System is developed internally
Control over the direction of the development of the IS
If a large project, new IT staff may be required
Systems may be available elsewhere
Staff may be inexperienced in developing this style of application
May be too technically challenging
Project may be too technically challenging
Systems may not be delivered on time
Project may incur unexpected costs
Outsourcing software
Using contractors
End User Computing
Software is proprietary
IS can be acquired quickly
Many alternatives are available
Limited scope to make adjustments
Unable to direct the direction that software develops (new features etc)
Open Source Software, About, Applications in which the underlying code of an application is released to the IT community, Benefits, Source code is made available, making it easier to make changes to software, Less risk if the organisation goes bust- community may continue to support the software longer., Drawbacks, Performance may not be as high as proprietary, Examples, MySQL Database, Mozilla Firefox, GIMP, Linux OS, Licenses, GPL, Others, Benefits, The Conservatives have estimated that £600million could be saved from government adopting OSS
Licensing
Support
Training
The use of an external organisation to develop bespoke software
A field of management services
IT Management contract out IT Services, May involve, Specific Application, Oursourcing whole IT department, Offshoring IT
IT may not be seen as a core activity
Gain the experience of the knowledge held by the service provider, Hardware, Software, Available IT within a particular sector such as IT
Be able to have IT services at a lower cost that currently
Communication channels may be longer.
Cost savings may not be realised
Company knowledge transferred outside the organisation
Changes to agreed contacts may be expensive.
Application Service Providers
IBM Global Services, HP, Xansa, Accenture
People, Experience in the IT department, Skills of the IT staff, Size of the IT staff
Is are the major concerns for IT operations?, Maintaining Systems?, Server power, space, upgrade requirements
Is the project technically challenging?
How urgent is the Information System required?
Is the IS expected to play a strategic role in the organisation?
Is it cheaper to develop the system outside of the country (Offshoring)?
What is the determining factor for the organisation?
How soon does the organisation require the system?
Is the business likely to grow in the future? How does this change the system choice
What is the degree of risk associated with the options?
Which option has the least risk?
How much does the IT department know about each of the options?
Has the department had previous experience which was positive?
How flexible are the options?
Which method is likely to most improve the efficiency / effectiveness of the organisation?
What are the terms of the lisencing for the application?
Employees develop software for the benefits of one user
Self Generated Reports from corporate databases
Spreadsheet Simulations of Financial Projections
Also known as End User Computing
Cheap - no cost of experienced development staff
Better user satisfaction
See risks
Little testing if any is carried out for software
Errors may be in formulas created
Application Service Providers
No need to develop software
Other organisations have used and tested software
No need to purchase application servers, or maintain application internally, reduction in direct staff costs, reduction in power consumption
No direct costs including IT staff or maintainance contracts associated with maintaining systems
Flexibility, Little customisation may be available for the application., Unable to state how the application develops in the future
IT Network, Increase in load of data entering corporate network, Users can't work offline
May need to change business processes to fit in with software
May not be able to integrate software with other applications
Company may go under
Risk of others getting access to Internal data
Data not being backed up by the ASP
CRMondemand
Google Docs
SugarCRM