each vendor had to coordinate its work stream
with the work stream(s) of the other vendor(s).
Usually, this coordination also involved adidas
managers, creating yet another interface. Second,
the various projects and services also had to be
coordinated with each other, to ensure coherence
in the portfolio of each CoE. Third, each CoE
had to coordinate with the other CoEs to ensure
coherence at a corporate level.
Transaction costs were also increased by the
frequent issuing of RfPs, often for very small
projects. Another drawback of the Phase 1
multisourcing structure was that adidas retained
the final responsibility for resolving problems in a
project staffed with multiple vendors:
“So, who takes the responsibility if the project
goes wrong? Who takes the responsibility
of ensuring responsibility that the timelines
are met? Who takes the responsibility of
mitigating risks in a project? The answer is
adidas.” Regional Director, India2
Phase 2: Leveraging IT Multisourcing
(2013-2015)
Two years after the introduction of the new IT
multisourcing strategy, adidas’ CIO and his senior
management team were generally satisfied with
the outcomes. India2 and Belarus had reached
a critical threshold of business volume and
were able to enter into intense competition with
India1. adidas Global IT’s management thus felt
that the time had come to address the drawbacks
24. of the existing structure, which was designed to
successfully onboard the two new vendors. The
overarching idea in Phase 2 was to implement
what the CIO labeled an “industrialization of
the IT organization.” To do so, adidas Global
IT built horizontal IT functions across all of its
CoEs for development, testing, integration and
support activities. This structural change was not
fundamentally linked with outsourcing. It was an
organizational change that shifted the view of IT
activities from a CoE-centric view to a process-
centric view. Figure 3 illustrates the changed
structure.
With this new structure for adidas Global
IT, there were still overlaps between the three
offshore vendors, but the pattern of overlaps had
changed. The original “vertical” overlaps were
very granular. In contrast, the new structure,
which was based on four basic IT functions,
emphasized “horizontal” overlaps that were
fewer in number but bigger in size than the
previous overlaps. The goal was to “bundle”
vendor business volumes by limiting the number
of RfPs within each function to one per type
of technology (e.g., Java) or business domain.
Issuing RfPs in this way helped to regroup related
tasks across the CoEs. This also meant that IT
projects and services were no longer the specific
responsibility of the adidas CoE managers.
Interestingly, each horizontal IT function
was organized differently. For example, the
development function was structured around
development technologies, whereas the testing
26. Overall, the Phase 2 multisourcing structure
was positive for adidas because it continued to
limit vendor modularity. No vendor could work
in isolation from the others because they had to
interact closely, although in more concentrated
ways. This resulted in much larger blocks of
outsourced work, which enabled the vendors to
better leverage economies of scale and scope, and
reduced adidas’ coordination costs. To further
reduce coordination costs, adidas Global IT
introduced a new vendor management team. This
team was primarily concerned with increasing
the level of standardization in terms of contracts
(in particular, the development of templates
for the statements of work for individual IT
projects and services), vendor rate cards and
key performance indicators that were used for
steering the three vendors.
The vendors also perceived the new
structure as positive because it facilitated skills
development, as is typical with such functionally
oriented structures. Moreover, the vendors found
that the new structure, and the better-defined
vendor interfaces in particular, made vendor
collaboration less onerous because (in the words
of an India2 Regional Director) “responsibilities
are [now] very, very clearly demarcated.” This
had been a key drawback of the earlier structure
because the fine granularity of the tasks made
responsibilities for the larger body of work
difficult to pinpoint.
Moreover, the interface used in the new
27. structure was easier for the vendors to
understand and implement. The old separation
of activities, along the verticals, had been a good
fit with adidas’ IT organizational structure.
However, the structure based around horizontal
IT functions seemed to be a good fit with how IT
people tend to think of and separate IT activities.
This could explain why it was well received by
the vendors. Additionally, the new structure
put pressure on the vendors to improve their
performance:
“Everybody’s measuring the efficiency of
every horizontal, and every vendor in that
horizontal is required [to perform] on a very
competitive basis. So there is competition
between the horizontals and also within the
horizontals.” Regional Director, India2
Summary of adidas’ Multisourcing
Journey
Prior to adopting a multisourcing strategy,
adidas Global IT had been in a long-term
relationship with India1 that could probably
Figure 3: Shift from a CoE-Centric View of IT Activities to a
Process-Centric View
Testing
Development
Support
Integration
28. Testing
Development
Support
Integration
IT CoE
Sales & Retail
IT CoE
eCommerce
IT CoE
Operations &
Corporate
Marketing
IT CoE
Group Function
& Cross-
Functional
CoE-Centric View (Phase 1)
Infrastructure
…
Testing
Development
30. Development
Support
Integration
September 2016 (15:3) | MIS Quarterly Executive 187
How adidas Realized Benefits from a Contrary IT Multisourcing
Strategy
be considered a co-operative partnership.19
adidas not only gave a major portion of its
IT outsourcing budget to India1, but it also
established a captive center with this long-term
vendor, which would suggest the existence of
complementary goals. However, as is often the
case in such co-operative partnerships, especially
those that are focused on creating internal
efficiencies, the power balance shifted in favor
of the vendor, and the once-stable partnership
began to deteriorate.20 To redress the balance
between adidas and its outsourcing vendor,
adidas Global IT adopted a multisourcing strategy
(Phase 1 of its IT multisourcing journey) and fine-
tuned this strategy in Phase 2.
The changes that adidas’ IT organization
made during its multisourcing journey
can be summarized under three headings:
organizational structure, contract structure
and the consequences of each phase (see
Table 2). Phase 2 coincided with a changed
31. organizational structure for adidas Global IT.
The initial move toward multisourcing (Phase
1) had retained the correspondence between IT
projects and the CoEs. However, the change to
19 Willcocks, L. P. and Choi, C. J. “Co-operative
Partnership and
‘Total’ IT Outsourcing: From Contractual Obligation
to Strategic Al-
liance?,” European Management Journal (13:1), 1995, pp.
67-78.
20 Ibid.
horizontal cross-CoE IT functions meant that,
in Phase 2, outsourcing the development of new
systems, as well as their testing, integration and
support, took the same form as infrastructure
management. From this point in time, the bidding
process and the boundaries of RfPs changed.
They now matched the horizontal layers (IT
functions) instead of the vertical silos (business
functions).
The contract structure evolved through each
phase, shifting from one extreme to the other.
In the single-sourcing era, contracts were large,
awarded infrequently and, because there was
a single vendor, did not overlap in terms of
skills and areas. In Phase 1 of the multisourcing
journey, the nature of vendor contracts was
transformed drastically. Rather small contracts
were awarded very frequently, facilitated by
extensive skill and numerous work overlaps. This
created the need for many interfaces between
the vendors to coordinate interdependencies
across work processes and outputs. In Phase 2,
32. the introduction of the horizontal IT functions
reduced the bidding frequency to a more
manageable level, with the larger size of each
RfP being more attractive to the vendors. This
change was accompanied by an increasing
focus on standardization (e.g., harmonization of
vendor rate cards and introduction of contract
Figure 4: Vendor Overlaps and Interfaces in Phase 2
IT CoE
Sales & Retail
IT CoE
eCommerce
IT CoE
Operations &
Corporate
Marketing
IT CoE
Group Function
& Cross-
Functional
Business
Infrastructure
Testing
Development
34. costs associated with the multisourcing strategy.
Moreover, this change led to an increase in vendor
accountability and enabled the vendors to achieve
economies of scale and scope.
Table 2: Summary of Main Characteristics and Consequences of
Single Sourcing and
Multisourcing Phases
Single Sourcing
Phase 1:
Introducing
Multisourcing
Phase 2:
Leveraging
Multisourcing
Time interval 1998-2011 2011-2013 2013-2015
Number of IT vendors 1 3 3
Organizational Structure Characteristics
Graphical illustration Dev elopment
Support
In tegration
IT CoE
Sales & Retail
IT CoE
eCommerce
IT CoE
35. Operations &
Corporate
M arketing
IT CoE
Group Function
& Cross -
Functional
Business
Infrastructure
Tes ting
Dev elopment
Support
In tegration
…
Tes ting
Dev elopment
Tes ting
Support
Integration
Tes ting
36. Dev elopment
Support
In tegration
Tes ting
Dev elopment
Support
In tegration
Dev elopment
Support
Integration
IT CoE
Sales & Retail
IT CoE
eCommerce
IT CoE
Operations &
Corporate
M arketing
IT CoE
Group Function
& Cross -
Functional
38. Support
Integration
IT CoE
Sales & Retail
IT CoE
eCommerce
IT CoE
Operations &
Corporate
Marketing
IT CoE
Group Function
& Cross-
Functional
Business
Infrastructure
Testing
Development
Support
Integration
39. …
Dominant IT structure Business-centric (verticals)
Business-centric
(verticals)
Process-centric
(horizontals)
Control of sourcing process Individual CoE Individual CoE IT
organization
Contract Structure Characteristics
RfP size Large Very small Medium
Bidding frequency Low High Medium
Overlaps in vendor skills None High Medium to high
Overlaps in vendor areas None Task level (many overlaps)
Function level
(fewer overlaps)
Number of interfaces between parties Low High Medium
Level of standardization Medium Medium High
Consequences
Vendor competition Low (to none) High Medium to high
Vendor cooperation Low (to none) High Medium to high
Transaction costs (coordination, etc.) Low to medium High
Medium
40. Client dependency on vendors High Low Low
Vendor economies of scale and scope High Low Medium to high
September 2016 (15:3) | MIS Quarterly Executive 189
How adidas Realized Benefits from a Contrary IT Multisourcing
Strategy
Benefits Realized from adidas’
Multisourcing Journey
adidas benefited in several ways from how it
introduced (Phase 1) and leveraged (Phase 2) its
IT multisourcing strategy. On average, IT service
costs per activity have dropped by more than
20%, and the average number of defects per lines
of code has halved. adidas and its vendor partners
expect the structural organizational change—the
introduction of the four horizontal IT functions—
to maintain these cost and quality benefits:
“By ‘horizontalizing’ these functions, …
they’ll be able to better leverage process
tools and also … bring in a lot of synergies,
which might help them in [further] reducing
the cost and increasing the quality.” Account
Manager, India1
Another efficiency that was gained by
adidas (and its vendors) was in the issuing
and processing of RfPs. Having access to three
knowledgeable and skilled vendors—all of whom
were familiar with the context, infrastructure
and processes in virtually any area of adidas’
41. IT portfolio—significantly simplified the RfP
process. In addition, harmonizing the vendor
rate cards and introducing standard templates
for project and service contracts speeded up the
process for evaluating bids and contracting with
vendors. In particular, standardization helped
reduce the amount of information required for
processing an RfP.21 Furthermore, by having
three competent vendors knowledgeable about
its operations, adidas Global IT had constant cost
and quality benchmarks, which contributed to a
further increase in vendor competition.
In addition, by creating vendor overlaps
instead of using a modular multisourcing
structure, adidas avoided the reduction of
flexibility that can be associated with modular
multisourcing. As mentioned by one respondent:
“[The IT multisourcing strategy made]
the whole agility and flexibility of adidas
IT better,” Senior Manager Group
Procurement IT, adidas
21 Kumar, K., van Fenema, P. C. and Von
Glinow, M. A. “Offshor-
ing and the Global Distribution of Work:
Implications for Task Inter-
dependence Theory and Practice,” Journal of
International Business
Studies (40:4), 2009, pp. 642-667.
In this context, an important element is that
adidas was able to restructure its IT delivery
processes, which in itself demonstrates the
advantage of the low level of modularity in
42. its IT multisourcing approach. Prior research
indicates that outsourcing modular activities
leads to rigidity in the IT architecture. Although a
modular approach makes is easy to optimize each
component, it becomes very difficult to modify
the overall architecture. A modular configuration
would have limited adidas’ ability to change
its overall IT configuration without having to
renegotiate relationships with its vendors (which
can be costly). Because its multisourcing strategy
was built around vendor overlaps, adidas was
able to transition from a CoE-centric organization
to a process-centric organization without any
contractual difficulties. The changes were
introduced by gradually adjusting the allocation
of tasks among the vendors and by adjusting
the pattern of the tasks included in the RfPs. By
outsourcing in a non-modular way, adidas had
the flexibility to modify the IT group structure
and was thus able to introduce significant
organizational changes without contractual
hurdles (while also maintaining the vendor
overlaps).
The three vendors also benefited from adidas’
IT multisourcing strategy. By challenging India1
(the incumbent vendor), two new vendors
(India2 and Belarus) spurred the incumbent
to increase staff motivation and to further
professionalize its internal processes. As a
consequence, India1 became more responsive to
adidas’ needs and improved its service quality
while lowering its prices. India2 and Belarus were
also providing creative and competent services
and were able to compete with India1 at the
same level. By 2015, both India2 and Belarus had
44. multisourcing approach through the adoption of
a new IT organizational structure and a matching
sourcing structure.
Lesson 1. Embracing Vendor Overlaps
Promotes Ongoing and Healthy Vendor
Competition
Padula and Dagnino posit that competition
requires “inter-firm interdependencies.”22
Embracing vendor overlaps in multisourcing
arrangements thus means that competition (and
cooperation) is always present in any area of
work that is awarded to a vendor. This was the
case at adidas, which recognized that simply
having more than one vendor was not sufficient
to create real competition:
“In every field of services, we have always
a minimum of two [vendor] options and
sometimes even three options.” Director,
Corporate Marketing CoE, adidas
In contrast, by using a modular structure
for multisourcing in which the client assigns
exclusive work areas to each vendor (see
Figure 5), client firms, according to adidas’ CIO,
“[virtually] create a monopolist in every area.”
Modular IT multisourcing arrangements are
more partnership-oriented and cooperation-
dominant approaches to multisourcing.
Cooperation might be promoted by remuneration
systems such as BP’s system of risk-based
rewards, which were distributed among its
45. 22 Padula, G. and Dagnino, G. B. “Untangling the
Rise of Coopeti-
tion,” International Studies of Management and Organizations
(37:2), 2007, pp. 32-52.
three service partners,23 or other contractual
mechanisms, such as gain sharing, which are
designed to incentivize service providers.24
Such cooperation-dominant IT multisourcing
arrangements may promote a longer-term view
of the relationships among the vendors, as well as
the client. They may also promote more stability,
especially compared to Phase 1 of adidas’ IT
multisourcing journey, where frequent structural
adjustments had to be made to balance the need
for competition with the heavy cooperation
requirements. This suggests that the initial
structure used by adidas is legitimate only as an
interim multisourcing strategy and will likely not
be the best long-term structure.
In addition, embracing vendor overlaps
means that clients need to accept an increase
in (internal) coordination costs, at least in the
beginning. Coordination is needed to ensure that
production costs are minimized through vendor
competition. The implication is that clients
must take on the responsibility for managing
the vendor overlaps rather than spreading the
responsibility across the vendors.25
Lesson 2. High Granularity in Vendor
Overlaps Reduces Vendor Onboarding
Risk and Accelerates Vendor Learning
Dividing outsourced activities into very
46. granular ones facilitates the introduction of new
vendors into the multisourcing mix. Outsourcing
a major chunk of work to a new vendor could be
high risk both for the client and the vendor. The
client might lack prior knowledge of the vendor,
and the vendor might have no prior knowledge
of the client and limited knowledge of the
domain in which the client operates. This lack of
knowledge, combined with the new collaboration
mode, would make the new venture very risky.
With the granular approach, the use of smaller
RfPs enables new vendors to familiarize and gain
experience and knowledge with the client as well
as with the other vendors, thereby limiting the
risk to the client.
23 Willcocks, L. P. and Choi, C. J., op. cit.,
1995.
24 Lacity, M. and Willcocks, L. P. “Beyond Cost
Savings: Out-
sourcing Business Processes for Innovation,” Sloan
Management
Review (54:3), 2013, pp. 63-69.
25 Hui, P. P., Davis-Blake, A. and Broschak, J.
P. “Managing
Interdependence: The Effects of Outsourcing Structure
on the Per-
formance of Complex Projects,” Decision Sciences
(39:1), 2008, pp.
5-31.
September 2016 (15:3) | MIS Quarterly Executive 191
How adidas Realized Benefits from a Contrary IT Multisourcing
47. Strategy
For example, in Phase 1, the fine-grained
(vertical) vendor overlaps required adidas’
new vendors to work with its former single
vendor, enabling them to learn from this vendor
and facilitating knowledge transfer among
the vendors.26 Moreover, the overlapping work
areas also prompted the incumbent vendor,
and enabled the new vendors, to question the
status quo, promoting the development of
innovative ideas on how to improve IT operations
at adidas.27 The nature of the relationships
among adidas’ existing and new vendors
is consistent with the results of a study on
“coopetitive” relationships in the semiconductor
industry, which reports that interorganizational
relationships characterized by both high
competition and high cooperation are the most
innovative ones.28 But because the competitive
forces are so dynamic, such relationships tend to
be tenuous, as a steady state is hard to achieve,
and constant adjustment is needed. That could
explain why there was so much flux during
adidas’ IT multisourcing journey.
High granularity of vendor overlaps also
means that new vendors start with a small
portfolio that they can grow over time. Providing
growth opportunities ensures that the vendors
remain actively interested in additional
26 Wiener, M. and Saunders, C., op. cit., 2014.
27 Nonaka, I., op. cit., 1990; Lacity, M. and
Willcocks, L., op. cit.,
2013.
48. 28 Park, B-J, Srivastava, M. K. and Gnyawali, D.
R. “Walking the
Tight Rope of Coopetition: Impact of Competition
and Cooperation
Intensities and Balance on Firm Innovation
Performance,” Industrial
Marketing Management (43:2), 2014, pp. 210-221.
business and continue to bid aggressively on
subsequent RfPs, which lowers prices further.
High granularity also ensures that a former
single vendor does not lose a huge portion of
its contracts all at once, which could adversely
impact vendor morale. On the other hand, high
granularity of vendor overlaps makes it difficult
for vendors to exploit economies of scale and
scope, and requires more coordination on the
part of the client.
Lesson 3.Providing Vendors with
Opportunities for Growth Helps
Sustain Competition and Cooperation
Adopting an IT multisourcing strategy is
challenging for both the client and the involved
vendors, especially when the strategy embraces
vendor overlaps. Each vendor is constantly
competing with the other vendors and, at the
same time, has to collaborate with them to ensure
that activities are completed.
adidas’ three vendors found that the work was
generally satisfying, and the collaboration climate
was good. The vendor satisfaction was likely
linked to adidas having acquired the management
capabilities to carefully balance the vendor
49. overlaps so that the vendors’ efforts were valued.
adidas’ CIO ensured that the business volume of
each vendor was growing. Even India1, which lost
its “quasi-monopoly” status, doubled its revenues
from adidas in five years. The growth in business
ensured that the vendors continued both to treat
adidas as a preferred client and to provide high-
quality services.
Figure 5: Multisourcing Modular Arrangements vs. Vendor
Overlaps26
Vendor
Modularity
V1
V1 V2 V3
C
V1
V3V2
C
Vendor
Overlaps
V1 V2 V3
C
Vendor
Modularity
51. arrangements are modular and create a rigid
structure. Once modules are assigned to vendors,
reshuffling the activities among vendors becomes
very difficult because it requires a contractual
adjustment with each of them.
The way in which IT activities were
restructured at adidas was not linked primarily
with IT multisourcing; rather the new structure
was a different way to view the IT organization.
Because of the numerous vendor overlaps created
in the initial (Phase 1) IT multisourcing structure,
adidas was able to shuffle the vendor activities
over a relatively short time to match the new
structure. This reshuffling was accomplished
without having to renegotiate any vendor
contracts (which can be very costly). The ability
to quickly and easily reassign work among the
vendors provided a significant long-term benefit.
While adidas recognized that coordinating vendor
overlaps can be costly, this ability provided a
degree of multisourcing flexibility that is at
least on a par with that observed in an internal
organization.
Lesson 5. Less Granular, Horizontal
Vendor Overlaps Help Reduce
Coordination Costs and Improve
Accountability
Horizontal vendor overlaps can be a valuable
tool for managing IT multisourcing by ensuring
vendor competition, while at the same time
reducing the number of vendor interfaces. The
creation of adidas’ horizontal IT structure that
coincided with Phase 2 of its multisourcing
52. journey increased the size of the work activities
included in each RfP. Activities were separated
according to the four horizontal IT functions:
development, testing, integration and support.
This separation corresponds to a traditional
view of the IT production function and is readily
understood by the client and its multisourcing
vendors. In turn, the use of familiar interfaces
enables easier coordination for the client by
limiting the number of interactions among
vendors, while still allowing for the presence of
more than one vendor in each stream of activities.
Moreover, separating activities along traditional
IT functions increases vendor accountability for
each set of activities. It also enables the creation
of larger units of work, which helps the client to
limit the administrative burden (e.g., the number
of RfPs issued) and the vendors to generate
economies of scale and scope.
Lesson 6. Treating Multiple Vendors
as an Ensemble Facilitates a High
Performance Environment
Multisourced activities should be viewed as an
ensemble of interdependent activities—in terms
of both vendor selection and task assignment.29
Much of the success of adidas’ IT multisourcing
strategy is due to the ensemble of vendors that
adidas selected. Had adidas selected two or more
Tier-1 vendors, the level of competition may have
been so high as to prevent cooperation. On the
other hand, had adidas selected two additional
Tier-3 vendors, they may not have been able to
compete at “eye level” with adidas’ long-term
Tier-1 partner (as India2 and Belarus were able
53. to do successfully). Furthermore, the number of
vendors in the ensemble is a crucial factor. The
more vendors that are hired, the more difficult
it is to control and coordinate vendor activities,
29 Hui, P. P. et al., op. cit., 2008; Aubert, B.
A. et al., op. cit., 2012.
September 2016 (15:3) | MIS Quarterly Executive 193
How adidas Realized Benefits from a Contrary IT Multisourcing
Strategy
as well as to integrate their deliverables. adidas
specifically chose to work with just three
vendors—a number it deemed would create
intense vendor competition but would be
manageable in terms of control and coordination
efforts.
As mentioned earlier, while competition
among the vendors remained strong, they were
able to work together harmoniously. At no point
did our interviews with vendor representatives
indicate a lack of respect for the skillset of
competitors. In fact, by selecting a limited
number of vendors with overlapping strengths
and skillsets, adidas was able to realize the full
benefits of IT multisourcing.
The overall structuring of task assignments
should also be treated as an ensemble. CoE
managers in adidas Global IT had typically
selected the vendor that made the lowest bid
54. or with whom they had worked before. As a
consequence, some CoEs were not distributing
the work as had been mandated and, at times,
the adidas CIO overrode their selection to better
balance the loads of the three vendors. This
suggests that there needs to be some broader
oversight and management capabilities to ensure
that an IT multisourcing strategy is implemented
successfully. For example, certain activities may
be co-dependent, and keeping them together may
improve scheduling and reduce production costs.
adidas may have realized this when it
increased the granularity of the vendor overlaps
as a consequence of introducing the horizontal
IT functions. This suggests that grouping an
ensemble of activities might be required to ensure
coherence is retained. In these cases, overlaps
in vendor responsibilities over a larger set of
activities might be more efficient than excessive
granularity resulting from breaking up activities
among multiple vendors. Finally, the client
needs to consider the extent to which it must
integrate (or supervise the integration of) the
deliverables produced by the various vendors so
it can maintain the necessary levels of control and
coordination.30
Concluding Comments
The traditional approach to IT outsourcing
has been to “isolate activities and outsource.”
30 Kumar et al., op. cit., 2009.
Outsourced activities are decoupled from
55. other activities of the firm to minimize client
coordination efforts and to ensure vendor
accountability. The same logic has been used
to determine the structure of IT multisourcing
arrangements. However, a fundamental appeal of
multisourcing is vendor competition, which can
reduce clients’ IT costs and increase IT service
quality. But a modular multisourcing structure,
achieved by isolating activities, can create a quasi-
monopoly that may be difficult to break free
of once the contract is awarded to one vendor.
Another drawback of a modular multisourcing
structure is the rigidity it can introduce into the
organization’s IT architecture and configuration.
Overcoming this rigidity often requires costly
renegotiation of the various vendor contracts.
adidas’ IT multisourcing strategy shows,
however, that it is possible to avoid the downsides
associated with modular multisourcing—
providing that the client invests sufficient
effort, shows intent and puts adequate care
into selecting vendors. By nurturing vendor
overlaps, adidas has been able to promote vendor
competition and realize a range of benefits.
Competition among adidas’ vendors is ongoing
in every part of an IT project or service. It is not
restricted to one-off exercises every few years
once a contract has expired.
The adidas case also highlights the importance
of organizational design for IT multisourcing
success. After restructuring its IT organization,
adidas was able to implement a new IT
configuration within an existing outsourcing
framework and thus retain its organizational
57. in terms of governance costs. However, as shown
in this article, the benefits obtained from the
increased vendor competition significantly offset
the costs associated with vendor overlaps. We
believe that adidas’ approach to IT multisourcing
can encourage and inspire IT decision makers in
other organizations to rethink the role of modular
multisourcing structures and that the lessons
learned from the adidas case will help them
realize the full potential of their existing or future
IT multisourcing strategies.
Appendix: Research Methodology
Data was gathered primarily from direct
observations by two of the authors, a series
of information meetings, two workshops with
adidas managers and three rounds of semi-
structured interviews. In total, 22 interviews
were carried out over a period of almost three
years (November 2012 to June 2015). Thirteen
interviews were conducted with adidas IT
managers, including the CIO and the Senior Vice
President, as well as procurement managers
and members of the sourcing team, who
were responsible for the implementation and
administration of the IT multisourcing strategy
at the operational level. Nine interviews were
conducted with key vendor employees who held
job titles such as Account Manager, Group Project
Manager and Regional Director. The interviews
lasted between 45 minutes and three hours and
were usually conducted by two researchers, with
one running the interview and the other listening,
taking notes and requesting clarification when
necessary. Most interviews were recorded and
58. transcribed immediately after the interview. The
interview transcripts totaled 386 pages (220,144
words). Follow-up e-mails and phone calls were
used to clarify any questions that arose during the
interview transcription.
The research team also reviewed vendor
contracts (all vendor master agreements as well
as selected project/service agreements), steering
board presentations, meeting minutes and other
internal documents.
About the Authors
Benoit A. Aubert
Benoit Aubert ([email protected]) is Head
of the School of Information Management and
Professor at Victoria University of Wellington
(New Zealand). He works on outsourcing,
innovation and risk management.
Carol Saunders
Carol Saunders ([email protected])
is Research Professor at Northern Arizona
University (U.S.). Her current research interests
include coopetition, overload, sourcing, virtual
teams and time management. She is the
Association of Information Systems (AIS) VP of
Publications.
Martin Wiener
Martin Wiener ([email protected]) is
Associate Professor at Bentley University in
Waltham, MA (U.S.), and Affiliated Researcher
at the Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-
Nürnberg (Germany) and the Stockholm School of
59. Economics (Sweden). His research focuses on IS
project control, IT sourcing strategies and digital
business models.
Reinhard Denk
Reinhard Denk ([email protected]
com) is Director ERP adirace (a major multi-
year consolidation program) and SAP Licenses at
adidas Group in Herzogenaurach (Germany). He
was responsible for setting up adidas Global IT’s
offshore service center in Hyderabad, India.
Tobias Wolfermann
Tobias Wolfermann ([email protected]
adidas-group.com) is Senior Manager
Group Procurement IT at adidas Group in
Herzogenaurach (Germany). He was closely
involved in designing and implementing adidas’
new IT multisourcing strategy.
CIDM 6310 by Dr. Eunyoung Moon 1 | P a g e
Instructions for Article Review 3
Table of Contents
Learning objectives of Article Review 3
........................................................................................ 2
Tips for reading this article
...............................................................................................
60. .............. 2
What is not required
...............................................................................................
..................... 2
Formatting instructions: How to format your review
essay............................................................ 3
The structure of your review essay
...............................................................................................
.. 4
1. Introduction
...............................................................................................
.............................. 4
2. Summary
...............................................................................................
................................... 4
3. Practical implications
...............................................................................................
............... 4
3.1. IT outsourcing decision
...............................................................................................
..... 4
3.2. Managing IT multi-sourcing using vendor overlaps
........................................................ 4
4. Conclusion
...............................................................................................
................................ 5
61. References
...............................................................................................
.................................... 6
CIDM 6310 by Dr. Eunyoung Moon 2 | P a g e
Learning objectives of Article Review 3
In the late 1990s, the typical outsourcing contract involved a
single vendor. The practices of
outsourcing has evolved (Bapna, Barua, Mani, & Mehra, 2010),
and client organizations
increasingly engage multi-sourcing (Wiener & Saunders, 2014).
IT multi-sourcing refers to “the delegation of IT and IT-enabled
services to multiple vendors,
who must work collaboratively to deliver services to a client
organization” (Bapna et al., 2010:
p.786). In general, multi-sourcing is expected to help client
organizations mitigate the risks of
single sourcing. Traditionally, IT multi-sourcing employs the
modular structure, assigning
exclusive work areas (“module”) to corresponding vendors.
Such high vendor modularity limits
the level of ongoing competition among vendors. Thus, modular
62. multi-sourcing results in vendor
lock-in and limiting organizational flexibility.
Our textbook (Pearlson, Saunders, & Galletta, 2016) Chapter 10
introduces a new type of IT
multi-sourcing strategy, which seeks to overcome the
constraints of modular multi-sourcing,
taking an example of Adidas (see p.216). This week we will
further explore this new type of IT
multi-sourcing strategy which embraces vendor overlaps, using
the practice-based article by
Aubert, Saunders, Wiener, Denk, & Wolfermann (2016). This
article review will help you
develop further understanding of IT multi-sourcing and broaden
your perspective on sourcing.
The learning objectives of Article Review 3:
outsourcing.
-sourcing models.
risks of IT multi-sourcing.
Tips for reading this article
Start with making your notes on basic terminologies such as
customers (clients), vendors
(providers), insourcing, outsourcing, single sourcing, multi-
63. sourcing, looking at my notes and the
textbook.
- #19), in particular, provide the summary of
o IT outsourcing relationship taxonomy (#16)
o the cost-benefit tradeoff between single sourcing vs. multi-
sourcing (#17, #18)
o modular multi-sourcing vs. vendor-overlapping multi-sourcing
(#19)
What is not required
This is NOT a research methodology course. This means that
this article review assignment does
NOT require you spend significant space on research
methodologies the authors used.
CIDM 6310 by Dr. Eunyoung Moon 3 | P a g e
Formatting instructions: How to format your review essay
1. Provide at least 1” margins, at least 12-point font, and at
least 1.15-line spacing.
2. Number all the pages.
3. Length: The maximum length of the essay is 4 pages,
excluding references.
4. Use headings.
64. 5. Place references at the end of your review essay.
CIDM 6310 by Dr. Eunyoung Moon 4 | P a g e
The structure of your review essay
Your review essay should have the following four sections. Use
headings for all sections and
sub-sections. Below I provide the body of text you should write
in each section.
1. Introduction
A good introduction encourages readers to read your essay with
great interest and prepares them
to understand it better. You want to establish common ground, a
shared understanding between
reader and you about the topic you will write in the following
sections. Then, you will concisely
introduce what the focused topic is, and how your essay is
organized. This section is usually a
single paragraph. Do NOT place the summary in the
introduction and conclusion sections. If you
do so, the level of achievement will be lowered.
2. Summary
Assume that you are giving someone who has never read the
article enough detail so that they
65. could have a summary of the article. Your summary should NOT
be a mere copy of paragraph or
the bulk of quotes from the article. You should provide a
concise, comprehensive summary in
your own words. In this section, please show me that you really
read and comprehended the
article at a level where you can cogently cover the most
important parts succinctly.
3. Practical implications
This section should have two distinct sub-sections, using Level
2 headings as follows.
3.1. IT outsourcing decision
In the first sub-section, you should identify a particular IT
product or service you think would be
better outsourced in your organization (the client), particularly
with a multi-sourcing strategy
which embraces vendor overlaps. Then, you should explain why
outsourcing is a better option
than insourcing in the context of your organization, taking the
client manager’s view.
3.2. Managing IT multi-sourcing using vendor overlaps
In the second section, as a client manager, you should discuss
the benefit and the risk of IT
66. multi-sourcing using vendor overlaps.
1) In the first paragraph, you should discuss the benefit of using
IT multi-sourcing using
vendor overlaps, AND what you would do to maximize that
benefit.
2) In the next paragraph, you should discuss the risk of IT
multi-sourcing using vendor
overlaps AND how you would mitigate that risk, as a client
manager.
Practical implications should demonstrate your understanding of
insourcing, outsourcing,
modular sourcing, and vendor-overlapping multi-sourcing.
CIDM 6310 by Dr. Eunyoung Moon 5 | P a g e
4. Conclusion
You wrap up your review. State overall contributions of the
article, theoretically and practically.
You should also write what more you would like to know. This
section is usually a single
paragraph.
67. CIDM 6310 by Dr. Eunyoung Moon 6 | P a g e
References
Aubert, B., Saunders, C., Wiener, M., Denk, R., & Wolfermann,
T. (2016). How adidas Realized
Benefits from a Contrary IT Multisourcing Strategy. MIS
Quarterly Executive, 15(3).
Bapna, R., Barua, A., Mani, D., & Mehra, A. (2010). Research
Commentary—Cooperation,
Coordination, and Governance in Multisourcing: An Agenda for
Analytical and
Empirical Research. Information Systems Research, 21(4), 785–
795.
https://doi.org/10.1287/isre.1100.0328
Pearlson, K., Saunders, C., & Galletta, D. (2016). Managing and
Using Information Systems: A
Strategic Approach, 6th Edition (6th ed.).
Wiener, M., & Saunders, C. (2014). Forced coopetition in IT
multi-sourcing. The Journal of
Strategic Information Systems, 23(3), 210–225.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsis.2014.08.001
Learning objectives of Article Review 3Tips for reading this
68. articleWhat is not requiredFormatting instructions: How to
format your review essayThe structure of your review essay1.
Introduction2. Summary3. Practical implications3.1. IT
outsourcing decision3.2. Managing IT multi-sourcing using
vendor overlaps4. ConclusionReferences