Suraya Miskon

Understanding Shared Services: An Exploration of the IS Literature

In a competitive environment, companies continuously innovate to offer superior services at lower costs. ‘Shared services’ have been extensively adopted in practice as one means for improving organisational performance. Shared services is considered most appropriate for support functions, and is widely adopted in Human Resource Management, Finance and Accounting; more recently being employed across the Information Systems function. IS applications and infrastructure are an important enabler and driver of shared services in all functional areas. As computer based corporate information systems have become de facto and the internet pervasive and increasingly the backbone of administrative systems, the technical impediments to sharing have come down dramatically. As this trend continues, CIOs and IT professionals will need a deeper understanding of the shared services phenomenon and its implications. The advent of shared services has consequential implications for the IS academic discipline. Yet, archival analysis of IS the academic literature reveals that shared services, though mentioned in more than 100 articles, has received little in depth attention. This paper is the first attempt to investigate and report on the current status of shared services in the IS literature. The paper presents detailed review of literature from main IS journals and conferences, findings evidencing a lack of focus and definitions and objectives lacking conceptual rigour. The paper concludes with a tentative operational definition, a list of perceived main objectives of shared services, and an agenda for related future research.

Exploring shared services from an IS perspective: a literature review and research agenda

Shared services have gained significance as an organizational arrangement, in particular for support functions, to reduce costs, increase quality and create new capabilities. The Information Systems (IS) function is amenable to sharing arrangements and information systems can enable sharing in other functional areas. However, despite being a promising area for IS research, literature on shared services in the IS discipline is scarce and scattered. There is still little consensus on what shared services is. Moreover, a thorough understanding of why shared services are adopted, who are involved, and how things are shared is lacking. In this article, we set out to progress IS research on shared services by establishing a common ground for future research and proposing a research agenda to shape the field based on an analysis of the IS literature. We present a holistic and inclusive definition, discuss the primacy of economic-strategic objectives so far, and introduce conceptual frameworks for stakeholders and the notion of sharing. We also provide an overview of the theories and research methods applied. We propose a research agenda that addresses fundamental issues related to objectives, stakeholders, and the notion of sharing to lay the foundation for taking IS research on shared services forward.

Success and failure factors of Shared Services: An IS literature analysis

Organizations seeking improvements in their performance are increasingly exploring alternative models and approaches for providing support services; one such approach being Shared Services. Because of the possible consequential impact of Shared Services on organizations, and given that information systems (IS) is both an enabler of Shared Services (for other functional areas) as well as a promising area for Shared Services application, Shared Services is an important area for research in the IS field. Though Shared Services has been extensively adopted on the promise of economies of scale and scope, factors of Shared Services success (or failure) have received little research attention. This paper reports the distillation of success and failure factors of Shared Services from an IS perspective. Employing NVIVO and content analysis of 158 selected articles, 9 key success factors and 5 failure factors are identified, suggesting important implications for practice and further research.

Towards a typology of structural arrangements for shared services: evidence from the higher education sector

Shared services are increasingly prevalent in practice, their introduction potentially entailing substantive and highly consequential organizational redesign. Yet, attention to the structural arrangements of shared services has been limited. This study explores types of structural arrangements for shared services that are observed in practice, and the salient dimensions along which those types can be usefully differentiated. Through inductive attention to the shared services literature, and content analysis of 36 secondary case studies of shared services in the higher education sector, three salient dimensions emerged: (1) the existence or not of a separate organizational entity, (2) an intra- or inter-organizational sharing boundary, and (3) involvement or not of a third party. Each dimension being dichotomous yields 23 combinations, or eight shared services structural arrangement types. Each of the eight structural arrangement types is defined and demonstrated through case examples. The typology offers clarity around shared services structural arrangements. It can serve as a useful analytical tool for researchers investigating the phenomenon further, and for practitioners considering the introduction or further development of shared services arrangements. Important follow on research is suggested too.

Exploring factors that affect on cancer patients performance in social networks for informational support

The social network communities that promote information about cancer are able to develop an interactive environment where there are virtual relationships among cancer patients. Only a few studies have looked at the role of social network sites SNS for cancer patients despite their potential to deliver health messages to large audiences. Hence, there should be more rigorous research to explain the behaviour of cancer patients in SNS. This study seeks to explore the emotional, cognitive, social and technological constructs that affect the performance of cancer patients in social networks by using social cognitive theory SCT and task technology fit TTF theory. This study also aims to use a mixed method study in Mount Miriam Cancer Hospital MMCH and Kluang Cancer Support Group in peninsular Malaysia.

Success Factors for ICT Shared Services in the Higher Education Sector

Shared services is a prominent organizational arrangement for organizations, in particular for support functions. The success or failure of shared services is a critical concern as the move to shared services can entail large scale investment and involve fundamental organizational change. The Higher Education HE sector is particularly well poised to benefit from shared services as there is a need to improve organizational performance and strong potential from sharing. Through a multiple case study of shared services experiences in HE, this study identifies ten important antecedents of shared services success: 1 Understanding of shared services; 2 Organizational environment; 3 Top management support; 4 IT environment; 5 Governance; 6 Process centric view; 7 Implementation strategy; 8 Project management; 9 Change management; and 10 Communication. The study then develops a preliminary model of shared services success that addresses the interdependencies between the success factors. As the first empirical success model for shared services, it provides valuable guidance to practice and future research.

Framework for rural cloud telemedicine development in sub-Saharan African countries

According to the United Nations estimate, about 50 percent of entire world population and close to 70 percent of that of developing countries are living in rural areas. Quite a significant number of these populations live in penury especially those in sub Saharan Africa countries. In comparison with urban populace, rural residents are faced with challenges of access to technologies, good roads, electricity, infrastructures, economic and social services. Researchers have identified telemedicine technology as a remedy for people in the remote areas who do not have access to effective medical care due to dearth of skilled medical practitioners who are mostly seen in the urban region. In this study, the authors highlighted how cloud computing can be used to meet the telemedicine requirements for rural healthcare development in sub Saharan African countries in terms of benefits and issues associated with implementation and proposed a public cloud based rural telemedicine framework that is cost effective, implementable, scalable and fault tolerant.

Understanding factors affect on the effectiveness of social networks for cancer patients

Cancer related social network communities have the potential to develop an interactive environment where virtual relationships among cancer patients can be made. Few studies have looked at the role of Social Network Sites (SNS) for cancer patients despite their potential to deliver health messages to large audiences. The purpose of this study is to understand factors that affect the effectiveness of the SNS as fast growing source for online cancer support using Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) and the theory of Task Technology Fit (TTF). A semi-structured interview designed through reviews of relevant literature was analyzed using thematic analysis. Most respondents believed the effectiveness of SNS is significant on information and emotional support. Although, the central issues appeared to be more focused on the self efficacy, past experience, social supports, system and task characteristics in explaining the way factors affect on the effectiveness of SNS for cancer patients. Consequently, more rigorous research should be focused on explaining the best practices that may help speed up effective intervention of social network technology in healthcare.

Success Factors for Business Intelligence Systems Implementation in Higher Education Institutions – A Review

Considering that organizations are moving towards IT infrastructure, today Business Intelligence (BI) system is the most widely used IT solution. BI is the application of information and specialized tools to support decision making in different organizational environments. Organizations use BI to increase the efficiency of managing information for decision making. Despite the positive effect of BI to organizations, its implementation is frequently plagued with lots of risk, complex processes, drawbacks issues and challenges and the benefit of BI system can only be achieved if the system is successfully implemented. In view of the need and challenge of BI system implementation, this study aims to con-tribute, by proposing the success factors (SFs) of BI implementation for higher education institutions (HEIs). The review period for this study is seven years (2010–2017) and the database used are Science Direct, IEEE, Scopus, Springer link and Google Scholar. This paper serves as a guideline to follow by the HEIs decision makers on the factors that are important to be considered to ensure proper and successful implementation of BI system, this will lead to increase in the chances of successes and reduce the failure rates of BI system implementation in HEIs.

Social Network Sites (SNS) Utilization in Learning Landscape – Systematic Literature Review

Social network sites (SNS) have been widely used around the world to facilitate communication and engagement in the education landscape. The availability of various SNS types and their different functions have provided instructors and students with options in adding value to their learning process. However, there still lack of guidance on how to choose and strategize SNS utilization in learning. This paper explores SNS utilization by instructors and students in supporting the learning environment. The resources of the data are taken from four digital databases and analyzed using thematic analysis. The findings show the current types of SNS most used for learning purposes are Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and WhatsApp. The main uses of these SNS are identified as being for communication, collaboration, sharing information, enhancing learning and social connection.