Rajesh Mirani

Information system cost estimating: a management perspective

Information systems cost estimating is an important management concern. An estimate helps to costjustify individual proposals, to schedule their development, to staff them, to control and monitor theirprogress, and to evaluate estimators and implementers. Through a case study of a chemical manufacturer, the investigation reported in this article facilitates a better understanding of the management of the cost estimating process. Interviews with 17 information systems managers and staff members, and four user managers confirm that the practice of cost estimating can be viewed in terms of both a Rational Model and a Political Model, can identify impediments to accurate estimating, and can provide suggestions and warnings for managers and future researchers.

Impacts of end-user and information center characteristics on end-user computing support

In a cross-sectional survey of 114 information centers, it was found that support needed by end-users varied with their computing sophistication and the maturity of the information center. However, information centers did not take into account differences among users in designing support services, and provided all users with the same amount of support. For most users, the support provided was far less than the support needed, but end-user satisfaction was higher when more support needs were fulfilled. The implication of these results is that information centers are not making the requisite effort to identify and fulfill the support needs of their end-users.

Procedural coordination and offshored software tasks: Lessons from two case studies

This paper presents two case studies of offshored software tasks. The success of such tasks is critically dependent on managing an inherent interdependence between onshore and offshore teams. In one case study, both teams belong to the vendor organization, while in the other they are affiliated respectively with client and vendor. It is shown that that interdependence is best addressed through procedural coordination, which entails two complementary strategies. The first consists of carefully specifying and partitioning tasks, and the second of implementing integration mechanisms to bridge communication gaps. Despite contextual differences, the two case studies offer common lessons.

Client-Vendor Relationships in Offshore Applications Development: An Evolutionary Framework

This article presents an evolutionary framework for the establishment and progression of client-vendor relationships in the context of offshore applications development. It is argued that such a relationship typically begins as a cost-reduction exercise, with the client contracting out simple, structured applications to one or more offshore vendors. Over time, the client assigns increasingly complex applications to selected vendors and cultivates loose, trust-based, networklike relationships with them. As offshore applications continue to evolve and become business-critical, the client may seek to regain control by establishing a command-based hierarchy. This may be achieved through part or full ownership of a vendor organization or by starting a captive offshore subsidiary. Thus, the initial client objective of cost reduction ultimately is displaced by one pertaining to risk control. Pertinent prior research is used to justify the proposed framework. This is followed by a case study that describes how a specialty telecommunications company is pursuing just such an evolutionary path.

Anticipating the benefits of proposed information systems

The assessment of the anticipated benefits of new information systems (IS) is important to IS planning. A study of the anticipated benefits of 178 projects as seen by IS managers and analysts revealed nine benefit factors. Business redesign emerged as the most important benefit. Some benefits are much more highly quantified than others. Organizations planned to spend more on projects whose top benefit was workforce reduction. Researchers can use these findings to study why and how organizations achieve the benefits of some proposals. Chief information officers can use them to help deliver new systems that better meet top managements expectations.

Anticipated benefits of new information systems: the role of the proposer

The assessment of the anticipated benefits of new information systems is important to the process of information system planning. A study of the anticipated benefits of 178 projects revealed nine benefits factors: improved information, strategic advantage, return on investment, reduced technology cost, better applications development, reduced travel costs, reduced workforce costs, business redesign, and adherence to government regulations. A variety of personnel propose new information systems. User departments are the most active proposers. Top management and IS departments are about equally active and strategic planning groups are considerably less active. User departments and top management propose more strategic advantage applications than do IS department or strategic planning groups. IS departments most actively propose reduced technology cost and better applications development applications while user departments propose improved information, return on investment, reduced workforce costs, business redesign, and adherence to government regulations applications.

Business Benefits or Incentive Maximization? Impacts of the Medicare EHR Incentive Program at Acute Care Hospitals

This study investigates the influence of the Medicare EHR Incentive Program on EHR adoption at acute care hospitals and the impact of EHR adoption on operational and financial efficiency/effectiveness. It finds that even before joining the incentive program, adopter hospitals had more efficient and effective Medicare operations than those of non-adopters. Adopters were also financially more efficient. After joining the program, adopter hospitals treated significantly more Medicare patients by shortening their stay durations, relative to their own non-Medicare patients and also to patients at non-adopter hospitals, even as their overall capacity utilization remained relatively unchanged. The study concludes that many of these hospitals had implemented EHR even before the initiation of the incentive program. It further infers that they joined this program with opportunistic intentions of tapping into incentive payouts which they maximized by taking on more Medicare patients. These findings give credence to critics of the program who have questioned its utility and alleged that it serves only to reward existing users of EHR technologies.

A case study of morphogenetic change in long-term offshoring

Abstract This paper applies a morphogenetic change framework to the case study of a financial information services providers relationships with offshore IT application vendors over a six year period, in order to discover the underlying causal mechanisms. The analysis finds the progression to have consisted of a sequence of three major organizational changes, where each change was characterized by a morphogenetic cycle of three phases – Structural and Cultural Conditioning, Socio-Cultural Interactions, and Structural and Cultural Elaboration. In the first phase of each change cycle, structural and cultural outcomes of antecedent cycles conditioned the context as perceived by managerial actors. In the second phase, these conditioning factors interacted with the organizations prevailing socio-cultural dynamics to influence managerial decisions and to effect change. Finally, in the third phase, the emergent consequences of their decisions further altered the structural and cultural landscape, thus conditioning the context for the subsequent change cycle. While the specific organizational mechanisms activated varied from one cycle to the next, the overall analysis collectively revealed the companys quest for more effective vendor relationships. It was seen to have struggled with inconsistencies in its view of a captive vendors role in the first cycle, and a lack of standard processes with multiple vendors in the second cycle, before establishing closer, comprehensive, successful relationships with two vendors in the third cycle. These findings serve to validate the utility of the morphogenetic analytical framework in uncovering change factors unique to specific offshoring contexts.

In Pursuit of Institutional Legitimation: Structuration of an Offshoring Decision

This article applies structuration theory and institutional theory to analyze the organizational dynamics behind a financial services company’s decision to initiate information technology services offshoring. The analysis finds the decision to have been an emergent one, crystallizing from interactions between upper management’s actions and an evolving structural context. Further, their actions were driven more by a legitimation-oriented desire to adhere to various institutional norms rather than purely rational considerations. These findings of isomorphism question the notion that offshoring decisions result from straightforward objectives such as cost savings or quality enhancement. Particularly under uncertainty, they may be subtly shaped by institutional influences in antecedent contexts. The implication is that the planning, execution, and evaluation of offshored projects must take into account the dynamic imperatives embedded in these contexts, and not be anchored solely to static expressions of short-term or long-term objectives.

The Medicare Electronic Health Records (EHR) Incentive Program: First-Year Adoption Response from Inpatient Hospitals

This study investigates electronic health records (EHR) adoption among inpatient hospitals in response to the first operational year of the Medicare EHR Incentive Program. Profile analysis of public attestation datasets finds both system adoption rates and implemented functionalities to have been significantly influenced by the incentive program’s attributes. Key dates and periods in the program’s well-publicized timeline were usually accompanied by spikes in the number of attested systems and/or dips in advanced functionalities. The implication is that hospitals have responded to the program by swiftly implementing EHR systems with capabilities just sufficient to meet program requirements, in order to be able to promptly file attestations and thus claim their incentive payments. The program therefore appears to have yielded mixed results. While it seems to have induced more hospitals to acquire EHR systems, the implemented systems generally possess minimal functionalities, suggesting that adopters have leveraged the program’s rules in order to maximize their own short-term gains.