Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
Natascha Morstadt
Masterarbeit
im Fach Information Systems
Selection Process of a Cloud sourced Office & Collaboration Solution: A multiple Case Study
Themasteller: Jun.-Prof. Dr. Ali Sunyaev
Vorgelegt in der Masterprüfung
im Studiengang Economics
der Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaftlichen Fakultät
der Universität zu Köln
Köln, Mai 2015
I
Table of Contents
List of Abbreviations .................................................................................... III
List of Illustrations ....................................................................................... IV
List of Tables ................................................................................................. V
1. Introduction ................................................................................................ 1
2. Theoretical Background ............................................................................. 3
2.1 Cloud Computing .................................................................................. 3
2.1.1 Characteristics .............................................................................. 4
2.1.2 Service Models ............................................................................ 5
2.1.3 Deployment Models ..................................................................... 7
2.2 Related Literature on Selection Processes ............................................ 8
2.2.1 Selection process in IT-Outsourcing Literature ........................... 8
2.2.2 Selection Process of Packaged Software ................................... 13
2.3 Organizational Buying Behavior ......................................................... 17
3. Research Method ..................................................................................... 20
3.1 Case Study Research ........................................................................... 20
3.2 Research design ................................................................................... 20
3.3 Data Collection .................................................................................... 25
3.4 Data Analysis Approach...................................................................... 28
4. Descriptive Case Information .................................................................. 29
4.1 The Purchased Office & Collaboration Solution ................................ 29
4.2 Overview of Cases .............................................................................. 32
4.2.1 Case 1: Alpha GmbH ................................................................. 32
4.2.2 Case 2: Beta Holding ................................................................. 33
4.2.3 Case 3: Gamma Holding ............................................................ 34
4.2.4 Case 4: Delta Holding ................................................................ 34
II
5. The Selection Process of a Cloud sourced Office & Collaboration Solution in Corporate Practice: Analysis of Cases ................................................. 36
5.1 Reasons for initiation .......................................................................... 36
5.2 Shortlisting of alternatives .................................................................. 41
5.3 Evaluation of alternatives .................................................................... 44
5.4 Final Decision Making ........................................................................ 57
6. Implications .............................................................................................. 69
6.1 Implications for Practice ..................................................................... 69
6.2 Implications for Research.................................................................... 70
7. Limitations and Future Research ............................................................. 70
8. Conclusion ............................................................................................... 72
9. List of References .................................................................................... 74
10. Appendices .............................................................................................. 84
Erklärung ........................................................................................................ i
Lebenslauf...................................................................................................... ii
III
List of Abbreviations
BDSG Bundesdatenschutzgesetz
CAPEX Capital Expenditure
IaaS Infrastructure as a Service
ITO IT Outsourcing
NIST National Institute of Standards and Technology
OPEX Operational Expenditure
PaaS Platform as a Service
SaaS Software as a Service
SIM Society for Information Management
SME Small and medium -sized enterprise
SSO Single Sign On
TCE Transaction Cost Economics
TCO Total Cost of Ownership
VMs Virtual Machines
VPN Virtual Private Network
IV
List of Illustrations
Figure 2-1 NIST Definition of Cloud Computing .......................................... 4
Figure 2-2 Cloud Computing Service Models ................................................ 5
Figure 2-3 Decision Making in stage model of IS Outsourcing ..................... 9
Figure 2-4 Jadhav and Sonar’s (2009) selection process of packaged
software ...................................................................................... 14
V
List of Tables
Table 2-1 Selection Process in functionalist and constructivist literature .... 16
Table 3-1 Implementation of attributes for evaluating rigor in positivist case
study research recommended by Dubé, Paré (2003) ................ 25
Table 3-2 Overview of interviewees............................................................. 27
Table 4-1 Office 365 Plans and Service Families ........................................ 30
Table 4-2 Microsoft standalone online services ........................................... 31
Table 5-1 Influences on initiation ................................................................. 40
Table 5-2 Shortlisting of Alternatives .......................................................... 43
Table 5-3 Evaluation of alternatives ............................................................. 56
Table 5-4 Final Decision Making ................................................................. 67
1
1. Introduction
Lately, distributed computing witnessed the emerging trend of cloud computing: Besides
the provision of platforms and infrastructures, cloud based sourcing models allow the
access of software applications via the internet, defined as Software-as-a-Service (SaaS).
With the advantage of saving initial investment costs, gaining flexibility, pay-per-use and
the availability of always up-to-date software without further licensing,1 enterprise CIOs
mentioned the use of SaaS among the top three IT investments in 2015.2
Benlian, Hess and Buxmann (2009) show that the majority of IT investments in SaaS in
large companies are used for Office & Collaboration tools.3 Together with predictions of
a remarkable growth in the cloud computing market,4 the acquisition of office and
collaboration tools as-a-service actually is and will be of high relevance within
organizations.
In contrast to IT Outsourcing (ITO), the acquisition of cloud services does not pursue an
individually negotiated relationship with customized services. 5 As a result, the
responsibility to assess and fulfill requirements is shifted from the provider towards the
customer during the selection of suitable solutions. Furthermore, the decision making
process surrounding the acquisition and selection of cloud services involves multiple
stakeholder groups, such as IT, Business, Legal, Procurement, User and Works Councils.
With those stakeholders having differing interests and views,6 the management of those
processes becomes a complex endeavor.
As the acquisition has severe impacts on implementation and future usage of a system7,
appropriate processes support the avoidance of problems and choosing the wrong
1 cf. Armbrust et al. (2010), pp. 1–5., cf. Lacity, Reynolds (2014), p. 38., cf. Benlian, Hess, Buxmann (2009), p. 357.
2 cf. Gartner Executive Programs (2015) 3 cf. Benlian, Hess, Buxmann (2009), p. 362. 4 cf. Gartner (2012); Cisco (2014) 5 cf. this and the next sentence Schneider et al. (2014), pp. 4–5. 6 cf. Schneider et al. (2014), p. 26. 7 cf. Lin, Silva (2005), pp. 57–58.
2
system.8 In order to make well informed decisions during the selection process of cloud
sourced office and collaboration solutions, it is crucial to deeply understand the process,
as well as being comprehend of specific challenges and important selection criteria when
selecting a suitable solution.9
However, research focusing on software acquisition processes is limited for traditional
software in general, 10 and for the consideration of cloud specific challenges in
particular.11 SaaS being an emerging form of ITO, conclusions can also be drawn from
the large ITO body of knowledge.12 Notwithstanding, the investigation of how
organizations actually come to an outsourcing decision has still not attracted many
researchers’ attention.13
Together with the actual relevance, the outlined gap in literature motivates the following
research question:
How is the selection process conducted for a cloud sourced Office & Collaboration
solution?
In order to reach the objective to elucidate the selection process in corporate practice, a
multiple case study is conducted.
With the view of getting valuable insights into to selection process, firstly the reasons for
the consideration of cloud sourced office and collaboration tools are investigated.
Secondly, the shortlisting of alternatives is presented. This is followed by the description
of how alternatives are evaluated, including important selection criteria. Finally, it is
explained how the final decision was made. Based on the Organizational Buying
Behavior (OBB) model, influences on the decision making within each stage of the
process will be presented.
8 cf. Harnisch (2014), p. 2. 9 cf. Schneider et al. (2014), p. 5. 10 cf. Howcroft, Light (2010), p. 123. 11 cf. Harnisch (2014), pp. 10–11. 12 cf. Dibbern et al. (2004), p. 10. 13 cf. Dibbern et al. (2004), p. 16.
3
The thesis is structured as follows: the first section will provide background information
on relevant theoretical constructs as well as related literature concerning selection
processes in ITO and packaged software. Subsequently, the research design will be
presented. The next section then consists of descriptive information concerning the four
distinct cases that were studied in the course of this research. Finally, case study results
are presented and discussed, leading to implications for research as well as for practice.
A conclusion reflecting on key findings and the degree of achieving objectives is
terminating the study.
2. Theoretical Background
The following chapter gives an overview of theoretical foundations of the master thesis.
Firstly, a definition for the term cloud computing is given. Secondly, related literature
concerning the processes and decision making surrounding ITO and acquisition of
packaged software is presented. Finally, the theoretical perspective that is used in order
to describe the selection process within the case studies, the OBB model, is described.
2.1 Cloud Computing
So far, there exist several definitions of cloud computing.14 Some of them even refer to
cloud computing in the context of the “fifth utility” besides water, electricity, gas and
telephone. Simultaneously, as relevance of cutting edge information technology
increases, as well as the complexity of managing distinct data and software, organizations
have higher cost than ever for IT. 15 Cloud computing aims to solve these problems.
Among those various definitions, NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology)
definition of cloud computing received most popularity. The definition of cloud
14 cf. this and the next sentence Yang, Tate (2012), p. 36. 15 cf. this and the next sentence Marston et al. (2011), p. 176.
4
computing thereby consists of five characteristics, three service models and four
deployment models. 16
Figure 2-1 NIST Definition of Cloud Computing
2.1.1 Characteristics
According to the NIST definition,17 the first essential characteristic of cloud computing
is on-demand self-service of cloud computing services. This refers to the service
consumer’s ability to procure the needed services autonomously without “human
interaction” with the service provider. Secondly, the characteristic of broad network
access provides the consumer with the ability to access the service from a multitude of
devices through a standard network connection. Resource Pooling, as the third attribute,
describes the fact that a provider can serve multiple customers with a single resource (also
called multi-tenancy) from a pool of resources and dynamically manage the resource
assignments. Rapid elasticity refers to the fact that resource consumption can be very
quickly scaled up or down corresponding the consumer’s current needs. Together with
the resource pooling attribute, this creates the impression for the consumer of infinite
resources that are available at any given time. Finally, the measured service characteristic
implies that a metering capability enables both the provider and the consumer to know
16 cf. Mell, Grance (2011), pp. 2–3. 17 cf. Mell, Grance (2011), p. 2.
Characteristics
x On demand self service x Broad network access x Resource Pooling x Rapid Elasticity x Measured Services
x Public Cloud
x Private Cloud
x Hybrid Cloud
x Community Cloud
Deployment Models
x Infrastructure as a Service
x Platform as a Service
x Software as a Service
Service Models
5
what quantities of the service have actually been used by the consumer and subsequently
only the exerted computing resources are charged.
2.1.2 Service Models
In the following, the three different service models of cloud computing, according to
NIST, are discussed.
The differences between each service model lies in the degree to which the management
of resources, in terms of hard- and software, is outsourced to the service provider.18
Often the different service models are depicted as “stacks” of layers that build on each
other. Each layer thereby can be interpreted as a layer of abstraction that hides the
underlying components.19
Figure 2-2 Cloud Computing Service Models20
Infrastructure-as-a-Service
The infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) model is the basic layer in the cloud computing
architecture model.21 “Raw” computing capacity is delivered to the customer, usually in
the form of virtual machines (VMs).22 The provider manages the physical hardware in the
datacenter as well as the virtualization of those resources, whereas the customer has
18 cf. Mell, Grance (2011), p. 2. 19 cf. Yousseff, Butrico, Da Silva (2008), pp. 2–3. 20 cf. Zhang, Cheng, Boutaba (2010), p. 9. 21 cf. Mell, Grance (2011), p. 2. 22 cf. this and the next two sentences Zhang, Cheng, Boutaba (2010), p. 9.
Hardware CPU, Memory, Disk, Bandwidth
Applications Business Applications, Web Services
Platforms Software Framework, Storage (Files)
Infrastructure Computation (VM), Storage (block)
Microsoft Azure, Google AppEngine
Amazon EC2, GoGrid
Data Centers
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
Platform as a Service (PaaS)
Software as a Service (SaaS)
Microsoft Office 365. Google Apps, Salesforce.com
6
access down to the level of the virtual machine, meaning that he is responsible for and
capable of managing the operating system and the applications running on this virtualized
computing resource. The computing capacity is therefore delivered as a completely
externalized service and is dynamically scalable.
Platform-as-a-Service
Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) products consist of a higher stack of external managed
computing resources: application platforms with the physical infrastructure as well as the
VMs managed by the cloud provider are delivered to the customer within this service
model.23 Additionally to the IaaS-Service-model characteristics, the cloud provider takes
care of operating systems and middleware. The customer only hosts data and application
layer and thus is able to easily develop, deploy or run applications designed for a certain
cloud platform service. In summary, PaaS provides computing infrastructure for software
developers.24
Software-as-a-Service
For the present work, the Software-as-a-Service model will be the most interesting, as
cloud sourced office and collaboration tools are delivered to customers in the form of
SaaS. Within this model, the whole “stack” is managed by the cloud provider.25 It
represents the highest level of abstraction within the cloud computing architecture.26 The
user has neither control of any of the underlying platforms nor the software code of the
application itself, but decides only how to use the application and which data to provide
it with, whereas the data itself is not under the user’s physical control either. For SaaS
having evolved from the application service provisioning model (ASP) which came up in
the late 1990`s, the idea of on-demand self-service of commercial off-the shelf packages
is not new.27
23 cf. this and the next two sentences Zhang, Cheng, Boutaba (2010), p. 10. 24 cf. Zhang, Cheng, Boutaba (2010), p. 10. 25 cf. Zhang, Cheng, Boutaba (2010), p. 10. 26 cf. Mell, Grance (2011), p. 2. 27 cf. Benlian, Hess, Buxmann (2009), p. 357.
7
2.1.3 Deployment Models
Private Cloud
The delivery of computing capacity through a private cloud model can be seen as the
attempt of benefitting from the service oriented cloud computing characteristics, at the
same time keeping control over the underlying hardware and software infrastructure and
data.28While the private cloud is managed within the exclusive premises of defined
organizational boundaries, only members of the particular organization have access to the
cloud, on- as well as off-premises.
With managing hardware and software on premises, a major part of benefits through the
use of cloud computing disappears, such as flexibility, no-upfront investment costs and
scalability.29 However, with the ability the manage servers itself, the integration of
organization specific legacy systems provides an advantage, specifically for organizations
with highly sensitive data.
Community Cloud
Closely related to private clouds, the community cloud provides a cloud infrastructure to
an exclusive set of consumers from organizations that may share some commonalities,
such as requirements, compliance and security requirements, mission or other concerns.30
Thereby, the infrastructure may be managed by one or more of the consumer
organizations within the community, by third parties or any hybrid scenario. It can be
hosted on premises as well as off premises.
Public Cloud
The public cloud infrastructure is hosted by the cloud provider. Cloud provider may be
any kind of organization, be it business, academic, government or a mixture of them.
Public cloud services are delivered to the general public through a standard network
connection.31 As service demands are pooled by the cloud provider, this service model
28 cf. this and next sentence Marston et al. (2011), p. 185. 29 cf. Marston et al. (2011), p. 185., cf. Armbrust et al. (2009), p. 4. 30cf. this and next sentence Mell, Grance (2011), p. 3. 31 cf. Mell, Grance (2011), p. 3.
8
allows for a large economies of scale and efficient allocation of resources.32 For the
service consumer, advantages are realized in the form of absence of up-front investments,
ubiquitous access and high scalability.
Hybrid Cloud
A hybrid cloud is composed by two or more different cloud infrastructures (private,
community, public) that remain distinct entities but at the same time are enabled by
standardized or proprietary technology to transfer data and applications, for example if
there is need for load balancing between clouds.33
2.2 Related Literature on Selection Processes
The following section provides an overview of related literature to the selection processes
in ITO and packaged software acquisition.
2.2.1 Selection process in IT-Outsourcing Literature
Loh and Venkatram (1992) define ITO as “significant contribution by external vendors
in the physical and/or human resources associated with the entire or specific components
of the IT infrastructure in the user organization”.34 As cloud computing represents an
emerging form of ITO, insights on the selection process can be drawn from the large body
of knowledge of ITO. Schneider and Sunyaev (2014) point out that even if there remain
peculiarities within the cloud computing phenomenon, determinant factors for ITO and
cloud computing sourcing decisions resemble to large extents in terms of technological
and cost savings aspects.35 Thus, research concerning the selection process in ITO may
apply to some extents for cloud computing as well.
ITO can be interpreted as organizational decision making where several options for
outsourcing are evaluated and implemented. 36 Within the consolidation of ITO research
32 cf. Zhang, Cheng, Boutaba (2010), pp. 7; 10; Armbrust et al. (2009), p. 6. 33 cf. Mell, Grance (2011), p. 3. 34 cf. Loh, Venkatram (1992), p. 9. 35 cf. Schneider, Sunyaev (2014), p. 15. 36 cf. Dibbern et al. (2004), pp. 14–15.
9
from a practitioner’s point of view, Dibbern et al. (2004) relate Simon’s general
management decision making model37 to ITO.
As a result, decision making in IT Outsourcing is mapped with the following questions
that search for answers within the decision process (c.f. Figure 2-3): Firstly, Why should
outsourcing be considered, which relates to determinant factors for outsourcing decision.
Secondly, the question What may be suitable to be outsourced, relates to the stage where
organizations consider various alternative outsourcing arrangements. And finally Which
processes are applied when organizations evaluate various options and come to the actual
outsourcing decisions.
Figure 2-3 Decision Making in stage model of IS Outsourcing
37 cf. for more information Simon (1960)
10
The subsequent implementation phase firstly deals with the question of How the
outsourcing is arranged, reflecting on vendor choice and contractual negotiation as well
as tools for managing the relationship. Outcomes refer to consequences that emerge due
to the outsourcing, such as lessons learned, success or failure.
When asking “Why”, organizations evaluate their possibilities of ITO. Research in this
field focuses on determinant factors, conditions and situations, as well as risks and
potential benefits of IT Outsourcing.38 Literature on determinant factors for sourcing
decisions is extensive for ITO from various perspectives.39 For instance, studies applied
economic, strategic, organizational and social theories in order to explain determinant
factors for ITO.40 Knowledge concerning determinant factors, besides cost and
technology, for cloud computing sourcing decisions is still limited.41 However, one study
in this context, conducted by Benlian, Hess, Buxmann (2009), conclude that behavioral
theories emerged as most consistent explanations for SaaS sourcing decisions.42
The “What” to outsource stage is linked to the beforehand question and sometimes is
treated as one single research question “what to outsource and why”43. Two conditions
have to be fulfilled when asking “What”: At least two options have to be available and in
order to choose among those options, the awareness of selection criteria has to be given
One can argue that those selection criteria result with answering the question “why”.
Exemplary for research focusing on what to outsource is the study by Grover (1994)44.
He analyzes the relationship between distinct IS functions and their degree of outsourcing
and relates the findings to organizational factors, such as IT as a percentage of sales
budget. Finally, he was able to reveal a relationship between organizational strategy, role
of IT as well as a firm’s resources to the degree that certain IS functions had been
outsourced.
38 cf. Dibbern et al. (2004), p. 16. 39 cf. Dibbern et al. (2004), p. 16. 40 cf. Dibbern et al. (2004), pp. 24–42. 41 cf. Schneider, Sunyaev (2014), p. 1. 42 cf. Benlian, Hess, Buxmann (2009), p. 367. 43 cf. Teng, Cheon, Grover (1995) 44 cf. Grover, Cheon, Teng (1994)
11
The next stage “Which” refers to the question “which choice to make” and “which
process” takes place in order to come to a decision.45 Within this phase, organizations
adopt procedures and guidelines in order to come to an outsourcing decision. In the course
of a step by step or iterative process, organizations adopt selection criteria and take the
final decision. Even if the decision makers are perfectly aware of the various sourcing
options and the main evaluation criteria, how do they determine the instances of the
criteria within their company? As the research aim of this thesis is to analyze the selection
process, this stage is of special interest and thus is explained more detailed.
The decision process within the “Which” stage can be subdivided into: (1) Initiation (2)
Analysis or Evaluation (3) Actual Decision Making.46
For decision initiation Hirschheim and Lacity (2000)47 reveal that most of the IS
insourcing decisions within their cases are initiated by top management, subsequently to
an evaluation of the existing costs of IS. Another study by Lacity and Willcocks (1995)48
revealed the same proportion of initiators among IS managers and top managers.
Concerning the evaluation of potential sourcing options, Hirschheim and Lacity (2000)49
conclude that these activities are mostly delegated to IS managers. A case study by Huber
(1993)50 showed an arrangement for the evaluation that excluded the CIO and had very
low involvement of IS managers, whereas two councils were built for the strategic as well
as the technical view. Thereby, the strategic council consisted of top managers and
important business line managers while technical specialists were represented within the
technical council. With building teams, organizations thus aim to formalize the decision
making process. Thereby, political factors may influence these processes and outcomes
by choosing the composition of those teams.51
45 cf. this paragraph Dibbern et al. (2004), p. 48. 46 cf. Dibbern et al. (2004), p. 48. 47 cf. Hirschheim, Lacity (2000) 48 cf. Lacity, Willcocks (1995) 49 cf. Hirschheim, Lacity (2000) 50 cf. Huber (1993) 51 cf. Dibbern et al. (2004), p. 49.
12
In terms of evaluation, Dibbern et al. (2004)52 reveal that a rigorous matching of internal
IS against available market offerings is not the rule, as well as the options are heavily
limited beforehand.
Concerning methods and techniques organizations apply for the evaluation of sourcing
options, two prerequisites have been identified within several studies:53 Firstly, a
segmentation of IS activities and their requirements. Secondly, the identification of
suitable criteria for the evaluation of IS, such as cost, enhancement to strategic goals or
service quality. For SaaS, Repschlaeger et al. (2012) identified several provider selection
criteria and mapped them within six cloud target dimensions: Reliability &
trustworthiness, service and cloud management, cost, scope & performance, IT security
& compliance as well as flexibility.54The importance of those criteria may differ between
different stakeholder groups as well as preferences may be shifting in time.55
For the question of how the actual decisions are made, little evidence have been found so
far. Some studies apply Transaction Cost Economics (TCE) in order to explain the
decision making within ITO or cloud sourcing.56 Transaction Cost Economics applied in
ITO decision making postulates a negative correlation of asset specificity and transaction
uncertainty to outsourcing. For the case of asset specificity it is concluded that if certain
applications involve complex business processes and process sensitive company data, it
is more efficient to govern those applications in-house.57 Several studies show an
analogous negative effect of uncertainty on outsourcing.58 Uncertainty thereby refers to
technological aspects, as well as business related issues that may change over time.59 As
a consequence, one can conclude that outsourcing contracts my not be sufficiently
enforced and monitored. In this context, Benlian, Hess and Buxmann (2009) found out,
52 cf. Dibbern et al. (2004), p. 49. 53 cf. Willcocks, Fitzgerald, Lacity (1996); cf. Huber (1993); cf. Palvia (1995) 54 cf. Repschlaeger et al. (2012), p. 6. 55 cf. Dibbern et al. (2004), p. 49. 56 cf. Benlian, Hess, Buxmann (2009), Lacity, Willcocks (1995) 57 cf. Benlian, Hess, Buxmann (2009), p. 360; Schneider, Sunyaev (2014) 58 cf. Aubert, Rivard, Patry (2004) 59 cf.this and the next senctence Benlian, Hess, Buxmann (2009), p. 360.
13
that for SaaS, patterns of decision making differ for application types.60 For example, the
outsourcing decision of Office & Collaboration tools is likely to be explained with TCE,
whereas ERP outsourcing decision fit in the predictions of Resource Based View of a
firm. However, the theory of planned behavior was the most consistent explanation for
outsourcing decisions in the form of SaaS among all application types.61 This theory
relates decision making to intentions to perform actions. Those intentions are again
influenced by subjective norms and the intention towards a behavior.62
Studies focusing on the decision making process reveal, that choices are made prior or
within the early stage of evaluation.63 Thus, the evaluation process seemed to be more of
a justification of the decision already made. Furthermore, with additional low
communication of the evaluation process with employees and high uncertainty, decision
processes become a tedious endeavor.64
As a result, decision making in practice often seems to be conducted in an informal way.
Nonetheless, Dibbern et al. (2004)65 conclude from their analysis of existing studies that
those organizations, adhering most to formal decision making, end up with more
successful outcomes of their sourcing decisions.
2.2.2 Selection Process of Packaged Software
The selection of a cloud sourced office and collaboration tool not only comprises the
question of what to outsource why, but also inherits the process of selecting packaged
software. Due to the multi-tenant characteristic of cloud services, the possibilities to
customize applications are very low.66 Consequently, the decision making process not
only contains the engineering of internal requirements, but comprises the matching of
60 cf. Benlian, Hess, Buxmann (2009), p. 367. 61 cf. Benlian, Hess, Buxmann (2009), p. 364. 62 cf. Ajzen, Fishbein (1975), p. 39. 63 cf. Lacity, Willcocks (1995); Palvia (1995) 64 cf. Palvia (1995) 65 cf. Dibbern et al. (2004), p. 51. 66 cf. Benlian, Hess (2011), p. 233.
14
requirements with options that the market has to offer, which is one significant
characteristic for the selection of packaged software.67
Jadhav and Sonar (2009) propose, based on their literature review related to the evaluation
and selection of packaged software, the following generic stage based methodology:68
Figure 2-4 Jadhav and Sonar’s (2009) selection process of packaged software
In sum, the process is described as linear, comprising the stages: Definition of the need,
defining and understanding user requirements, evaluate the most fitting solution and the
final decision making and purchase of the system. In order to compare packaged software,
several methods for the multi-criteria decision making problem are commonly proposed,
such as the mostly referred analytic hierarchy process (AHP) or weighted scoring
method.69 The Analytic Hierarchy Process is mentioned as used to the greatest extent.70
Developed by Saaty (1987),71 the idea is to break down a decision making problem to
several hierarchies and a set of pairwise comparisons. Prerequisites for the deployment
of methods is the awareness of selection criteria as well as the characteristics and
functionalities of the software to be evaluated.
However, the sole knowledge of selection criteria and evaluation techniques is no
guarantee for rational decision making.
67 cf. Jadhav, Sonar (2009), p. 556. 68 cf. Jadhav, Sonar (2009), p. 557. 69 cf. Jadhav, Sonar (2009), p. 559. 70 cf. Jadhav, Sonar (2009), p. 559. 71 cf. Saaty (1987)
Determination of the need
Shortlisting of possible
candidates
Eliminating providers
Evaluation of remaining packages
Trial and pilot testing
Negotiation of contract
Purchasing and Implementing
15
Besides the predominant functionalist (linear) literature and their findings as mentioned
above, Howcroft,and Light (2010)72 challenge the assumption of linear and rational
processes when selecting packaged software. Their research is based on the fact, that
acquisition and selection of packaged software is inherent with uncertain and negotiable
criteria when technology is evaluated. Their positioning recently gained attention,
especially in the light of scarce research concerning decision making processes as
complex constructs within organizations where multiple stakeholder views and interests
come together. Even if the actors are well informed about evaluation criteria and methods,
the distinct application of values is not objective.73 Within the paper74, the authors
summarize opposing views in functionalist literature and critical literature contextual to
the selection process of packaged software (c.f. Table. 2-1)
Functionalist Literature Constructivist Literature
User Requirements
Understanding user requirements
is crucial in order to set needed
functionalities, to find best fitting
product for organization, avoid
costly changes.
Requirements emerge
throughout the process and
are difficult to articulate.
Many packages are too
standardized and unable to
meet requirements.
Evaluation
Software Packages are evaluated
with the use of objective criteria
for functionality and vendor’s
capabilities.
Evaluation is far from
objective but inclined with
personal goals within the
organizations, suffers from
different perspectives
according to different
department or position
72 cf. Howcroft, Light (2010) 73 cf. Howcroft, Light (2010), p. 124. 74 cf. Howcroft, Light (2010), p. 124.
16
(end user, management,
IT. Legal, Finance etc.)
Final Selection and
Purchase
The Final Selection is conducted
after objective evaluation
processes and understanding of
user requirements.
Selection and purchase is
on grounds of vendor’s
capabilities and the
perception of how they
will develop their product.
Non-IS managers take the
decision.
Entire Selection
Process
Rational, linear process within
organizational boundaries.
Decision making process
shaped by broader
environment and multiple
stakeholders with differing
views.
Table 2-1 Selection Process in functionalist and constructivist literature75
Beginning with the definition and understanding of user requirements, in most literature
the fact is omitted, that the software is not or only limited customizable and thus built for
a generic customer.76 For the buying organization this leads to trade-offs to be made when
selecting a software. Thus, decision is more likely to be based on vendor’s presentations
and prototypes, as well as recommendations of consultants rather than by defining,
understanding and trying to realize user requirements.
When evaluation of IS takes place, theoretical literature states the objective evaluation is
based on selection criteria regarding the vendor’s capabilities and reputation as well as
functional features of the software to be selected.77 By contrast, critical research points
out that evaluation of information systems is far from being objective.78 Evaluation
processes are considered to serve as legitimation of decisions and consist of different
75 cf. Howcroft, Light (2010), p. 124. 76 cf. this and next two sentences Howcroft, Light (2010), p. 126. 77 cf. Howcroft, Light (2010), p. 126., cf. Pollock, Williams (2007), pp. 135–136. 78 cf. this and next sentence Pollock, Williams (2007), p. 136.
17
actors with differing interests trying to convince each other. Schneider et al. (2014)
present in their study, how differing perceptions of decision making determinants emerge
within the acquisition of Software-as-a-Service.79
At the stage of final decision making, functionalist literature states the decision making
to be based on the two preceding phases of evaluation and understanding of user
requirements.80 Opposed to this, studies show that the final decision often is motivated
by the perceived capabilities of the vendor rather than for being a suitable solution for the
organization.81 Furthermore, final decisions are made by top management without IS
knowledge that has not been involved in the two stages before.82 Altogether, those
findings challenge the assumptions of trivial selection processes and reveal the
complexity of the actual decision making within organizations when selecting packaged
software.
2.3 Organizational Buying Behavior
The theoretical perspective used in order to describe the decision making process for
selecting packaged software is Organizational Buying Behavior (OBB)83.
The first OBB model by Webster and Wind (1972)84 was developed in order to investigate
influences that might affect buying situations. Hereby, the buying center comprises all
organizational actors that are involved in the buying process.85 The decision making of
buying center is mapped as function of four categories of influences: Environmental,
Organizational, Social86
79 cf. Schneider et al. (2014), pp. 23–26. 80 cf. Stefanou (2000), p. 989; Howcroft, Light (2010), p. 124. 81 cf. Chau (1994) 82 cf. Brown, Vessey (2001) 83 cf. Webster, Wind (1996) 84 cf. Webster, Wind (1972) 85 cf. Webster, Wind (1996), p. 56. 86 cf. Webster, Wind (1996), p. 53.
18
Environmental influences are mapped with influences that stem from outside of the
organization and impose constraints on the buying situation or provide information for
the buying process.87 Environmental influences may be exerted for instance by
institutions, competitors, suppliers and customers, or technology (e.g. Technology trends,
obsolete systems)
Organizational influences cause decision makers to act differently than they would when
acting in their own interest or in a different company. Those influences comprise
strategies and goals, as well as technological and financial constraints within the
organization.88
Finally, since people form the buying center, social influences emerge as well. .89 Firstly,
how do members of the buying center interact with each other, which may be influenced
by hierarchy or perceived roles within the group. Secondly, individual influences of
buying center members may emerge, for instance experiences or expectations, own
decision making style and job function within the company factor. In the model of
Webster and Wind (1972), social influences are again divided into interpersonal and
individual influences. Within this thesis, social influences are comprised within one
category.
Purchasing situations in industrial buying situations are inherent with complexity of the
product as well as the buying process, lack of experience, time pressure and perceived
risk.90 Palanisamy et al. (2010) argue that the same applies for the acquisition of ES
(Enterprise Systems). This is especially true to the strategic nature of ES, being the
acquisition and selection of these systems a major business decision. 91 For Office &
Collaboration tools, the strategic value is lower compared to CRM (Customer
Relationship Management) or ERP systems. However, communication and productivity
working is based on these tools. Organizations are still able to sell their products if those
systems do not work properly or if users are not proficient with exploiting all
87 cf. this and next sentence Webster, Wind (1996), p. 54. 88 cf. Webster, Wind (1996), pp. 54–55. 89 cf. this paragraph Webster, Wind (1996), pp. 56–57. 90 cf. Palanisamy et al. (2010), p. 612. 91 cf. Palanisamy et al. (2010), p. 612.
19
functionalities of those tools. But with widely spread organizations and dispersed working
teams, communication and collaboration becomes more and more relevant in order to
work efficiently. As the acquisition of cloud services still mostly represents a new
endeavor for organizations, the buying situation is also inherent with uncertainties and
risks. In addition, as mentioned before, literature concerning ITO and selection of
packaged software challenges the simplicity and linearity of decision making within the
search for suitable solutions. Rather, processes are complex with differing views of
stakeholders, inherent of power and politics as well as individual decision making style.
For the case of the cloud paradigm, the phenomenon is still an emotional topic92 and thus
the selection process may also be influenced by project team member’s attitude. By now,
the transfer of data to external provider with datacenters in various countries underlying
differing jurisdictions, also arises legal questions during those processes.
Since the acquisition process of cloud sourced office and collaboration tools comprises
not only outsourcing decisions, but to the same extent the selection of largely standardized
software, theoretical lenses that are used in order to explain outsourcing decisions, such
as Transaction Cost Economics or Resource based View of a firm, are not sufficient to
thoroughly elucidate the whole selection process. In order to be able to comprise the most
factors and influences as possible, the organizational buying behavior model was chosen
as theoretical lens for the conducted case studies. With the generalization of categories,
the OBB provides a framework to capture all kind of emerging influences on the selection
process.
The OBB has been applied extensively as theoretical foundation for software acquisition
in general,93 but to the best knowledge of the author, never to the acquisition of cloud
services.
92 cf. Hofmann, Woods (2010), p. 91. 93 e.g. Verville, Halingten (2002); Palanisamy et al. (2010)
20
3. Research Method
The underlying research method is assigned to qualitative research. As the research
question asks for a descriptive answer, the qualitative research in form of a multiple case
study shall give insights into the selection processes within its natural context.94
The following chapter at first describes the applied research method for the conducted
case study. Then the data collection and data analysis approach is presented.
3.1 Case Study Research
Multiple cases build the basis for the empirical part of this master thesis. Four distinct
selection processes of cloud sourced office and collaboration solutions have been studied.
The rationale for the multiple case study design is the research focus: Elucidate
complexities, challenges and influences on the selection process within several
organizations in order to derive cross-case patterns.
3.2 Research design
Yin (2009)95 defines the case study as “an empirical inquiry that investigates a
contemporary phenomenon within its real-life context, especially when the boundaries
between phenomenon and context are not clearly evident”. Another definition refers to
the situations, where case studies are used very often: the investigation of one or a set of
decisions as well as processes.96 As the thesis’ aim is to shed light on the selection process
and its surrounding decision making within the context of cloud service acquisition, case
study approach was chosen for the aim of this research. In addition, “How” and “why”
research questions aim for explanatory answers as well as “operational links”, which
makes case study research a suitable method for this purpose.97 Furthermore case studies
may incorporate various evidence and information, such as interviews, observations and
documents.98
94 cf. Kvale (2007), p. xi. 95 cf. Yin (2009), p. 13. 96 cf. Yin (2009), p. 17. 97 cf. Yin (2009), p. 9. 98 cf. Yin (2009), p. 11.
21
Dubé and Paré (2003) recommend the use of multiple-case design for the sake of rigor
and robustness within case study research. This master thesis is based on four case studies.
In order to enhance high quality of the case studies, the supervisor of the master thesis,
who is already proficient with the accomplishment of this research method, gave useful
suggestions during the design of the cases as well as during data collection and data
analysis.
The main proposition is to describe, how selection processes of a cloud sourced office
and collaboration solutions are carried out in practice. Predictions from theory were
specified in related literature concerning selection processes of packaged software and in
ITO.
The unit of analysis is the selection process of a cloud sourced office and collaboration
solution. Relevant factor for the selection of a case to be studied were the already
accomplished selection of a solution, whereas it was not necessary that the solution
already had been implemented. Selected cases were four distinct public organizations that
already went through the selection process of a cloud sourced office and collaboration
solution.
Despite the vast advantages of case study research for specific research problems, among
investigators this type of research was long time held as non-desirable, mostly due to the
lack of rigor within high number of existing studies.99 In order to obtain scientific
audience, it is crucial to consider some standards to obtain rigor in qualitative research.
Those standards, suggested by Dubé, Paré (2003),100 and to which extent they are
considered within this study are presented in the following table.
99 cf. Dubé, Paré (2003), p. 598. 100 cf. Dubé, Paré (2003), p. 606.
22
Criteria Implementation
Research Design
Clear Research Question The research question is formulated as follows: “How is
the selection process conducted for a cloud sourced office
and collaboration solution?”
A priori specification of
constructs and theoretical
slate
Upfront preparation has been performed in the form of
literature research concerning decision making in ITO
and selection of packaged software. Nonetheless, the
purpose was to start the study in an objective and
inductive way.
Theory of interest,
prediction from theory and
rival theory
The theory of interest within this case study is
represented by the Organizational Buying Behavior
model.101
Multiple-case design Four cases are analyzed throughout this thesis, whereas
one case is analyzed more deeply than the others
(ALPHA). The following selection criteria for the cases
to be studied applied:
� The organization went through the selection process
of an office and collaboration solution, where at least
one of the applications is sourced via cloud
computing.102
� Only non-public organizations were taken into
account due to specific regulations for the public
sector
101 Cf. Section 2.3. 102 According to the definition of Mell, Grance (2011)
23
Nature of single-case
design and replication
logic in multiple case
design
Replication logic was applied within the multiple case
design, e.g. surprising findings were tested and asked for
in the other cases as well.
Unit of analysis The unit of analysis represents an already executed
selection process of a cloud sourced office and
collaboration solution.
Pilot Case Due to limited time scope for this master thesis, the
accomplishment of a pilot case was not possible.
Context of the case studies The case studies were conducted at four different
organizations that already selected a cloud sourced office
and collaboration solution. Actual situations differ
between organizations:
� ALPHA subscribed to cloud licenses, but does not
use them so far.
� BETA started the adoption of cloud office &
collaboration already in 2011.
� GAMMA recently adopted cloud office &
collaboration.
� DELTA is in the in the course of migrating the
selected solution.
Team-based research and
different roles for multiple
investigators
Team-based research was not possible due to the nature
of the master thesis.
Data Collection
Elucidation of the data
collection process
� The main data sources were interviews via telephone
with employees involved in the selection process.
� Eight interviews have been conducted.
24
� Interviews took place between December 2014 and
March 2015 and lasted on average 60 minutes.
� Interviews were based on a semi structured interview
guideline.
� Interviews were recorded, transcribed and reviewed
by the interviewees.
� Additional sources of information comprised
documents provided by the interviewees, follow-up
questions via email, XING and LinkedIn profiles of
the interviewees and publicly available information
concerning the selection process.
Multiple data collection
methods and mix of
qualitative and quantitative
data
Due to limited scope of the master thesis, additional
collection of quantitative data was not possible.
Data triangulation In order to use more than one single source of evidence,
interviews were triangulated with multiple sources of
data, such as documents provided by the interviewees,
publicly available information, available Xing and
LinkedIn profiles and follow up questions via email.
Case study protocol and
case study database
Interview guidelines, transcripts, additional documents
as well as the NVivo database are provided as digital
attachment.
Data Analysis
Elucidation of the data
analysis process
First, interviews were transcribed and coded into
categories and process phases. Hereafter, the reduced
information was systematically analyzed with the help of
OBB, thus categorized into environmental factors,
organizational and social factors in order to derive cross-
case patterns and differences.
25
Field notes, coding, data
displays, flexible and
opportunistic process
Interview transcripts were coded and categorized with the
use of NVivo software package for qualitative data
anlysis. Data queries and displays were applied in order
to clarify findings of the case study.
Empirical testing,
explanation building and
time series
Data was analyzed by methods of explanation building
and matching of cross-case patterns.
Searching for cross-case
patterns
Cross-case searching was accomplished in order to
enhance validity of the analysis.
Use of natural controls Natural controls were not applied in this case study.
Quotes Interviewee quotes were used in order to underline
important statements.
Project reviews Interview transcripts were reviewed by interviewees.
Thus, interview partners had the option to modify and
clarify their statements.
Comparison with extant
literature
Influencing factors and process steps were compared to
extant literature concerning decision making in IT
Outsourcing, cloud sourcing as well as selection of
packaged software.
Table 3-1 Implementation of attributes for evaluating rigor in positivist case study research recommended
by Dubé, Paré (2003) 103
3.3 Data Collection
Some research designs are almost tied to the form of data collection, as within case study
research in business and management, the conduction of interview is nearly obligatory.104
103 cf. Dubé, Paré (2003), p. 606. 104 cf.this and the next two sentences Myers (2013), p. 119.
26
Interviews with professionals give the opportunity to gain rich data concerning one
situation in practice (contextual dependent data). Furthermore, it is recommended to
select data collection based on the researcher’s experience. Even if the author of this thesis
was not proficient with conducting interviews prior to this research, the interview
guideline was based on the supervisor`s guideline that was already used and adjusted
several times.
Semi-structured interviews were the chosen form of primary data collection: questions
were formulated in advance but there was no strict adherence to them, rather there was
room left to formulate new questions that arise during the interview situation, which
includes improvisation of the interviewer.105 Thus, the semi-structured interview tries to
take over the advantages of unstructured and structured interviews.106
For the sake of enhancing quality of the case study, Xing and LinkedIn profiles of
interviewees were used as additional source of information concerning their professional
experience. Publicly available documents related to the acquisition process were taken
into account, if available. Documents provided by the interview partners constituted an
additional source of information.
Data collection took place after the occurrence of the events. The first interview within
ALPHA took place with the CIO that provided further contacts to employees that were
involved in the selection process, namely the global business solution architect and one
member of the procurement department. In addition, one interview within this case took
place with an external consultant who accompanied the project. Within BETA, the first
interview took place with the Global IT director. During the interview, the program
manager of cloud office & collaboration had been identified as additional source of
information concerning the selection process. Due to the limited scope of time for the
master thesis, for the cases GAMMA and DELTA, only one interview for each
organizations could be realized. However, for both organizations publicly available
information concerning the acquisition of the cloud sourced office and collaboration
solutions was available in order to triangulate findings.
105 cf. Myers (2013), p. 121. 106 cf. Myers (2013), p. 123.
27
Eight interviews (one interview with each person) have been conducted throughout the
data collection process. Table 3-2 presents all interviewees and their respective job
functions, project roles, years in the company and decision involvement.
Interviews were accomplished between December 2014 and March 2015, all via
telephone. On average, one interview lasted 60 minutes.
ID/Case107 Company Project
role(s)
Job functions Years in
company
Decision
Involvement
I-Alpha/1 Alpha
GmbH
Project
Lead
CIO 2,5 High
I-Alpha/2 Alpha
GmbH
Price
negotiation
IT Procurement 24 Medium
I-Alpha/3 Alpha
GmbH
Contract
negotiation
Global Business
Solution Architect
18 High
I-Alpha/4 Zeta
Consulting
Project
Planning
Consultant 3,5 Medium
I-Beta/1 Beta AG Project
Lead
Director Global IT 4 High
I-Beta/2 Beta AG Consultant/
Project
Manager
Program Manager
cloud Office &
collaboration
4 High
I-Gamma/1 Gamma
AG
Process and
Rollout
Lead
Service
Manager/Consultant
Office 365
9 High
I-Delta/1 Delta AG Lead
Architect
Enterprise Architect
& IS Strategy
5 High
Table 3-2 Overview of interviewees
107 The IDs are used for citing reasons within the case study
28
The semi structured interviews were based on an extensive interview guideline
comprising all potentially relevant questions. In order to enhance quality of the
interviews, the interview guideline was revised by the supervisor of the master thesis prior
to the conduction of the interviews. The guideline can be found in the digital attachment
to the thesis.
Questions concerned firstly personal information about interviewees, including work
experience, job position, project role and degree of involvement within the selection
process. Secondly, interviewees were asked to give insights to the whole process,
including an overview, important selection criteria, perceived challenges and lessons
learned.
The interviews were recorded and transcribed. Subsequently, the transcripts were verified
by the interviewees in order to prevent misunderstandings. Questions arising during the
data analysis process were answered via email follow up questions.
3.4 Data Analysis Approach
The main purpose of the data analysis is to describe, how the selection process of a cloud
sourced office & collaboration solution is conducted in corporate practice. With the
theoretical lens of the OBB, influencing factors in terms of environmental, organizational
and social factors were derived for each stage of the process.
Interviews with professionals that went through the acquisition and selection of a cloud
sourced interview were the main data source. The first step within the analysis was to
code different text passages into categories in order to structure the collected information.
Hereby, information gained within the interviews was organized into distinct process
phases, namely “reasons for initiation”, “shortlisting of alternatives”, “evaluation of
alternatives” and “final decision making”. Furthermore, process, characteristics and
lessons learned were coded. Other categories comprised for instance personal opinions
and attitudes, as well as personal information.
When possible, additional information concerning the cases and interviewees, i.e. Xing
or LinkedIn profiles and press releases, were collected. Follow-up questions via email or
telephone were coded and merged into the case study database. As a consequence the
presence of multiple data sources could enhance validity of the analysis.
29
The analysis was performed with the help of qualitative data analysis software package
NVivo 10. The NVivo database is attached in digital form.
The systematical evaluation of findings was conducted after the separation of the
selection process into the following sequential periods: Reasons for initiation, shortlisting
of alternatives, evaluation and comparison of alternatives and final decision making.
Within these stages, case results were analyzed with the help of the organizational buying
behavior that describes influencing factors within organizational decision making in
buying situations.
The discussion of findings comprises recommendations for the management of selection
processes for cloud sourced office and collaboration solutions. Those recommendations
follow a logical chain of evidence derived from explicit complications and lessons learned
that emerged within distinct cases.
4. Descriptive Case Information
The following section describes the purchased cloud solution as well as the organizations
and contexts were the processes took place.
4.1 The Purchased Office & Collaboration Solution
Occasionally, all cases within this study choose Office 365, the Microsoft cloud services
suite solution that offers several plans and standalone solutions for enterprise-grade
applications.
Microsoft Office 365 supports Email (Exchange Online), Collaboration sites and dynamic
document synchronization (SharePoint Online), Social networking (Yammer), cloud
storage (One Drive), instant messaging, enterprise voice, and web conferencing (Lync,
now: Skype for Business) as well as Office software subscriptions (Word, Excel,
PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote etc.) and productivity subscriptions for Project Portfolio
Management (Project Online), Diagrams (Visio), and Business Intelligence (Power
BI).108 Organizations are given the possibility to choose plans (c.f. Table 4-1) or
standalone solutions, or combinations of both.
108 cf. Katzer, Crawford (2013), p. 5.
30
Business Essentials
Business Premium
Enterprise E1
Enterprise E3
Enterprise E4
Kiosk K1
Office 365 Platform
Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Exchange Online
Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
SharePoint Online
Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
OneDrive for Business
Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No
Lync Online Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No
Office Online Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Office 365 ProPlus
No No No Yes Yes No
Yammer Enterprise
Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Table 4-1 Office 365 Plans and Service Families109
Combinations of plans as well as the switching between plans and service families is
possible. Enterprise plans exist as well for governmental or educational institutions, with
the same functionalities but different pricing. The difference between plan E4 and E3,
which is not obvious in this table, consists mainly of the Voice over IP solution with
Enterprise E4 Plan. In order to provide telephony with Lync thus the Enterprise E4 Plan
has to be subscribed.
Exchange Online Exchange Online Plan 1
109 cf. Microsoft Technet (n.d.a)
Business Service
Family
Enterprise Service
Family
Kiosk Service
Family
31
Exchange Online Plan 2
Exchange Online Protection
Exchange Online Archiving
Exchange Online Kiosk
SharePoint Online SharePoint Online Plan 1
SharePoint Online Plan 2
OneDrive for Business OneDrive for Business with Office Online
Lync Online Lync Online Plan 1
Lync Online Plan 2
Office Applications Office 365 ProPlus
Project Portfolio Management Project Online
Project Online ProPlus
Yammer Yammer Basic
Business Intelligence service Power BI for Office 365
Online diagram software Visio Pro for Office 365
Table 4-2 Microsoft standalone online services110
With the subscription to Microsoft Office 365, Exchange, Lync and SharePoint can be
used as a cloud service, on premise or as a hybrid deployment model.111 For on premise
usage, the subscription replaces user CALs (Client Access Licenses). Prerequisite is the
choice of enterprise or standalone plans of these functionalities. For a hybrid scenario,
also servers have to be installed. The classification for on premise or cloud storage then
takes place according to user groups or classifications of documents. Office software is
accessible via the internet browser and additionally may be downloaded to five PCs or
MACs, five tablets (Android, IPad, Windows) as well as five smartphones per user.
110 cf. Microsoft Technet (n.d.a) 111 cf. Microsoft Technet (n.db)
32
For on premise application, servers, server licenses and client access license are required
for each application.112 Online applications are accessible via the internet browser and
there is no need for further hardware but end devices. Dependent on the need, an
infrastructure for SSO (Single Sign On) has to be built, including federated Active
Directory servers.113
One constraint may emerge with insufficient bandwidth for cloud solutions.114
As a consequence, with the use of cloud services, in-house maintenance and upgrades of
server software is eliminated. Furthermore, new features can be rolled out more quickly
and are automatically provided by Microsoft. With the use of cloud solutions
organizations thus choose an “evergreen” approach with always latest software versions
without server upgrades and do not have to take care about software lifecycles or support
running out.115
4.2 Overview of Cases
4.2.1 Case 1: Alpha GmbH
Alpha GmbH is a multinational mid-size company headquartered in Germany with
production sites in four and sales in about 40 different countries. Its annual revenues sum
up to approximately 400 million euros and employs about 2100 people worldwide.
Established at the end of 2013, in the course of a spin-off the mother group, the
organization was sold to a financial investor. Following contractual agreements, all
licenses remained within the group. The new GmbH had to carve out its IT infrastructure
as well as acquire new licenses for all applications running on their PCs as well as for
about 150 server systems. The circumstance of being non-compliant had been realized at
a late stage of the carve-out and got them into time pressure for licensing their
infrastructure.
As the whole project was under time pressure, no other provider than Microsoft, the initial
provider, were considered. As the solution architect resides in the US branch of the firm
112 cf. Microsoft (n.d.c) 113 cf. Lipsitz (2014), p. 29. 114 cf. Katzer, Crawford (2013), p. 8. 115 cf. Katzer, Crawford (2013), p. 6.
33
and prices were lower in the home country of Microsoft, contract negotiations were made
in the US. Here, with the offer of attractive pricing, Microsoft made high efforts in work
to convince them to consider the cloud sourced version of their tools, including additional
collaborative software that was previously not in use.
The price offers of the provider were attractive enough for the organization to start the
evaluation of the alternatives. Contract negotiations started in November 2013 and
contracts signed for Office 365 in June 2014.
Since the organization recently was carved out (in January 2014), the IT Transformation
is still ongoing. In order to be able to implement the cloud solutions, IT infrastructure and
network is needed. Furthermore, there are also cost reasons that do not allow to run two
large scale IT projects side by side. And, related to the latter, there exist also a concerns
that two projects with significant changes for users should not be deployed
simultaneously.
The actual situation thus is now that Office 365 E4 is subscribed for all office workers
end Kiosk licenses for employees in the production. Roll out is planned to be in the first
quarter of 2015.
4.2.2 Case 2: Beta Holding
Beta Holding is a publicly traded multinational enterprise headquartered in France with
approximately 13 billion annual revenue and about 30.000 employees.
The reason to initiate the acquisition of a cloud sourced collaboration tools was to
implement an integrated email system. As the company mainly grew by acquisitions,
affiliates had their own messaging environments that were not connected to each other,
sometimes solutions from different providers. As an early adopter, the first project took
place with rolling out a cloud based email solution in 2011. In the beginning, the deployed
solution consisted of Microsoft’s Office 365 predecessor, BPOS. Branches in the US,
Sweden, France and Finland, in sum up to 7000 users were already migrated to BPOS
when Microsoft changed their offering to Office 365 in 2012. The migration project was
stopped after the announcement of the change. Since the migration from BPOS to Office
365 would not be easy, they went through the selection process again, taking into account
Google as potential provider. The decision was made to migrate all countries, including
those that were already provided with BPOS, to Microsoft Office 365. In 2013 then, step-
by-step, affiliates in all countries (besides Australia where migration project is still
34
outstanding) were given the new cloud based email solution. Iteratively, in 2014, other
functions such as cloud storage (OneDrive), instant messaging (Lync), web conferencing,
social networking (Yammer) and collaboration sites (SharePoint) followed. All
applications are sourced via public cloud. Project managers additionally are provided with
Project online. Affiliates that did not pay maintenance for their Office suites have
subscriptions for online productivity applications as well.
4.2.3 Case 3: Gamma Holding
Gamma Holding is a publicly traded international enterprise headquartered in Germany
with approximately 16 billion annual revenue and 47.000 employees worldwide.
Since 2007, an investment bottleneck concerning the email system Lotus Notes as well
as productivity software existed within the organization. Support for the productivity
software Office 2003 was close to expiration when the project was initiated in the
beginning of 2013. The organization took the chance to evaluate potential future solutions
for email and productivity software. In order to enhance collaboration and communication
throughout the worldwide distributed company, the idea to provide a platform for
transnational communication with the use of cloud services emerged. The organization
evaluated its initial email provider IBM as well as Microsoft as an alternative. Purchasing
of traditional licenses was not excluded from the very beginning, but discarded at an early
stage of the evaluation due to cost reasons. The decision to go for Microsoft Office 365
with cloud sourced Email and Office suite, as well as a hybrid version of SharePoint and
Lync is signed nine months later by the top management in September 2013. Due to the
time pressure induced by the expiration of the support of the initial Office 2003, the first
roll out project concerned the Office clients and took place between the beginning of 2014
and April 2014. In a second and third wave, Lync (hybrid) and SharePoint (hybrid), as
well as Exchange online were rolled out
4.2.4 Case 4: Delta Holding
Delta Holding is a publicly traded international enterprise headquartered in Germany with
approximately 74 billion annual revenue and more than 100.000 employees worldwide.
With more than 100.000 employees spread over about 900 affiliates worldwide, the initial
reason for new office and collaboration solution to be evaluated was the new IS strategy
project of a “connected enterprise”. Besides the considerations of new software, the
project “connected enterprise” comprises new hardware strategies. Initially, DELTA was
35
in use of IBM Lotus Notes for Email and Microsoft Office productivity software. Initiated
in August 2012, the provider and solution selection was accomplished until January 2013.
Afterwards, the project application took one year to be approved, from May 2013 until
May 2014. Subsequently, the migration project, including migration of all 900 affiliates,
started with a planned duration of two years. Within this migration, the migration of Email
systems shall be conducted within a timeframe of 6 months.
36
5. The Selection Process of a Cloud sourced Office & Collaboration Solution in Corporate Practice: Analysis of Cases
The following subsections present the findings of how the selection process was
conducted within the case study organizations.
Dibbern et al. (2004) divides the selection process in ITO into the stages of initiation,
evaluation and final decision making.116 Within this thesis, the additional stage of
shortlisting of alternatives, which is broadly mentioned within the selection process of
packaged software,117 is investigated.
For each phase of the process, influencing factors on the decision making is analyzed with
the use of the OBB. However, the discussion does not include the analysis of the degree
of impact of those influences.
5.1 Reasons for initiation
This stage of the process describes reasons and prerequisites that pushed organizations
to put in place a selection process of a cloud sourced Office & Collaboration solution.
Environmental influences
Technology
Technological influences factored into the decision to initiate the selection process within
the cases of ALPHA, BETA and GAMMA.
ALPHA was obliged to initiate the acquisition project, since after the carve-out none of
the applications running on their PCs were compliant. However, in order to be compliant,
the purchasing of licenses for the existing systems would have been sufficient. The drivers
for ALPHA to initiate a selection process and consider cloud services are discussed later
in this section.
116 cf. Dibbern et al. (2004), p. 48. 117 cf. Jadhav, Sonar (2009), p. 557.
37
For BETA, the fact that email environments were not connected represents an influence
also on the environmental-technological level.
“[This company] is multinational, with more than 25 countries. In that time, each
country had its own messaging solution, we had different technologies: Microsoft,
Lotus notes, and others. They were not connected to each other. That means, we
had completely independent environments. The idea now was to create a global
messaging platform.” [I-BETA/1]
Within GAMMA, obsolete technologies in email and Office applications had to be
replaced. Especially for Office applications, time pressure occurred since the support of
the old version was running out in April 2015
Geographically distributed organization
In the case of BETA, GAMMA and DELTA, the dispersion of the organizations
throughout various countries and branches played an important role during the initiation
phase of the process.
For BETA, the project requirement was to consolidate email systems of all affiliates in
every country. As the company grew mainly by acquisition, email environments from
various providers were in use and not integrated at all. Consequently, colleagues from
other branches were not listed in the contact list and it was not possible to have a look in
other’s calendars. Hence, communication and collaboration between dispersed working
teams was not sufficiently supported.
GAMMA being a global player as well, having 80% of the organization’s employees
outside Germany, the factor of distributed teams within the organization was a driver
towards the consideration of cloud services for their office and collaboration solution.
For DELTA as well, as the process was initiated by the project called “connected
enterprise”, one requirement was to enhance collaboration between physically dispersed
working teams.
38
Provider’s Marketing Strategy
For ALPHA, mainly due to the aggressive marketing strategy of Microsoft that offered
attractive pricing for the organization, the cloud sourced solution was recognized as an
alternative to licensing the status quo. Thus, instead of buying those licenses the selection
process was initiated due to the emerging alternative.
“So that was what got us into the initial discussion with Office 365. It was one of
the proposals that was presented by Microsoft, to help us to reduce cost. But I am
sure for Microsoft, to push us toward the cloud, because they are very aggressive
in targeting little size companies.” [I-ALPHA/3]
ALPHA being a SME, one possible reason for the pushing of Microsoft towards cloud
solution was suspected by the solution architect:
“Quick win, I think. They get showcases. [..] So I think their strategy was to get
mass. To get mass you take the middle size companies with about 2000 people,
you can slowly get mass and quick success with the small or midsize companies.
It is better than to approach big size companies, which I am sure they would love
to have on the cloud, but where it takes 5 years to make a decision.”[I-ALPHA/3]
Organizational influences
Collaboration and future orientation
Organizational influences on the initiation of the selection process for ALPHA realized
in the form of being a new and smaller organization, which provides more flexibility in
decision making and the possibility to create a “state of the art” IT organization after the
carve out.
The objective of an integrated email environment within BETA is also motivated by
organizational factors, since with consolidated email, communication and collaboration
is facilitated for the geographically distributed employees.
The same applies for GAMMA: In order to provide a platform for efficient transnational
communication and collaboration, the project of evaluation of potential solutions
included cloud sourced office and collaboration services within.
39
As for DELTA, the reason to initiate the evaluation of different solution was the mission
from IS strategy for Enterprise Architects to assess potential solutions for their
organization in terms of collaboration and mobility, the stimulus for change was also
driven by Corporate strategy to enhance collaboration and mobility in order to increase
productivity.
“Out of the IS strategy project, we were assigned to have look, what kind of
possibilities for Collaboration and Mobility are available for the company in the
future” [I-DELTA/1]
Investment bottleneck
GAMMA’s decision to initiate the selection process was further driven by organizational
influences, since for email there had been accumulated a huge bottleneck of investments.
For the last 10 years, no investment or upgrade for email had been realized.
Social Influences
For ALPHA, the influence of the attitudes of the Solution Architect also factored into the
consideration of cloud sourced services for their applications. As the latter was frustrated
with the slow motion in technology innovation within the mother group and was hired
with the prospect of creating a state of the art IT organization, he pushed ideas towards
innovation and influenced the decision making to not only take into account traditional
licensing.
“That was one of the attractive items I was engaged, that we would have cutting
edge technology. That was one of my main criteria for my decision to leave the
other company and come back to ALPHA. I wanted to have advanced technology,
I was very frustrated with the group.” [I-ALPHA/3]
40
Level of influence
Findings
Environmental
Geographically distributed teams and technology that had to be replaced or licensed. Only in one case the vendor’s aggressive marketing strategy pushed the organization towards evaluation of more than one solution.
Influences:
� Technology need (+++)*
� Geographically distributed organization (+++)
� Vendor’s marketing strategy (+)
Organizational
Cloud sourcing options were seriously considered due to perceived enhancement of collaboration and future orientation. One time an investment bottleneck influenced the decision to initiate the selection process
Influences:
� Strategy: Enhancing collaboration and
communication (++++)
� Investment bottleneck (+)
Social
Within one case, individual factors influenced the process initiation: The previous experience and the prospect to implement state of the art IT organization facilitated the consideration of cloud services in ALPHA.
Influences:
� Past experiences of team members responsible for
selection with job position (+)
� Attitude towards new technology of team members
responsible for selection (+)
*) The number of + presents the number of cases where type of influence was observed.
Table 5-1 Influences on initiation
In sum, for the initiation of the processes, predominantly environmental as well as
organizational influences factored into the decision making. The environmental factor of
41
a worldwide distributed company, and consequently dispersed working teams is a
remarkable prerequisite for organizational strategy that aims to facilitate communication
and collaboration. Even if an economic organizational factor influenced the initiation
within GAMMA, it is noteworthy to mention that none of the cases initiated the selection
process with the aim of saving cost. This finding is contrary to the quantitative study of
Benlian, Hess (2011), where practitioners perceived cost savings as the most significant
opportunity of SaaS.118 However, as shown later in this chapter, when it comes to
evaluation of cloud services compared to on premise solutions, lower Total Cost of
Ownership (TCO) was one of the main criteria to opt for cloud solutions.
Individual influences could only be identified within the case of ALPHA. Since ALPHA
has been investigated the most thorough way, it is straightforward that within other cases
this factor could not be identified mainly due to less interview material.
5.2 Shortlisting of alternatives
This section provides insights into how organizations actually gained information on
market options and created a shortlist of provider and solutions that will be seriously
considered and evaluated in the subsequent phase.
Environmental Factors
Time pressure
In terms of provider options, ALPHA represents a special case, since the organization
was under time pressure to license their Office software. The main reason to not evaluate
any other provider than Microsoft was the time pressure for the purchase of licenses.
Within three months, licenses had to be acquired for their installed Microsoft applications
in order to be compliant. Since the initial purpose was to only purchase licenses for
Microsoft Office 2007, no other provider was taken into account.
118 cf. Benlian, Hess (2011), p. 243.
42
Limited Market Options
As BETA started the first project in 2011, they claimed that at this point, there were not
many options available on the market. Potential provider were represented by Google and
Microsoft, whereas Google was not seriously taken into account.
“In terms of selection process, in 2011, we had not many options. We had
Microsoft and we had Google. Google was, and still is, in my opinion, very B2C.
Very consumer orientated but not very enterprise adapted. [..] I think there was
not much discussion about the options. The discussion was more: Does it make
sense from the economical point, yes or no. If yes, we do that with Microsoft. So
the selection process was not very rigorous.”[I-BETA/1]
Within the second selection process in 2012, after Microsoft changed BPOS into Office
365, Google had been taken into account more seriously. Furthermore, IBM was
approached in order to receive information concerning their cloud offerings. However,
their offering was perceived as not very mature and thus not further evaluated:
“They had an offering, and it was hard not to laugh, at least back then. It was a
very poor offering.”[I-BETA/2]
Throughout all cases, BETA was the first adopter of cloud services. Even the second
selection process in 2012 took place prior to the selection processes of the other
organizations. Owed to this fact, market options were probably still immature. However,
also within the other two cases that evaluated different providers and their options, only
IBM, Google and Microsoft were mentioned as potential providers.
“In principle, there are only three players on the market: IBM, Google und
Microsoft.” [I-DELTA/1]
For the case of provider shortlisting, DELTA did not eliminate any provider or solution
within the shortlisting stage.
43
Organizational Influences
Provider of existing systems
On the organizational level, the fact that GAMMA and DELTA were in use of IBM Lotus
Notes beforehand factored into the decision to evaluate the provider of existing systems,
as well as market alternatives.
Social Influences
Previous Provider Experiences of the Selection Team
The reason for GAMMA not to take into account Google as potential provider for their
solution was the evaluation of offerings prior to the project. Previously, the decision was
made against Google. As a consequence, Google has not been considered a second time,
thus merely IBM and Microsoft were evaluated in the next phase.
Level of influence
Findings
Environmental
Time pressure can prevent organizations to evaluate apparent market options (special case). Due to limited market options, provider shortlisting for office & collaboration solutions is not imperatively necessary.
Influences:
� Limited market options (+++)
� Time pressure (+)
Organizational
Due to the fact that provider’s solution were in use beforehand, the latter was taken into account for the evaluation.
Influence:
Provider of existing systems (+++)
Social
Since the provider had been evaluated beforehand and the solution discarded, there was no need to undergo the process again.
Influences:
Previous provider experiences of the selection team
Table 5-2 Shortlisting of Alternatives
44
Due to limited market options for Office and Collaboration solution, the shortlisting of
alternatives represented not a complex task. Whereas ALPHA represented a special case
with time pressure to license their application, DELTA evaluated all market options.
Furthermore, the provider of existing systems was evaluated without any deliberations
beforehand in two cases. On the social level, previous experiences discarded one provider
during the stage of shortlisting.
5.3 Evaluation of alternatives
The following section presents the evaluation stage within the cases. ALPHA did not take
any other provider into account, thus the evaluation took place in terms of opting for
Office 365 or the purchase of licenses. Within the evaluation of the other three cases
BETA, GAMMA and DELTA, the remaining providers after shortlisting, as well as
sourcing scenarios where evaluated.
Environmental Influences
Provider’s Market Relevance
GAMMA and DELTA investigated market relevance of the potential providers.
For IBM, market relevance had been doubted due to the small amount of available
reference organizations that subscribed to IBMs cloud offering for email, whereas for
Microsoft Office 365 several peer organizations could be contacted.
Furthermore, GAMMA approached Gartner Information technology research was in
order to gain insights about how many of the German 30 DAX organizations are still
using Lotus Notes. It appeared that only four of these 30 organizations are still on Lotus
Notes, and among those four two organizations are on their way to a different cloud
provider. Owing to that, concerns emerged that IBM may soon lose its interest in the
Email system. Besides objective market analyzes, GAMMA already experienced
decreasing vendor commitment of IBM to their collaborative tool “Quickr”: New features
and solutions were announced and sometimes discontinued the following year.
For GAMMA, the decreasing market relevance represented an indicator for potential loss
of interest in their cloud offerings for email, and thus weaker incentives to deliver new
functionalities and high quality products:
45
“The higher the market share, the more interesting the product is for the provider
company and thus the higher is the pressure to deliver good products. For
Microsoft, the pressure is extremely higher than for IBM.” [I-GAMMA/1].
In addition to less pressure for updates and new features for providers with less market
relevance, with less organizations using their tool, the integration of tools from third-party
suppliers is argued by DELTA to likely become more difficult and costly.
Data Center Location
For the cases BETA and DELTA, that considered Google as potential provider, the
control of data location was perceived as important selection criteria. With Google, no
restrictions of locations for data storage can be made. Organizations thus have no control
where their data is located, may it be in Europe, US or other countries. For DELTA, the
storage of data in Europe was a strict requirement to the project.
In order to be compliant with the German data privacy act, the alternative to hosting data
in Europe is signing contracts with the cloud provider based on the EU model clauses –
which represented no option for DELTA.119
„It would be possible if specific formalities would be signed, e.g. the European
Model Clauses. More and more companies try to fulfill these clauses. You could
store your data beyond European frontiers, but that was not an option for us. We
want to remain in Europe.” [I-DELTA/1]
The same criteria of restrictions of data location in Europe represented one of the most
important selection criteria for BETA:
“One of the most important selection criteria in terms of deciding factors, was
data privacy, so where is the data located. With Google, your data can be located
anywhere in the world. They move mailboxes all around their data centers. With
Microsoft, you can get a dedicated offer: the data can be located in Europe, and
nowhere else. And that is unique.”[I-BETA/2]
119 cf. Microsoft (n.d.b)
46
For BETA also being a European company, they realized that data privacy requirements
are especially strong in Germany and France:
“And with BETA being a European company, that was a big deciding factor. We
have German offices as well. And Germany is very protective with their data. The
same holds true for France. And they also have very strict rules where data can
be stored. If we would have gone Google it would have meant the process to get
approval would have been far from certain.”[I-BETA/2]
Owing to this, the whole project was projected as highly complicated, if data could not
be stored in Europe.
ALPHA did not evaluate different providers, thus the criteria for provider selection did
not emerge. GAMMA did not mention explicitly data center location as selection criteria
for the comparison with IBM cloud services. However, both organizations contracted
with Microsoft the hosting of their data exclusively in European data centers.
In comparison to the selection of traditional licensing, additional selection criteria have
to be taken into account, such as data center location of the vendor. For this, Repschlaeger
et al. (2012) identified specific selection criteria for cloud- and SaaS provider and
assigned them to the following six target dimensions:120 Reliability and Trustworthiness,
Service and Cloud Management, Cost, Scope and Performance, IT Security and
Compliance, Flexibility. Data center location is mentioned within the target dimension of
IT Security and Compliance.
External References
Three cases, BETA, GAMMA and DELTA were having a look at peer organizations
during the evaluation of providers. As already mentioned above, GAMMA and DELTA
made the same experiences concerning market relevance: few organizations were
available as reference customers for IBM cloud solutions for email. On the other hand,
for Microsoft, many peer organizations could be contacted. Additionally, Gartner
120 cf. this and the next two sentences Repschlaeger et al. (2012), p. 6.
47
Research was approached in order to verify decreasing market relevance of IBM (c.f.
“Providers Market Relevance”)
For BETA evaluating Google and Microsoft, reference customers also factored into the
provider decision, but not in terms of market relevance. For both providers, Google and
Microsoft, good experiences from early adopters were collected. But, characteristics of
peer organizations for Google revealed a gap in comparability to the multinational
company: mainly SME’s and universities were available as references for Google Apps.
Whereas with SME’s, the comparability lacks in size, complexity and multi nationality,
universities were perceived as no suitable reference due to the age of user groups.
“Most of the references we had from Google were smaller companies. And we are
a multinational company with offices around the world. And Google seems to
attract more midsize businesses, at least back then. They had a few large
businesses, but those were either universities or schools, and the adoption rate for
somebody that is young is easier than to the average office worker that is used to
a certain thing. He’ll go into panic mode if you even change his office version.”[I-
BETA/2]
Hereby, the perceived adaptability of office workers was of interest when contacting
Google. Furthermore, the lack of comparable companies using Google Apps factored into
the decision for BETA to choose Office 365.
In order to judge the quality of cloud service providers, Wollersheim, Hoberg and Krcmar
(2013) recommend the consulting of peer organizations.121 This shall give organizations
the opportunity to receive an independent evaluation of the cloud service provider.
However, decisive factors with the consulting of peer organizations was not in terms of
service quality and reliability, but concerning the potential adoption of unfamiliar
applications and availability of peer organizations as an indicator for provider’s market
share.
121 cf. this and the next sentence Wollersheim, Hoberg, Krcmar (2013), p. 427.
48
Less selection criteria
Overall concerning cloud solutions, [I-BETA/2] remarked, that compared to on premise
solutions, there less selection criteria to look at when it comes to provider choice:
“If you look at the selection criteria for an on premise mail system, you have
Exchange, Lotus Notes, Google, you can use all sorts of open source environments.
So there is much more to look at, such as ROI, maintenance, amounts of servers
needed for certain solution, how well will it integrate with other systems. So if you
look at on premise systems, you have to look at a lot more factors to make your
decision. Whereas the cloud, in the end, it pretty much comes down to price,
functionality and data security. Those are the majors.“ [I-BETA/2]
Organizational
Ease of user adoption
As already remarked within the consulting of peer organizations, considerations about the
ease of adoption for future users was an important factor throughout all cases.
Overall, the ease of adoption and thus perceived user acceptance and the avoidance of
extensive change and thus costly change management was one important selection criteria
throughout the cases. No case appeared to show willingness to change their productivity
software, due to extensive change as well as bad offline functionalities for Google Docs
and less functionalities and options for integration with existing systems for Open Office.
For this reason, Microsoft succeeded a smart move in including their Office Suite (Word,
Power Point, Excel, Outlook, etc.) within the offering of cloud subscription solutions.
Somehow, Microsoft productivity software such as Word, Power Point and Excel, can be
seen as a standard with a market share of 92% in Germany.122 Consequently, most
organizations are in use of these systems and pay maintenance for Microsoft licenses for
productivity software. Now that these applications can be included within the cloud
solutions from Microsoft, organizations save money for not being obligated to buy
122 cf. Brandt (2015)
49
licenses for productivity software or pay maintenance. This fact reflects on economic
factors, discussed in the subsequent section.
As a result, even companies that were using email from different providers get attracted
by Microsoft Office 365 due to lower of productivity software.
Even though Google also includes productivity software within their offering, Google
Docs for example cannot be seen as a standard. The change from known Microsoft Office
applications to Google Office applications thus represents again a change for the user.
However, the influence of ease of user adoption probably differs between company
profiles. For small startups or young organizations and “digital native” employees, the
change may not be perceived as difficult compared to traditional companies.
Economic Influences
Included Office Suite
The possible inclusion of Microsoft’s Office package in their cloud solutions not only
emerges in the form of ease of adoption, but also into cost.
If organizations are in need of new licenses for their Microsoft Office packages, the
expense has to be made additionally for the choice of IBM solutions for collaboration.
For the case of Google, productivity applications are also included into the cloud offering
of Google Apps for work, but mostly inherits a certain change for users. In order to avoid
this change, DELTA decided to take into account additional costs for Microsoft Office
licensing if the choice would be to go for Google.
“Google is pretty radically in their approach. They want you to commit to Google
Docs as well, which means you are having bad offline functionalities. In the end,
you still need a Microsoft Office package” [I-DELTA/1].
For GAMMA, as there was a need for both new Email Systems as well as a new version
of their Microsoft Office 2003 package, the cost of Office 365, which includes Office
subscriptions, were lower. For the case of IBM solution, additionally to the email,
Microsoft licenses would have been to be purchased, including Software assurance.
“If I buy Lotus Notes, additionally I have to buy Office licenses with Software
Assurance. In terms of cost, it was the right decision to go for Office 365.” [I-
Gamma/1]
50
Total Cost of Ownership
All cases compared prices of licenses and on premise versions to the online services
within the offer of Office 365. The decision for cloud services instead of purchasing
licenses was mainly driven by cost reasons.
For ALPHA, cost was key driver. Microsoft offered attractive pricing for Office 365,
additionally the change from CAPEX to OPEX with the leasing model was attractive for
the organization. Since they recently had been purchased by a financial investor, the time
was inconvenient for making further investments. As the future of the organization is still
uncertain, the option to not being committed to a certain amount of licenses via
purchasing emerged as advantageous within ALPHA. However, an in depth business case
in order to compare traditional licensing and subscription was not carried out.
“We didn’t dig into the Business Case per se looking at the very detail benefits of
each of the solutions. That would have been impossible. Because there are also
negatives with Office 365, we have to do expensive training, it’s a major change.”
[I-ALPHA/3]
BETA conducted an in-depth Business Case in order to identify potential savings with
the cloud solutions. Besides the comparison of costs for licenses versus the subscription
model, savings for hardware, servers, space, maintenance and upgrades are taken into
account. Even reduced electricity cost were considered, which in the end had no
significant impact on cost savings.
“When you invest in hardware, license, yes you can depreciate them over a certain
amount of time. But then you have to spend that money every time you upgrade to
a new version, or your server is too old, you are paying for a new version, people
to manage the server, you have to pay for data centers, space as well. So if you
add up cost when you own your licenses, your servers, and maintain those as well,
I think you come to the result, for companies of our size, that it’s about half of
what you pay when you go to the cloud.” [I-BETA/2]
Further significant savings with the cloud solution could be realized within BETA in the
context of servers for Blackberrys. For the connection of Blackberrys to the internal
network in order to receive emails, additional Blackberry servers and software were in
51
use prior to the cloud solution, adding remarkable cost. Now, those servers are not needed
anymore with the email system being sourced via cloud computing.
“One thing we looked at as well, that factored into the decision: We are a
company that mainly uses Blackberrys. [..]With Office 365 that’s included, you
don’t pay that server license. That was again a significant saving for us.” [I-
BETA/2]
Another cost aspect was the idea to go for a private or dedicated cloud in Beta. Especially
due to the fact that Beta initiated the project already in 2011, the cloud computing
paradigm still was at its infancy and SLA’s as well as data privacy was still doubted
within the public cloud. The alternative thus was to create a private cloud and built up an
own environment where no other companies would have been allowed to access the
infrastructure. Besides cost of the establishment of a private cloud, that includes servers
and maintenance, also the updates available are limited and, as a result, the “evergreen”
approach becomes counteracted.
“In the end we decided to go for the public cloud, because Microsoft clearly
explained us that being in a dedicated cloud does indeed shield you from other
companies, but you don’t get the updates in the same way that the normal
population gets. So wherever there is a new version, a new system, the dedicated
cloud would be much later in receiving those updates than the public cloud would.
Also the cost was higher. You pay a lot more per user to be in the dedicated
cloud.”[I-BETA/2]
Gamma also took on premise solutions into account. As investments had to be made both
for Email as well as for productivity software, the sum of on premise licensing for Email
and Office package was extremely higher than the packaging within Office 365
Furthermore, as most of the infrastructure was already outsourced to IBM, on premise
solution would have meant to invest in data storage and servers at the IT outsourcing
provider. Altogether, the Business Case was positive for the cloud solution.
“We did think about an on premise solution. But then we saw numbers and
decided against it very quickly. Then, I still have to give my data to IBM, I have
to buy servers there, all in addition to what I pay for my Office licenses. It does
not pay. The numbers are immensely higher.” [I-GAMMA/1]
52
Within the case of DELTA, a business case was calculated for Office 365 in order to be
aware of all costs that will emerge with the adoption of the new solution. Since the final
decision was made by the board of the firm, calculations were presented in a thorough
way.
“We had to present a very extensive Business Case. It was not essentially about
having a positive Business case, but rather to show that we have a look at cost in
a holistic way. That means: What kind of costs will we face, what are the on-going
costs, what are migration cost.” [I-DELTA/1]
Integration with existing systems
BETA also mentioned the integration of existing as one criteria for the selection of
providers. They compared possible solutions based on white papers provided by
Microsoft and Google. One criteria was the possibility of the integration with existing
systems, such as ERP or Back Office systems, which represents an organizational
influence on the decision making. Both providers, Microsoft and Google, offered
excellent solutions to this.
Integrated functionalities
Another criteria that was of high importance within the selection process were integrated
functionalities. For some organizations the fact of having the option of additional
integrated functionalities, such as instant messaging or VoIP, led to the idea of innovating
the infrastructure. Partly the idea came up during the decision making process iteratively,
E.g. for BETA, the initial idea was to have common email system, which led to the
integration of other functionalities subsequently when Microsoft changed their offer to
Office 365 that included other functionalities and simplified pricing
ALPHA realized throughout the selection process and within the negotiation with
Microsoft, that there may exist new possibilities to enhance their new organization with
innovative technologies. Initially, the attitude towards cloud was rather defensive,
influenced by the more conservative culture of the mother group.
“But we are a new organization, we also needed other technologies like Lync for
web conferencing, video conferencing, and a new telephone system. There were
53
many additional components that led to the decision to buy into Microsoft’s
complete strategy, not just Office 365. But Office 365 enabled us new components
that were advantageous to us: Lync and VoIP topic. With Microsoft and Lync you
have also Skype. So we started looking ok, there is a relationship between Office
365, telecommunication and video that was attractive to us and solved other
problems at the same time.” [I-ALPHA/3]
“And functionalities, integrated with the existing environment. Thereby Microsoft
somehow succeeded, you can use Outlook on your PC, use Outlook in the cloud or
switch from Email to instant messaging. Many things are possible because it’s all
integrated in the environment.”[I-BETA/1]
“But everything should be integrated in the environment.” [I-GAMMA/1]
“Among others, that was one requirement, that everything should be highly
integrated.” [I-DELTA/1]
Integrated functionalities as requirement were mentioned throughout all cases. With
highly integrated functionalities, communication and collaboration is facilitated. Thus,
the fact that within three cases, dispersed working teams and the strategy to enhance
collaboration factored into the initiation of the evaluation of solutions, the characteristic
of highly integrated functionalities was one of the striking criteria to opt for cloud
solutions, in particular Office 365.
Also within ALPHA; where the project was initiated due to time pressure without any
organizational strategy in the beginning, throughout the selection process the aspect of
enhanced collaboration emerged as one argument to choose Microsoft Office 365:
“The Collaboration issue was important as well: Giving teams, that are often
working locally dispersed, the possibility to have a common location, where
documents may be filed and comments may be made. So the collaboration aspect
played an important role as well.” [I-ALPHA/4]
Scalability
The advantage of scalability in terms of selection criteria with cloud solutions was
explicitly mentioned solely in ALPHA.
54
For Alpha Ltd, this fact was especially important as the future of the company is still
uncertain. Due to the acquisition by an investor, the long-term vision is still to be sorted
out. As a consequence, the possibility to add or remove user accounts without being
committed to a certain amount of purchased licenses embodies a large advantage for the
company.
“If we buy 2000 server licenses now, we own them. No matter if we still need them
in one year or not. With the leasing model, you gain more flexibility and the
possibility not to take all investments at once.”[I-ALPHA/1]
Within other cases, scalability was not mentioned explicitly as influencing the decision
for the subscription solution instead of buying license.
Top Management Support
It is noteworthy to mention, that all cases were having the approval from top management
to evaluate potential solutions. In DELTA it was explicitly mentioned that they received
support from top management during the course of the project application and evaluation
of solutions. How actually the support influenced the process could not be revealed within
this study, however, it is likely that this fact may have contributed to the success of the
evaluation and coming to a decision.
Social Influences
Previous Experiences with selection process
Within the provider selection, individual influences became apparent within the case of
BETA. Both interviewees had previous experiences with the selection process for cloud
services from their previous jobs as consultants. [I-BETA/2] claimed that he was having
experiences for both provider’s cloud solutions, Google and Microsoft. [I-BETA/1] on
the other hand explained the last experience within another organization was extremely
difficult: Offers were not mature and the comparison of both providers was so
complicated that the project was abandoned at that point. Interestingly, [I-BETA/2], who
was involved as an external consultant at that time, explained the evaluation of both
providers more extensively. [I-BETA/1] mentions that the decision to go for Microsoft
was pretty clear from the beginning:
55
“If yes, we do that with Microsoft. So the selection process was not very rigorous,
it was more an issue of negotiating the cost with Microsoft in order to fit in the
business case and then save some money.” [I-BETA/1]
Thus, based on previous experiences, the attitudes towards providers already had been
formed, which is likely to have influenced the decision to go for Microsoft in the end.
Within ALPHA, the strong attitude towards cloud and Microsoft of the solution architect
that was negotiating contracts with Microsoft, as well as claiming himself as the driver
towards Office 365, had an influence on the selection of the Office 365 solution as well:
“I was one of the drivers that pushed towards Office 365.” [I-ALPHA/3]
Furthermore, the cultural background of the solution architect and attitude towards
Microsoft was one more influence on the evaluation of cloud vs. on premise solutions in
ALPHA:
”It’s because the cloud solutions are more embraced, we are more open here in
America, we are not as concerned with data privacy. All that security stuff, NSA
and so on, it is what it is, we know these threats but our primary concern is
collaboration. I am a huge Microsoft fan. When you are not entirely integrated,
collaboration can become expensive, but when you are fully integrated into the
Microsoft packages, then you really can become strong.” [I-ALPHA/3]
Level of influence
Findings
Environmental
In terms of provider selection, influences on the environmental level appeared in the form market relevance, and thus perceived vendor commitment. Data Center Location appeared in all cases, whereas External references influenced the decision making in three of the four cases. One time, less selection criteria for cloud solutions is mentioned.
Influences:
� Provider’s market relevance (+ + )
� Data Center Location (+ + + +)
� External References (Peer Organizations and
Research Institutes) (+ + +)
� Less selection criteria (+)
56
Organizational
On the organizational level, most important selection criteria appeared in the form of ease of user adoption, TCO, included Office Suite and scalability. In terms of process influences, Top Management appeared as a factor on the organizational level.
Influences:
� Ease of user adoption (+ + + )
� Included Office Suite (+ + +)
� TCO (+ + ++)
� Integration with existing environment (+)
� Integrated functionalities (+ + + +)
� Scalability (+)
� Top Management Support (+)
Social
Individual Influences emerged within two cases, firstly experiences with the comparison of providers that shaped attitude towards the process, as well as attitudes towards cloud and the provider to be evaluated. Secondly, cultural influences appeared within one case.
Influences
� Previous Experiences with Selection Process (+)
� Attitudes towards cloud (+)
� Attitudes towards provider(+)
� Cultural influences (+)
Table 5-3 Evaluation of alternatives
As mentioned above, the choice between providers was conducted based on mainly
market relevance, data center location and how easy it would be to integrate the solution,
especially in terms of anticipated change management. With the striking strategy of
Microsoft to include Office services in their packaging, they had a significant advantage
compared to IBM and Google.
In terms of selection of whether to adapt cloud solutions or not, TCO and integrated
functionalities that enhance collaboration and facilitate communication were the drivers
towards the Microsoft cloud solution.
57
Furthermore, individual influences due to attitudes towards cloud computing in general
and providers in particular, may influence the decision to more or less thoroughly evaluate
different provider.
5.4 Final Decision Making
The above mentioned criteria and methods to compare provider and solution lead to the
decision, to opt for Microsoft Office 365. However, in order to come to a final decision,
several stakeholders have to be involved and questions about which functionalities within
Office 365 will be chosen, as well as their respective sourcing scenario, on premise, as
online services or as a hybrid scenario. Those activities and influences within this stage
are presented in the following section of final decision making.
Environmental
Legal Requirements
On the environmental level, loss of physical control of the data123 and data privacy issues
emerged in terms of legal questions. The European data protection directive124 basically
prohibits the transfer of personal data to countries without comparable level of data
protection, such as the US. Cloud Service provider sometimes are not able to restrict data
storage on distinct servers, e.g. within EU-frontiers.
In order to ensure law conform data privacy, organizations face a complex environment.
If German organizations process personal data, they are obligated to adhere to the BDSG
(Bundesdatenschutzgesetz). In order to act conform to the law, customer organizations
and cloud providers are given the opportunity to sign the EU model clauses. With this
agreement, cloud providers may only process data following the customer company’s
instructions. Thus, the customer organization remains responsible of data processing.
As a consequence, data privacy is firstly a legal question that has to be clarified per
company. For Example GAMMA had one sector specific requirement about data
123 cf. Marston et al. (2011), p. 181. 124 cf. Unabhängiges Landeszentrum für Datenschutz Schleswig Holstein (27.10.2014)
58
concerning products for the US arm industry: The international traffic in arms regulation
(ITAR) requirements cover import and export of defense related products, including
information and applicable data. In order to adhere to these regulations, data that relates
to trade with the US arm industry have to be stored within the US on servers from an US
organization.
Technology
On the technological level, the scope of usage for Lync factored into the decision for the
sourcing scenario of this application. Recently changed, before it was not possible in
Germany to replace telephone systems with Lync online services. In order to implement
Unified Communications and exert all telephone calls via Lync, at least for this
functionality, Lync servers had to be installed within the organization. Thus, dependent
on the organization’s strategy, if telephony should be replaced or not, at least a hybrid
scenario for Lync had to be deployed. The technological influence was apparent within
the selection process of GAMMA and was also discussed within ALPHA.
The same issue arose concerning the sourcing of SharePoint. GAMMA implemented a
hybrid scenario as well, with the argument that collaboration with external firms is
facilitated if the application is at least partly hosted on premise.
Organizational
Business Critical Data
On an organizational level, data security and data privacy played a role in terms of the
questions: What kind of data does the organization allow to be stored in the cloud? Even
though office and collaboration tools are mostly mentioned as no strategic tools, when it
comes to sensitive data that is sent via email or stored in SharePoint, the strategic value
increases.
Since ALPHA has not yet implemented the solution, configuration and assignment of
different user groups is still outstanding. Nevertheless, concerning sensitive data,
considerations already have been made:
“Sensitive data shall not be stored in the cloud: it’s a gut feeling, a question of
trust, especially after the NSA affair. And furthermore, there is no physical
59
separation. With the shared infrastructure, a mistake arises and I have data
from a different company.” [I-ALPHA/1]
“For business critical data, it is complicated. Would you voluntarily store your
banking information in the cloud, where Google has access? I don’t think so.
That’s the same for organizations. If you are a producer and you store your
constructional drawings on an external server, which you don’t have under
control and no physical access – I understand those doubts. The whole business
is based thereupon.” [I-ALPHA/4]
Especially the factor of governmental spying is perceived within ALPHA as an inhibitor
to store sensitive data within Microsoft cloud servers. Despite the factor of trust, the
attitude towards the possibility of governmental spying revealed to be correlated with the
type of organization: ALPHA, as typical German manufacturing company that relies on
research and development, has concerns about outsourcing critical business dependent
design drawings. In contrast BETA, as operating in the wholesale trading industry and
specialized on distribution without business relying in highly sensitive research and
patents, governmental spying was not an issue to the same extent as it is for companies
with research and development.
“Not in [this company]. That’s an important point. Remember I told you about the
earlier company I worked. This is an industrial company with lot of research and
development. So they have a lot of intellectual property type of things. So they are
quite sensitive to the data privacy. [..]Here in [this company], data privacy is much
less important. It’s a commercial company, we don’t have lots of secrets. We don’t
think people will hack Microsoft to steal information. It’s not worth it, there’s no
value for other people. We don’t want to have our information open, but we don’t
think the US government will spy on anything from us, that is not the point. But I
can understand that today data privacy is still a huge problem, talking to colleagues
from other companies. It’s still a problem. Some people are afraid about
government, some others are afraid about security in general, e.g. hackers, but it
depends on the type of business you are in.” [I-BETA/1]
GAMMA had their IT Infrastructure outsourced to an external service provider
beforehand. Now, the shared infrastructure as well as the protection against spying, the
storage of data in Europe as well as the distribution of access rights played an important
role within this context. In order to reduce uncertainties concerning the protection of
60
sensitive data stored in a public cloud, many discussions took place with Microsoft.
“It was the first bigger cloud project and it was a path of trial and tribulation. We
had a lot of discussions with Microsoft. We did send people to Ireland to have a
look how it works over there. We had discussions about who has access rights or
not, how can we make sure to protect our data.” [I-07/3]
GAMMA did not mention explicitly the consideration of business critical data for their
sourcing scenario of applications. However, it is only possible to log into functionalities
from the organizational network, which somehow contradicts the cloud purpose of access
from everywhere. Reason for this circumstance is the veto of the Security and Compliance
Department that could not be convinced that data won’t remain on the device from which
the user logs in.
“If I sit in an internet café in Thailand and download cloud stored data or read a
colleagues email with an attachment, I cannot be 100% sure if data not still
resides on this PC. As this is not my own PC, I cannot tell what is happening with
the data afterwards.” [I-GAMMA/1]
DELTA classifies critical data. For SharePoint, they established a hybrid scenario where
critical data is stored on premises, and other documents within SharePoint online. For
Email, the plan is to implement encryption technologies in order to have all user
accounts being stored within the Microsoft cloud.
“Especially with Email it is easy to work with encryption. Therefore we are not
planning to implement an on premise solution for that.” [I-DELTA/1]
Investment Protection In a few cases, investment protection factored into the selection of functionalities. If
contracts were recently signed with providers for applications that now could have been
used as integrated functionality within Office 365, discussions arose of the treatment of
those investments.
Within Alpha, there already existed a Business Intelligence solution from SAP that could
have been replaced by Power BI which is offered in addition to MS Office 365 online
standalone solution or online plans.
“I’ve met with Microsoft since then, we have CRM Dynamics already, and now
we are looking at Power BI, we want to have a little bit more intelligent reporting
61
but we already have SAP BI. It’s cery clunky, it is not state of the art, it is difficult
to mine data out of it. This is where we are running into a problem because we
are already paying for SAP BI, it is very difficult to convince the business that we
could go to Power BI in order to have much more dynamic reporting.”[I-03/1]
Within DELTA, the protection of investment led to several discussions. As the overall
target was to have a “connected enterprise”, it was important to have all functionalities
well integrated without having to develop any interfaces. Nonetheless, they had a contract
with Cisco for Jabber, which is the counterpart of Lync, concerning IP telephony. In order
to be able to use Lync, they would have to have resigned the contract and roll back the
system. Financially as well from an aspect of time, this option was not efficient.
“We had a few discussions and conflicts were questions arose repeatedly, e.g. that
we don’t implement Lync but will keep on using Cisco. We had discussions if it
made sense to use a third party tool, as it was one of the requirements to the
project: Everything should be highly integrated.
From a pricing perspective, it would have been better to use Lync. But here, the
protection of investment played a role. We have a current contract with our
network provider concerning IP-telephony. We would have been obligated to roll
it back completely. This would not have been worthwhile financially.” [I-09/4]
As a result, the decision was made to stay with Cisco for IP telephony and to not deploy
Lync.
Changing Cost Profile
As already mentioned within ALPHA, the change from CAPEX to OPEX was an
objective within the economic reasoning to go for the subscription model. However, for
BETA, GAMMA and DELTA, this factor had been emerged as a disadvantage.
“The move from CAPEX to OPEX was no advantage in our case. It was more of
a disadvantage. If I buy licenses, I can depreciate them over a designated number
of years. Now, with the leasing model, the costs have direct effects on the profit
and loss account thus are EBITDA relevant.”[I-DELTA/1]]
With all those organizations being market listed, the change from licenses that were
treated as investment and thus being subject to depreciations, operational expenditure as
62
they are with the leasing model, become relevant for the profit-loss account. Especially,
within BETA, the changing cost profile emerged as a big challenge.
“Most of the companies are very sensitive when they spend OPEX. And they are
less sensitive when they spend CAPEX. Even if in the end, it costs a little bit less,
the fact that you move to OPEX, sometimes generates a problem. So that was the
first challenge we had back in 2011.” [I-BETA71]
Group/interpersonal/individual
Several stakeholder groups are involved in the acquisition of cloud services. Within all
cases, the issue to get approval of all relevant groups was one major issue within the
selection process. Even though provider and solutions have already been selected by the
main project team, mainly consistent of IT professionals, approval from several
stakeholder groups have to be given in order to come the final decision. The task of getting
all relevant stakeholder groups onto a common sense and understanding, was perceived
as one of the most challenging obstacles:
„Before a decision is made, several millions have to be moved. Several
colleagues have to be involved. [..] And it took us one year to get through the
project application. Because multiple questions were posed: is it cost efficient,
how secure is it, do we observe the law, do we meet works councils
requirements, how does it impact employees.”[I-DELTA/1]
Owing to different job functions, stakeholder groups have different interests concerning
the solution, as well as within the course of the process.
“The challenge is not to find a suitable solution, but rather to balance all
stakeholder interests. Previously, IT Projects were pure technical projects. A few
“Techies” worked on it and implemented solutions and the user was delighted.
Today, this is not possible anymore. You have much larger Change projects, you
have to pick up all stakeholders from day one and answer and fulfill their demands”
[I-DELTA/1]
63
Works Councils
Since personal data of employees will be stored in the cloud, works councils have to give
their approval. ALPHA and GAMMA received works councils approval after
presentation of the systems and explanation of how data privacy of personal data from
employees will be ensured with the usage of cloud services. DELTA’s project team had
to additionally convince the works council that no supervision of employees’ activities
will be possible with the new applications. BETA was in communication with works
councils in France, Austria and Germany.
“And three countries were especially serious about that, which were France,
Germany and Austria. As long as we were able to show that the data is indeed
stored in Europe, which it is, the data is stored in Ireland and in Amsterdam, they
were ok with it. The toughest country to convince, so to speak, was Germany. In
France there is the KNI, which is the equivalent of a workers council. There you
have to declare the intention to move the user data off the premises of the
company. So you have to make sure that they understand that the data is located
in a certain location, which is not owned by the company. In France, it was not
that difficult. We explained that. As long as it was in Europe and we still are the
owner with the data, then there are no issues with it.”[I-BETA/2]
Whereas in Germany, issues with the works council were not only related to user data
location, but also to the functions of the Instant messaging and VoIP application Lync
that is included in most of the packaged offers. The same difficulty emerged within the
case of GAMMA. The messenger shows the user’s status,125 which is either selected by
the user itself or set automatically. The messenger detects the computer’s activity status,
e.g. on the phone, or busy according to schedules in one’s calendar or away. The critical
status for works councils is the “away” status that automatically changes if the computer
had been idle for a specified period of time. With this status, works councils were in doubt
if analyses could be made according to this status and could be used as indicator for a
worker’s performance. For this issue, also the HR department had to be involved within
BETA in order to confirm that no performance review of employees will be based on
someone’s status.
125 cf. Microsoft (n.d.a)
64
“In Germany, it was quite different, because there was not just an issue where the
data was located, but also, with Lync. The works council in Germany was
concerned that not only the Manager of somebody could see if somebody was
away, or idle or busy. So that he could tell that the employee is not working. But
it was also that me, being in France, or somebody in England, could see the same
status. And that was information about the employee, which they thought was not
necessarily something that other people should see.”[I-BETA/2]
“I’ve done a migration of Office 365 for a company that had German employees,
German operating companies. Strangely enough, we had no issues back then.
Whereas in this company, we had to go to legal departments, HR departments,
there is some person in Germany called the “data privacy and Security Officer”
and she has to give her final vote whether or not we can move to Office 365. So it
seems to be different per company in Germany as well.” [I-BETA/2]]
For BETA, the discussions with works councils were difficult. The initial reaction of
works councils was that if this functionality could not be turned off, they would not allow
the tool to be implemented. But finally, after long discussions, the main project team was
able to convince them that no supervision would take place.
Procurement
Within the case of ALPHA, the procurement department was involved only during a late
stage of the selection process. As a result, issues emerged due to the job functions of
procurement to receive better pricing. Contract negotiations were already driven by the
solution architect and price reductions of almost 50% were offered by Microsoft. For the
main project team, the decision was already clear to go for Microsoft Office 365 instead
of buying licenses. Now, procurement had to finish the acquisition. But with standardized
cloud contracts, there was not much room left for contract negotiations. Furthermore,
Procurement were non IT-professionals:
“And that was extremely difficult. For a typical purchasing relationship,
purchasing desires terms of conditions, where they can buy it cheapest. This was
highly difficult because it was highly technical. And we had to present the different
scenarios: On-prem, off-prem, E1, E3, E4. As you could imagine, that was
extremely difficult for non-IT people. So we could never give it to purchasing and
65
say: Ok, go finish. Purchasing for example would go to Microsoft and tell
Microsoft: Ok we want 20% reduction. Then Microsoft would just laugh and say:
this is our final offer, this is our best price.” [I-ALPHA/3]
Another issue in this context were standardized contracts. Since ALPHA was running
non-compliant after the carve-out, licenses had to be acquired quickly. However, it was
realized that the roll out of Office 365 would not be possible within the grace period.
Thus, purchasing wanted Microsoft to contractual commit to not audit them between the
expiration of grace period and the roll out of Office 365. However, due to standardized
contracts, Microsoft only could give oral assurance that no audit would take place.
“To contract with Microsoft is no pleasure. We know, we are a medium sized
enterprise and on the other side there is Microsoft. They say: Take it or leave it.
There is nothing else to do. Everything that we wanted to contractual include, that
will save us from audit, they declined.” [I-BETA/1]
Hence, to get procurement on a common understanding and to receive approval presented
a challenging task within ALPHA. In this context, it was mentioned that involving
procurement department should have been done on an earlier stage of the process.
IT Operations
At ALPHA, the IT Department was not involved during the selection and acquisition
process. Nevertheless, it had been realized that fears emerged within employees of losing
tasks with the usage of cloud services, and thus see their position in danger. As a result,
within the respective stakeholder group, opposition against the cloud solution emerged.
“I overheard IT administrators that were running afraid. They said we can do all
of it, we do this on premise, SharePoint on premise, Lync on premise, we can do
that as well. We knew that they don’t have the Know How to handle this, and that
they were afraid of losing their jobs. What they did not see was that their tasks
would only be shifted. That, so to speak, they will become service managers for
the provider Microsoft. Therefore it was better to present them with a “fait
accompli” instead of asking what they want. Otherwise they would have promoted
overestimation of their knowledge and nothing would have come out of it.” [I-
ALPHA/4]
66
For GAMMA and DELTA having their infrastructure outsourced beforehand, no fears
within IT Operations emerged within the process. Furthermore, those stakeholder groups
had been involved to a great extent.
Still, the change of operational framework for the IT department was also explicitly
mentioned within all other cases (BETA; GAMMA; DELTA). IT operations change
towards service management, without having to maintain systems and servers. As a result,
people have to be trained for their new tasks. Estimations about whether workloads for
IT department decreases differed between cases. Whereas within BETA it is mentioned
that compared with on premise solutions they saved one FTE per year, GAMMA assumed
that with the cloud solution workload for IT operations increases. On the one hand, server
patching and maintaining as well as system patching and monitoring drops with cloud
sourcing, on the other hand every change that is done to the system by Microsoft has to
be implemented within a slim timeframe.
Risk Management and Compliance Department
Further lengthy discussions appeared with the risk management department in DELTA:
“I think in Germany it is very, very important to involve Risk Management and
Security as soon as possible, in order to have a common understanding.
Are we taking risks, is it feasible…all that kind of questions. There is always a
risk, but you have to be aware of those risks. In this context I have to say that risk
management should have been involved earlier in the process” [I-DELTA/1]
BETA and GAMMA also had discussions with Compliance agents within the
organization. Whereas BETA finally got approval to move applications to the public
cloud, the veto of Compliance department in GAMMA led to the circumstance that
employees can solely access the cloud out of the organizational network. This conflict
still has to be solved.
67
Level of influence
Findings
Environmental
Environmental influences emerged within the final decision making
as constraints for the actual configuration of the solution – in terms
of legal requirements and technological characteristics.
Influences:
� Legal Requirements (+)
� Technology characteristics (++)
Organizational
On the organizational level, classification of data that shall be stored
in the cloud has is clarified and vendor relationship prepared.
Changing cost profile and vendor lock in may lead to discussions.
Influences:
� Business Critical Data (++++)
� Changing Cost Profile (++)
� Investment Protection (+ +)
Social
Before the final decision is made, several stakeholder interests have
to be fulfilled. Due to different job functions, stakeholder have
distinct requirements that may lead to discussions and conflicts.
Influences:
� Works council interests (++++)
� Procurement interests (+)
� IT Operations interests (+)
� Risk Management and Compliance Department
interests (+++)
Table 5-4 Final Decision Making
68
Subsequently to the decision for Office 365, there remain several questions to be clarified.
As mentioned by DELTA, after the provider and solution choice was made, it took one
year to get an approval for starting the migration project. All categories factored into the
decision making during the last stage.
Environmental influences put constraints on how the actual solution will be deployed. On
the organizational level, most influencing factor is the consideration of how business
critical data will be treated.
Within the final decision making, social factors emerged as most challenging tasks.
Interestingly, the stakeholder groups that were particular difficult to convince, differed
between cases. In ALPHA, the interactions with procurement seemed to be specifically
challenging. BETA was having the most issues with works councils, especially in
Germany. GAMMA was not able to put compliance department onto a common
understanding, and DELTA perceived the early involvement of Risk Management as very
important. Thus, challenges with convincing relevant stakeholders differ between
organizations. This fact may be related to differing organizational culture e.g. with works
councils having lot influences. Another possible explication are individual influences that
emerge within these stakeholder groups.
69
6. Implications
The following chapter presents implications for practice and research based on the
analysis of the multiple case study.
6.1 Implications for Practice
The conducted multiple case study illustrates the selection process of a cloud sourced
Office and Collaboration solution in corporate practice. Thereby, practitioners gain
valuable insights on the complexities and challenges that emerge during the selection
process of a cloud sourced Office & Collaboration solution.
With the knowledge regarding influences in each step of the phase, practitioners are given
the possibility to oversee challenges ahead. I
In order to prevent difficult discussions, it is recommended to involve relevant
stakeholders at an early stage of the process in order to avoid misunderstandings.
Especially when it comes to works councils, not only the transfer of personal data has to
be clarified, but also the handling of new functionalities that could induce
disadvantageous consequences for employees.
User involvement was not mentioned throughout all cases during the selection. However,
large change management projects were put in place subsequently to the final decision in
all cases in order to prepare users for the change and to train the usage of new
functionalities.
Furthermore, with the knowledge of individual influences like attitude towards provider
and cloud, the main project team should be carefully chosen.
Finally, cloud specific selection criteria for provider have to be taken into account. For
instance, market relevance and provider commitment is getting more important when
sourcing applications via cloud computing. Restrictions of data center location have to be
clarified prior to the provider selection as well.
70
6.2 Implications for Research
With the fast growing cloud computing market126, acquisition processes of cloud services
will still be of high relevance in practice in the near future. In order to provide managers
with thorough knowledge about those processes, research regarding acquisition and
selection of cloud services still has to increase the body of knowledge. At this, the master
thesis contributes to the call for empirical research concerning the acquisition and
selection process of cloud services.127
The multiple case study illustrates various influences within the selection process,
specifically of a cloud sourced Office & Collaboration solution. Findings may provide a
basis for further investigations of those influences. For instance, the influences on the
decision how to handle business critical data within those solutions. As concluded by
Benlian and Hess (2011)128, decisions to source Office & Collaboration tools via cloud
computing are likely to be explained by TCE, with those systems having low strategic
value. However, with those tools handling business critical data, Resource Based View
of a Firm may also be applied in order to describe sourcing scenarios of specific
applications within the solution, e.g. for Collaboration applications (SharPoint).
Finally, several influences on the individual level could be revealed, i.e. due to
experiences, attitudes or specific job functions. Those findings add to the emerging
literature regarding different perceptions of stakeholder groups and the alignment of those
perceptions.129
7. Limitations and Future Research
One limitation of the study is the differing depth of analysis of cases. Whereas within the
first case, four practitioners provided information, the second was represented with two
interviewees and the last two cases were mainly based on interviews of one
126 cf. Cisco (2014) 127 cf. Harnisch (2014), pp. 10–11. 128 cf. Benlian, Hess (2011), pp. 243–244. 129 E.g. cf. Harnisch; Kaiser; Buxmann Peter (2013); cf. Howcroft, Light (2010); Schneider et al. (2014)
71
representative. Owing to this fact, findings regarding social influences were limited
within the latter two cases
Furthermore, interviews were mainly conducted with IT professionals. Hence, differing
views on the process could not be elucidated. For this, an in depth single case study may
reveal thorough insights into the selection process. In doing so, other theoretical lenses
could be applied (e.g. Technological frames of reference, Theory of planned behavior).
An interesting view to triangulate and enhance findings of the study could also be a case
that went through the selection process and decided against cloud subscription.
Furthermore, only cases were analyzed that took the provider choice in favor of
Microsoft. As providers and their offerings differ to great extents, e.g. no productivity
software included or no on premise solutions for certain applications and users available,
the selection of applications and sourcing scenarios as well as implementation planning
may differ with the selection of other providers.
Concerning rigor in case study research, not all recommendations of Dubé and Paré
(2003) or Yin (2009) could be followed within this study. Team based research was not
conducted, neither during data collection nor data analysis. Also due the limited scope of
the thesis, a pilot case did not take place.
Finally, the findings of influences were not tested for validation reasons. However, the
thesis provides a basis for testing OBB categorized influencing factors on the selection
process of cloud sourced office and collaboration solution in a quantitative setting.
72
8. Conclusion
By answering the research question, the master thesis provides an illustration how the
selection process of a cloud sourced Office & Collaboration solution is conducted in
corporate practice. With the application of the OBB, valuable insights on influences on
the decision making during the process are given. At this, practitioners gain valuable
insights into the complexity of the process and various influencing factors on the
environmental, organizational and social level. With the knowledge of these factors,
organizations can avoid pitfalls and prepare for upcoming challenges.
Sub-goal in order to achieve the description the selection process in corporate practice
was the elucidation of reasons for the initiation, the shortlisting of alternatives, the
evaluation of alternatives, and final decision making.
Findings suggest that decision making within all stages is exposed to environmental,
organizational and social influences. Reasons for initiation vary to great extents, but
provider’s marketing strategy, the actual need for new technology and organizational
strategy represent important influences within this stage. Saving cost does not appear at
all within the four cases as reason for initiation.
Within the next stage, limited provider market options may lead to no shortlisting at all.
If provider are excluded beforehand, the decision is based on previous experiences.
Furthermore, on premise solutions are not yet excluded.
During the evaluation of cloud sourcing options, TCO and collaboration strategy
represent the main influences. Also, individual attitudes factored into the decision
making. For provider evaluation, data center location and perceived ease of user adoption
are prominent influencing factors.
The most challenging phase represents final decision making. Before a final decision is
made, several stakeholders have to agree to the proposed solution. Due to different job
functions, interests differ and lead to lengthy discussions or even constraints on the
implementation of the solution.
With the comprehension of the process given by the master thesis, organizations are given
the possibility to prepare upcoming challenges, make well informed decisions and avoid
73
wrong decisions. As a consequence, the future implementation and usage of systems will
be positively influenced.
74
9. List of References
Ajzen, Fishbein (1975)
Icek Ajzen, Martin Fishbein: Understanding attitudes and predicting social
behavior. Englewood Cliffs, N.J. 1975.
Armbrust et al. (2010)
Michael Armbrust, Armando Fox, Rean Griffith, Anthony D. Joseph, Randy
Katz, Andy Konwinski, Gunho Lee, David Patterson, Ariel Rabkin, Ion Stoica,
Matei Zaharia: Above the Clouds: A Berkeley View of Cloud Computing. In:
Commun. ACM. No. 4, Vol. 53, 2010, pp. 50-58
Armbrust et al. (2009)
Michael Armbrust, Armando Fox, Rean Griffith, Anthony D. Joseph, Randy
Katz, Andy Konwinski, Gunho Lee, David Patterson, Ariel Rabkin, Ion Stoica,
Matei Zaharia: Above the Clouds: A Berkeley View of Cloud Computing. In:
Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, University of California at
Berkely.Vol. 28, 2009, pp. 1-25
Aubert, Rivard, Patry (2004)
Benoit A. Aubert, Suzanne Rivard, Michel Patry: A transaction cost model of IT
outsourcing. In: Information & Management. No. 7, Vol. 41, 2004, pp. 921-932
Benlian, Hess (2011)
Alexander Benlian, Thomas Hess: Opportunities and risks of software-as-a-
service: Findings from a survey of IT executives. In: Decision Support Systems.
No. 1, Vol. 52, 2011, pp. 232-246
75
Benlian, Hess, Buxmann (2009)
Alexander Benlian, Thomas Hess, Peter Buxmann: Drivers of SaaS-Adoption –
An Empirical Study of Different Application Types. In: Business & Information
Systems Engineering. No. 5, Vol. 1, 2009, pp. 357-369
Brandt (2015)
Mathias Brandt: Office-Software dominiert deutsche Büros.
http://de.statista.com/infografik/3367/nutzung-von-office-software-in-
deutschland/, Abruf am 01.05.2015
Brown, Vessey (2001)
Carol V. Brown, Iris Vessey: NIBCO'S "Big Bang. In: Communications of the
Association for Information Systems. No. 1, Vol. 5, 2001, pp. 1-42
Chau (1994)
Patrick Y. Chau: Selection of Packaged Software in Small Businesses. In:
European Journal of Information Systems. No. 4, Vol. 3, 1994, pp. 292-302
Cisco (2014)
Cisco: Cisco Global Cloud Index: Forecast end Methodology 2013-2018. In:
Whitepaper. n.i., n.v., 2014, pp. 1-41
Dibbern et al. (2004)
Jens Dibbern, Tim Goles, Rudy Hirschheim, Bandula Jayatilaka: Information
Systems Outsourcing: A Survey and Analysis of the Literature. In: The DATA
BASE for Advances in Information Systems. No. 4, Vol. 35, 2004, pp. 6-102
Dubé, Paré (2003)
Line Dubé, Guy Paré: Rigor in Information Systems Positivist Case Research:
Current Practices, Trends, and Recommendations. In: MIS Quarterly. No. 4, Vol.
27, 2003, pp. 597-635
76
Gartner (2012)
Gartner: Gartner Says Worldwide Software-as-a-Service Revenue to Reach
$14.5 Billion in 2012. http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/1963815, Abruf
am 14.11.2014
Gartner Executive Programs (2015)
Gartner Executive Programs: Flipping to Digital Leadership -.
http://www.gartner.com/imagesrv/cio/pdf/cio_agenda_insights2015.pdf, Abruf
am 04.05.2015
Grover, Cheon, Teng (1994)
Varun Grover, Myun J. Cheon, James T. Teng: A Descriptive Study on the
Outsourcing of Information Systems Functions. In: Information & Management.
No. 1, Vol. 27, 1994, pp. 33-44
Harnisch (2014)
Stefan Harnisch: Enterprise-level Packaged Software Acquisition: a Structured
Literature Review through the Lens of IT Governance, Twenty Second European
Conference on Information Systems Tel Aviv, 2014.
Harnisch, Kaiser, Buxmann Peter (2013)
Stefan Harnisch,Jasmin Kaiser,Buxmann Peter: Technological Frames of
Reference in Software Acquisition Decisions: Results of a Multiple Case Study.
Milan, Conference on Information Systems Milan, 2013.
Hirschheim, Lacity (2000)
Rudy Hirschheim, Mary C. Lacity: The Myths and Realities of Information
Technology Insourcing. In: Communications of the ACM. No. 2, Vol. 43, 2000,
pp. 99-107
77
Hofmann, Woods (2010)
Paul Hofmann, Dan Woods: Cloud Computing: The Limits of Public Clouds for
Business Applications. In: IEEE Computer Society. Nov/Dec, 2010, pp. 90-93
Howcroft, Light (2010)
Debra Howcroft, Ben Light: The Social Shaping of Packaged Software
Selection. In: Journal of the Association for Information Systems. No. 3, Vol. 11,
2010, pp. 122-148
Huber (1993)
R. L. Huber: How Continental Bank outsourced its "Crown Jewels". In: Harvard
Business Review. No. 1, Vol. 71, 1993, pp. 121-129
Jadhav, Sonar (2009)
Anil S. Jadhav, Rajendra M. Sonar: Evaluating and selecting software packages:
A review. In: Information and Software Technology. No. 3, Vol. 51, 2009, pp.
555-563
Katzer, Crawford (2013)
Matthew Katzer, Don Crawford: Office 365: Migrating and managing your
business in the cloud. New York 2013.
Kvale (2007)
Steinar Kvale: Doing Interviews. Sage, Los Angeles, CA 2007.
Lacity, Reynolds (2014)
Mary C. Lacity, Peter Reynolds: Cloud Services Practices for Small and
Medium-Sized Enterprises. In: MIS Quarterly Executive. No. 1, Vol. 13, 2014,
pp. 31-44
78
Lacity, Willcocks (1995)
Mary C. Lacity, Leslie P. Willcocks: Interpreting information technology
sourcing decisions from a transaction cost economics perspective: Findings and
critique. In: Accounting, Management and Information Technologies. 3-4, Vol.
5, 1995, pp. 203-244
Lin, Silva (2005)
Angela Lin, Leiser Silva: The social and political construction of technological
frames. In: European Journal of Information Systems. No. 1, Vol. 14, 2005, pp.
49-59
Lipsitz (2014)
Jonathan W. Lipsitz: The Total Economic Impact of Microsoft Office 365. In:
Forrester Study - White Paper. 2014, pp. 1-37
Loh, Venkatram (1992)
Lawrence Loh, N. Venkatram: Determinants of Information Technology
Outsourcing: A Cross-Sectional Analysis. In: Journal of Management
Information Systems. No. 1, Vol. 9, 1992, pp. 7-24
Marston et al. (2011)
Sean Marston, Zhi Li, Subhajyoti Bandyopadhyay, Juheng Zhang, Anand
Ghalsasi: Cloud computing — The business perspective. In: Decision Support
Systems. No. 1, Vol. 51, 2011, pp. 176-189
Mell, Grance (2011)
Peter Mell, Timothy Grance: The NIST Definition of Cloud Computing. In:
National Institute of Standard and Technology. o.A., NIST Special Publication
800-145, 2011, pp. 1-3
Microsoft (n.d.a)
Microsoft: Change your presence status in Skype for Business (Lync).
79
https://support.office.com/en-au/article/Change-your-presence-status-in-Lync-
ef8998cc-7801-4b62-81ba-9a2c1630f9e5, Abruf am 21.04.2015
Microsoft (n.d.b)
Microsoft: EU model clauses regulate the transmission of data out of the EU into
countries. http://products.office.com/de-at/business/office-365-trust-center-eu-
model-clauses-faq, Abruf am 19.04.2015
Microsoft (n.d.c)
Microsoft: Produktlizenzierung Exchange server. https://www.microsoft.com/de-
de/licensing/produktlizenzierung/exchange-server/default.aspx, Abruf
am 15.05.2015
Microsoft Technet (n.d.a)
Microsoft Technet: Optionen zum Office 365-Plan | Office 365-
Plattformdienstbeschreibungen. http://technet.microsoft.com/de-
de/library/office-365-plan-options.aspx, Abruf am 13.11.2014
Microsoft Technet (n.db)
Microsoft Technet: Licensing how to: Using Office 365 user licenses to meet
CAL requirements. http://blogs.technet.com/b/volume-
licensing/archive/2013/10/10/licensing-how-to-using-office-365-user-licenses-
to-meet-cal-requirements.aspx, Abruf am 15.05.2015
Myers (2013)
Michael Myers: Qualitative research in business & management. 2nd edLondon
2013.
80
Palanisamy et al. (2010)
Ramaraj Palanisamy, Jacques Verville, Christine Bernadas, Nazim Taskin: An
empirical study on the influences on the acquisition of enterprise software
decisions: A practitioner's perspective. In: Journal of Enterprise Information
Management. No. 5, Vol. 23, 2010, pp. 610-639
Palvia (1995)
P. C. Palvia: A Dialectic View of Information Systems O utsourcing: Pros and
Cons Information & Management. In: Information & Management. n.b., Vol. 29,
1995, pp. 265-275
Pollock, Williams (2007)
Neill Pollock, Robin Williams: Technology choice and its performance: towards
a sociology of software package procurement. In: Information and Organization.
No. 1, Vol. 17, 2007, pp. 131-161
Repschlaeger u. a. (2012)
Jonas Repschlaeger,Stefan Wind,Rüdiger Zarnekow,Klaus Turowski: Selection
Criteria for Software as a Service: An Explorative Analysis of Provider
Requirements, AMCIS Seattle, Washington, 2012.
Saaty (1987)
R. W. Saaty: The analytic hierarchy process—what it is and how it is used. In:
Mathematical Modelling. 3-5, Vol. 9, 1987, pp. 161-176
Schneider et al. (2014)
Stephan Schneider, Jan Wollersheim, Helmut Krcmar, Ali Sunyaev: Decisive
Factors of Adopting Enterprise Software as a Service: A Multi-Stakeholder
Perspective. In: Working Paper, University of Cologne. o.A., o.A., 2014, pp. 1-
32
81
Schneider, Sunyaev (2014)
Stephan Schneider, Ali Sunyaev: Determinant factors of cloud-sourcing
decisions: reflecting on the IT outsourcing literature in the era of cloud
computing. In: Journal of Information Technology, 2014, pp. 1-31
Simon (1960)
Herbert Simon: The new science of management decision. Band 3. First New
York 1960.
Stefanou (2000)
Constantinos J. Stefanou: The Selection Process of Enterprise Resource Planning
(ERP) Systems. In: AMCIS 2000 Proceedings. 2000, pp. 987-991
Teng, Cheon, Grover (1995)
James T. Teng, Myun J. Cheon, Varun Grover: Decisions to Outsource
Information Systems Functions: Testing a Strategy-Theoretic Discrepancy
Model. In: Decision Sciences. No. 1, Vol. 26, 1995, pp. 75-103
Unabhängiges Landeszentrum für Datenschutz Schleswig Holstein (2014)
Unabhängiges Landeszentrum für Datenschutz Schleswig Holstein: I. Richtlinie
95/46/EG des Europäischen Parlaments und des Rates vom 24. Oktober 1995
zum Schutz natürlicher Personen bei der Verarbeitung personenbezogener Daten
und zum freien Datenverkehr.
https://www.datenschutzzentrum.de/material/recht/eu-datenschutzrichlinie.htm,
Abruf am 26.04.2015
Verville, Halingten (2002)
Jacques Verville, Alannah Halingten: A qualitative study of the influencing
factors on the decision process for acquiring ERP software. In: Qualitative
Market Research. No. 4, Vol. 5, 2002, pp. 188-198
82
Webster, Wind (1996)
Frederick E. Webster, Yoran Wind: A General Model for Understanding
Organuzational Buying Behaviour. In: Marketing Management. No. 6, Vol. 4,
1996, pp. 52-57
Webster, Wind (1972)
Frederick Webster, Yoran Wind: Organizational Buying Behavior. 1972.
Willcocks, Fitzgerald, Lacity (1996)
Leslie P. Willcocks, G. Fitzgerald, Mary C. Lacity: To outsource IT or not:
Recent research on economics and evaluation practice. In: European Journal o
Information Systems. No. 3, Vol. 5, 1996, pp. 143-160
Wollersheim, Hoberg, Krcmar (2013)
Jan Wollersheim, Patrick Hoberg, Helmut Krcmar: Procurement of Cloud
Services: Seven Principles to Success. In: Erik Wästlund, Bo Edvardsson,
Anders Gustaffson, Mary Jo Bitner, Verma Rohit (Hrsg.): Proceedings of the
QUIS13 International Research Symposium on Service Excellence in
Management, June 10-13, Karlstad, Sweden 2013, pp. 423-431
Yang, Tate (2012)
Haibo Yang, Mary Tate: A Descriptive Literature Review and Classification of
Cloud Computing Research. In: Communications of the Association for
Information Systems. No. 1, Vol. 31, 2012, pp. 35-60
83
Yin (2009)
R. Yin: Case Study Research: Design and Methods. 4thCA, USA: Sage 2009.
Yousseff, Butrico, Da Silva (2008)
Lamia Yousseff, Maria Butrico, Dilma Da Silva: Toward a Unified Ontology of
Cloud Computing. In: Grid Computing Environments (GCE) Workshop, IEEE. 2008, pp. 1-10
Zhang, Cheng, Boutaba (2010)
Qi Zhang, Lu Cheng, Raouf Boutaba: Cloud computing: state-of-the-art and
research challenges. In: Journal of Internet Services and Applications. No. 1,
Vol. 1, 2010, pp. 7-18
84
10. Appendices
To be found within digital attachment:
1. Interview Guidelines
a. German
b. English
2. Interview Transcripts & Protocols
a. Interviews ALPHA
b. Interviews BETA
c. Interview GAMMA
d. Interview DELTA
e. Interview EPSILON
3. Additional Data
4. Nvivo Data file
