Florian Hamel

Developing a maturity model for service systems in heavy equipment manufacturing enterprises

There is no common understanding of service systems in industry goods companies.We develop a maturity model (MM) for appropriate IS support of service systems.The model is structured along integrating service offerings into the business model.The MM measures performance and installed base management (organisational elements).IT elements are mobile workforce management, data integration and data quality. Heavy equipment manufacturing firms are increasingly challenged by the integration of service planning and execution in their established product-centred information systems (IS) environment. Despite a few standardisation efforts, there is no common understanding of service systems in industry goods companies and the corresponding requirements for the appropriation of information systems. We address this need by developing a maturity model. The design of the model is grounded in extant literature, focus group and case study research involving eleven organisations over 1.5 years. The evaluation confirms that the maturity model makes a novel and useful contribution to the design of service systems.

IT Governance Mechanisms in Multisourcing--A Business Group Perspective

Many international corporations are adopting multisourcing strategies. Multisourcing is defined as the blending of services from multiple company-internal and external suppliers. To date, performance measurement and governance-related aspects have been scarcely covered in the academic literature of IT outsourcing. With this study, we intend to broaden understanding of how business groups utilize governance mechanisms in a multi-sourced IT environment. This article contributes to the body of knowledge in three ways. First, it describes established IT governance mechanisms, second, it presents insights into a real-life example of IT governance mechanisms at a leading financial services provider, and third, it extends current literature toward multisourcing in a group-context by proposing a framework of IT governance mechanisms targeting the different relationships of multisourcing in business groups. In addition, this research is useful for corporations facing similar challenges.

Toward a model of effective monitoring of IT application development and maintenance suppliers in multisourced environments

Many international corporations are now adopting multisourcing approaches to information technology (IT). Multisourcing is described as the disciplined provision and blending of services from multiple suppliers both outside the company and within the company. This approach to meeting business goals is primarily concerned with the relationship between the client organization and the multiple suppliers. To date, aspects relating to performance measurement and governance have scarcely been covered in the literature, and established IT frameworks such as control objectives for information and related technology (COBIT) provide imprecise approaches for monitoring suppliers. In this study, we intend to sharpen the existing understanding of how corporations manage and monitor suppliers in a multisourced environment and of why specific key performance indicators (KPIs) are utilized. We provide insights using a real-life example of the monitoring of IT application development and maintenance (IT ADM) suppliers and suggest monitoring dimensions based on a cross-case analysis. Based on inter-rater reliability, we further derive a minimum set of corresponding IT ADM KPIs. This study is expected to help corporations facing similar challenges by providing a set of essential KPIs to monitor IT ADM suppliers.

Mechanisms to Implement a Global Multisourcing Strategy

Many multinational enterprises apply multisourcing approaches and both practitioner-related and scholarly literature has identified multisourcing as an emerging key strategy. Multisourcing is described as the blending of services from multiple company-internal and company-external suppliers. Despite its relevance, current literature lacks depth in terms of implementing multisourcing and only a few articles describe multisourcing strategies in detail. Especially, multisourcing in a group-context is scarcely covered. This research study contributes to the body of knowledge by analyzing the case of a worldwide leading financial services provider. This article describes mechanisms that support the implementation of a global multisourcing strategy at a business group with a federal IT organization and provides insights into a real-life example of global multisourcing. Propositions on governance aspects for multisourcing are derived and a split of activities between the group center and the business entities is suggested. In particular, the organizational setup of a business group – with the numerous business entities and the federal governance model – determines the multisourcing strategy and the split of activities. Hence, this research also helps practitioners facing similar challenges.

Towards a Multisourcing Maturity Model as an Instrument of IT Governance at a Multinational Enterprise

Many multinational enterprises are applying multisourcing approaches. Multisourcing is described as the blending of services from multiple internal and external vendors. In the case of one of the worldwide leading financial service providers the implementation of the multisourcing concept at the numerous business entities has been challenging since the group follows a federal IT organization model. By applying action research a multisourcing maturity model has been developed as an IT governance instrument. It is inspired by established maturity models and adapts proven methodologies whilst targeting the specific requirements of multisourcing. Thereby the maturity model provides transparency across all business entities, enables continuous monitoring of the multisourcing implementation progress and allows the provisioning of best-practices to a corporate group. With this article the authors provide insights into a real-life example of developing and implementing a multisourcing strategy and suggest an IT governance instrument for a multinational enterprise.

IT Governance in Multi-business Organizations: Performance Impacts and Levers from Processes, Structures, and Relational Mechanisms

IT governance is more than ever recognized as a panacea by IT managers to ensure effective and efficient IT operation in multi-business organizations. The aim of this paper is to analyze the performance impact of IT governance. In order to do so, the study takes the resource-based perspective, and integrates the economic theory of complementarities and the concept of relatedness. The proposed increase in business process performance is grounded in the generation of sustainable competitive advantage. The framework is investigated by using five exploratory case studies in multi-business organizations. The results suggest that IT governance is positively related to business process performance through the mediators of IT relatedness and business process relatedness. Furthermore, IT governance levers have been identified which might significantly increase business process performance.

A Multisourcing Maturity Model as an IT Governance Mechanism for Business Groups

Implementing multisourcing in business groups is challenging, and linear-extension of dyadic information technology (IT) outsourcing literature is insufficient to cope with multisourcing specifics. By pursuing design science research (DSR) as the research orientation and utilizing expert interviews, action research and case studies as individual research methods, the authors propose a multisourcing maturity model as an IT governance mechanism. This article contributes in four areas: first, it derives requirements for IT governance mechanisms intended to support the implementation of multisourcing in business groups; second, it identifies the research gap by analyzing current concepts; third, it develops a maturity model; and fourth, it demonstrates the application of the model with two real-life case examples of leading financial services providers. Moreover, the maturity model provides practical guidance for coping with the challenges of implementing multisourcing by identifying the required capabilities, illustrates a desired evolution path to effectively and efficiently utilize multisourcing, and can be employed for steering multisourcing in business groups.