Search results

Rather than organize as traditional firms, many of today’s companies organize as platforms that sit at the nexus of multiple exchange and production relationships. This chapter considers a most basic question of organization in platform contexts: the choice of boundaries. Herein, I investigate how classical economic theories of firm boundaries apply to platform-based organization and empirically study how executives made boundary choices in response to changing market and technical challenges in the early mobile computing industry (the predecessor to today’s smartphones). Rather than a strict or unavoidable tradeoff between “openness-versus-control,” most successful platform owners chose their boundaries in a way to simultaneously open-up to outside developers while maintaining coordination across the entire system.

Organizations worldwide are adopting software as a service (SaaS) applications, where they pay a subscription fee to gain access rather than buying the software. The extant models on software acquisition processes, several of which are based on organizational buying behavior, do not sufficiently explain how SaaS application acquisition decisions are made. This study aims to investigate the acquisition process organizations follow for SaaS software, the changes to the roles of the Chief Information Officer (CIO) and the business user and also looks at the impact of SaaS on the proliferation of unauthorized software systems.

The authors used exploratory research using the grounded theory approach based on 18 in-depth interviews conducted with respondents who have studied with enterprise software delivered on-premise and as SaaS in different roles such as sales, consulting, CIO, information technology (IT) management and product development.

The authors identified a need to classify the SaaS software and developed a framework that uses software specificity and its strategic importance to the organization to classify SaaS applications. The aforementioned framework is used to explain how software evaluation processes have changed for different kinds of SaaS applications. The authors also found that the CIO’s and the business users’ have changed substantially in SaaS application evaluations and found evidence to show that shadow IT will be restricted to some classes of SaaS applications.

By focusing on the changes to the roles and responsibilities of the members of the buying center, this paper provides unique insights into how the acquisition process of SaaS is different from the extant models used to explain enterprise software acquisitions. An understanding of how information search is conducted by the business users will help software vendors to target business users better.

This paper aims to examine the process for estimation of efforts for software development and suggests a framework for estimating software development costs and ensuring quality of code in e-Government projects from the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. With no established processes for estimation of efforts, the Government relied on open bids from the market to develop these e-Government applications.

The paper adopts an exploratory case study approach to analyze the e-Government applications in Andhra Pradesh. Using data from the information technology department of the Government of Andhra Pradesh, the paper evolves a framework to compute costs of software development, based on the software development life cycle.

The framework helps in arriving at a hurdle price before the tender process. The study has shown that an e-Government application in AP state would cost Rs. 224,000, or US$2,969.25, for a simple application, and Rs. 33,60,000, or US$44,538.71, for a complex application over a five-year period, depending on the complexity and size of the application. This information would be useful to the Government decision-makers for expanding e-Government.

Further research may assess the utility of this framework for e-Government support activities like automation of data centers, video conferencing facilities and ushering in financial technologies for encouraging cashless payments.

The paper provides information that could be of value at a national level (for India) and at the same time providing a guide for other countries that would like to adopt this framework.

This chapter examines the role of “continuations” (procedural revisions of patent applications) within software patents and overall patenting in the United States during 1987–1999. Our research represents the first effort of which we are aware to analyse data on continuations in software or any other patent class, and as such provides information on the effects of 1995 changes in the U.S. patent law intended to curb “submarine patenting.” Our analysis of all U.S. patents issued 1987–1999 shows that the use of continuations grew steadily in overall U.S. patenting through 1995, with particularly rapid growth in continuations in software patenting. Sharp reversals in these growth rates after 1995 suggest that changes in the U.S. patent law were effective. Continuations were used more intensively by packaged-software firms prior to the effective date of the 1995 changes in patent law than by other patentees, and both software and non-software patents subject to continuation tend to be more valuable.

Improved integration, centralized databases, access through Web browsers and application service providers (ASPs) are some of the current trends impacting on organizational decisions regarding IS/IT outsourcing. Web‐based technology liberated the client/server IT model from the limits of geographical boundaries delimited by a local area network. Partnering with the right ASPs could provide organizations with the new synergy required for competitive advantage. This paper outlines the development of a “solutions” innovation business model of rental‐based sourcing, charters current ASPs and the differences in IS/IT provision and offers an audit of the benefits and costs of ASPs to businesses and other stakeholders. Future challenges are mapped out for consideration as are strategic choices associated with continued outsourcing, as distinct from in‐sourcing, of IS/IT.

The Linked Systems project (LSP) is directed towards implementing computer‐to‐computer communications among its participants. The original three participants are the Library of Congress (LC), the Research Libraries Group (RLG), and the Western Library Network (WLN, formerly the Washington Library Network). The project now has a fourth participant, the Online Computer Library Center (OCLC). LSP consists of two major components. The first component, Authorities Implementation, is described in Library Hi Tech issue 10 (page 61). The second component, the Standard Network Interconnection (SNI), is the specification of the LSP protocols, and the implementation of these protocols on the participant systems. Protocol specification was a joint effort of the original three participants (LC, RLG, and WLN) and was described in Library Hi Tech issue 10 (page 71). Implementation, however, has consisted of individual efforts of the (now) four participants. This four‐part report focuses on these individual implementation efforts.

To review the development of software applications and their functionalities/benefits in relation to supply chain management and present scenarios on future development.

A range of recently published academic and non‐academic pieces of work that can be classified as pertinent to the area in question. These sources employ both theoretical and practical views on the topic of supply chain co‐ordination software and related functionalities and resulted benefits.

There is a significant overlap regarding the functionalities of software applications and the trend of convergence is about to intensify. At the same time the need for real time information will become crucial, putting emphasis on flexible IT‐systems that can deal with large amounts of data and are easy to interconnect. In turn this will lead to the growing importance of system integration software and the process of creating standards.

As a result of continuous development and convergence of IT‐solutions and turbulent business environment more applied research will be needed in the area of product configuration, RFID‐technology, standards in relation to interoperability of software applications (EAI technologies). This scrutiny is based only on written resources and no consultants or manager interviews were employed. Therefore the views of companies are not presented on the issues covered.

The selection of the appropriate software solutions for a company will need more time, expertise and money and the role of suppliers of software packages will become more significant.

This scrutiny stipulates the way the functionalities of software applications evolve with overlap one another and thus helps both researchers and companies to gain a clearer view on the development of supply chain software applications.

This paper discusses an ongoing research programme, which explores the development of the software‐as‐a‐service business model by different service providers (xSPs). With the demise of the first phase of the ASP market, due to the failure of vendors to provide business value to potential and existing customers, Web services promise to resolve some of these problems by integrating software applications across heterogeneous technology platforms and business environments. Whether this will be achieved is the subject of continuing debate. This paper presents the preliminary findings from a study, which uses the Microsoft .NET technology platform to develop Web services. Two Web‐enabled prototype databases are discussed. The paper concludes that Web services is still relatively new, but if key technical and business challenges are resolved, it may provide value for the customer where ASPs failed.

This study aims to explore the process of open source software (OSS) adoption in small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and more specifically open source enterprise resource planning (ERP) as a “mission critical” OSS application in manufacturing. It also addresses the fundamental issue of ERP risk management that shapes this process.

The approach is done through an interpretive case study of a small Canadian manufacturer that has adopted an open source ERP system.

Interpreted in the light of the IT risk management, OSS and packaged application adoption literatures, results indicate that the small manufacturer successfully managed the adoption process in a rather intuitive manner, based on one guiding principle and nine practices. In analyzing the data, diffusion of innovation theory appeared to fit rather well with the situation observed and to offer rich insights to explain the mission-critical OSS adoption process.

A single case study of successful IT adoption should be eventually counterbalanced by future cases considered to be partial or total failures, using a wider multiple case study approach for comparative purposes. And this should include alternative theoretical interpretations and more detailed empirical work on the extent to which the distinctive features of OSS make its adoption more or less risk-laden. This initial effort should also be followed by further research on mission-critical OSS adoption in contexts other than SMEs (e.g. healthcare organizations) and other than ERP (e.g. customer-relationship management).

This research confirms that open source is a credible alternative for SMEs that decide willingly or under external pressure to adopt a mission-critical system such as ERP. Moreover, it suggests that a high level of formalization is not always necessary.

The authors argue that rich insights into the dynamics of the mission-critical OSS adoption process can be obtained by framing this process within an IT risk management context.