Vendors' perspectives of coordination in the information technology offshore outsourcing industry : An exploratory study from the Philippines

This study investigates how offshore information technology (IT) service providers (vendors) coordinate work with their clients (employers) in order to succeed in the global IT offshore outsourcing industry. We reviewed literature on coordination studies, interviewed offshore service providers in the Philippines, and used thematic analysis to analyse coordination practices from the point of view of these individual vendors in a newly industrialized country. We used Olson and Olson's framework on 'collaboration at a distance' as a lens to structure the results. The study provides an understanding of vendors' individual attitudes towards the coordination of distributed work and draws attention to how differences in power affect the work situation of vendors, and by implication all stakeholders. We offer this insight as a way to enhance existing CSCW frameworks, by imbuing them with the perspective of non-equal relationships. The study found that vendors were generally able to produce outputs that satisfy their clients, however these results were only achieved because individuals were willing to take risks and make sacrifices in their personal lives. The relationship was further characterised by a complex interplay between the client's control of the overall work arrangements and the vendors' ability to establish a level of autonomy in their work practices and their flexible use of coordination tools.

Framework for enabling highly available distributed applications for utility computing

The move towards IT outsourcing is the first step towards an environment where compute infrastructure is treated as a service. In utility computing this IT service has to honor Service Level Agreements (SLA) in order to meet the desired Quality of Service (QoS) guarantees. Such an environment requires reliable services in order to maximize the utilization of the resources and to decrease the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO). Such reliability cannot come at the cost of resource duplication, since it increases the TCO of the data center and hence the cost per compute unit. We, in this paper, look into aspects of projecting impact of hardware failures on the SLAs and techniques required to take proactive recovery steps in case of a predicted failure. By maintaining health vectors of all hardware and system resources, we predict the failure probability of resources based on observed hardware errors/failure events, at runtime. This inturn influences an availability aware middleware to take proactive action (even before the application is affected in case the system and the application have low recoverability). The proposed framework has been prototyped on a system running HP-UX. Our offline analysis of the prediction system on hardware error logs indicate no more than 10% false positives. This work to the best of our knowledge is the first of its kind to perform an end-to-end analysis of the impact of a hardware fault on application SLAs, in a live system.

Proposta de projeto de implementação de gerenciamento de serviços de TI baseado em ITIL V3, utilizando a abordagem ITIL Lite, para o Centro de Informática da Câmara dos Deputados

Com a retirada da ITIL V2 anunciada recentemente pela OGC, organizações do mundo todo que dependem dos serviços de TI começam a pensar em, pelo menos, dar início à implementação de gerenciamento de serviços de TI baseada em ITIL na sua versão 3. A partir de desdobramentos deste cenário mundial, o presente trabalho teve como objetivo apresentar uma proposta de plano de projeto para o Centro de Informática da Câmara dos Deputados do Brasil, identificando atividades baseadas na abordagem oficial ITIL Lite, que possibilita a implantação de um subconjunto de componentes ITIL V3 de acordo com a atual situação da organização, deixando o caminho aberto para uma eventual total implementação dos processos e funções.

ITSM ProcessGuide – a longitudinal and multi-method field study for real-world DSR artifact evaluation

Process guidance supports users to increase their process model understanding, process execution effectiveness as well as efficiency, and process compliance performance. This paper presents a research in progress encompassing our ongoing DSR project on Process Guidance Systems and a field evaluation of the resulting artifact in cooperation with a company. Building on three theory-grounded design principles, a Process Guidance System artifact for the company’s IT service ticketing process is developed, deployed and used. Fol-lowing a multi-method approach, we plan to evaluate the artifact in a longitudinal field study. Thereby, we will not only gather self-reported but also real usage data. This article describes the development of the artifact and discusses an innovative evaluation approach.

Internationalization strategy for MyHelpster.com with a focus on international market selection

International Market Selection is an important step towards a successful internationalization strategy. This is no different for startup companies like MyHelpster. This work project was intended to help MyHelpster with their internationalization process by completing the IMS portion of it. The IMS process presented in this paper lead to the conclusion that MyHelpster’s next market for expansion should be the USA. In order to find as much success as possible the author suggests being patient and only expanding when the company has the necessary capital, experience and credibility. Both primary and secondary data were used to compile the qualitative and quantitative analyses.

Autonomes Performance-Management in dienstorientierten Architekturen

Die Bedeutung des Dienstgüte-Managements (SLM) im Bereich von Unternehmensanwendungen steigt mit der zunehmenden Kritikalität von IT-gestützten Prozessen für den Erfolg einzelner Unternehmen. Traditionell werden zur Implementierung eines wirksamen SLMs Monitoringprozesse in hierarchischen Managementumgebungen etabliert, die einen Administrator bei der notwendigen Rekonfiguration von Systemen unterstützen. Auf aktuelle, hochdynamische Softwarearchitekturen sind diese hierarchischen Ansätze jedoch nur sehr eingeschränkt anwendbar. Ein Beispiel dafür sind dienstorientierte Architekturen (SOA), bei denen die Geschäftsfunktionalität durch das Zusammenspiel einzelner, voneinander unabhängiger Dienste auf Basis deskriptiver Workflow-Beschreibungen modelliert wird. Dadurch ergibt sich eine hohe Laufzeitdynamik der gesamten Architektur. Für das SLM ist insbesondere die dezentrale Struktur einer SOA mit unterschiedlichen administrativen Zuständigkeiten für einzelne Teilsysteme problematisch, da regelnde Eingriffe zum einen durch die Kapselung der Implementierung einzelner Dienste und zum anderen durch das Fehlen einer zentralen Kontrollinstanz nur sehr eingeschränkt möglich sind. Die vorliegende Arbeit definiert die Architektur eines SLM-Systems für SOA-Umgebungen, in dem autonome Management-Komponenten kooperieren, um übergeordnete Dienstgüteziele zu erfüllen: Mithilfe von Selbst-Management-Technologien wird zunächst eine Automatisierung des Dienstgüte-Managements auf Ebene einzelner Dienste erreicht. Die autonomen Management-Komponenten dieser Dienste können dann mithilfe von Selbstorganisationsmechanismen übergreifende Ziele zur Optimierung von Dienstgüteverhalten und Ressourcennutzung verfolgen. Für das SLM auf Ebene von SOA Workflows müssen temporär dienstübergreifende Kooperationen zur Erfüllung von Dienstgüteanforderungen etabliert werden, die sich damit auch über mehrere administrative Domänen erstrecken können. Eine solche zeitlich begrenzte Kooperation autonomer Teilsysteme kann sinnvoll nur dezentral erfolgen, da die jeweiligen Kooperationspartner im Vorfeld nicht bekannt sind und – je nach Lebensdauer einzelner Workflows – zur Laufzeit beteiligte Komponenten ausgetauscht werden können. In der Arbeit wird ein Verfahren zur Koordination autonomer Management-Komponenten mit dem Ziel der Optimierung von Antwortzeiten auf Workflow-Ebene entwickelt: Management-Komponenten können durch Übertragung von Antwortzeitanteilen untereinander ihre individuellen Ziele straffen oder lockern, ohne dass das Gesamtantwortzeitziel dadurch verändert wird. Die Übertragung von Antwortzeitanteilen wird mithilfe eines Auktionsverfahrens realisiert. Technische Grundlage der Kooperation bildet ein Gruppenkommunikationsmechanismus. Weiterhin werden in Bezug auf die Nutzung geteilter, virtualisierter Ressourcen konkurrierende Dienste entsprechend geschäftlicher Ziele priorisiert. Im Rahmen der praktischen Umsetzung wird die Realisierung zentraler Architekturelemente und der entwickelten Verfahren zur Selbstorganisation beispielhaft für das SLM konkreter Komponenten vorgestellt. Zur Untersuchung der Management-Kooperation in größeren Szenarien wird ein hybrider Simulationsansatz verwendet. Im Rahmen der Evaluation werden Untersuchungen zur Skalierbarkeit des Ansatzes durchgeführt. Schwerpunkt ist hierbei die Betrachtung eines Systems aus kooperierenden Management-Komponenten, insbesondere im Hinblick auf den Kommunikationsaufwand. Die Evaluation zeigt, dass ein dienstübergreifendes, autonomes Performance-Management in SOA-Umgebungen möglich ist. Die Ergebnisse legen nahe, dass der entwickelte Ansatz auch in großen Umgebungen erfolgreich angewendet werden kann.

Licenshantering av programvaror i enkommunal verksamhet : En fallstudie över licenshanteringen i Falu kommun

Forskningen visar att förändringar av informationsteknologin och en ökande anskaffning av nya programvaror har lett till underliggande problem som kan drabba heterogena programvarulicensmiljöer och stora organisationer. Underliggande problem i den stora kontexten är mjukvaruhantering. Licenshantering av programvaror är just en förgrening av det stora problemet. Stora organisationer som en kommunal verksamhet är drabbad av det här underliggande problemet på grund av komplexitet hos organisationens miljö. Att tillämpa förändringar i området programvarulicens är omöjligt utan att göra förändringar i hela den organisationsprocess som följer med det. Fallstudiens uppdrag är ett nytt omfattande område kring licenshantering av programvaror som kan vara väldigt lärorikt och en bra erfarenhet att ta del av. Uppsatsen beskriver hur en kommunal verksamhets licenshantering av programvaror ser ut och de problem som finns med den nuvarande licenshanteringsprocessen. Förarbetet med en litteraturstudie tillsammans med datagenereringsmetoderna intervjuer, dokumentstudier och observationer används för att studera fallet på djupet. Målet är att kunna ta fram de nuvarande problem som finns, analysera dem och ge rekommendation för åtgärder som det studerade fallobjektet, Falu Kommuns IT-kontor, kan använda. En rekommendation för en tydlig licenshanteringsprocessmodell anses vara ett bra akademiskt bidrag eftersom problemet med licenshanteringen av programvaror är ett generellt problem. Uppsatsens resultat är en processmodell om licenshantering av programvaror för organisationer med IT-tjänstkunder. Det är en generisk lösning som skulle kunna användas av andra kommunverksamheter och liknande organisationer.

The Australian Government`s abandoned infrastructure outsourcing program: what can be learned?

Early in 2001, after a damning public report by the Auditor-General, the Australian Federal Government abandoned its highly promoted “whole of government” IT infrastructure outsourcing initiative. This about-face was greeted in the press with reports that the initiative was a “fiasco”. Yet a four-year case study conducted by the authors suggests a more complex picture. Like many other “selective” outsourcers of IT, the Federal Government had been led to believe that it was adopting a relatively low risk strategy that would, if well managed, lead to significant cost savings and operational benefits. Instead, despite having implemented many widely promoted “best practices”, the Federal Government found a substantial discrepancy between what outsourcing promised to deliver, and what was actually achieved. In this respect their experiences were no different from those of many other large IT organizations engaged in selective IT outsourcing, who responded to a substantial contemporaneous survey. This case study examines why the Government’s expectations were not achieved, and arrives at conclusions that have important implications for decision makers confronted with choices about sourcing IT service delivery.

The Australian Government`s abandoned infrastructure outsourcing program: "fiasco" or relatively typical?

Early in 2001, after a damning public report by the Auditor-General, the Australian Federal Government was forced to abandon its highly promoted “whole of government” infrastructure outsourcing initiative. This about-face was greeted in the press with reports that the initiative was a “fiasco”. Yet a four-year case study of the initiative suggests a more complex picture. The initiative can be viewed in a quite different light on the basis of comparisons with a contemporary survey of 240 Australian organisations engaged in IT outsourcing. This reveals that many of the negative outcomes associated with this “fiasco” are typical of those experienced by large Australian organisations. This has important implications for decision makers confronted with choices about sourcing IT service delivery.

A comparative assessment of the information technology services sector in India and China

The purpose of this paper is to assess the nature of competition in the information technology (IT) services sector between India and China. Using primary and secondary data sources, we compare and contrast the strengths and weaknesses of the IT services sector in the two countries along the main dimensions of Porter’s competitive advantage model. The principal findings indicate that the IT services sectors in the two countries are distinctively different, have developed along different paths and are highly complementary to each other. China has a well established hardware sector and its IT services sector focuses mostly on servicing its domestic market. India’s IT services sector is predominantly export orientated with focus on the US and Western European markets. Contrary to popular beliefs, given the complementary characteristics of the IT services sectors in India and China, it is unlikely for the two countries to compete against each other in the near future and greater strategic co-operation between IT service providers in the two countries is a more likely outcome.

Current trends in product lifecycle management

Efficient and effective Product Lifecycle Management, as an evolution and enhancement of Product Data Management, is of strategic importance for virtually any company. Hence, it is crucial for companies to analyze and evaluate recent trends in information technology (IT) and their implications on Product Lifecycle Management. In this paper, the results of an interdisciplinary study conducted by Siemens AG, a major international technologies firm, and two universities are presented. The study identifies four current trends in IT and then evaluates their potential implications on Product Lifecycle Management. Finally, the IT trends are ranked according to their short and medium term effects on Product Lifecycle Management.

Construtivismo de marco teórico-pedagógico a grife: um estudo a partir das mensagens veiculadas na internet

This thesis is resulted of a research on propagated the social representations of constructivism in the Internet, which as had estimated basic the idea of Moscovici (1961) of that the media it has determinative paper in the popularization of the scientific theories, in formation e propagation of the social representations and in the construction of behaviors human beings. Understanding the Internet as latest space of circulation of social communications, therefore, privileged field (and still not explored) for studies of social representations, we choose this half midiático as investigative field of our research, it if it constitutes in the "great ocean of the new informational planet" (LEVY, 2000, p. 126), besides making possible the interaction with different forms of images, different individuals, different ' world ', configuring itself as important space of symbolic production e of analysis of the representational process in the world contemporary. Based in these questions, we trace as objective to analyze the circulating speech propagated on-line on the constructivism, searching to apprehend the social representations shared the respect. This objective was constructed in face of the insertion of the theory constructivist in the educational way has two decades more than, as well as of its consolidation as reference in different social contexts, mainly in midiático. The question that directed the research was: as this theory obtains to penetrate in some layers of our society, to influence the world readings e the behaviors of different people? That modifications it suffers in this trajectory and which the paper of the Internet in this process? The corpus of the research was constituted of the substances on the theory found in the Internet, in pages in Portuguese of Google, in the period of 27 of July of 2004 the 17 of August of 2004. The data they had been analyzed on the basis of the project of analysis of content elaborated for Moscovici (1961) and in the estimated theoreticians of the social communication, in special of the hypermedia. The results had disclosed that the Internet participates of determinative form in the process of popularization of the constructivism theory, not only spreading out its estimated theoretician- methodological for the domain public (diffusion), but propagating positive beliefs and images of its postulates (propagation) and using them it service of interests politicians e financiers (propaganda). The popularization of the constructivism in the Internet and social representations of this theory propagated configure one process in which the theory passes of pedagogical theoretical landmark for grief, assuming a commercial character extremely and the status of solution for problems of the education and the society, stirring up attitudes and behaviors in public, most general possible, that comes to take care of to the interests politicians e marketing. Recognizing the diversity, the permanent renewal of information and the negotiation of directions gifts in the Internet, as well as the innumerable ones forms of access to the information found by it, we consider results of the research as fruits of the inherent characteristics to this way midiático, to the time where we call the attention for relativity these results, for the plasticity of knowing them and sensible propagated on-line e for the great challenge that the hypermedia imposes to the study of communication phenomena, of the social representations and in educational quarrels and for the necessity of new research that they investigate the forms of socialization of the information and communication propitiated by hypermedia and its implications in the construction of the symbolic universes and in practical social

A aglomeração urbana de Piracicaba: uma análise da integração funcional entre os municípios sob a ótica do movimento pendular

The growth area of cities has resulted in a phenomenon of conurbation (or expressing tendency). This correspond to a combine of two or more urban cores, there are formations of conurbations. In this way, there are the formations of urban concentrations and can achieve the step metropolitan or not metropolitan. Besides, this kind of expansion generates many social and environmental problems related about habitation, rubbish, drain, and others. Piracicaba, a city in expansion, recently, shows evidences of conurbation not metropolitan around itself. Like this, the paulista government, at June, 26 of 2012, institutionalized the Urban Concentration of Piracicaba, a regional unity, intending the administration along with 22 cities. However, for this fact, must be taken into account functional integration among urban centers, because the number of municipalities are presented to compose a urban concentration of level not metropolitan. It has checked along this research, according with proposition about 22 cities. Thus, the objective of this research is identify and analyze the functional integration among participating municipalities through the commuting, in other words, the spatial displacement of people, important factor to be taken into account when defining urban concentration. Considering the displacement routine people, the commuting, also aimed identify the flow of public transport intercity travel among the cities of Piracicaba Regional Unity. Then, analyze the criteria used for establish the Piracicaba Regional Unity, if it was considered technical character or if it was prioritized the political character. To conduct this research, it was done the literature review related to the theme and data collection related lines of intercity transportation and often travel with ARTESP and companies responsible for it service

Melhoria dos serviços de TI utilizando o gerenciamento de serviços

Pós-graduação em Engenharia de Produção - FEG