This thesis focuses on how companies in Sweden should manage the processes of offshore outsourcing IT services to low-cost locations, but also how they should manage the planning and accomplishment to achieve their goals and the expected result in a good way. The thesis states that companies in Sweden need to put a lot of effort into planning and research considering potential location and vendor. Different aspects and phases of the offshoring processes will be stated, discussed and analyzed concerning a fictive company called AbcIT. A visualization of internal strengths and weaknesses as well as external opportunities and threats is presented by a SWOT analysis regarding offshore outsourcing of IT-services to India. / Denna uppsats fokuserar på hur företag i Sverige skall gå tillväga när de överväger offshore outsourcing av IT-tjänster till lågkostnadsländer, hur de ska genomföra planeringsarbete och genomförande för att på bästa sätt uppnå både mål och resultat. I uppsatsen konstateras att företag i Sverige behöver lägga stor vikt vid planering och förundersökning av framtida område och affärspartner. Olika faktorer och delar av offshoringprocessen tas upp, diskuteras och analyseras med hjälp av det fiktiva företaget AbcIT. En SWOT-analys visualiserar interna styrkor och svagheter samt externa möjligheter och hot vid offshore outsourcing av IT-tjänster till Indien.

Problem There is a lack of knowledge about how Swedish SMEs make decisions on IT service selection. There is also lack of information about the attributes of IT service providers that are most important to Swedish SMEs. By discovering these attributes, IT service providers could focus on improving their services in those dimensions and become more attractive for Swedish small and medium enterprises. Purpose The purpose of this research is to investigate the decision making process over selection of IT services for small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in Sweden. Additionally, this research intends to discover the most important features (attributes) of an IT service provider in its selection. What are the steps involved in decision-making process? What decision-making methods can be used to help explain the process that goes on in the minds of the decision makers? What aspects influence their behaviour when decision makers prefer one service provider to another? IT service comprises of internet-based services such as web hosting, email services, online backup services and cloud apps or locally offered IT services such as IT helpdesk. The candidates who were interviewed were employees or entrepreneurs who work and live in Sweden. Method This research was conducted with an inductive approach using mono method for semi-structured interviews for primary data collection. Secondary data collection was multiple-source through literature reviews in order to learn about different attributes and current knowledge about this subject. The research method was qualitative with exploratory strategy in order to get insights into managers’ decision-making processes. Sampling was non-probability purposive method with sample size as saturation method. The focus was illustrative and method chosen as typical case. Conclusion The conclusions of this thesis illustrates that the important attributes (features) of IT services required by Swedish SMEs are the requirement that the service is being offered from Sweden, due to tax conformity laws and security matters. Moreover, SAT, WADD, FRQ and EBA are decision-making heuristics in use by the companies in selection of suitable IT services.

The purpose of the thesis is to conduct a case study for investigating change and release management at Catella Bank, within the context of IT Service Management (ITSM), by measuring and to provide suggestions for improvements. Incident and operations management is included to enhance the understanding of the historical performance at Catella. The case study is set out to answer the following research questions: 1. “How does a transition in change management structure impact the performance of successfully delivering both changes and releases of IT services at a financial institution?” 2. “What are the causes of delays in the delivering changes and releases?” 3. “How does stakeholder involvement alter the performance of implementing a successful change and release?” 4. “How do Information Technology, and the corresponding departments manage and control necessary changes and releases of software at present?” Research methodology utilized in the thesis includes both qualitative and quantitative research, including interviews, participation in meetings and empirical investigation of internal material at Catella. The result from the research has provided a significant collection of issues, as well as suggested solutions for Catella to take to improve organizational maturity in enhancing the capabilities in performing work related to the four managerial disciplines within ITSM. The research culminated in the creation of the CHARM (CHange And Release Management) model, which consists of integrating change and release management into project management, split between three different components for the three organizational levels. The author has created the following components: Strategy matrix, a governance model, and a process model.

The topic of this master thesis are the Systems for managing enterprise IT. This paper is divided into three parts, where the first and second part gives a comprehensive view and concentrates existing knowledge from the examined area. The third part consists of my own conclusions based on available resources. For the overall IT Management, it is necessary to manage and measure IT Performance. Therefore, the first part deals with IT Performance Management (ITPM).Performance Management should penetrate the entire organization and ITPM should be part of the overall Performance Management of the organization. It is necessary to manage and measure performance at all levels of the organization (strategic, tactical and operational level). To measure the organizational IT performance, it is necessary to design relevant metrics. To design these metrics it is recommendable to follow a framework, whether ITIL or COBIT. The second part of this paper deals with IT Management frameworks and their support for designing metrics. It deals with the new wave in IT -- ITSM (IT Service Management). The de facto standard for ITSM is ITIL. Furthermore, the second part discusses the de facto standard for IT Governance -- COBIT and IT Balanced Scorecard for clarifying and translating the vision and strategy into specific objectives. The third part describes a specific procedure for designing metrics according to the ITIL framework. In addition, this part describes the software Metricus which enables a centralized management of ITPM and uses a holistic view of the overall ITPM.

The global ICT revolution is adding a new stream of waste, known as electronic waste or ‘e-waste’: electrical and electronic equipment that has ceased to be of value to its owners. The recyclability of e-waste together with the presence of pollutants poses a waste management challenge. Developed countries have systems in place to address this challenge, but developing countries have only recently recognised the need to develop appropriate systems for e-waste management. ICT consumers are key stakeholders in e-waste: it is they who decide whether and when an item is e-waste, and they form the link between producers and recyclers. Yet not much attention has been paid to their role. The limited research to date has focused on household consumers in developed countries, leaving a knowledge gap around bulk, organisational consumers in developing countries, despite their often being the largest single contributor to e-waste. Acknowledging the growing challenge of e-waste management in developing countries and lack of research on bulk consumer response to this challenge, the present research aimed to understand e-waste material flows, management strategies and determinants relating to bulk consumers of IT in India. It focused on bulk consumers in India’s IT service sector because that sector depends on electronic equipment for its operation and has been recognised to generate nearly 30% of the total e-waste in the country. The data for this research was collected between 2010 and 2011, at a time when preparations were underway for implementation of separate e-waste regulations in the country. Therefore, the findings of the research here draw attention to the practice for e-waste management in India before implementation of the new regulations. In order to achieve the overall aims, a qualitative research approach based on multiple case studies was adopted. In all, 20 IT service organisations belonging to three different groups based on size namely, very large (VL), large (L) and small and medium (SM) were studied via multiple semi-structured interviews, direct observations and document analysis. Further source triangulation was achieved through interviews with representatives from other stakeholder groups: IT equipment producers, formal recyclers, regulators, industry association representatives, and representatives of various national and international organisations working on e-waste management. A complex chain of material flow was identified, involving a significant number of stakeholders. Two further models – of e-waste strategy and e-waste strategy determinants – were developed through literature review and pilot fieldwork, and then verified via the main fieldwork. Three distinct types of e-waste management strategy were observed among the stakeholders. While the VLIT organisations and IT producers exhibited a proactive approach to e-waste management, the LIT organisations and formal recyclers exhibited a reactive approach to its management. The SMIT organisations ignored the challenge of e-waste and were indifferent to the management of generated e-waste. Various external (regulation, clients, peer pressure, brand and corporate reputation) and internal (corporate culture and leadership, financial benefits and corporate social responsibility) factors were found to play a role in determining the different types of e-waste management practiced by the stakeholders. Except for direct financial benefits all the identified factors had a strong determining role in the proactive approach to e-waste management. The reactive approach was chiefly driven by regulation and financial benefits associated with e-waste management. The indifferent approach was driven only by the financial benefits associated with disposal of e-waste. A key determinant that was shaping the factors among the IT bulk consumers was institutional pressures mainly driven by the requirement of some clients for green practices; that requirement itself deriving from the nature of the value chains within which consumer organisations were located. Alongside the determinants, a set of enabling factors was identified (awareness, environmental management systems, and access and availability of formal recyclers) which helped explain the implementation of e-waste management practices. When the levels of these enablers were high the implementation of organisational e-waste management was proactive and when they were low, the approach to e-waste management was reactive. These enablers were absent in the organisations that were indifferent to e-waste management. From these findings, various challenges in the current system for e-waste management could be identified including: value expectation at the time of disposal of e-waste; patchy awareness about e-waste; lack of collection mechanisms; and regulatory shortcomings. Recommendations have been made about opportunities to incentivise and facilitate collection, enhance awareness, and offer regulatory support.

Process Management is becoming more discussed issue in every company. The challenge for IT Managers is to deliver IT Services at a high quality in accordance and partnership with business. The diploma thesis Implementation of ITIL process methodology focuses on identification and analysis of existing shortcomings in the specific example of a chosen company in terms of ITIL process methodology and proposes recommendations and changes that will improve the current situation.

Companies all over the world are seeking ways to address sustainability related issues, both to meet external expectations and as a way to find opportunities for growth and innovation. Many attempts have been made in providing descriptions and guidance in how sustainability can be adopted within corporations. However, much of earlier research has focused on the manufacturing industry where materials and production processes are central in the concept. How sustainability can be incorporated in service industries, more specifically by IT service providers (ITSPs), is a somewhat unexplored area even though the potential for sustainability related risks as well as opportunities are high. Previous research in this area that has set out to construct models of this phenomenon has not managed to consider the characteristics of  ITservice providers to the fullest. This study has investigated how ITSPs can incorporate sustainability into business practices through a multiple-case study with four ITSP and one technical consulting company. The data has been collected through interviews and document analysis, and analyzed both separately nd by comparison. Additional interviews were held with experts and professionals with relevant knowledge to strengthen the findings. This study resulted in model that can serve as an analytical tool and presentation format  hen incorporating sustainability in business practices within the IT Professional service industry. The results showed that incorporation of sustainability in practices needs to be divided in two main categories; incorporating sustainability in internal operations and incorporating sustainability in customer offerings. Within these categories the study identified a number of activities that ITSPs can undertake to incorporate sustainability and what outcomes they may have. It was concluded that the activities in within internal operations were primarily focused n building trust towards customers. The study also showed that incorporating  ustainability in customer offerings can be done to different extent with different outcomes. The critical activities to successfully incorporate sustainability in customer offerings has been described in the study and visualized in a 3-level map to further provide guidance. A main finding within this category was that interaction with the customer is crucial to successfully deploy service offerings that incorporate sustainability. The results can be generalized to other ITSPs in similar settings and parts can also be argued to be adoptable to other companies in the professional service industry that rely on intense technology.

Detta examensarbete har syftat till att utveckla ett verktyg för att utvärdera en IT-avdelnings möjligheter till effektivisering genom att implementera Lean på IT Service Management. Verktyget har utvecklats i samarbete med Tina Eriksson på uppdrag av management och IT-management konsultbolaget Connecta AB. Connecta AB har som syfte att använda verktyget för framtida affärer. För att verktyget ska vara användbart och uppfylla Connectas krav så har fyra mål satts upp. Verktyget ska vara trovärdigt, resurseffektivt, användarvänligt samt underlätta för fortsatt arbete och implementering av Lean på IT Service Management. Det färdiga verktyget består av tre separata delar vilka tillsammans syftar till att ge en heltäckande bild av ITavdelningen ur ett Lean-perspektiv. Verktyget består av en mognadsanalys som mäter Lean -mognaden inom fem centrala områden, en enkät som analyserar medarbetarnas syn på sin arbetssituation och slöserier kring denna samt en värdeflödeskartläggning för att analysera ett par IT Service Management- processer. Verktyget testades på en representativ kund under våren 2010 i syfte att utvärdera dess lämplighet. Utifrån testresultatet har verktyget analyserats utifrån uppsatta mål och slutsatsen är att det uppfyller sitt ändamål.

Yes / The prevalence of big data is starting to spread across the public and private sectors however, an impediment to its widespread adoption orientates around a lack of appropriate big data analytics (BDA) and resulting skills to exploit the full potential of big data availability. In this paper, we propose a novel BDA to contribute towards this void, using a fuzzy cognitive map (FCM) approach that will enhance decision-making thus prioritising IT service procurement in the public sector. This is achieved through the development of decision models that capture the strengths of both data analytics and the established intuitive qualitative approach. By taking advantages of both data analytics and FCM, the proposed approach captures the strength of data-driven decision-making and intuitive model-driven decision modelling. This approach is then validated through a decision-making case regarding IT service procurement in public sector, which is the fundamental step of IT infrastructure supply for publics in a regional government in the Russia federation. The analysis result for the given decision-making problem is then evaluated by decision makers and e-government expertise to confirm the applicability of the proposed BDA. In doing so, demonstrating the value of this approach in contributing towards robust public decision-making regarding IT service procurement. / EU FP7 project Policy Compass (Project No. 612133)

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