Migration of Workers' Knowledge into Information Systems : Managerial Issues from the Case of e-Procurement Service Company

Abstract

With the emergence of indirect procurement, it has become a global trend for companies to outsource their maintenance, repair, and operating (MRO) supplies to procurement service providers (PSPs). Due to the variety of MRO items, evaluation of numerous suppliers in various industries is a particularly complex task for PSPs. Due to this complexity, many PSPs still evaluate and select suppliers based on the sourcing managers' subjective knowledge. Through the case of adopting a supplier evaluation system, this research is to find the managerial issues organizations should consider when they transform sourcing managers' knowledge into the system. We interpret the issues based on the Technology-OrganizationEnvironment (TOE) framework. This case conclusively shows the importance of positive feedback loop between the users and the information system for the performance improvement of the system.