IT CONTRACTS AND OUTSOURCING RESEARCH REPORT (Research Paper Sample)

IT CONTRACTS AND OUTSOURCING RESEARCH REPORT Student’s Name Professor’s Name Institution Course City (State) Date IT Contracts and Outsourcing Research Report Introduction Evidence has divulged that COVID-19 has exposed major weaknesses in the ancient outsourcing system. In this regard, the world is striving to formulate a “new normal” as significant lessons emerge regarding ways of shaping organizational approaches in their outsourcing arrangements in the coming days. In this case, it appears that Google Inc would have to think about the future and consider having extensive remote working as the “new normal” becomes the case. Indeed, it appears that some kind of remote working formations will be the thing to make IT outsourcing successful in the foreseeable future. Indeed, this reality appears to increase the importance of entities integrating information and data security facets into their outsourcing formulations. Moreover, they will need to have appropriate system to control the degree of performance of their service provider’s personnel whenever physical monitoring becomes a challenge. In fact, this is an arrangement that Google Inc should consider as it continues to use contractors, vendors, and temps. By considering remote working, Google can also deem it appropriate to bring its critical functions in-house or onshore. Indeed, such a move would require the company to have effective security mechanisms linked with remote workforces, such as logical security systems. Ideally, with the “new normal” being expected to take course even in the future, Google will be considering increasing its remote working strategy, which would require its service providers’ engagement in incorporating information and data security mechanisms into its outsourcing settings. Outsourcing at Google Inc Google has been seen to ramp up its outsourcing strategy as well as began giving out more business to entities. The company has outsourced some functions to the US-based Cognizant that is presently having many workers across India. Google has also outsourced to IBM among other multinational companies. In fact, it has been estimated that Google tend to spend hundreds of millions of dollars every year on information technology. In the past years, the company has outsourced some software maintenance and expansion undertakings to third-party technology vendors. Google is now beginning to outsource several non-critical segments of its operations including IT infrastructure management and software development. The company does so for two major reasons including seeking to be allowed to engage personnel with expertise that it does not have in-house. Moreover, outsourcing helps Google cover surge in work and be in a position to provide parental leave for its workers. Google’s contractors have been assisting it to consistently generate profits over the years. A good example is AdWords that is the entity’s advertising service provider. Despite the high profits emanating from its outsourcing strategy, the company has been significantly affected by the outbreak of the new coronavirus (Gartenberg 2020). Its service providers have been forced to change their operational strategies as well with many of them formulating remote working formulas for their workers. Google has been implementing the remote working strategy in the past few months and is looking forward to do so in the coming days as COVID-19 continue to affect its operations (Hern 2020). With the effects being felt across the board, both for Google and its service providers, the company should consider incorporating suitable information and data security rations into its outsourcing arrangements. Scope of the Point of View As mentioned in the start, the point of view is that Google Inc should consider incorporating appropriate information as well as data security requirements into its outsourcing formulae to maintain consistency of its remote working plans in the aftermath of COVID-19. In this regard, the information and data security mechanisms would have to be formulated by its service provider. The rationale for this is that security systems linked to remote personnel have been aimed at physical security. Some of the already existing measures including physical access control to safeguard sites (Reyes 2020). However, things have already changed at Google and the company is working under remote formula, which can be translated to mean that the focus will now be on a logical security mechanism (Gartenberg 2020). In this regard, the logical security mechanism would include electronic access coordination as well as technical controls to deter any form of exfiltration of information to the private model. Indeed, this can also include the service providers to electronically supervise the level of output of the workforce. The rationale for this is that there is expected to be potential lowered efficacy in a remote setting that Google has embarked on lately. Such are the risks that Google should work with its service providers to mitigate. Theoretical Overview Outsourcing is known to have a complicated structure that encompasses different activities and functions generating a series of administrative as well as managerial dilemmas. In this regard, several theories have been applied in assisting scholars to comprehend the nature of such practices. It is a common notion that any phenomenon can be defined using different theoretical frameworks on the basis of the corresponding processes (Vaxevanou & Konstantopoulos 2015). Outsourcing has been understood through the application of different theories that can mostly result in confusion among scholars. There are those that would be appropriate for understanding the situation at Google as it aims at incorporating its information and data security mechanisms into its outsourcing settings. The theories are considerate of the workforces, IT and data security, as well as the remote working structure that Google Inc has already embarked on in the era of COVID-19. Transaction Cost Economics Theory Transaction Cost Economics (TCE) theory is one of the widely used notions in outsourcing. The theory offers the best decision-making tools in an attempt to help organizations in making decisions about the functions to outsource. TCE theory also helps entities to prepare the implementation of the appropriate changes emanating from outsourcing (Vaxevanou & Konstantopoulos 2015). Most importantly, the features of this theory allow for the implementation of the relationship coordination stage and the reconsideration step. There is also a useful characteristic of TCE theory in the sense that it can be applied in the analysis as well as selection of contracts deemed to be quite complex (Schermann et al., 2016). Transaction cost economics is seen as a comparative contractual model to understand economic organization whereby an action is encompassed in the highlights of transactions on one side and governance on another (Pankowska 2019). The idea here is that a contract is just a mere promise and is usually not backed up by credible commitments. In this regard, TCE theory comes in to determine which transactions should be organized and the way to do so. TCE theory would be quite applicable in the case of Google Inc. The point of view is that the company should consider incorporating its information and data security into its outsourcing model as it embarks on remote working procedures. In this case, TCE comes in the sense that the recommendation would be a major change in the company’s outsourcing process. In this regard, Google Inc would require to consider many things including its available resources. The service providers would have to be involved in the process as models will have to be developed to do monitoring of remote workforce. Information and data being handled by service providers from remote environments would also have to be incorporated in the outsourcing strategy. Indeed, this will encompass governance in that TCE theory would be applicable in the way the incorporation process will be done. Opportunism should also be avoided at such a point. The service provider should be willing and able to work in the best interests of Google Inc. Core Competency Theory The Core Competency Theory is founded on the aspect of resources. It determines the collective knowledge of an entity, mostly associated with the ways of incorporating diverse productive skills as well as the integration of approaches of different advancements. Most importantly, an analysis of a vendor’s capabilities is deemed the main aspect that identifies the success of a contract (Vaxevanou & Konstantopoulos 2015). In this case, the Core Competency Theory has been utilized in the assessment of stages of relationship management as well as reconsideration. The theory can be used to assess if the process of outsourcing in an entity associated with IT models may help improve the organizational skills. The theory focuses on the organization of work along with the delivery of value. The Core Competency theory ahs it that core competence offers potential access to a bigger market (Creon, Grover & Teng 2017). Moreover, core competence should provide notable contribution to the perceived client benefits of an end product. The applicability of the Core Competency theory in Google Inc outsourcing structure would be appropriate. In this case, by catering for the information and data security facets in its remote working environments, Google Inc will be involving its service providers to improve on value during this hard period of COVID-19. The company would also require to monitor performance of workforces for its service providers in the remote environments (Ramasamy 2020). The theory will be a determinant of the success factors of the outsourcing process. Governance of the whole incorporation process should be considerate of vital success ...