GLOBAL SOURCING AND DIGITAL HUMAN CLOUD

This course applies the method of learning by doing where interaction and proactivity are highly appreciated. Students will have the unique opportunity to put into practice the knowledge acquired during activities hold in class and on-line classes. As part of the learning process, students will do a group project, which refers to the creation of an APP that can be published on PlayStore. Best ideas will be awarded a financial aid, endowed by firms involved in this activity.
The course will host some outstanding experts from the digital world to create synergies between the business world and the best students.
This is a blended course known as a mixed-mode course, where a portion (50%) of traditional face-to-face instruction is replaced by on-line learning classes on Ca’ Foscari platform moodle.unive.it.
The course (6CFU, 30 hours) aims at providing new perspectives of doing business in global contexts. It will analyze several sourcing models such as outsourcing, offshoring, and related terms to understand its role in international business strategies, which refer also to customer-supplier relationships.
Global Sourcing is a procurement strategy to find a cost-efficient location for delivering products or services across geopolitical boundaries. Common examples are labor-intensive manufactured products, call centers with low-cost English-speaking workers, and IT work performed by low-cost programmers in Eastern Europe. This process involves our daily life more than one can imagine.
From the customer point of view, students will acquire the necessary knowledge to manage outsourcing and offshoring processes; they will be able to analyze which activities to keep in-house, called core activities and which to delegate to third parties. Furthermore, the monitoring process is essential for achieving the desired results.
From the supplier point of view, will be analyzed how to manage and innovate the supply chain and how to choose the suppliers for the collaboration; different projects aim at different results, therefore will be required specific characteristics for specific tasks.
This will be simulated through the using of a crowdsourcing digital platform to outsource some real tasks to a human cloud around the world.

At the end of the module students should be able to make strategic decisions related to outsourcing and offshoring and effectively steer third parties.

No specific requirements are requested

1 Introduction and overview of the global sourcing market
2 Sourcing models and decisions
3 Clent and Vendor perspective
4 Outsourcing lifecycle and governance of outsourcing projects
5 Innovation in outsourcing
6 Crowdsourcing: platforms, models, cases
7 Introduction to globally distributed work
8 Project work: developing a mobile APP using the human cloud

Module reading is based on the textbook: Oshri, I., Kotlarsky, J. and L.P. Willcocks (2011) “The Handbook of Global Outsourcing and Offshoring”, 2nd edition, Palgrave Macmillan, London and a selection of articles.

Project presentation, online tests

50% of content and lessons are delivered via e-learning web applications and 50% are based on traditional classroom

English

written and oral