Tutorials

ICSOB 2010 hosts three interesting tutorials of to the software business researchers and practitioners: "SaaS Business -- Theory and Practice", "Applying statistical research methods in software business" and "Creating Productive Global Virtual Teams". The tutorials will be held on 21st of June 2010 in Jyväskylä, Finland.

Tutorial: SaaS Business -- Theory and Practice

Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) will affect the business of most IT and software companies, as well as the client organizations' IT function. Yet, software buyers and even software vendors are still somehow unfamiliar with the exact definition of the Software as a Service. Is it a whole new business model, an adjustment to revenue and distribution model, or just a new deployment technology? It appears that SaaS is not just a technical issue, but affects profoundly the way businesses provide and use software.

The goal of this tutorial is to clarify the main concepts of Software-as-a-Service, giving the audience tools to answer an important question from their own standpoint: How will Software-as-a-Service change software business? The issues are presented using two dimensions: (i) technology vs. business perspectives and (ii) software providers vs. buyers viewpoint.

The tutorial will consist of the following parts:

1. Introduction to the SaaS. We present SaaS definition and related concepts, like Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS).
2. SaaS Value Creation. SaaS creates value for different stakeholders. We discuss the benefits of the SaaS model and analyze the truth of these claims, e.g.: Lower Total Cost of Ownership (TCO), more flexible IT management, easier entry to new markets, and tapping to competitive business ecosystems.
3. SaaS How-to. In this more practice oriented part we will explain how to utilize SaaS model in different business scenarios: How to buy SaaS? How to manage SaaS solutions as a part of companies information systems? How to launch a SaaS solution? How to do business with Saas?
4. SaaS in Finland. The attendants of the ICSOB 2010 will have exclusive possibility to hear first about the characteristics of the Finnish SaaS market, and challenges and possibilities the SaaS products bring to Finnish companies.

Target Audience

Business and development executives of software companies, CIOs of companies interested to utilize the SaaS solutions and researchers with initial interest on the topic.

Tutorial organizers

SaaSify Your Business -research group (Funded by TEKES Verso program) investigates SaaS as a global and Finnish phenomenon. Group consists of researchers with both academic and industrial backgrounds. The tutorial will be designed and held by personnel with years of experience in university level teaching based on the current industrial interests.

Tutorial: Applying statistical research methods in software business

Currently the researchers that include software business as one of their topic areas come from very different paradigms. Software business researchers often rely on management theories, such as the resource based view. Since statistical analysis is the predominant method in more established management disciplines, it is important for aspiring software business researcher to understand statistics to be able to evaluate the quality of these studies. Moreover,the ability to use statistical methods broadens makes more research questions accessible to a software business researcher.

Motivated by the need to understand statistical research done in other disciplines and the internal calls for more and better statistical studies, we are organizing a tutorial on statistical methods during the First International Conference on Software Business. The tutorial will be a full-day event consisting of four sessions. The focus on the tutorial is both on the theory and application of statistical analysis. In contrast to many text books on statistical analysis, the tutorial will first present a practical analysis problem and then proceed on how statistics can solve this. Theory comes to play only when we discuss how statistical data can lead to false conclusions and how to avoid these.

The tutorial will consist of the following parts:

Session 1: Philosophy of statistical research and basics of statistical inference
Session 2: Types of data and measurement
Session 3: Regression analysis
Session 4: Structural equation modeling

Target Audience

The tutorial is designed in a way that no prerequisite knowledge of statistical inference or statistics are required. During the session we will cover all the basics required. The session is aimed for researchers that have either little background on statistics or have used statistical analysis before, but would need a refresher on the principles and theories of statistical studies. It is highly encouraged that all participants participate on each session, since the knowledge of the earlier sessions is a prerequisite for later sessions. The tutorial will include examples with Stata and R. Structural equation modeling is presented with Mplus and R.

Tutorial organizers

Mikko Rönkkö is a research manager and a doctoral candidate at Aalto University, School of Science and Technology, Software Business Lab. He specializes in statistical research and has currently several papers using statistics as well as papers about statistical methods in review.

Jukka Ylitalo is a researcher at Software Business Lab in Aalto University, School of Science and Technology. He has a master's degree in systems and operations research and has specialized in statistical analysis. He has taught statistical inference in Helsinki University of Technology in several years.

Tutorial: Creating Productive Global Virtual Teams: Developing Effective Collaboration across Cultures and Time Zones

In today’s global economy, knowledge workers have to collaborate on a daily basis with colleagues around the world. While travel may be preferred for certain tasks, the bulk of global collaboration is based on technologically-mediated communication. Thus, a new challenge for organizations is in developing the skills, capacities, and attitudes that will make working across cultures and time zones successful.

Our research discovered bits and pieces of how innovative managers facilitated the development of camaraderie, trust and knowledge sharing among the members of global work teams separated by distance and culture. We have packaged these bits and pieces of insights and skills into best practices for building and maintaining trust and effective communication in virtual teams, as well as how to build organic communities.

Unlike traditional cross-cultural training, where the focus is cultural differences and what not to do, this tutorial centers on how relationships are built and sustained in virtual spaces, and how using “everyday ethnography” provides the skills to achieve effective collaboration in global virtual teams.

The tutorial will consist of the following parts:

Global Work Models
-Bridge Team Collaborative Engagement
-Integrated Globally-distributed Team
Barriers to Global Work
-Cultural differences
-Limitations of Computer-mediated Communication
-Loss of Proximity
-Difficulty of building Trust
-Lack of Work Visibility
-Organizational Politics
Building Ethnographic skills
-Unpacking the layers of culture impacting global work
-Unpacking the limitations of Computer-mediated Communication
-Unpacking organizational politics
Overcoming Barriers to Global Work
-Personal Relationship building
-Virtual Community building - Learning from the Open Source Work Environment

Target Audience

The target audiences for this tutorial are professionals who work with team members located overseas, managers who administer the work of offshore vendors, and tomorrows’ global leaders. Academics interested in global virtual teams are welcome.

Tutorial organizer

Donald Chand (Professor of Information& Process Management) joined Bentley University in 1984 as the Chair of the Computer Information Systems Department. Dr. Chand also taught at Georgia State University in Atlanta, Boston University, and the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad. His current teaching and research interests are in the areas of business process management, offshore outsourcing, distance project management, and CMMI for Services. Dr. Chand has published articles in such flagship journals as the Communications of the ACM, Journal of ACM, IEEE Software, and the Journal of Management Systems. He has been a keynote speaker at regional, national and international conferences. He served as vice president of the New England Chapter of Indian American Federation for Political Education and also the first director of MIT Heritage of the Arts of South Asia (MITHAS), an organization dedicated to fostering the Classical Arts of South Asia.