| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立臺灣科技大學 === 資訊管理系 === 101 === Hi-Tele Company started to execute a project of dynamic bus information system (hereinafter referred to as eBus project), owned by an affiliated unit of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications, in late 2009. The eBus project includes a task of on-site investigation on more than 100 thousand bus stops, belonging to about 1,200 highway bus routes in Taiwan. Hi-Tele outsourced this investigation task to TS Company, one of Hi-Tele’s four outsourcing vendors of this project. TS then outsourced this task to IA Company. The bus stops investigation task was divided into three phases. The results in the first phase of investigation failed to meet the acceptance criteria in July 2010. Hi-Tele then added its own manpower to assist and improve the investigation task before passing re-inspection. The results of bus stops investigation in second phase also failed to pass the acceptance inspection in September 2010. Now Hi-Tele had to face the improvement work of the second-phase investigation and also face a greater workload in the third phase of bus stops investigation task.
After experiencing the failure of the first and second phase of bus stops investigation task, many employees of TS resigned due to the stress caused by heavier workloads than expected. TS could no longer withstand the enormous amount of work than expected in this situation and Tom, the general manager of TS, requested Hi-Tele to amend the contract to remove the bus stops investigation work in the third phase. After receiving the request of TS, Hi-Tele’s director Lisa, responsible for the eBus project, felt anxious though she also sympathized with TS’s situation.
After discussions with Hi-Tele’s team members of the eBus project, Lisa thought that there are three possible solutions to Hi-Tele’s problem. She asked project manager David to do an in-depth analysis of the feasibility of the three solutions. She hoped that the final decision will take into consideration the needs of all relevant company and Hi-Tele’s three branches, and most especially that the third phase of the bus stops investigation task could pass the acceptance inspection smoothly. Should Hi-Tele simply choose to insist that TS continually execute the bus stops investigation task according to the contract? Or should Hi-Tele accept the TS's request for contract amendment? However, if Hi-Tele accepts TS’s request, then who will continue to investigate the bus stops? Should Hi-Tele just continue the bus stops investigation task by using its own resources? Or should Hi-Tele find another outsourcing vendor to continue the bus stops investigation task and pass the costs on to TS according to the contract? Each solution seems to have its advantages and disadvantages. What solution should Lisa choose?
The teaching notes section discussed some management issues and theories behind this case. To begin with, through understanding Hi-Tele’s outsourcing strategy, we explored the reasons why companies outsourced parts of a project. The risks of outsourcing and agency theory would be discussed. Then the issue of relational governance was explored through reviewing the background information on the cooperation between Hi-Tele and TS. Furthermore, from the nature of cooperation between Hi-Tele and TS, we discussed resource-dependence relations between organizations, power related to resource dependence and strategies for avoiding resource dependence. Finally, according to the interaction between Hi-Tele’s E Branch, two other branches and outsourcing vendors, we discussed the characteristics of boundary spanning between organizations, the responsibilities of a boundary spanner and importance of collaboration across functions.
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