Amar Gupta

Use of collaborative technologies and knowledge sharing in co-located and distributed teams: Towards the 24-h knowledge factory

The relocation of knowledge work to emerging countries is leading to an increasing use of globally distributed teams (GDT) engaged in complex tasks. In the present study, we investigate a particular type of GDT working around the clock: the 24-h knowledge factory (Gupta, 2008). Adopting the productivity perspective on knowledge sharing (Haas and Hansen, 2005, 2007), we hypothesize how a 24-h knowledge factory and a co-located team will differ in technology use, knowledge sharing processes, and performance. We conducted a quasi-experiment in IBM, collecting both quantitative and qualitative data, over a period of 12months, on a GDT and a co-located team. Both teams were composed of the same number of professionals, provided with the same technologies, engaged in similar tasks, and given similar deadlines. We found significant differences in their use of technologies and in knowledge sharing processes, but not in efficiency and quality of outcomes. We show how the co-located team and the GDT enacted a knowledge codification strategy and a personalization strategy, respectively; in each case grafting elements of the other strategy in order to attain both knowledge re-use and creativity. We conclude by discussing theoretical contributions to knowledge sharing and GDT literatures, and by highlighting managerial implications to those organizations interested in developing a fully functional 24-h knowledge factory.

Offshoring: The Transition From Economic Drivers Toward Strategic Global Partnership and 24-Hour Knowledge Factory

The changing economic and labor conditions have motivated firms to outsource professional services activities to skilled personnel in less expensive labor markets. This offshoring phenomenon is studied from a political, economic, technological and strategic perspective. Next, an analytical model is developed for achieving strategic advantage from offshoring based on global partnerships. The model studies the impact of offshoring with respect to the complexity and strategic nature of the tasks and presents a decision strategy for obtaining value through offshoring of increasingly complex tasks. The result is an integrated “24-hour knowledge factory†that is based on a sustainable global model rather than a short term fiscal model. This 24-hour paradigm embodies the shift-style workforce that evolved for the manufacturing sector during the Industrial Revolution and relies on a set of critical success factors in the current environment. A case example is provided from IBM to illustrate these underlying critical success factors.

24-hour knowledge factory: Using Internet technology to leverage spatial and temporal separations

Several of the outsourcing endeavors of today will gradually converge to a hybrid outsourcing model that will involve a team spread across three or more strategically-located centers interconnected by Internet technology. White-collar professionals in the US, Australia, and Poland, for example, could each work on a standard 9--5 basis, transfer the activity to a colleague in the next center, thereby enabling work to be performed on a round-the-clock basis. The effective use of sequential workers in such a 24-hour knowledge factory requires that professional tasks be broken down to the level where individuals can work on them with minimal interaction with their peers, and where new approaches can be employed to reduce the effort involved in transitioning from one employee to the next. This article describes an Internet-based prototype system that uses a Web-based interactive approach, coupled with a unique data model, to optimize collection and storage of design rationale and history from stakeholders and workers. The idea of multiple individuals acting as one “composite persona” is explored in the context of facilitating tasks and knowledge to be shared across the Internet in a seamless manner. The article also describes related activities in the commercial arena.

Deriving mutual benefits from offshore outsourcing

The concepT of ouTsourcing has been addres s ed from different vantage points by various researchers. Many researchers have examined the impact of outsourcing on employment. Wiederhold et al14 looked at intellectual property and tax implications when a software company operates in multiple countries. This article takes an entirely different perspective. What are new computer-based techniques that can be employed to yield innovative solutions that can benefit both developed and developing environments? What is the long-term vision for conducting work in a global economy? Is there an end scenario for offshore outsourcing? In order to make predictions about the long-term implications of the information revolution, let us look at the impact of the industrial revolution. When machines were first developed, they were scarce and costly; accordingly, the owners strived to utilize them on a round-the-clock basis, and employees were directed to work extended hours: 14 hours or even longer! Governments stepped in to create laws restricting the maximum number of hours worked each day, and companies responded by gradually implementing a three-shift system. The concept of shifts suited many categories of tasks, but was inappropriate for other categories. Agricultural implements and military goods could be produced quicker and at lower costs. But the shift concept was incompatible with activities related to many types of fine arts. If three artists worked in succession for 8 hours each on the same painting, then the master painter may consider the product to be worthless. Raman Roy, an outsourcing pioneer, observes: “Distances have become meaningless now; geography has become history.” Today, we can transfer knowledgebased tasks to colleagues located in other continents instantaneously and at virtually zero costs, enabling them to continue the task on an incremental basis, and to create a “hybrid offshoring” environment incorporating both onshore and offshore activities.

The 24-Hour Knowledge Factory: Can It Replace the Graveyard Shift?

Collaborating centers in time zones six to eight hours apart can transfer work so that every center is working during the daytime. Although this concept avoids the hazards of night work, it requires careful planning and a way to automatically capture evolving knowledge.

Outsourcing in the Healthcare Industry: Information Technology, Intellectual Property, and Allied Aspects

The healthcare industry is being impacted by advances in information technology in four major ways: first, a broad spectrum of tasks that were previously done manually can now be performed by computers; second, some tasks can be outsourced to other countries using inexpensive communications technology; third, longitudinal and societal healthcare data can now be analyzed in acceptable periods of time; and fourth, the best medical expertise can sometimes be made available without the need to transport the patient to the doctor or vice versa. The healthcare industry will increasingly use a portfolio approach comprised of three closelycoordinated components seamlessly interwoven together: healthcare tasks performed by humans on-site; healthcare tasks performed by humans off-site, including tasks performed in other countries; and healthcare tasks performed by computers without direct human involvement. Finally, this paper deals with intellectual property and legal aspects related to the three-pronged healthcare services paradigm.

Leveraging temporal and spatial separations with the 24-hour knowledge factory paradigm

The 24-H Knowledge Factory facilitates collaboration between geographically and temporally distributed teams. The teams themselves form a strategic partnership whose joint efforts contribute to the completion of a project. Project-related tasks are likewise distributed, allowing tasks to be completed on a continuous basis, regardless of the constraints of any one team’s working hours. However, distributing a single task between multiple teams necessitates a handoff process, where one team’s development efforts and task planning are communicated from one team ending their shift to the next that will continue the effort. Data management is, therefore, critical to the success of this business model. Efficiency in data management is achieved through a strategic leveraging of key tools, models, and concepts.

The Role of Information Resources in Enabling the 24-hour Knowledge factory

The term 24-hour knowledge factory connotes a globally distributed work environment in which teammates work on a project around the clock. The 24-hour knowledge factory is a special case of a globally distributed team in which the different teams work on a sequential basis that has been clearly defined in advance. Whereas a manufactured item was the end product in the case of the factory which emerged as a consequence of the industrial revolution, knowledge-based services and knowledge-based products are the end deliverables in the case of the current information revolution; hence, the term 24-hour knowledge factory. Work can be decomposed by task style or by organizational style, and allows for greater specialization of workers. A case study from IBM details surprising differences between colocated and distributed teams, and leads to a future state analysis for organizations seeking to study or implement the 24-hour knowledge factory.

Offshoring and Transfer of Intellectual Property

Offshore outsourcing of work to support software development and services is seen primarily as a transfer of labor to another shore. But with every outsourced job, intellectual property is transferred as well. Such transfers have significant long term effects on the balance of intellectual property IP generation and consumption. The value of intangibles is based on the income that these intangibles are expected to generate in the future. This paper relates the key issues of IP found in software, an important intangible, to business models used for offshoring. The use of a quantitative model for software valuation allows formal exploration of business alternatives. The motivation for this paper is to increase the awareness of the need for software valuation when developers of software and the users of that software reside in different countries. A scenario that involves Controlled Foreign Corporations as the mechanism for IP transfer is analyzed in detail.

Knowledge Reuse and Agile Processes: Catalysts for Innovation

Innovation, agility, and coordination are paramount in the support of value in the global knowledge economy. Therefore, the long-term success of a company is increasingly dependent on its underlying resilience and agility. Knowledge Reuse and Agile Processes: Catalysts for Innovation addresses flexibility of both business and information systems through component technology at the nexus of three seemingly unrelated disciplines: service-oriented architecture, knowledge management, and business process management. Providing practitioners and academicians with timely, compelling research on agile, adaptive processes and information systems, this Premier Reference Source will enhance the collection of every reference library.