Toward the 24-Hour Knowledge Factory

The term 24-Hour Knowledge Factory connotes a globally distributed work environment in which members of the global team work on a project around the clock; each member of the team works the normal workday hours that pertain to his or her time zone. At the end of such a workday, a fellow team member located in a different time zone continues the same task. This creates the shift-style workforce that was originally conceived in the manufacturing sector. A globally distributed 24-hour call center is the simplest manifestation of this paradigm. The true example of the 24-hour factory paradigm discussed in this paper involves groups working together to accomplish a given set of deliverables, such as a software project, and transcending conventional spatial and temporal boundaries

Global Outsourcing of Professional Services

As a growing number of firms , especially those in the United States, outsource more of their professional services across geographic and temporal boundaries. Using a multi-faceted framework for this study, this paper shows that very careful analysis is needed to establish the optimal level and structure for the 24-hour Knowledge Factory., one is faced with a corresponding need to examine the long-term ramifications on business and society. Some persons are convinced that cost considerations should reign as the prevalent predominant decision-making factor, ; others argue Many of the immediate conclusions being drawn by stakeholders, such as that outsourcing means permanent job loss, ; and still others believe outsourcing makes US goods and services more competitive in the global marketplace. that short-term investments are sufficient,We assert that if outsourcing options need to be analyzed in detail with critical objectivity in order to derive benefits for the concerned constituencies

Public and Private Sector Legal Process Outsourcing: Moving Toward a Global Model of Legal Expertise Deliverance

Legal process outsourcing (“LPO”) involves the use of foreign lawyers to conduct, perform and apply domestic law, most often for cost-saving purposes. Large, global firms have already begun to embrace the concept of LPO, and small firms and sole practitioners are increasingly reaching out to foreign firms, seeking more efficient, lower-cost providers. Ethical considerations, liability limiting agreements, ERISA compliance, certification and oversight models are all part of the LPO landscape. This paper discusses these aspects, as well as issues related to outsourcing in non-traditional areas such as the public sector and the judiciary

Toward the 24-Hour Knowledge Factory

The term “24-Hour Knowledge Factory” connotes a globally distributed work environment in which members of the global team work on a project around the clock; each member of the team works the normal workday hours that pertain to his or her time zone. At the end of such a workday, a fellow team member located in a different time zone continues the same task. This creates the shift-style workforce that was originally conceived in the manufacturing sector. A globally distributed 24-hour call center is the simplest manifestation of this paradigm. The true example of the 24-hour factory paradigm discussed in this paper involves groups working together to accomplish a given set of deliverables, such as a software project, and transcending conventional spatial and temporal boundaries

The 24-Hour Knowledge Factory Paradigm: The Evolving Model for Offshoring based on Strategic, Economic, Legal, Health, Technical, and Other Considerations

The 24-Hour Knowledge Factory paradigm involves 3 (or more) collaborating centers, each located in a different continent. Individuals at each center work from 9 am to 5 pm in that country, and then pass the work-in-progress to the next collaborating center to enable round-theclock performance in a manner somewhat akin to the deployment of three shifts in the manufacturing sector. The 24-Hour Knowledge Factory is relevant for structured and semi-structured applications in many knowledge-based industries including accounting, legal, design, and development. There is a growing array of examples from healthcare and other domains where off-site professionals have been able to provide better results than on-site professionals, thereby validating that many tasks can be more effectively performed using the 24-Hour Knowledge Factory approach. The gradual adoption of this paradigm is motivated by several considerations. In 2007, the World Health Organization concluded that working at night is a probable cause of breast cancer in women and prostate cancer in men. Attempts by US state governments and even the federal government to discourage outsourcing are unlikely to succeed for multiple reasons, and the notion of “hybrid outsourcing” will gain momentum over time. Plus there are the advantages of developing products and services in a shorter timeframe; furthermore, these products and services can command broader appeal in the global marketplace. A detailed study was conducted at IBM to compare the performance of a co-located team and a distributed team, and the performance of the latter team exceeded initial expectations. The key results from this study will be discussed in this session

Global Outsourcing of Professional Services

As a growing number of firms outsource more of their professional services across geographic and temporal boundaries, one is faced with a corresponding need to examine the long-term ramifications on business and society. Some persons are convinced that cost considerations should reign as the predominant decision-making factor; others argue that outsourcing means permanent job loss; and still others believe outsourcing makes U.S. goods and services more competitive in the global marketplace. We assert that if outsourcing options need to be analyzed in detail with critical objectivity in order to derive benefits for the concerned constituencies

Panoramic radiographic study of mental foramen in selected dravidians of south Indian population: a hospital based study

Background: This study aimed at documenting information on appearance, size, horizontal and vertical locations of Mental Foramen (MF) in Panoramic Radiograph. We also analyzed the age and gender differences with radiographic appearance and location of MF. We evaluated these findings in our population and co-relate with results of previous studies. Material and Methods: 1662 panoramic radiographs were evaluated, of which 245 fulfilled the inclusion criteria. Each radiograph was traced to record the horizontal and vertical locations. The size of MF was recorded using digital caliper and its appearance was determined by visual examination. Chi-square and t-test were employed. Results: The most common appearance of MF was continuous type and the tests showed significant difference with age and gender. The most frequent horizontal location of MF was “location c” with no statistical significant difference with age and gender. The MF was most commonly positioned mesially in relation to the apex of second premolar with no significant differences with gender. The vertical location of the foramen varied drastically with no statistical significant difference in both sides. The difference in dimensions on the left and right sides were not statistically significant. Conclusions: Determining the morphological appearance and positional variation of MF is important for isolation of mental nerves and vessels when administering local anesthesia and performing surgeries. We therefore stress the importance of accurate radiographic identification of MF and interpretation. Our research findings can be used as reference material by the dental practitioners of South India while performing clinical procedures that involve MF

Use of Collaborative Technologies and Knowledge Sharing in Co-located and Distributed Teams: Towards the 24-Hour Knowledge Factory

The relocation of knowledge work to emerging countries is leading to an increasing use of Globally Distributed Teams (GDT) engaged in complex tasks. In the present study, we investigate a particular type of GDT working ‘around the clock’: the 24 hours knowledge factory (Gupta, 2008). Adopting the productivity perspective on knowledge sharing (Haas and Hansen, 2005, 2007), we develop 11 hypotheses to compare technology use, knowledge sharing processes, and performance of a 24 hours knowledge factory with a co-located team. We conducted a quasi-experiment in IBM and collected both quantitative and qualitative data, over a period of 12 months, on a GDT and a co-located team. Both teams were composed of the same number of professionals, provided with the same technologies, engaged in similar tasks, and given similar deadlines. We found that they differed in their use of technologies and in knowledge sharing processes, but not in efficiency and quality of outcomes. We show how the co-located team and the GDT enacted a knowledge codification strategy and a personalization strategy respectively; in each case, they grafted elements of the other strategy in order to attain both knowledge re-use and creativity. We conclude by discussing theoretical contributions to knowledge sharing and GDT literatures, and by highlighting managerial implications to those organizations interested in developing a fully functional 24 hour knowledge factory

Feedback Based Architecture for Reading Check Courtesy Amounts

In recent years, a number of large-scale applications continue to rely heavily on the use of paper as the dominant medium, either on intra-organization basis or on inter-organization basis, including paper intensive applications in the check processing application. In many countries, the value of each check is read by human eyes before the check is physically transported, in stages, from the point it was presented to the location of the branch of the bank which issued the blank check to the concerned account holder. Such process of manual reading of each check involves significant time and cost. In this research, a new approach is introduced to read the numerical amount field on the check; also known as the courtesy amount field. In the case of check processing, the segmentation of unconstrained strings into individual digits is a challenging task because one needs to accommodate special cases involving: connected or overlapping digits, broken digits, and digits physically connected to a piece of stroke that belongs to a neighboring digit. The system described in this paper involves three stages: segmentation, normalization, and the recognition of each character using a neural network classifier, with results better than many other methods in the literaratu

Self-Configuration and Self-Administration of Wireless Grids

A Wireless Grid is an augmentation of a wired grid that facilitates the exchange of information and the interaction between heterogeneous wireless devices. The ability of various grid layouts to handle interactions among the grid constituencies is contingent upon the efficient resolution of multiple technical challenges of the grid. These challenges arise due the added complexities of the wireless grid such as the limited power of the mobile devices, the limited bandwidth (including partial connectivity), and the increased dynamic nature of the interactions involved. This paper focuses on the configuration and administration issues of the wireless grid. The proposed grid topology and naming protocol can allow self-configuration and self-administration of various possible wireless grid layout