<p><strong>Introduction</strong></p><p>IT-Outsourcing is a concept that describes the supply of part or all of Information Technology (IT) services by an external supplier company, known as IT-vendor, to a client company. The ‘IS-Improvement’ is one of the three strategic views of IT-Outsourcing for clients and involves advantages like focusing on core business, cost reductions and increase of IT-resources efficiency.</p><p><strong> </strong></p><p><strong>Objectives</strong></p><p>The purpose of this project is to discover, describe and analyze the most critical aspects in implementing IT-Outsourcing and the critical aspects of the ‘IS Improvement’ view of IT-Outsourcing for clients, to further let IT-vendors know how they can improve on delivering their services to their customers.</p><p><strong> </strong></p><p><strong>Research Question</strong></p><p>“<em>Which are the most critical factors </em><em>in implementing IT-Outsourcing and which are the critical aspects of the IS-improvement view of IT-Outsourcing for four organizations as clients?</em>”</p><p><strong> </strong></p><p><strong>Method</strong></p><p>This project follows an exploratory research method. It is mainly an action research but there is also an element of a realist research. The subject of IT-Outsourcing was chosen because it is part of IT-Management. The analysis is based on primary data collected from four organizations in the European Union (EU) that were chosen because they use IT intensively in their activities. Access to these organizations was because of convenience since it was enabled by personal contacts. Two organizations were in the shipping business, the third organization was an electronic-devices factory, and the fourth was a university. The data collection was based on three face-to-face interviews with the IT-Managers of the organizations, and one response was collected by electronic means since the fourth respondent (also IT-Manager) completed and sent the questionnaire by e-mail. The interviews were based on a semi-structured questionnaire, that in turn was formed based on the content of the critical literature review. The critical literature review was formed from books and articles found at Mälardalens Högskola’s library and databases, and interlibrary loans. The data were inserted in a table for content analysis that helped count the frequencies of the various factors of IT-Outsourcing. The results were drawn based on qualitative analysis and they were tested against dialectical critique.</p><p><strong> </strong></p><p><strong>Conclusions</strong></p><p>The most critical factors in implementing IT-outsourcing for these four organizations are: Hardware maintenance is the most critical area to be outsourced. Low costs of services, supplier’s stability and reputation are the most critical factors in selecting an IT-vendor. Supplier’s understanding of client’s objectives is the most critical factor for a successful relationship between clients and IT-vendors. Precise definition of costs is the most critical factor to be included in an IT-Outsourcing contract, and selective/partial IT-Outsourcing is the IT-sourcing solution preferred by these organizations. The ‘IS-Improvement’ view of IT-Outsourcing for these four organizations is not valid, but the respondents’ words indicate ways that IT-Outsourcing can be improved to achieve increased IT-resources efficiency.</p>

Introduction IT-Outsourcing is a concept that describes the supply of part or all of Information Technology (IT) services by an external supplier company, known as IT-vendor, to a client company. The ‘IS-Improvement’ is one of the three strategic views of IT-Outsourcing for clients and involves advantages like focusing on core business, cost reductions and increase of IT-resources efficiency.   Objectives The purpose of this project is to discover, describe and analyze the most critical aspects in implementing IT-Outsourcing and the critical aspects of the ‘IS Improvement’ view of IT-Outsourcing for clients, to further let IT-vendors know how they can improve on delivering their services to their customers.   Research Question “Which are the most critical factors in implementing IT-Outsourcing and which are the critical aspects of the IS-improvement view of IT-Outsourcing for four organizations as clients?”   Method This project follows an exploratory research method. It is mainly an action research but there is also an element of a realist research. The subject of IT-Outsourcing was chosen because it is part of IT-Management. The analysis is based on primary data collected from four organizations in the European Union (EU) that were chosen because they use IT intensively in their activities. Access to these organizations was because of convenience since it was enabled by personal contacts. Two organizations were in the shipping business, the third organization was an electronic-devices factory, and the fourth was a university. The data collection was based on three face-to-face interviews with the IT-Managers of the organizations, and one response was collected by electronic means since the fourth respondent (also IT-Manager) completed and sent the questionnaire by e-mail. The interviews were based on a semi-structured questionnaire, that in turn was formed based on the content of the critical literature review. The critical literature review was formed from books and articles found at Mälardalens Högskola’s library and databases, and interlibrary loans. The data were inserted in a table for content analysis that helped count the frequencies of the various factors of IT-Outsourcing. The results were drawn based on qualitative analysis and they were tested against dialectical critique.   Conclusions The most critical factors in implementing IT-outsourcing for these four organizations are: Hardware maintenance is the most critical area to be outsourced. Low costs of services, supplier’s stability and reputation are the most critical factors in selecting an IT-vendor. Supplier’s understanding of client’s objectives is the most critical factor for a successful relationship between clients and IT-vendors. Precise definition of costs is the most critical factor to be included in an IT-Outsourcing contract, and selective/partial IT-Outsourcing is the IT-sourcing solution preferred by these organizations. The ‘IS-Improvement’ view of IT-Outsourcing for these four organizations is not valid, but the respondents’ words indicate ways that IT-Outsourcing can be improved to achieve increased IT-resources efficiency.

As competition has changed and made the environment more dynamic and complex for the hospitality and tourism industry, the concept of strategic management has become more important. However, under the force driving change of technology innovation, information has gone digital and electronic for business development and management. Adopting information technology (IT) for strategic management becomes an important issue for an organization. The co-alignment model is believed to be one of the effective models for the purposes of strategic management in the field of hospitality and tourism. The primary objective of this study was to investigate important considerations for the design of an information system (IS) to improve the utility of the model. Once the important considerations are taken into account for constructing the system, such an IS is expected to facilitate the information flows associated with the co-alignment model and further work in concert with the model to strengthen the processes of strategy formulation and implementation. Together, the co-alignment model and the IS can be viewed as a Coordination Strategy Framework which also has theoretical underpinning from the review of the literature of strategy, hospitality and tourism, management information system (MIS), computer science (CS), and information science. Because this research topic or its similar kind has not been studied in the field of hospitality and tourism, this study is exploratory in nature. A qualitative research approach adopting a single-case study method was used. Using the co-alignment model as one of its theoretical supports along with other techniques to collect and test the interview data, the study achieved reliability and validity of the research findings. As a major part of the conclusions of this study, the findings are the important considerations for the design of the future IS. They included the seven key issues in five dimensions, eleven recommendations, and ten propositions that explained the relationships among the managerial aspects implicated in the framework implementation, especially the interactions between the future IS and the co-alignment model. Furthermore, as the framework is an integration of a strategy model and an IT application, it also gives a new perspective to the term "strategic IT" that denotes the strategic use of IT. / Ph. D.