Q1:-Difference between outsourcing and offshoring.
Outsourcing and offshoring are two unique concepts which can co-exist. Outsourcing is the way in which a company hires a third party for carrying out one or more of company's jobs/functions within the same country on company’s behalf. Whereas Offshoring is the way in which a company moves out of country, one or more of its jobs/functions to achieve certain objectives like reducing cost of manufacturing etc. It may be carried out through hiring a third party or within the same company’s group.
-Strength and weaknesses of outsourcing and offshoring.
Weaknesses of outsourcing include dependency on third party, risk of copy rights violation, delayed deliveries, circular debt.
Strengths of offshoring include reduced cost, reduced legal complications, increased market span, reduced environmental limitations like pollution etc.
Weaknesses of offshoring include distributed management and conflicts, communication gaps, variation in currency exchange rates causing accounting calculations to become complex.
-what operational IT and management IT systems should you outsource?
Operational IT systems which are considered viable for outsourcing are students’ database, employees’ database, trainees’ database etc. These systems do not have any critically sensitive data like in case of an accounting information system.
Management IT systems which are considered viable for outsourcing are company’s manufacturing/servicing database and networking infrastructure for cloud computing. These systems do not include any important authorization to the company’s sensitive information.
-what issues do you consider when you make decision to outsource?
The important considerations while taking the decision of outsourcing are company’s privacy policy, copy rights, patents, cost effects, and quality of job/function to be performed by third party. Based on these factors a businessman can easily decide, whether he/she should outsource the function/job under consideration or continue in-sourcing on it. Furthermore while outsourcing it is very important to carefully evaluate the third party contractor before hiring, in order to be certain that it is the most suitable option to be considered. It is better to look for a third party through open tendering or advertising in popular newspapers.
Q2: What support does operational IT offer for business?
Operational IT has a wide range of features to offer for business. These may include database related to patients’ records in hospitals, students’ records in institutes, employees’ records for organizations, trainees’ records to keep track of trainings. These databases provide detailed insight of the current status as well as future requirements for a business. An operational IT system can be implemented to support the management IT system in a business. Operational IT is a low level IT system which can be managed by average IT professionals, so this system has no big cost effects associated with it for a business.
Q3: What support does management IT offer for business?
A management IT system is of administrative level which provides support to top management in taking strategic decisions through having access to sensitive information with administrative rights. It includes hardware and software inventories, capacity and utilization monitoring, users’ activities monitoring. By providing access to these features, management IT plays vital role in supporting higher management in their decision making. Management IT has become an essential system for today’s organizations to keep themselves competent with the rivals.
Q4: What is knowledge management? How does it help in business?
Knowledge management is a set of strategies and ideas which are practiced in business for identification, creation, representation, adoption and distribution of peoples’ experiences. It is also the formulation of standardized procedures and policies in an organization through the course of it operation in the past. The implementation of knowledge management defines standard policies and processes in an organization hence helping it to move in a consistent manner. These defined policies and processes in every business ensure cost efficiency, standardization and quality of performed tasks.
Q5: What is CRM business? How does it help a business?
CRM is the acronym of Customer Relations Management. It represents a widely adopted model for handling interactions with clients / customers. CRM is a helpful tool to ensure customer satisfaction through enabling an organization to formulate a standardized model in terms of dealing with the clients / customers. It devices a system in which the customers are dealt according to defined set of instructions which portrays a professional image of the organization. In today’s era of modern communication and IT systems, it has become very difficult for an organization to keep its customers satisfied without a CRM system. This system not only keeps the customers satisfied but also enables the customer relations staff to perform their duties in a defined manner. The major benefits of CRM are quality and efficiency, decrease in overall cost, and increased profitability.
Q6: What is cloud computing? Benefits and risks
Cloud computing is the term used to describe utilization of computing sources both hardware and software which perform tasks through connecting via network / internet. It consists of remote servicing through a computing source for computation of user’s data / applications.
Benefits associated with Cloud Computing include agility in performing computation, overall cost reduction, independent source locations, virtualization, high reliability through redundancy, performance monitoring, ease of maintenance due to independent systems. Cloud Computing can also be used to keep backups of data in various locations to ensure data backup and security.
Risk associated with Cloud Computing include privacy violation, requirement of higher level IT experts, complex networks, virus/spams distribution. Cloud Computing may only be implemented by professional IT experts who already have experience in this field. Cloud computing requires high level of anti-virus and anti-malware software programs to run smoothly.
