Search results

Argues that unless software system purchase is tightly controlled, any subsequent development contract is likely to fail technically, financially or in meeting user requirements. Suggests how to avoid this during the system procurement process using structured methods against detailed assessment criteria. Examines the content of a technical specification which defines criteria in detail. Concludes that causes of the stream of disastrous projects in the 1970s and 1980s have largely been resolved as procurement agencies recognise the importance of involving the quality assurance department.

This column inaugurates a new facet of the coverage of reference materials contained in RSR: the inclusion of sections devoted to reviews of useful reference books published around the world. Inasmuch as RSR's emphasis is on American reference sources and American libraries, the titles selected for evaluation were chosen on the basis of their appeal and relevance to libraries both in the U.S. and in other countries.

Discusses the 1984 study review by the Department of the Environment of existing knowledge regarding landslipping in Great Britain. Reviews the background to the study and presents some of the general results. Concludes that knowledge of landslide distribution, character and significance remain surprisingly poor, that old (ancient) landslides are much more widely distributed in the landscape than previously thought, and that such old features present an important potential threat to buildings and structures because they can be reactivated if disturbed. Suggests that heightened perception of landslide hazard will lead to greater consideration of ground stability prior to developments, including increased use of various types of survey techniques that exist, and delimit areas of actual and potential instability.

The decision to operate BPO-IT organisational model by a business process outsourcing (BPO) service provider has far reaching benefits. The purpose of this paper is to develop a service provider’s BPO-IT framework that provides in-house IT function (software) required to process client services.

The multi-case study adopted an exploratory sequential mixed method research approach. In the first instance, seven BPO service provider organisations were investigated in the qualitative phase and 156 in the quantitative phase, respectively.

The adoption of the developed framework indicates that it could reduce failures in BPO relationships through reduced turnaround time in processing client services, improved quality of service, reduced cost, improved client and provider’s competitiveness, and confidentiality of client operations. Outsourcing clients could lay the foundation for a successful relationship by adopting a selection process that could choose the right provider.

The paper reveals BPO-IT organisation’s operation towards in-house provision of software required to process client services. A research exploring BPO service providers from a top outsourcing destination like India could provide offshore outsourcing clients the information to move towards onshore outsourcing.

This paper reviews the strategic benefits and problems relating to the outsourcing decision. These include issues of cost, quality, flexibility, strategic focus, leverage and diversification, the potential loss of critical skills and knowledge, and appropriation of final product value. The outsourcing decision is presented as one that will vary between firms within an industry through the differences in each organization’s context. A model is developed, structuring the contextual factors: capability, cost, technology, supply and product market conditions, to enable a consideration of the outsourcing decision through a focus upon its implications for competitive advantage.

The growing range of EEC Directives and Regulations for food products, some of which have never been subject to statutory control in this country, with compositional standards, and in particular, prescribed methods of analysis — something which has not featured in the food legislative policies here — must be causing enforcement authorities and food processors to think seriously, if as yet not furiously. Some of the prescribed methods of analysis are likely to be less adaptable to modern processing methods of foods and as Directives seem to be requiring more routine testing, there is the matter of cost. Directive requirements are to some extent negotiable — the EEC Commission allow for regional differences, e.g., in milk and bread — but it has to be remembered that EEC Regulations bind Member‐states from the date of notification by the Commission, over‐riding the national law. Although not so frequently used for food legislation, they constitute one of the losses of sovereign power, paraded by the anti‐market lobby. Regulations contain usual clauses that they “shall enter into force on the day following publication in the Official Journal of the European Communities” and that they “shall be binding in their entirety and directly applicable in all Member States”.

The Food Bill has emerged from the Grand Committee on Trade, and will shortly be submitted, as amended, to the House of Commons. Whatever further amendments may be introduced, the Bill, when passed into law, will but afford one more example of the impotence of repressive legislation in regard to the production and distribution of adulterated and inferior products. We do not say that the making of such laws and their enforcement are not of the highest importance in the interests of the community; their administration—feeble and inadequate as it must necessarily be—produces a valuable deterrent effect, and tends to educate public opinion and to improve commercial morality. But we say that by the very nature of those laws their working can result only in the exposure of a small portion of that which is bad without affording any indications as to that which is good, and that it is by the Control System alone that the problem can be solved. This fact has been recognised abroad, and is rapidly being recognised here. The system of Permanent Analytical Control was under discussion at the International Congress of Applied Chemistry, held at Brussels in 1894, and at the International Congress of Hygiene at Budapest in 1895, and the facts and explanations put forward have resulted in the introduction of the system into various countries. The establishment of this system in any country must be regarded as the most practical and effective method of ensuring the supply of good and genuine articles, and affords the only means through which public confidence can be ensured.

The following classified, annotated list of titles is intended to provide reference librarians with a current checklist of new reference books, and is designed to supplement the RSR review column, “Recent Reference Books,” by Frances Neel Cheney. “Reference Books in Print” includes all additional books received prior to the inclusion deadline established for this issue. Appearance in this column does not preclude a later review in RSR. Publishers are urged to send a copy of all new reference books directly to RSR as soon as published, for immediate listing in “Reference Books in Print.” Reference books with imprints older than two years will not be included (with the exception of current reprints or older books newly acquired for distribution by another publisher). The column shall also occasionally include library science or other library related publications of other than a reference character.

October 27, 1969 Redundancy — Dismissal — “By reason of redundancy” — Hotel employee — Reasons for dismissal — Inconsistency in tribunal's findings — Basic reason for dismissal that younger staff required — Whether dismissed by reason of redundancy — Redundancy Payments Act, 1965 (c.62), ss. 1 (2) (b), 9 (1) (2) (b).

It must be difficult for many to contemplate the numerous changes in progress and projected without wondering why it all has to happen now. Of course, there have always been with us those who would change everything, even those who would spoil; all seemingly unable to leave anything alone; unwillingly to let us be for what we are. Then there are those who dislike change of any kind in their familiar environment and strangely, children are the most conservative of us all, and others who do not object to change when it is necessary, but only when it is change merely for the sake of change. The changeover to the metric system, or to use one of the grating terms of the new technological language, metrication, must be accepted as a natural sequence to decimal currency and advances in industry. A revolution in weights and measures, it will indeed present very great problems throughout the country and at all levels, which will dwarf those presented by the switch to decimal coinage, for at worst, these may be just confusing to the general public and a price‐raiser in small‐value commodities, despite assurances to the contrary.