The Impact Of Cloud Computing On Business Process Outsourcing

Key Concepts

Cloud computing is basically model that provides the customers with an access generated on demand from a shared pool of resources dug out from the computational source which is convenient as well as cost efficient. Business process outsourcing on the other hand is a sector where cloud computing can be utilised to make sure that multiple parties are able to access data as well as business application simultaneously in real time. This process does not depend on the existing IT infrastructure of the parties and therefore a shared space for both the clients as well as the professional service provider forms within a cloud based information system (Oshri, Kotlarsky & Willcocks, 2015). This is not found traditionally in the local IT system and their traditional set up. The traditional outsourcing arrangements provide the outsource tax to be performed within the internal information of the provider system. Therefore it is quite easy to understand why business processes want to implement cloud computing within their industry. However this obviously has a lot of impact on the traditional business processes and legacy systems. This report will therefore, find the genuine impact of the cloud computing in business process outsourcing. The justification of the research process, the aim of the research and the objectives of the research questions will be framed as below in the report (Willcocks, Lacity & Craig, 2016).

The research can be considered as a justified one since it forms the efficiency in work integration management. The study developed has generated the integration of the formation with the management of development in this particular sector (Norman & Venter, 2016). The report is completed along with the research decorated over the impact of cloud computing on business process outsourcing; efficient formation of the management operations would be easier to employee within a business process. Innovative integration of Management processes can also be developed if the impact of the cloud computing in Business process outsourcing is found to be beneficiary.

The proper aim of the study is to generate the understanding of the particular role of cloud computing in business operation outsourcing. All the formation that the research has employed would focus on the integration of proper management within the generation of work from the employees involved within the process (Willcocks, Oshri & Kotlarsky, 2018). With the collection of relevant information about the impact of cloud computing on business process outsourcing, the hidden information about the impact being positive or negative would also be identified from this research.

Research Methodology

The objectives of this research would be to find if the impact of the cloud computing integration within a business process outsourcing is positive or negative in nature. This would be identified with a secondary data research as well as a primary data research. The secondary data research it consists of a set of questionnaires that would be asked to a collection of people relevantly picked (Burgess, Ravishankar & Oshri, 2015). The other half of the primary data research would be conducted through a proper literature review based upon all the words that the previous researchers have done on the same topic. With the real world analysis and research work of the previous analysts and researchers, a critical analysis would we put forward based on all the works done before and individual discretion of a reader. This would be the primary objective of the research, to find out the impact and all the hidden information associated with it about cloud computing implementation in business process outsourcing.

Business process outsourcing is first and foremost a B2B service. Therefore the outsourcing of the professional B2B services within the context of cloud computing for the SMEs is important. There for various researchers need to find out the outsourcing arrangement (Carmel, Lacity & Doty, 2016). They have already been various research is conducted on the arrangement of the outsourcing from three different perspective, namely, the client company, the professional service provider like an accounting firm, or a cloud based information system like and accounting information system.

The key concepts that are regulated during the study process are about business process outsourcing, cloud computing, and virtual organising. According to the authors Ismail and Aman (2018), cloud computing is a paradigm of the emerging trends in Computer technology which has created opportunities for both professional service provider and IT service providers. Therefore its utilisation in business is becoming more and more with every passing day and becoming much more widespread as a research topic. various authors has been utilising their research methodologies to make sure that technical focus during the early stages of business and its changes all through the years with the utilisation of cloud computing is analysed properly.

The authors Demirbas, Gewald and Moos (2018), suggest that the cloud storage offers strategic flexibility to a business since there are no constraints of hardware and the dependency on the service providers are much decreased along with accessibility in a ubiquitous way. This is why most organisations are keen on implying the cloud computing services within their business process. However some are for the opinion that there is hidden complexity that builds in the delegation of burden on the IT management to the cloud service provider.

Questionnaire Results

Amongst the outsourcing processes, business process outsourcing or BPO is also a client organisation base where the business processes are outsourced true and external third party intrusion. According to Baudoin (2018), the BPO organisations should include it processes within its business operation. This is because the theoretical framework that BPO related decision making process goes through is relevant to the desert great occasion of global services according to the transaction cost economy. This is why the utilisation of cloud computing in the BPO sectors are noticed in the recent times (Larsen, Manning & Pedersen, 2018). The utilisation has thus many researchers analyse the utilisation of cloud computing and its impact in the business processes of the BPO sectors.

Virtual organizing on the other hand is elaboration process where ICT based organisation have a liberated work environment from the physical element and allows remote work accesses. Virtual organisation is also relevant to this issue as various authors Ismail, Amanb and Mohameda (2018), are of the opinion that the taxonomy includes three types of virtual organisations, namely, internal outsourcing and networked, that depends upon the utilisation of cloud computing within the assessment of the impact in BPO sectors.

The research methodology that is applied by various analysts to find out the impact of cloud computing in the BPO sector is entirely based on the theory of Positivism taken for researching on the methodology (Lal & Bharadwaj, 2016). A comprehensive idea is does gain from the research and the information generated due to the research methodology conducted on finding out the impact of cloud computing on BPO sector. In this case the research approach that is followed through is Deductive in nature which is utilised for developing the analysis for the through the study mostly based on the secondary data sources (Manzoor, 2016). For the next step of the research a Descriptive Design is followed by which a researcher would be going through this research can easily access the hidden information generated from the raw data which would be evaluated through the data analysis process. Therefore the research methodology that is processed in this way would be both based on primary and secondary data resources to find out the impact of cloud computing in BPO sector. On the other hand any person who would want to gain access on the inside information through the research process would be accessible to the raw data followed by the data analysis techniques like regression qualitative and quantitative methods.

Literature Review

According to research is conducted by various research philosophers, the theory of Positivism is justified for applying within the process and can be deemed as appropriate because it identifies all the hidden information that is excavated for making out the information inside the barriers of the process and the implementation of the ideas for finding out the implication and impacts that cloud computing generates on the BPO sectors (Malherbe, 2018).

The Deductive Approach is utilised for conducting the study in finding out the impact of cloud computing in BPO sectors and it can be justified since this analysis process develops a hypothesis of evaluating the research objective (Yahya, 2016). This process ensures that the authenticity of the hypothesis is maintained following the criteria examination for selection and reduction. Along with that there is no new concept or theory to be proposed for the in the study and only the basis of the research would fall from the base topic which is the impact of cloud computing in BPO sector (De Silva, 2019). This is further configured by the inductive and deductive research approach to be eliminated from the system of research methodology techniques applied.

Figure 1: Do you believe that the organizational structure is maintained as before due to the implementation of the Cloud Based Infrastructure?

(Source: Created by Author)

The people taking part in the questionnaire where first ask if they believe that the organisational structure is maintained before as due to the implementation of the cloud based infrastructure. To this mostly all the people have agreed strongly as they believe that even if cloud-based infrastructure is a new technology to be implemented within the system, there is no particular change within the organisational structure. They believe that all the task performed are going on smoothly.

Figure 2: Do you think that the implementation of Cloud Infrastructure is creating a negative impact on the BPO sectors?

(Source: Created by Author)

in the next set of the questionnaires the people were asked if they think that the implementation of cloud infrastructure is creating a negative impact on the BPO sectors. To this question, mostly the people have answered that the cloud infrastructure is creating a strong negative impact on the BPO sector, but on the other hand there are some set of people who strongly disagree with this question and they would like to put forward that there is always a positive change in the BPO sector is after the implementation of cloud infrastructure. therefore it means that there is a mixed reaction of people for the implementation of cloud infrastructure as it is a very new technology to be introduced into the legacy system.

Figure 3: Do you believe that both the organization and the employees are benefitted by the cloud based systems in BPO sectors?

(Source: Created by Author)

In the next set of the questionnaire, people were asked that if the belief that both organisation and the employees urban benefited with the implementation of the cloud based system in the BPO sector. Today’s there is a neutral reaction as people have neither agreed nor disagreed to the fact. Therefore there is a mixed reaction with the implementation of the cloud based system in the BPO sector as a portion of the employees believe that the work would be hampered due to the implementation of the new systems. Where another question believes that work culture and operations would be elevated due to this implementation

Figure 4: Do you believe that the impact of the latest technology of cloud has security problems regarding the information generated in the business for BPO sectors?

(Source: Created by Author)

The people were also asked if they believe that the latest technology implementation of cloud infrastructure has generated security problems in BPO sector. To this mostly the people have agreed with the fact stating that there are indeed security problems regarding the cloud infrastructure implementation in the BPO sectors.

Figure 5: Do you believe that the framework of the internal setup of a BPO organization would be affected by cloud implementation?

(Source: Created by Author)

In the last section, the people were asked if they believe that the framework of the internal setup of a BPO organisation is affected by the cloud implementation. To this, the people have strongly agreed that indeed there are changes in the internal setup and framework of a BPO organisation when cloud is implemented within the organisational systems and its operations.

As per the study conducted through a systematic literature review developed on cloud application and cloud services adopted within organisations, it can be said that cloud computing has severely gained its popularity among the various practitioners and researchers and had been tried to be employed with an organisational processes for too often (Varghese, 2017). Therefore, various studies were already produced for finding out the impact of this information system field while they address the cloud adoption techniques. After the investigation of the results from all the previous studies formulated by the other researchers and analysis based on the empirical support of cloud adoption determinant by various organisation, especially focusing on the BPO sectors, it could have been said that the factors that empirically validate the studies are based upon 5 different categories (Pradhan, 2017). These categories are the adoption of the drivers, the adoption of the inhibitors context of the organisation context of the cloud provider and context of the external environment. Based on all these factors the foundation of the cloud adoption framework with an organisation can be established (Aman et al., 2018).

The cloud adoption drivers are frequently associated with the use of cloud, and as per the author Joy (2016), have already found out, the consistency of the use being lo can be compared to the top drivers of the adoption. There are some cloud centric factors like online cooperation and collaboration, accessibility and strategic flexibility that make sure that comparative power within the organisational context is ensured.

The organisational context supports the compatibility and technological readiness of the organisation and management support of cloud initiative. Which tells us that the limitation that customisation of technical operations is integrated, it can cause a risk for the compatibility of cloud computing within the existing IT services. The Small Scale Enterprises or SMEs, and the other business process outsourcing have a low outsourcing cluster (Paul et al., 2018). This is the reason why the company is keen on implementing the cloud services within its organisational structure. As there are various positive factors of the entire implementation, there are also several impacts within the organisation for the people working within the company. As authors Kshetri, Fredriksson and Torres (2017), have suggested that it would be difficult for the people already existing within the organisation to always use a legacy system and then shift to a completely new business setup. The researchers found out that there are some mixed reactions within the employees while the internal operations of an organisation works on (Yu et al., 2017). This is why cloud-based infrastructure is both treated as a positive impact to the organisation regarding the storage and utilisation of information, and on the other hand the virtuality of the entire cloud-based services are also regarded as a negative impact on the organisation as the employees would find it difficult to work within a completely new infrastructure system shifting from the legacy systems.

The research through this entire study conducted was made out of the practice from the start to make sure that decision made during the implementation of cloud services would focus on the long-term strategic implications of the technology in the BPO sector. The literature review has revealed that a distribution and focus on the technological aspects and the cost aspect regarding the cloud implementation in the BPO sector is at the expense of the cloud provider, organisation and the external environment factors. Therefore it is suggested that the issues related to the readiness of an organisation in adapting the new technology has to be much more attention in the long-term strategic information and the implications regarding the technology. As per the researchers generate, the information during the business process should be considered as a great benefit generated from the transition to the cloud. Although it is impossible to make sure that a small introduction of Technology is sufficient and therefore careful planning needs to be conducted with dodo inside to the decision making process regarding the business process reorganisation in BPO sector after the cloud technology is implemented.

Conclusion

In conclusion, it can be stated that cloud computing has the ability to with stand the hype that emerging Technology has created to make the system established within a business organisation process with a significant body of literature to research from behind it. Over the entire course of the conducted research comma the context has been established that a cloud based system for the BPO sector arrangement in the form of an outsourcing triangle provides for both the cloud based infrastructure, the company for the clients, and the professional services that the partner of the BPO sector or provider is implemented with. therefore the narrow view of the adoption aspects within the cloud computing for BPO sectors support the findings from all the earlier studies which state that unlimited view of the cloud use appears to be insufficient within the arrangement of a BPO sector and therefore the absence of long term organisational and external factors become much more particularly prominent.

There are certain limitations to the conductance study that should be considered. During the conduction of the literature review, there have been certain implications regarding the cloud computing adoption study. There have been a number of conscious decisions made for limiting the literature research. along with that the exploratory studies and articles which has no clear conception or relationship between the factors and adoption of cloud computing in the BPO sector have also been excluded and only the articles that explicitly discuss the cloud computing and cloud service model to be implemented within the BP of sectors is considered to be taken for the literature review.

Again for the secondary data analysis, a lot of people were contacted and considered for operating the questionnaire that follows through the data analysis process in support of the entire literature review. This was done to make about the hidden data and information within the entire research process. During this there was certain implications present within the process, as many of the people considered for the question is not available to meet face to face for the questionnaires. For them a fixed timing was selected to conduct the entire questionnaire set over phone. That too in some cases not all the discussion over phone was allowed to be recorded show the analysis has to be done based on the power of memory of the analyst. During the face to face discussion, it also occurred that the entire process has conducted various set of questions that the people appearing for the question I did not want to answer. Some of the questions we are not clear to the people and that is why they could not answer them as well.

The study has addressed all the implication that cloud computing can have within the internal organisation of a work structure and formulated the strategies that virtual organisation can root within the theory with their empirical evidence which would limit the service is composed of highly standardised tasks. This would be the way for the future research process that can follow up the investigation of the highly virtual organisation model to find out if it is suitable for the organisation involved within the task which is not following a structured system or not. In the future it can also be researched about the longitudinal analysis for the challenges that have been keeping up with the strategies of virtual organisations, which in this case is the BPO sector, in shipping up the development strategies of the company in various stages. Thus, based on all the research work that has been done through this report, it can be concluded that the entire idea about implementing cloud based system within BPO sectors for running its organisational operations is a feasible process which can further be researched about and evaluated in future to make sure that more benefits are added to the operational structure of a company, especially in the BPO sectors.

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