IT Strategies: Comparative Analysis of Sourcing and Supply Chains

This report provides a comparative analysis of IT sourcing and supply chain strategies, drawing from multiple articles to highlight key concepts and practical applications. It explores the role of information sharing in value chains and supply chains, emphasizing the importance of supply chain management for inventory control, cost management, and economic development. The report also discusses the impact of Porter's five competitive forces model on strategic decision-making. Furthermore, it delves into different types of IT sourcing, including inbound and outbound approaches, and examines the factors influencing the success of IT outsourced projects, such as risk management, data privacy, and effective stakeholder relationships. By comparing various strategies, the report aims to provide insights into achieving long-term success in IT organizations, considering market conditions and dynamic capabilities. Desklib offers this student-contributed document alongside other solved assignments and past papers to aid in academic understanding and research.

Running head: INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Information Technology
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note:

2INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Question one
Selected article: Lee, H. L., Padmanabhan, V., & Whang, S. (2015). The bullwhip effect in
supply chains. IEEE Engineering Management Review, 43(2), 108-117.
The foremost determination of the paper is to highlight the use of the information sharing
in the value chains and the supply chains. Every industry has a separate value chain and supply
chain for fulfilling the request of the consumers of the industry. Value chain is very much
important for business purposes as it is useful to manage the different activities of the business.
Improved value chain network helps the business organizations to have a competitive advantage
over the other rival business organizations. Whereas supply chain is useful to expand the existing
range of products and services provided to the customers by the business organizations.
Management of the different categories of stakeholders in the business corporations are simpler
with the help of the supply chain network.
The needs and requirements of the consumers of business industries keep on changing
with time, for this reason, the supply chain network of those business organizations should be
keeping on changing so that the expectations of the clients are met. Management of the inventory
is much more useful with the help of the supply chain network. The suppliers of the business
organizations should be working efficiently to manage the inventories associated with the
business. There are different categories of cost associated with the business which cannot be pre-
determined which can be effectively managed with the help of the management of the supply
chain. The economic development of the business organization depends entirely on the supply
chain analysis which is category of tool used by global business organizations to identify the
business opportunities of the corporation.

3INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
The use of the information is very much associated with Porters five competitive forces
model as the model is also used by the business organization to find competitors of the business,
role of the stakeholders associated with the business and the threat coming from the substitute
products. It can be said that the information which are collected from applying the Porters five
competitive forces are strategically used by the business organizations as it leads them towards
the organizational goals which are set by the management team during the start of a particular
project.
Thus, this paper was useful to understand the impact of the use of information
considering the supply chain and value chain for the growth and progress of the business
organizations. The paper was also helpful to understand the impact of Porter's five competitive
forces in business organization which almost similar to the use of the information considering the
value chain and the supply chain.
Selected article: Wang, J., Muddada, R. R., Wang, H., Ding, J., Lin, Y., Liu, C., & Zhang, W.
(2016). Toward a resilient holistic supply chain network system: Concept, review and future
direction. IEEE Systems Journal, 10(2), 410-421.
The prime objective of the paper is to focus on the impact of the holistic supply chain
networking system in a business organization. Supply chain managers may a huge role in the
growth and development of the organization. The efficiency of the stakeholders of business is
very much important in the warehouses, production units, costs associated with the projects, the
supply chain managers should be evaluating the performance of the stakeholders on a regular
basis so that the organization can have a significant competitive advantage as compared with the
other business organizations. Cash flow is an important business aspect of different types of

4INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
business and management of the costs are very much important for the progress of the business
institutions.
The paper provided in-depth knowledge about the importance of inbound logistics and
the outbound logistics of business industries. Each and every project associated with the business
industries goes through a set of activities starting from professional planning to collection of raw
materials until the delivery of the products and services to the clients, each of those activities
when considered as a unit may be termed as the value chain. The primary activities of the
industries are the sales and the marketing, services also fall under the category of the value chain.
At the same time, it can be said that Porter's competitive force models are applied in the business
organization as it helps them to understand all the factors which can be responsible for the
growth and development of the organization. The infrastructural changes which are needed in
most of the business organizations can be done after Porter’s value chain analysis. The impact of
the different external stakeholders of the business such as the buyers and the sellers can also be
understood with the help of this competitive model. Every business organization have a
considerable amount of threat coming from the rival business organizations which have a
significant impact on the value chain can be identified with the help of Porter's forces. The
complexities in the business environments can be identified in the first place with the help of
Porter's five competitive forces.
The cultural aspects of the organization are very much important to be identified as the
stakeholders of the business also have their opinions about the service provided by the
customers. The evaluation and planning, value analysis, activity analysis is the three-step process
of value chain analysis. The whole seller, distributer, retailer, consumer and all the other major
factors can be managed after the external environmental analysis of business organizations.

5INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Business strategies can be created and implemented accordingly by the project managers so in a
way in can be said that Porter's five competitive forces model are very much useful for the
project managers also.
Question two
Selected article: Naik, N. (2016, March). Crowdsourcing, open-sourcing, outsourcing and
insourcing software development: A comparative analysis. In Service-Oriented System
Engineering (SOSE), 2016 IEEE Symposium on (pp. 380-385). IEEE.
The prime objective of the paper is to focus on the different types of IT sourcing such as
the inbound sourcing and the outbound sourcing. The impact of those sourcing techniques is
stated in a detailed way in this paper. There are different categories of cost associated with an IT
project which are very difficult to analyze before the start of the project. The idea of IT sourcing
is very much useful to minimize the added overhead costs associated with the IT project. The
supply chain management is very closely related with IT sourcing. The procurement problems of
the IT projects can be also solved with the help of the IT sourcing. Effective utilization and
management of the resources is very much important for business organizations as it can be
utilized and managed in a better way for the IT outsourced projects. Strategic tools are used for
the management of the IT sourcing projects. Sometimes the relationship between the IT sourcing
and the IT strategy is very much significant for the growth and progress of the Information
Technology organization. Risk management systems and the data privacy regulations are the
other business aspect of the IT sourcing projects. Export controls should be taken into
considerations in the IT outsourced projects. There are different types of issues associated with
the IT outsourced projects which are needed to be minimized such as the lack of motivation, lack

6INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
of responsiveness, communication barriers, poor quality relationship and incompatible work
ethics and work culture.
Selected article: Tang, L., & Chen, H. (2015, December). Request outsourcing and insourcing
with supply function bidding in cloud federation. In Global Communications Conference
(GLOBECOM), 2015 IEEE (pp. 1-6). IEEE.
The prime objective of the paper is to focus on the importance of the insourcing and
outsourcing for the IT project. The paper helped in providing detailed information associated
with the enterprise level management. The benefits of outsourcing are detailed in the paper.
Disaster recovery is a very important concept associated with outsourced projects.
There are different types of factors which are responsible for the success of the IT
sourcing projects such as the commercials, approach for execution of the project, geographies,
suppliers, operating model and the technologies available. Negotiation and the management of
the contracts are easier for the IT projects. Planning for the transition and the transformation is
very much essential for the IT projects which are outsourced. Professional IT governance team
are important for the IT sourcing challenges. Professional IT sourcing strategies are needed to be
created and implemented in the business environments. The dynamic capability of the employees
is very much important to deal with the complexities of IT projects. There are lots of offshore
variants in the outsourced project as the needs and requirements of the consumers are needed to
be changed if needed to so the employees who are assigned to work in the outsourced projects
need to have the exposure and experience working on outsourced projects. Market conditions of
the outsourced IT projects keep on changing with time, strategic thinking ability is required for
managing the business requirements of the IT projects.

7INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Comparison between the two articles
Both the articles stated about different aspects of IT sourcing. The first article stated
about the different categories of cost associated with the IT sourcing. The articles stated about
the procurement issues associated with the IT projects. The article also highlighted the
importance of effective relationship between the stakeholders of the project to get the desired
outcomes whereas the second article highlighted the different types of factors which are
responsible for the success or the failure of the IT outsourced projects. This article stated the
importance of the market conditions for forming the strategies for the IT projects. The different
factors of a successful IT project were evaluated in the second article. Long-term success for the
IT organizations can be attained if the different factors associated with the projects are
considered before the start of the project. However, the issues and challenges faced by the
outsourced IT projects are identified in a better way with the help of the first chosen article.
Finally comparing both the strategies discussed in the two articles it can be said that the
strategies which are discussed in the second article can be much more efficient and easier to be
considered.

8INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Reference
Lee, H. L., Padmanabhan, V., & Whang, S. (2015). The bullwhip effect in supply chains. IEEE
Engineering Management Review, 43(2), 108-117.
Naik, N. (2016, March). Crowdsourcing, open-sourcing, outsourcing and insourcing software
development: A comparative analysis. In Service-Oriented System Engineering (SOSE),
2016 IEEE Symposium on (pp. 380-385). IEEE.
Tang, L., & Chen, H. (2015, December). Request outsourcing and insourcing with supply
function bidding in cloud federation. In Global Communications Conference
(GLOBECOM), 2015 IEEE (pp. 1-6). IEEE.
Wang, J., Muddada, R. R., Wang, H., Ding, J., Lin, Y., Liu, C., & Zhang, W. (2016). Toward a
resilient holistic supply chain network system: Concept, review and future direction.
IEEE Systems Journal, 10(2), 410-421.