Secured Service Delivery Model for Outsourced Services in a Business Process Outsourcing Relationship

Ikerionwu Charles; David Edgar

doi:doi:10.11648/j.ijics.20190401.12

| Peer-Reviewed

Secured Service Delivery Model for Outsourced Services in a Business Process Outsourcing Relationship

Ikerionwu Charles, David Edgar

Published in International Journal of Information and Communication Sciences (Volume 4, Issue 1)

Received: 31 March 2019 Accepted: 9 May 2019 Published: 4 June 2019

Views: Downloads:

Download PDF

Share This Article

Twitter
Linked In
Facebook

Abstract

In business process outsourcing (BPO), the model of delivery of processed service and communication media between the client and service provider are critical factors in a successful client-provider relationship. The client’s business objectives would not be achieved if processed services are delivered through unsecured channels and truncated communication. This study explores these issues through a case study of seven medium and large scale Indian BPO service providers, followed up with a larger scale questionnaire-based on Indian providers. Analysis revealed that a significant number of providers have onshore and offshore clients whose processed services are delivered through secured channels. The choice of a delivery model is influenced by both the client and service provider when the provider is either a medium or large scale organization, whilst small scale providers do not contribute to decision making for choice of delivery model. Further, the study revealed that in successful outsourcing relationships, providers deliver services through remote access to a client’s server, email through a dedicated server, dashboard on a cloud, and teleconferencing. To improve security, these channels could be enclosed in any of the following: virtual private network (VPN), transport layer security (TLS)/secure socket layer (SSL), internet protocol security (IPsec) and third party platform, such as citrix. Thus, outsourcing relationships that are built around these security platforms, and decision making process surrounding the choice of a delivery model could reduce outsourcing failures witnessed in BPO relationships.

Published in	International Journal of Information and Communication Sciences (Volume 4, Issue 1)
DOI	10.11648/j.ijics.20190401.12
Page(s)	7-17
Creative Commons	This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright	Copyright © The Author(s), 2019. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Outsourcing, Service, Delivery, VPN, Secured Channel, IT, BPO, SSL

References

[1]	Wang, C., Harris, J., & Patterson, P. G. (2012). Customer choice of self-service technology: the roles of situational influences and past experience. Journal of Service Management, 23 (1), 54-78.
[2]	Gartner. (2012, February 12). The IT Services Scenario: The future of IT services. Retrieved from A Gartner website.
[3]	Ghosh, D., & Scott, J. (2005). Interorganizational knowledge management in a BPO. AMCIS 2005 Proceedings.
[4]	Aumayr, P & Haiss, M. (2008). Outsourcing in the financial sector: Recent management experience. Global conference on Business & Economics.
[5]	European Central Bank. (2004). Outsourcing in the EU Banking sector. Report on EU Banking Structure.
[6]	Nazimoglu Özge & Yasemine Özsen. (2010). Analysis of risk dynamics in information technology service delivery. Journal of Enterprise Information Management, 23 (3), 350-364.
[7]	Ikerionwu, C., & Edgar, D. (2016). DevOps: introducing agility and flexibility to BPO-IT organisations – service providers’ perspective. Software Engineering, 4 (5), 65-74. 10.11648/j.se.20160405.11
[8]	Dibbern, J., Goles, T., Hirschheim., & Jayatilaka. (2004). Information systems outsourcing: A survey and analysis of the literature. Database for Advances in Information Systems, 35 (4), 6.
[9]	Jiang Bin & Amer Qureshi. (2006). "Research on outsourcing results: current literature and future opportunities",. Management Decision, 44 (1), 44-55.
[10]	Narayanan, S., Jayaraman, V., Luo, Y., & Swaminathan, J. M. (2011). The antecedents of process integration in business process outsourcing and its effect on firm performance. 29 (1), 3-16. Journal of Operations Management, 29 (1), 3-16.
[11]	Budhwar, P. S., Luthar, H. K., & Bhatnagar, J. (2006). The dynamics of HRM systems in Indian BPO firms. Journal of Labor Research, 27 (3), 339.
[12]	Mishra, D. K., & Chandwani, M. (2007, October). Anonymity enabled secure multi-party computation for Indian BPO. In TENCON 2007-2007 IEEE Region 10 Conference (pp. 1-4). IEEE.
[13]	Kremic, T., Tukel, O. and Rom, W. (2006). Outsourcing decision support: a survey of benefits, risks, and decision factors. Supply Chain Management: An international Journal, 11 (6), 467-482.
[14]	Ikerionwu, C., Gray, E., & Foley, R. (2013). Embedded Software Reusable Components in Agile Framework: The Puzzle link between an Outsourcing Client and a Service Provider, in Georgiadou, E., Ross, M. and Staples, E. (eds) Quality comes of age, The BCS Quality Special Group’s Annual 21st Software Quality Management (SQM) Conference, ISBN – 987-0-9563140-8-6, Sept. 2013, BCS, London. pp. 63-78.
[15]	Lacity, M. C., Willcocks, L. P., & Craig, A. (2014). South Africa's business process outsourcing services sector: lessons for Western-based client firms. South African Journal of Business Management, 45 (4), 45-58.
[16]	Feeny, D., Lacity, M. & Willcocks, L. P. (2012). Taking the measure of outsourcing providers. MIT Sloan management review, 46 (3).
[17]	Bharadwaj, S., & Saxena, K. B. C. (2009). Building winning relationships in business process outsourcing services. Industrial Management & Data Systems, 109 (7), 993-1011.
[18]	Ikerionwu, C. (2015). The development of a BPO-IT framework (Doctoral dissertation, Glasgow Caledonian University).
[19]	Michaels, D. (2012, May 21). How to choose the right BPO companies? Available at: http:/bridge-outsourcing.com/how–to-choose-the-right-business-process-outsourcing-companies. [retrieved on September 29, 2016].
[20]	Mankiw, N. G., & Swagel, P. (2006). The politics and economics of offshore outsourcing. Journal of monetary Economics, 53 (5), 1027-1056.
[21]	Ikerionwu, C., Edgar, D.& Gray, E. (2017). The development of service provider’s BPO-IT framework, Business Process Management Journal, Vol. 23 Issue: 5, pp.897-917, https://doi.org/10.1108/BPMJ-10-2015-0146.
[22]	Kabachinski, J. (2006). Virtual private networks can provide reliable IT connections. Biomedical Instrumentation & Technology, 40 (1), 51-54.
[23]	Williams, B. O., Lohner, M. K., Harmon, K., & Bower, J. (2014). Virtual private network (VPN)-as-a-service with delivery optimizations while maintaining end-to-end data security U.S. Patent Application No. 14/558, 536.
[24]	US VPN (2013). VPN is the key to BPO industry. Retrieved 19 March, 2016 https://usvpnproviders.wordpress.com/about/.
[25]	Logan, P. Y., & Noles, D. (2008). Protecting patient information in outsourced telehealth services: Bolting on security when it cannot be baked in. International Journal of Information Security and Privacy (IJISP), 2 (3), 55-70.
[26]	Dennis, A. (2002). Networking in the Internet Age (p. 208). New York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc.
[27]	Hurwitz, J., Bloor, R., Kaufman, & Halper, F. (2011). What is cloud computing? Retrieved June 12, 2013, from www.dummies.com/how-to/content/what-is-cloud-computing.html.
[28]	Dikaiakos, M. D., Katsaros, D., Mehra, P., Pallis, G., & Vakali, A. (2009). Cloud computing: Distributed internet computing for IT and scientific research. IEEE Internet computing, 13 (5).
[29]	Ciovică, L., Cristescu, M. P., & Fraţilă, L. A. (2014). Cloud Based Business Processes Orchestration. Procedia Economics and Finance, 16, 592-596.
[30]	Bourne, James (2017). Gartner: Public Cloud Market to Reach $246bn in 2017 with IaaS and SaaS at Forefront. Cloud Tech News. Retrieved on 01 Apr. 2017. https://www.cloudcomputing-news.net/news/2017/feb/22/gartner-public-cloud-market-reach-246bn-2017-iaas-and-saas-forefront/.
[31]	Subashini, S., & Kavitha, V. (2011). A survey on security issues in service delivery models of cloud computing. Journal of network and computer applications, 34 (1), 1-11.
[32]	Clavister (n.d). Security in the cloud, Clavister White Paper /http://www.it-wire.nu/members/cla69/attachments/CLA_WP_SECURITY_IN_THE_CLOUD.pdfS.
[33]	Seccombe A, Hutton A, Meisel A, Windel A, Mohammed A, and Licciardi A. (2009). Security guidance for critical areas of focus in cloud computing, v2.1. Cloud Security Alliance, p. 25.
[34]	Wilkins K. (2015). Cloud services and business process outsourcing. Retrieved from https://www.isaca.org/chapters11/Western-New-York/Events/Documents/2015-April/CP04-Cloud-Security-KWilkins.pdf.
[35]	Golden, B. (2008, p.4). Virtualization for dummies. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley Publishing, Inc.
[36]	Miller, K., & Pegah, M. (2007, October). Virtualization: virtually at the desktop. In Proceedings of the 35th annual ACM SIGUCCS fall conference (pp. 255-260). ACM.
[37]	Forrester Research. (2006). White paper on Desktop Virtualization: The future of the corporate desktop. Beltug. Retrieved November 11, 2016, from http://www.beltug.be/file/.../T-Systems_WhitePaper_Desktop_Virtualization.
[38]	ITproportal (2016). Five of the biggest outsourcing failures. Available on http://www.itproportal.com/2015/12/19/five-of-the-biggest-outsourcing-failures/. Retrieved on 22-08-2016.
[39]	Singh, R., Divakaran, D. M., & Gonsalves, T. A. (2011, December). Taking rural BPO to new heights: an ACM for distributed and secure document sharing. In Advanced Networks and Telecommunication Systems (ANTS), 2011 IEEE 5th International Conference on (pp. 1-6). IEEE.
[40]	Lacity M. C., Willcocks L. P. & Solomon S. (2012) Robust Practices from Two Decades of ITO and BPO Research. In: Advanced Outsourcing Practice. Technology, Work and Globalization. Palgrave Macmillan, London.
[41]	Johnson, R. B., & Turner, L. A. (2007). Data collection strategies in mixed methods research. In C. (. A. Tashakkori and Teddlie, Handbook of mixed methods in social and behavioral research (pp. 297-319). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
[42]	Creswell, J. (2003). Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative and Mixed Method Approaches. Thousand Oaks CA: Sage.
[43]	Neuman, W. (2006). Social Research Methods: Qualitative and quantitative approaches. Boston: Pearson.
[44]	Mertens, D. (2005). Research and Evaluation in Education and Psychology: Integrating diversity with quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods (2nd edn.). Boston: Sage.
[45]	Tholons.com (2016). Top 100 Outsourcing Destinations 2016. Retrieved from http://www.tholons.com/TholonsTop100/pdf/Tholons_Top_100_2016_Executive_Summary_and_Rankings.pdf. Dated: 22^nd April, 2017.
[46]	Liyao, M. (2011, April 13). India wants to be a more productive partner in cooperation with fellow BRICS members. China Daily (USA), www.pressreader.com/china/china-daily-usa/20110413/281698316292807. Accessed 21 Sept. 2016.
[47]	Yin, R. (2012). Case study research: Design and methods. Vol. 5. 3^rd ed. Sage Publications, New delhi. 78-158.
[48]	Baruch, Y., & Holtom, B. C. (2008). Survey response rate levels and trends in organizational research. Human Relations, 61 (8), 1139-1160.
[49]	Kendall, L. (2008). The conduct of qualitative interview: Research questions, methodological issues, and researching on line.In J. Coiro, M. Knobel, C. Lankshear & D. Leu(Eds.), Handbook of research on new litracies(pp.133-149). New York: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
[50]	Pallant, J. (2010, p. 192, 188) SPSS Survival Manual. A Step by Step Guide to Data Analysis Using SPSS, 4^th edn. Maidenhead: Open University Press
[51]	Batra, S. (2006). Impact of information technology on organizational effectiveness: a conceptual. Global Journal of Flexible Systems, 7 (1/2), 15-25.
[52]	Barros, A., & Kylau, U. (2011, March). Service delivery framework-an architectural strategy for next-generation service delivery in business network. In SRII Global Conference (SRII), 2011 Annual (pp. 47-58). IEEE.

Cite This Article

Plain Text BibTeX RIS

APA Style

Ikerionwu Charles, David Edgar. (2019). Secured Service Delivery Model for Outsourced Services in a Business Process Outsourcing Relationship. International Journal of Information and Communication Sciences, 4(1), 7-17. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijics.20190401.12

Copy | Download

ACS Style

Ikerionwu Charles; David Edgar. Secured Service Delivery Model for Outsourced Services in a Business Process Outsourcing Relationship. Int. J. Inf. Commun. Sci. 2019, 4(1), 7-17. doi: 10.11648/j.ijics.20190401.12

Copy | Download

AMA Style

Ikerionwu Charles, David Edgar. Secured Service Delivery Model for Outsourced Services in a Business Process Outsourcing Relationship. Int J Inf Commun Sci. 2019;4(1):7-17. doi: 10.11648/j.ijics.20190401.12

Copy | Download

@article{10.11648/j.ijics.20190401.12,
  author = {Ikerionwu Charles and David Edgar},
  title = {Secured Service Delivery Model for Outsourced Services in a Business Process Outsourcing Relationship},
  journal = {International Journal of Information and Communication Sciences},
  volume = {4},
  number = {1},
  pages = {7-17},
  doi = {10.11648/j.ijics.20190401.12},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijics.20190401.12},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijics.20190401.12},
  abstract = {In business process outsourcing (BPO), the model of delivery of processed service and communication media between the client and service provider are critical factors in a successful client-provider relationship. The client’s business objectives would not be achieved if processed services are delivered through unsecured channels and truncated communication. This study explores these issues through a case study of seven medium and large scale Indian BPO service providers, followed up with a larger scale questionnaire-based on Indian providers. Analysis revealed that a significant number of providers have onshore and offshore clients whose processed services are delivered through secured channels. The choice of a delivery model is influenced by both the client and service provider when the provider is either a medium or large scale organization, whilst small scale providers do not contribute to decision making for choice of delivery model. Further, the study revealed that in successful outsourcing relationships, providers deliver services through remote access to a client’s server, email through a dedicated server, dashboard on a cloud, and teleconferencing. To improve security, these channels could be enclosed in any of the following: virtual private network (VPN), transport layer security (TLS)/secure socket layer (SSL), internet protocol security (IPsec) and third party platform, such as citrix. Thus, outsourcing relationships that are built around these security platforms, and decision making process surrounding the choice of a delivery model could reduce outsourcing failures witnessed in BPO relationships.},
 year = {2019}
}

Copy | Download

TY  - JOUR
T1  - Secured Service Delivery Model for Outsourced Services in a Business Process Outsourcing Relationship
AU  - Ikerionwu Charles
AU  - David Edgar
Y1  - 2019/06/04
PY  - 2019
N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijics.20190401.12
DO  - 10.11648/j.ijics.20190401.12
T2  - International Journal of Information and Communication Sciences
JF  - International Journal of Information and Communication Sciences
JO  - International Journal of Information and Communication Sciences
SP  - 7
EP  - 17
PB  - Science Publishing Group
SN  - 2575-1719
UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijics.20190401.12
AB  - In business process outsourcing (BPO), the model of delivery of processed service and communication media between the client and service provider are critical factors in a successful client-provider relationship. The client’s business objectives would not be achieved if processed services are delivered through unsecured channels and truncated communication. This study explores these issues through a case study of seven medium and large scale Indian BPO service providers, followed up with a larger scale questionnaire-based on Indian providers. Analysis revealed that a significant number of providers have onshore and offshore clients whose processed services are delivered through secured channels. The choice of a delivery model is influenced by both the client and service provider when the provider is either a medium or large scale organization, whilst small scale providers do not contribute to decision making for choice of delivery model. Further, the study revealed that in successful outsourcing relationships, providers deliver services through remote access to a client’s server, email through a dedicated server, dashboard on a cloud, and teleconferencing. To improve security, these channels could be enclosed in any of the following: virtual private network (VPN), transport layer security (TLS)/secure socket layer (SSL), internet protocol security (IPsec) and third party platform, such as citrix. Thus, outsourcing relationships that are built around these security platforms, and decision making process surrounding the choice of a delivery model could reduce outsourcing failures witnessed in BPO relationships.
VL  - 4
IS  - 1
ER  -

Copy | Download

Author Information

Ikerionwu Charles

Department of Information Technology, School of Computing and Information Technology, Federal University of Technology, Owerri, Nigeria
David Edgar

Department of Business Management, Glasgow School for Business and Society, Glasgow Caledonian University, Glasgow, UK

Download PDF

Sections

Plain Text BibTeX RIS

APA Style

Ikerionwu Charles, David Edgar. (2019). Secured Service Delivery Model for Outsourced Services in a Business Process Outsourcing Relationship. International Journal of Information and Communication Sciences, 4(1), 7-17. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijics.20190401.12

Copy | Download

ACS Style

Ikerionwu Charles; David Edgar. Secured Service Delivery Model for Outsourced Services in a Business Process Outsourcing Relationship. Int. J. Inf. Commun. Sci. 2019, 4(1), 7-17. doi: 10.11648/j.ijics.20190401.12

Copy | Download

AMA Style

Ikerionwu Charles, David Edgar. Secured Service Delivery Model for Outsourced Services in a Business Process Outsourcing Relationship. Int J Inf Commun Sci. 2019;4(1):7-17. doi: 10.11648/j.ijics.20190401.12

Copy | Download

@article{10.11648/j.ijics.20190401.12,
  author = {Ikerionwu Charles and David Edgar},
  title = {Secured Service Delivery Model for Outsourced Services in a Business Process Outsourcing Relationship},
  journal = {International Journal of Information and Communication Sciences},
  volume = {4},
  number = {1},
  pages = {7-17},
  doi = {10.11648/j.ijics.20190401.12},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijics.20190401.12},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijics.20190401.12},
  abstract = {In business process outsourcing (BPO), the model of delivery of processed service and communication media between the client and service provider are critical factors in a successful client-provider relationship. The client’s business objectives would not be achieved if processed services are delivered through unsecured channels and truncated communication. This study explores these issues through a case study of seven medium and large scale Indian BPO service providers, followed up with a larger scale questionnaire-based on Indian providers. Analysis revealed that a significant number of providers have onshore and offshore clients whose processed services are delivered through secured channels. The choice of a delivery model is influenced by both the client and service provider when the provider is either a medium or large scale organization, whilst small scale providers do not contribute to decision making for choice of delivery model. Further, the study revealed that in successful outsourcing relationships, providers deliver services through remote access to a client’s server, email through a dedicated server, dashboard on a cloud, and teleconferencing. To improve security, these channels could be enclosed in any of the following: virtual private network (VPN), transport layer security (TLS)/secure socket layer (SSL), internet protocol security (IPsec) and third party platform, such as citrix. Thus, outsourcing relationships that are built around these security platforms, and decision making process surrounding the choice of a delivery model could reduce outsourcing failures witnessed in BPO relationships.},
 year = {2019}
}

Copy | Download

TY  - JOUR
T1  - Secured Service Delivery Model for Outsourced Services in a Business Process Outsourcing Relationship
AU  - Ikerionwu Charles
AU  - David Edgar
Y1  - 2019/06/04
PY  - 2019
N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijics.20190401.12
DO  - 10.11648/j.ijics.20190401.12
T2  - International Journal of Information and Communication Sciences
JF  - International Journal of Information and Communication Sciences
JO  - International Journal of Information and Communication Sciences
SP  - 7
EP  - 17
PB  - Science Publishing Group
SN  - 2575-1719
UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijics.20190401.12
AB  - In business process outsourcing (BPO), the model of delivery of processed service and communication media between the client and service provider are critical factors in a successful client-provider relationship. The client’s business objectives would not be achieved if processed services are delivered through unsecured channels and truncated communication. This study explores these issues through a case study of seven medium and large scale Indian BPO service providers, followed up with a larger scale questionnaire-based on Indian providers. Analysis revealed that a significant number of providers have onshore and offshore clients whose processed services are delivered through secured channels. The choice of a delivery model is influenced by both the client and service provider when the provider is either a medium or large scale organization, whilst small scale providers do not contribute to decision making for choice of delivery model. Further, the study revealed that in successful outsourcing relationships, providers deliver services through remote access to a client’s server, email through a dedicated server, dashboard on a cloud, and teleconferencing. To improve security, these channels could be enclosed in any of the following: virtual private network (VPN), transport layer security (TLS)/secure socket layer (SSL), internet protocol security (IPsec) and third party platform, such as citrix. Thus, outsourcing relationships that are built around these security platforms, and decision making process surrounding the choice of a delivery model could reduce outsourcing failures witnessed in BPO relationships.
VL  - 4
IS  - 1
ER  -

Copy | Download