Thursday, September 02, 2021

Unhaunting blog

After 4 years, i am back to this haunted blog.. dah tu 4 tahun tinggal, tak ke haunted namanya dik non. 4 years ago pun update sebab ada assignment MBA class.. itu pun after 6 years blog ni unattended.. nampak tak ketidakbertanggungjawaban pemilik blog di situ.

Today, i feel like writing again. Maybe sebab lepas ni dah nak venture to writing again again smpi muntah ijau for another 3 years.. yuck!. Tu yang sesedap rasa lidah dan tekak yang bebas COVID ni aku mencipta term unhaunting iaitu sejenis usaha untuk membuang keberhantuan blog yang lama ditinggalkan.. hamik koo paham ke idok hahaha.

After 16 years in service without any break (cheh wat2 lupa plak 4 kali beranak cuti 3 bulan tu bukan break ke kak), akhirnya i manage to 'rest' dari dunia tugasan PTD. A very valuable and precious 'rest' i can say. Thanks to JPA for this opportunity, i really appreciate it. I always believe Allah sentiasa dah tetapkan yang terbaik untuk kita tanpa kita tahu bila hadirnya. My tertiary education journey never been smooth like others but semua tu ada terlalu banyak hikmahnya.. yang kadang2 aku sdiri tak percaya aku akan smpi ke tahap ini.

After SPM, masuk program express UTM-MARA start December 1997. Org lain leh rilek2 lepas SPM pi belajar driving amik lesen, aku dh perah otak balik masuk belajar hasil aggregat trial SPM 10, nak pi obersi tgh recession, sedih (eleh ckp je lah sbnrnya ko tu tak cemerlang mana pun tp feeling nk fly, bluekkkk..). lepas result SPM kuar, aku gedik plak x smbung UTM tp pi masuk matriks U** (nama disembunyikan) kekununnya nk memenuhi impian parents yang ingin melihat anaknya menjadi seorang doktor.. cliche cliche.. Tp alangkah kecewanya si ibu kerana anaknya membuat keputusan lari dari sana dan kembali ke UTM Sanjungan Bangsa menyambung pengajian yang ditinggalkan (sila jgn ikut sbb aku anak derhaka). Tapi kan, seriously rasa lega giler dh balik UTM. Bila tidur kat hostel bangun pagi bukak mata tgk masih di UTM, rasa kebahagiaan yang amat sukar digambarkan. (drama lebih ko ni)

Habis belajar umur 21.. rilek kejap beberapa bulan start kerja as Asst Programmer Analyst kat JBFM. Sambil tu wat part time jugak Master Technology Management di UTM (i mmg pecinta UTM sejati, ko tau apa..). Kenapa bukan Computer Science, dh penat2 belajar programming 3 tahun kan. Sebab di sudut hati aku ni, aku suka management tp aku awal2 dh silap pilih masuk MRSM amik pure science. dah tu sapa tak bangga masuk MRSM weiii.. Taiping lak tu (oopss riak.. hehe). Semasa pengajian master aku tggal satu subjek dan 1 projek akhir, aku amik keputusan berhenti UTM.. Sebab masa tu aku dh dpt PTD. Susah beb nk commit dgn belajar, dah lah kena kursus DPA lagi. mmg tggelam ke laut dalam study aku. Sayang kan, aku dh spend masa, tenaga dan duit utk study.. tp itu lah namanya pengorbanan. Pengorbanan yg aku sdiri pun tak tau masa tu sama ada worth atau tidak.

Masa dah kerja, dua kali aku apply HLP untuk buat master tp both GAGAL. Apa ke malangnya nasib. Tak pe lah. Tetiba muncul plak satu peluang yg sgt best pada tahun 2014 tak silap aku. KPT dan UTM buat collaboration buat in-house MBA program. Ya Allaahh, aku memang suka gilerrrrr. UTM kot.. UTM kesayangan akuuuu. Memula semua kelas buat kat opis, which aku suka tp seriously bila kelas kat opis waktu kerja, aku mmg banyak tuang kelas sbb kena settle kan kerja opis. Then slowly kelas byk wat kat UTM KL, baru lah rasa feel student tu datang. kalau tak tu feeling pergi kursus biasa kat opis, apa barangg. Kelas MBA aku ni, dari asalnya 30 orang, half term more than 50% dah quit sebab tk dpt nk balance kan dgn kerja.. dan aku?? survive ke akhirnya, sempat 2 kali beranak lagiii haaa tu paling legend. 1st sem beranakkan razin, final sem beranakkan wawa. dan aku pergi final exam utk final subject aku pada hari ke 11 berpantang.. perghhh betul ke ni aku???

Hari ini, i am counting days for my PhD journey to start. Yg ni memang feeling masih tak percaya. Mimpi ke??? Semuanya berlaku tanpa dirancang, aku tak rancang tapi Allah rancang untuk aku. Aku saja test apply HLP utk PHD pada tahun lepas.. orang kata susah sangat nk dpt HLP PhD. I should give a try. Tak pernah seumur hidup aku nk belajar sampai PhD, seriouslyy. Proposal pun aku buat dlm bidang kerja yg mmg forte aku dari 41 dulu, kewangan. mana ada masa nk kaji bidang lain pun ko ni kan.. Dan aku buat paper betul2, bukan main2 ye. Ye lah, tak nak lah tunjuk aku ni lauya sangat, dh gred kanan takkan wat paper cikai. So paper kena menggambarkan ke52an diriku ini. Dalam hectic kerja kat NADMA ni, aku berjaya submit proposal. Tapii masa keputusan keluar, nama aku tak de weiii, kecewa aku beb. Tak de result kata gagal tp nama aku mcm hilang dibawa angin lalu yg sepoi2. Berkali2 aku call JPA dan emel, last2 aku berjaya jugak dipanggil interview. Dlm masa 2 hari wat preparation. Slide pun engineer aku tlg wat kan (tp content tu akak punya sdiri ok). Interview berjalan lancar wlupun aku ketar teruk masa present.. adalah slek sana sini. Dan akhirnya aku berjaya dalam satu kali percubaan. WOWW.. pat bahu sendiri. So, sbb tu aku masih tak percaya smpi skrg. Rezeki Allah tak pernah salah alamat.

Almost 90% persediaan telah dibuat. Alhamdulillah dlm keadaan kerja yg mcm skrg (only org2 rapat tahu betapa miserable nya kerja aku skrg), aku still dpt uruskan hal cuti belajar ni dgn baik. TQ Allah. Mak, along janji akan bw jugak title Dr. Rahayu tu in few years wlupun bukan medic yg mcm mak nk sblm ni. Now i am preparing my mental, my emotions utk meninggalkan NADMA.. terlalu byk kenangan di sini, terlalu byk yg akan aku rindukan di sini. Will update on these in the next posting.

Wednesday, November 22, 2017

RISK OF IT OUTSOURCING, EYEING THROUGH THE LENSES OF PUBLIC AND PRIVATE SECTOR



World is developing faster. In fact, faster than what we imagine! ICT is one of the main catalyst that drives modern organization especially we are moving towards Fourth Industrial Revolution. At the same time, organizations want the management of ICT to be in the least hassle, updated and cost efficient. There come ICT outsourcing as a solution. ICT Outsourcing is a practice of transferring assets, leases, staff, ad management responsibility for delivery of services from internal IT department third-party vendors, in effect, fully transferring or delegating an organization’s facility management function to an external firm (Lacity and Hirschheim, 2000).

Recently, outsourcing of ICT has received much attention that has become a widespread worldwide phenomenon both in private and public sectors. The global IT outsourcing industry was already valued at USD$76 bilion 2014, with more than half of the value generated in Europe, Middle East and Africa. Malaysia at the same time is gaining momentum in ICT outsourcing. The local ICT outsourcing market have been growing at rapid rate from USD92 million in 2002 to USD1.9 bilion in 2013.

Privates and public agencies outsource their ICT project or services for many reasons. The main reason is to cut cost while improving business efficiency for their ICT services by focusing on organizational core business. Another reason is resources or expertise not available therefore they outsource to other company that can provide expertise for implementation.

ICT outsourcing can be carried out in many combinations depending on the component of services scope that is outsourced and the responsibilities attached to the outsourced contract. Different authors describe ICT outsourcing arrangements differently. Mainly, there are four types of ICT outsourcing categories, which are total outsourcing, insourcing, selective sourcing and strategic alliance/joint venture.

In Malaysia, according to study by Habibah, May Lin and Azlinah (2007), the most common service being outsourced by organizations are Network services, Programming, Software maintenance, Hardware maintenance, System implementation, System operation, Application analysis, E-business solution, Security, Support end users and Staff/user training.

Risk Free ICT Outsourcing? No Way Out.

Many studies highlight that ICT outsourcing involves complex arrangements. Thus, all related decisions and implementations entail any possible risk element and challenges that both service receiver and provider must acknowledge and manage well. There are many risks that, in practice, indicate limits to outsourcing. Are the benefits of outsourcing so great that the risks are worth managing? Or are the risks so manageable that the benefits are worth having?

There are a lot of consideration should be taken by the organizations. All the risk should be managed and relate well with the organization’s organizational strategy, business strategy and their ICT strategy as well. The links should be identified clearly to ensure the risk will never affect the organization’s strategy in negative manners. Early investigation of risks will definitely very crucial for organization to formulate effective and efficient intervention and mechanism to manage the risk, lowering the impact to almost negligible and the likelihood to very unlikely to happen.



Another question to ponder, are the risks in public sectors are similar to the risks concerned in private sector? Both of them may have similar goals in ICT outsourcing but the differences in business activities and environment may contribute to some gaps.


Michael J. Earl, 2016 in Spring Magazine, as published in MIT Sloan Management Review had listed 11 risk or ICT Outsourcing mainly in private sectors. Habibah, May Lin and Azlinah, 2007 had conducted a research in Malaysia to investigate the risk of ICT outsourcing in public sectors. Below are the findings.

Private Sector
1. Possibility of Weak Management
2. Inexperienced Staff
3. Business Uncertainty
4. Outdated Technology Skills
5. Endemic Uncertainty
6. Hidden Costs
7. Lack of Organizational Learning
8. Loss of Innovative Capacity
9. Dangers of an Eternal Triangle
10. Technological Indivisibility
11. Fuzzy Focus

Public Sectors
1. Irreversibility of decision
2. Ability to operate new system
3. Lack of system integration
4. Lack of relationship skills
5. Excessive dependence on Outsourcer
6. Lack of outsourcer experience
7. Outsourcer not complying with contract
8. Hidden cost
9. Unclear cost-benefit analysis
10. Security of data
11. Loss of expert staff
12. Opposition from staff


After a quick browse to all items in the list, we can conclude that the risks related to ICT outsourcing in organizations may directly related to the organization itself and in the other hand some of them actually fall within the ICT providers. From there, we can actually see the different perspective of both sectors. At the same time, we can also identify there are few similarities of risks in both sectors as well.

Sharing the same concerns

There are few risks of ICT outsourcing that become under observation of both private and public sectors. According to two studies mentioned before, some of them are risk of hidden cost, inexperience of outsourcer and weak management especially in term of contract administration. It is also very clear that all the three risks are very common in any outsourcing activities, not necessarily to ICT industry only.

Risk of hidden cost will always rise if the organizations does not have clear direction due to lack of engagement and preparation before entering the contract with the outsourcer. They should shop around and do some market survey before selecting the best provider for their ICT management. They should consider carefully and match the offers from several providers with their own budget and requirement. Failure to do so will definitely affect the smoothness of the outsourcing activities and the organization will become frustrated when there is extra amount of money need to be allocated which was not identified earlier.

The risk also associated with weak management of the contract. Despite hidden cost, weak management of contract between provider and receiver will create conflicts between the two parties. Contract administration is always become a main issue and problem. Poor contract administration can be seen when terms and obligations of the two parties are not clearly spelled out, the rights are not being identified and the monitoring mechanism is not in place. This will further be impacting the relationship between the two parties in negative way when both are not protected as per needed.

In ICT industry, technology update and experience staff are very important factors. Without these two, organizations will not progress successfully and far from being competent in their market. ICT outsourcing contract should define the need for technology update during the duration of the contract otherwise they will remain with old technology that most probably will become obsolete in a short time. Without high skilled and experienced staff, technology will remain in name without capabilities to be utilized in optimum.



Public Sector: Ensuring Compliances

It is clearly seen that the risks concerned in public sectors are more on the ICT providers’ side. Public organizations always concern about the performance of the external provider rather than internal risks. This high concern is probably due to the fact that all government agencies are governed by quite number of rules and regulations and they are the authority that have the most power. So, complying to the rules is the only option, everything is already in order and they don’t have to worry about all that within their control.

In the other hand, they don’t have full control of the ICT providers which most of them come from private sectors. Public sector organization always concern about the cost offered by the provider, the possibility of providers breaching the contract, the low level of provider’s competencies/ experiences in delivering services, the security of data handled by the providers and the lack of integration they can handle.

Managing ICT in public sector is very critical as it deals with larger scale of services and some of them go beyond the country’s boundaries. There many kinds of stakeholders need to be taken care of and reputation of government services become attention of all people. So, selecting the best provider is at top cruciality in managing all ICT related tasks in public sectors.



Private Sector: Maximizing Value Gained

In the other hand, the risks concerned by private organization are different. In the outsourcing relationship with the ICT providers, their main concerns are more on their own side unlike the public sector. They highly concern about the business uncertainty, the endemic uncertainty, lack of organizational learning and loss of innovative capacity in their organization.

Logically this situation is related to their awareness about their vulnerability. They are putting their business at stake by outsourcing important activities of their organizations to external party. Both receiver and provider came from the same sector which is private sector so they are already aware how each other do their business. The business and endemic uncertainty are something could not be avoided in private sectors and these will obviously affect the outsourcing relationship as well.

Lack of organizational learning and loss of innovative capacity are also risks that most concerned by private organizations. Business entities aims to gain maximum tangible profits and intangible values for their organizations because these are how they can survive and progress. The intangible values can exist in form of knowledge and innovation. By selecting outsourcing option, there are high probabilities in decreasing of knowledge and innovation as the process are already taken over by the outsourcer.



Conclusion

The risks associated with ICT outsourcing activities in private or public sectors are almost the same. It is only the level of likelihood and impact that may differ to each other. After identifying and assessing the risks, it is critical that organizations understand how to manage the risks that can contribute to ICT outsourcing failure. With effective risk management, the prime focus should be on planning to avoid future problems rather than solving the current problems.

The risk management should already start from the early stage of outsourcing planning activities. The decision about whether or not to outsource must be made with adequate care and deliberation. It requires numerous other decisions about mitigating outsourcing risks. Keri Pearlson and Carol Saunders (2013) had listed three major decision areas that should be in critical consideration; namely selection, contracting, and scope identification.

In Selection process of ICT provider, the organization should focus on finding compatible providers whose capabilities, managers, internal operations, and culture complement those of the client. Failure to do so will impacting the relationship for a long time and costly for any further intervention for recovery.

After that, one of the most critical stage is Contracting. Many “how” decisions center around the outsourcing contract. The organization must engage frequently with the provider and ensure that contract terms allow flexibility to manage and, if necessary, sever supplier relationships. It is suggested that organization opts for shorter duration contracts between three to five years and full life-cycle service contracts are broken up into stages. Service Level Agreements (SLAs) between the two parties should define clearly the level of service between the clients and providers. Research demonstrates that tighter contracts tend to lead to more successful outsourcing arrangements.

Lastly, defining the scope of the ICT outsourcing relationship should be determined clearly. The organization must decide whether to pursue outsourcing fully or selectively and which tasks should be outsourced and which should be retain inhouse.

Today, the decision to outsource is more complicated and risky, due to increased regulatory scrutiny of companies’ relationships with their service providers and the variety of third party service providers available in terms of size, scope, and geographical location. It’s further complicated by the fact that many businesses already use multiple external service providers.The need to manage the risks associated with using third-party IT service providers is growing more urgent. Anytime you give someone else responsibility for an aspect of your business, whether a full-time new hire or an outside vendor, there is risk involved. Did I hire the right person/company to do the job? Will they do what they are supposed to do? How will they "fit" with existing employees or departments, public or private organizations? You have the answer.



References

Habibah, A. Yap, ML. Azlinah, M(2007), ICT Outsourcing: Inherent Risks, Issues and Challenge, WSEAS TRANSACTIONS on BUSINESS and ECONOMICS WSEAS TRANSACTIONS on BUSINESS and ECONOMICS, Issue 8, Volume 4, August 2007

Zulkarnaen, N, (2010), Information Security Risk Management An Empirical Study on the Difficulties and Practices in ICT Outsourcing, 2010 Second International Conference on Network Applications, Protocols and Service.The Risks of Outsourcing IT

Michael J. Earl (1996), The Risks of Outsourcing IT Magazine: Spring 1996Research Feature April 15, 1996 https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/the-risks-of-outsourcing-it/

Keri Pearlson and Carol Saunders, Strategic Management of Information Systems, Fifth Edition,(c) 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Inc

Monday, November 13, 2017

I'm back.. Chakkk!!!

Tadaaaa.... Waaahhhh rasa mcm balik ke tempat yang lama sangat ditinggalkan. Mcm jakun sangat gitu. 6 tahun kot, bukannya kejap. Sib baik ada lagi ghopanya blog ni, tak ler plak kena lupus. Kalau konsep ikut mcm akta had masa ni, tentu dah 'selamat' dan babai blog ni. Terima kasih byk lah incik blogger sebab masih simpan blog ku ini. Jasa mu tetap ku kenang sampai aku bosan huhuhu.. Tua dah blog ni sebenarnya. Dari tahun 2003 kot. Dari zaman i anak dara ok. Time tu blog adalah tempat bersosial yang sangat best. Bloghop dan kumpul kawan baru. Errrr.. mana lah kawan2 dulu tu eh. Siap ada gathering lagi tu. Sekarang dah ada media sosial, so blog2 ni i tgk dah macam tempat org jual barang je nampaknya hehehe dgn cara yang murah. Bila tengok post yang last, masa tu aku tengah jiwa kacau sebab ngandungkan echah. Sekarang, echah pun dah habis Tadika, tahun dpn dah nak masuk darjah satu pun. And sekarang ni plak aku tgh expecting lagi.. tapi bukan adik kepada echah ye. tapi adik kepada adik echah !! Echah anak kedua, dan sekarang ni tgh tunggu untuk anak keempat.. haaa berapa banyak aku skip update pasal anak. Dari echah sampai razin, nama derang tak de seketul pun muncul dlm blog usang ini. Tak pe, ni dah ada dah hehe.. So, apa cer.. Apa sebab aku tetiba mimpi di siang hari nak masuk balik mengupdate blog. Huhu.. ini semua penangan kelas MBA aku lah. Errrrr... ok pasal pasal MBA pun x penah sebut dlm blog ni. ishk ishk bayangkan berapa banyak info tertinggal tak masuk sini.. ok ok back to MBA. Apa kena mengena? Jeng jeng jeng, one of the assignment is to blog an entry about IT Outsourcing dan aku kena submit link ke entry tu kepada lecturer. So, nak bukak blog baru ke.. hahaha mcm malas je, boleh? Pakai blog ni je ok ke? Hehehe dgn harapan menggunung lecturer tak baca entry2 lain yang pasti mengundang malu yg amat, erkkk.. So itu je lah dulu. Mata berpinar dah ni. Baru sampai opis ni. Tadi g Toyota Service, keta wat hal duk kuar mesej "Check Hybrid System". Tahun ni amboi sampai dua kali dia buat mcm tu. Last2 org service centre tak wat apa2 pun and tak payah bayar apa2. Aikkk apsal senang sangat. Maka ketahui lah bahawa katanya beteri hybrid kena ganti. Bateri tu bukan 3,4 ratus rega mcm beteri2 keta lain tu. Betri ni harga dkt 7 ribu, ko hengat... tak migrain dengar? Derang akan claim under warranty sebab baru 5 tahun dan warranty 8 tahun. Tp lulus atau tak tu katanya bergantung jugak pada cara aku jaga keta dan derang akan tengok aku ni malas ke rajin antar keta g servis elok2 selama ni. Kalau tak lulus?? Sendiri tanggung lah makcik... Nangisss....