Anda di halaman 1dari 3

 

Temasek Informatics & IT School
Quality & Service Management
AY 2007/2008 October Semester 

  Outsourcing

Tutorial Questions

1. Outsourcing is the use of external party or parties to perform one or more organizational
activities. It involves a contract that specifies a service which the market is to provide.
What is Insourcing?

Insourcing involves a contract which calls for the market to provide resources to be deployed
under the buyer’s management and control.

2. What is difference between onshore and offshore outsourcing?


Give an example to illustrate your understanding.

Onshore outsourcing is where the work outsourced is done within the country
Offshore outsourcing is where the outsourced is done outside the country.

E.g. Call center can be outsourced to business partners like NTUC Call Centre or business
partners in Malaysia
(E.g. Singtel call centre was located in Malacca at one time) or in India. Same for software
development where most of the coding and testing of codes are done in countries like China
and India where there are readily available expertise and cheaper cost for such professional

3. Bank Xabi has decided to upgrade their old IT systems into an integrated system where the
core banking systems (ie. Retail products like Saving Account, Current Account, Fixed
Deposit ) are interfaced with a new channel of delivery like Internet Banking. This project
would also have an impact on the support required as more PCs will be introduced into the
bank as more processes are being computerized.
The project team is putting up a recommendation paper to outsource the functions of
supporting the PCs and some basic support for the office automation software like Microsoft
Office software applications. This type of support entails setting up a Helpdesk unit.

1
 

a) Give 3 possible reasons on why the bank should be outsourcing this support role and
explain your reasons.

i) Answering or troubleshooting PC problems and office automation applications like


WORD, EXCEL, etc… can be easily outsourced to external parties who has such
expertise so that the staff can focus on core business functions of the bank.

ii) Major investment can be avoided as the bank need not continuously train the support
staff to keep update with the new PC configurations, operating software upgrades,
office automation releases or new functions, etc…

iii) As the bank was running on obsolete systems prior to the new integrated system
implementation,, existing staff do not have the necessary skills to perform these
support roles and will have to acquire new knowledge through training, assuming that
they have the aptitude for it.

iv) Operating cost is expected to be reduced as it is expected to be cheaper to pay a


established vendor with the necessary skills and experience than to start or develop a
new support team to perform these functions required of a helpdesk.

v) Certification or controls can be easily put in place as the vendor has established
quality management procedures (e.g. Problem or incident management process) to
satisfy any audits or statutory requirements (e.g. MAS or Bank Negara)

b) Give 3 possible risks that the bank may encounter in the outsourcing.

i) As this is the first time the bank is outsourcing its functions, the outsourcing team
is not familiar with the outsourcing practices or methodologies; e.g. identifying and
assessing suppliers or vendors, selection process, contract negotiation, managing
outsourcing relationship.

ii) The outsourcing team should be familiar with the bank functions and processes and
come from cross-functional disciplines such as finance, operations, HR, legal, quality
assurance

iii) Bank must be aware of any cultural differences especially if the supplier or vendor is
from overseas, e.g. India, Malaysia and China. Language and management practices
may differs so contract negotiation and SLAs (Service Level Agreements) must be
clearly stated.

iv) Future changes in the supplier or vendor financial status or support capability may be
adverse for the bank and cannot be foreseen

2
 

4. a) Describe a typical outsourcing life cycle.

Strategic assessment
Needs analysis
Vendor assessment
Contract & negotiation
Project initiation & transition
Relationship management
Continuance modification or exit strategies

b) What are the 2 main deliverables of the Needs analysis stage?

The 2 main deliverables are Statement of Work (SOW) and Request for Proposal (RFP).

c) Explain the Service Level Agreement (SLA), a component in the SOW, and give an
example in relation to Bank Xabi scenario.

SLA indicates the expected service or results; e.g. time take to resolve a report PC problem
or office automation query or error encountered

Anda mungkin juga menyukai