Title Researcher Year of Accomplishment Executive Summary

ICT Outsourcing Management Model for Private School Administration Chadaporn K. Sanguankaew Ed.D Bangkok Thailand 2010 (March 2009-March 2010)

ICT outsourcing management model for private school administration was the conceptual model that represents a guideline to manage ICT in private school by using ICT outsourcing unit as a partner. With the quality spiral management processes that are developing continuously and flexibly, the school can adopt and adjust the model depending on its own context and needs. The purposes of this research were: to study the current status of ICT outsourcing management in private schools, to develop an ICT outsourcing management model for private school administration, and to assess the developed ICT outsourcing management model for private school administration. The research was divided into three phases. The first phase was to study the current status of ICT outsourcing management in private schools. Five administrators of the private ICT best practice schools were interviewed. The data collected were analyzed by means of content analysis. The questionnaire data regarding the ICT outsourcing practices were collected from school administrators, ICT teacher and ICT responsible units of the private school in Bangkok and the vicinities. The second phase was to develop an ICT outsourcing management model for private school administration. Two school administrators of the private ICT best practice and Five ICT selected expertise were interviewed. The third phase was to assess the appropriateness and applicability of the developed ICT outsourcing management model for private school administration, the data were collected by focus group discussions with nine ICT selected key informants: school administrator, ICT responsible units, ICT expertise and ICT outsourcing. The findings revealed that every school was aware of the ICT importance for education and utilizing the mixing method of ICT outsourcing management. Each school had its own management style depending on its needs and goals which best suited its contexts. The ICT outsourcing management model for private school administration consisted of input: ICT resources, i.e. hardware, software, peopleware and ICT budget; process: a) goals and strategies setting, b) recruiting and selecting, c) cooperative working, d) revising and reflecting and e) control and feedback; output: school administration, i.e. academic, budget, human resource and general management; outcome: satisfactory to needs and goals of students, teachers and staff, school, community and stakeholders; and feedback: the results of ICT using in school for work improvement and continuous development. The assessment of the appropriateness and the applicability of the developed ICT outsourcing management model for private school administration resulted from the focus group discussion and the consensus of the scholars was that the developed model was useful and practical. This model was a manual guideline and described activities and steps of using the ICT partnership outsourcing. The information was presented in systematic patterns starting from setting a goal or the future perspectives of the school, consisted of input, process, output, outcome, and feedback. (Figure 2) The process presented was a dynamic and qualitative management for continuous development with graphic effects and caption which were used to effectively Chadaporn K. Sanguankaew 2010 1

convey the ideas leading to practical exercise. The steps were in a straightforward, modern and adaptable format so that it can used as the instruction for ICT outsourcing management, which schools can adopt or apply in relation to the context, readiness, and requirements that differed from each school. The instruction could be applied in other institutions and could be applied in other areas of management. This was acknowledged as an innovation of educational management. This school management tool facilitated decision making, and creating awareness to the importance of ICT outsourcing management, which grasps on the development of technologies that responded to the needs of society and appropriately corresponded to the second educational reform.

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Chadaporn K. Sanguankaew 2010

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Abstract The purposes of this research were: to study the current status of ICT outsourcing management in private schools, to develop an ICT outsourcing management model for private school administration, and to assess the developed ICT outsourcing management model for private school administration. The research was divided into three phases: the first phase was to study the current status of ICT outsourcing management in private schools; the second phase was to develop an ICT outsourcing management model for private school administration; and the third phase was to assess the appropriateness and applicability of the developed ICT outsourcing management model for private school administration. Key informants of the study were school administrators and some selected scholars. The research instruments used were interviews, questionnaires, and the focus group discussion questions. The data were analyzed by using statistical methods including percentage, mean, standard deviation and content analysis. The findings were as follows:

Chadaporn K. Sanguankaew 2010

1. Every school was aware of the ICT importance for education and utilizing the mixing method of ICT outsourcing management. Each school had its own management style depending on its needs and goals which best suited its contexts. 2. The ICT outsourcing management model for private school administration consisted of 1) input: ICT resources, i.e. hardware, software, peopleware, and ICT budget; 2) process: a) goals and strategies setting, b) recruiting and selecting, c) cooperative working, d) revising and reflecting and e) control and feedback; 3) output: school administration, i.e. academic, budget, human resource and general management; 4) outcome: satisfactory to needs and goals of students, teachers and staff, school, community and stakeholders; and 5) feedback: the results of ICT using in school for work improvement and continuous development. 3. The assessment result of the developed ICT outsourcing management model for private school administration was verified and was found that the ICT outsourcing management model for private school administration was useful and practical. Keywords: ICT management, ICT outsourcing management, ICT management in private school, ICT outsourcing management in private school

Research Background The context of globalization in the 21thcentury together with the role of the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) were driven the change of the knowledgebased economy and society to creative economy. To prepare Thai society to meet the changes in global demands, a strategic creative education was being managed. Consequently, ICT functions as an important tool to strengthen the competency in the international market by creating the knowledge value-added and learning with no limitations; likewise, developing the changes grasp on the globalization in both opportunities and limitations in resources that had potential use. The provisions and educational plans had stated on the rights and education autonomy. Decentralization and participation in the educational management, overall quality and standard of education progression relatively. The change of world economy and society, and the flexibility of private school administration had significantly influenced on expanding the educational opportunities and creating the changes in response to the second educational reform. The changes emphasized the proficiency, learning opportunity, stakeholders participation, and ICT application for education. Educational management of the ICT-based management use created a burden to teachers and staff that were technologically unskilled (Becta, 2008). In order to solve that problem, therefore ICT outsourcing management for school administration had accounted as an effective innovation of a globalization ideal in terms of resource sharing and collaboration to supplement the competitiveness and while focusing on the core tasks. Dominguez (2006) stated that, to maximize output a person should be assigned to do the work he has expertise in it. The collaborative or the partnership management should solve and organizations predicament problems, while developing, and achieving the same goals and objectives. Based on present circumstances and alternative approaches in school, ICT- based management had not been clearly defined. The researcher had developed an ICT outsourcing management model for private school administration as guidelines for planning Chadaporn K. Sanguankaew 2010 4

a strategy to mobilize resources to support participatory, and managing the risks. The school would highly benefit as it would perceive the remuneration; the school can then intentionally devote on their exertions, which was developing the education, institution, and students. Research Questions 1. What is the status of ICT outsourcing management for school administration in private school? 2. What is the appropriate model of ICT outsourcing management for private school administration? 3. Is the developed model of ICT outsourcing management for private school administration appropriate to what extent? Research Objectives

1. to study the current status of ICT outsourcing management in private schools 2. to develop an ICT outsourcing management model for private school administration 3. to assess the developed ICT outsourcing management model for private school
administration Conceptual Framework

Figure 1

Research Conceptual Framework 5

Chadaporn K. Sanguankaew 2010

Research Methodology This was a quantitative and qualitative research with multi-data collection patterns, which composed of target population, samples, and data. There were three phases for this research study, they were as follows: The first phase was to study the current status of ICT outsourcing management in private schools. 1.1 The current status of ICT outsourcing management for school administration: the data were collected by interviewing the ICT best practice private schools from five different resource persons, which were school administrator and ICT responsible units. The research instrument was a structured interview, divided into three parts: Part 1 the details of the school (1) school backgrounds, (2) interviewee backgrounds. Part 2 the issues for interviews (1) the current status of using ICT outsourcing management for school administration, (2) the benefits of the ICT outsourcing management for school administration, (3) the limitations of the ICT outsourcing management for school administration and (4) the support components in ICT outsourcing management for school administration. Part 3 the comments or suggestions to develop the ICT outsourcing management model for private school administration. Validity of the interview was checked by the dissertation advisor. The qualitative data were analyzed using content analysis, a content description analysis was categorized according conceptual framework. 1.2 The current status of ICT outsourcing management for private school administration: the data were collected by asking private schools in Bangkok and the vicinities. The total population size was 607 and the sample was 235 (Krejcie and Morgan, 1970, p.608) by using multi-randomization methods. The resource persons, were school administrator and ICT responsible unit. The research instrument was questionnaires, divided into four parts: 1) nineteen questions on details of the informant data and the school data 2) fifty eight questions on the status of the operations of ICT outsourcing in the school with four contexts: a) goals and strategies setting, b) recruiting and selecting, c) cooperative working, and d) revising and reflecting 3) three questions on the relevant condition of the operations 4) four questions on the suggestions and recommendations Validity of the questionnaires was checked by index of congruency (IOC) was performed by five experts to validate the appropriateness of the coverage issues, which contained IOC between 0.06-1.00 and reliability by tryout with 10 private schools at 30 copies analyzed by using an alpha coefficient (Cronbach alpha coefficient) which was 0.98. Mail service was used to provide and collect the questionnaires, the data were analyzed by descriptive statistics: percentage, mean, standard deviation and content analysis. The second phase was to develop an ICT outsourcing management model for private school administration. 2.1 Guidelines for ICT outsourcing management for school administration: the data were collected by interviewing the two ICT best practice private schools with experiences in managing ICT outsourcing in school. The resource persons were the school administrator. Chadaporn K. Sanguankaew 2010 6

The research instrument was a semi-structured interview, and the questions were in term of: a) goals and strategies setting, b) recruiting and selecting, c) cooperative working, and d) revising and reflecting Validity of the interview was checked by the dissertation advisor. The qualitative data were analyzed by using content analysis and then a content description analysis was categorized according to conceptual framework. 2.2 To develop an ICT outsourcing management model for private school administration: the data were collected by interviewing five ICT selected expertise. The research instrument was a semi-structured interview, and the questions were in term of: a) goals and strategies setting, b) recruiting and selecting, c) cooperative working, d) revising and reflecting and e) control and feedback Validity of the interview was checked by the dissertation advisor. The qualitative data were analyzed by using content analysis and then a content description analysis was categorized according to conceptual framework. The third phase was to assess the appropriateness and applicability of developed ICT outsourcing management model for private school administration. The data were collected by focus group discussions with nine ICT selected key informant: school administrator, ICT responsible units, ICT expertise and ICT outsourcing The research instrument was focus group item: (1) formatting background, (2) systematic management elements, (3) scope and procedures by element of format, and (4) conditions to apply format. Additionally, to verify the tools quality to find in-depth content, a meeting with the dissertation advisor was to evaluate on the qualitative information by categorized a content description analysis as the guideline. Research Results 1. The current status of ICT outsourcing management in the ICT best practice private schools was that every school was aware of the importance of ICT for education. The ICT outsourcing was a part of the school management because of the limitations in terms of readiness, ICT teams proficiencies, and the teachers workload. Moreover, most schools were utilizing the mixing method of ICT outsourcing management. Each school had its own management style depending on its needs and goals which best suited its contexts, particularly focusing on the students, teachers, staff and the school itself. 2. The ICT outsourcing management model for private school administration was consisted of: 1) input: ICT resources, i.e. hardware, software, peopleware, and ICT budget. 2) process: ICT outsourcing management a) goals and strategies setting, b) recruiting and selecting, c) cooperative working, d) revising and reflecting and e) control and feedback 3) output: school administrator, i.e. academic, budget, human resource and general management. 4) Outcome: satisfactory to needs and goals of students, teachers and staff, community and stakeholders. 5) Feedback: the results of ICT using in school for work improvement and continuous development. (Details of the model was presented on page 9) 3. The assessment of the appropriateness and applicability of the developed ICT outsourcing management model for private school administration was a flexible application

Chadaporn K. Sanguankaew 2010

with modern presentation, noncomplex procedural system, and dynamic illustrators, ideas and interests stimulation. The consensus of the scholars was used to verify the developed model. Conclusion 1. The study found that all schools agreed on the importance of convergence for educational and ICT outsourcing in the school management due to limitations of the school readiness, ICT teams proficiencies, and the teachers workloads. Moreover, it indicated that the number of schools using ICT outsourcing management had increased because of the main purpose of private schools focusing on academic, budgets management, human resources management, and general administrative work by the teachers and staff. The lack of ICT experts forced the private schools to use the expertise of external sources. The use of outsourcing model in private schools was therefore most welcome. This finding was corresponded to the study of Becta (2008). The finding, focused on a Managed Service Approach analysis of the ICT outsourcing management, indicated that all schools had experienced and benefited from using external agencies specialized in ICT. Smith (2007) who worked on Building Schools for the Future: the ICT outsourcing route had mentioned that future schools, if integrated with managed service provider professional in the ICT area would immensely helped in supporting the work of the school. Frost and Sullivan (2005) who studied Benchmarking of the Smart School Integrated Solution the use of ICT in Ireland and New Zealand through the use of outsources. The idea of using a service provider to focus on core business was corresponded to study of Boonlert Watjatrakul (2008, pp.14-15) who mentioned that the use of outside information and communications technology was to hire the people or external service providers to manage a part or the whole system of ICT resources so that the schools administration could effectively focus on the core businesses. Friedman (2008) and Corbett (2004) stated that the use of outsource as a business strategy had become widely popular, which majorly depended on the world economic situation of the 21st century. The system had allowed organization to manage and build upon their operations and main activities that create the true value-added organization. Dominguez (2006) defined the outsourcing as the agency business strategies with experts from outside performing no various business processes of the main business of the organization but maintaining the ability to compete as well as reinforcing the opportunity to reduce costs, increasing the quality and productivity. Vatcharapol Sukhotu (2007, pp. 7-11) also defined the outsourcing as strategies to quickly change the technological advances and business complex to maintain the ability to grow continuously. 2. The finding of this study corresponded with the above propositions due to the ICT outsourcing management model for private school administration the scholars verified the system format as appropriate concepts and related to characteristics of ICT outsourcing management guidelines such as how to cooperate with the ICT outsourcing unit; and a handbook explaining the activities and steps in utilizing the ICT outsourcing its unit; presenting in systematic steps beginning from setting goals or targets; it also consisted of vital elements such as input, process, output, outcome and feedback with the process of qualitative managing as dynamic and continued development.

Chadaporn K. Sanguankaew 2010

Elements of the ICT outsourcing management model for private school administration were:

Figure 2.

ICT Outsourcing Management Model for Private School Administration

1) input: ICT resources, i.e. hardware, software, peopleware, and ICT budget. 2) process: five aspects ICT outsourcing management: a) goals and strategies setting: the new school management performance era necessary to the participation of the stakeholders. Setting school for the future could be done through ICT strategies, visions, missions, goals and implementation and the decision to choose the ICT management for the school, either through selfmanagement or outsourcing management. The Scholars recognized that outsourcing ICT was an alternative management method for the school. b) recruiting and selecting: the school decided to outsource the ICT with scholars agreement, through their recommendations, also through valid references, and the examination of various outsourcing agencies. The schools administrators then discussed and selected an ICT agency through the process of selection and ethical. The experts would clarify the existence of confidentiality between the school and the outsourcing agency and then agreement was drown out. c) cooperative working: the school had a representative from the operating level committee working with the outsourcing agency for controlling, auditing, sharing experiences, and developing the work as partners to monitor the quality. Also, the team would make plan, operate, evaluate, and update collaborative development of work

Chadaporn K. Sanguankaew 2010

oriented products and network collaboration which had a significant relation to the interviews with the schools administrator and scholars. d) revising and reflecting: a school committee revised the re-evaluated operations. There may be a need to prepare the school for ending contract after having revised the operation of the contracted company. The committee then needed to reflect the results in cooperative working with the outsourcing agency to allow for re-thinking and changing of policy and technology to best suit the school and the system. This step needed to be processed again carefully, and managing the risks that may occur. e) control and feedback: a critical step of the process was to appoint and delegate teachers and staff to work with the outsourcer. The exchange of information was consistently monitored to ensure the services of outsourcing conformed to the agreement between the school ant the agency. 3) output: the ICT system within the school administration in term of academic, budget, human resource and general management. 4) outcome of the use of ICT in school: satisfactory to needs and goals of students, teachers and staff, school, community and stakeholders. 5) feedback: the data providing feedback from ICT in school which was used for work improvement and continuous development. The school community and its participation reflected upon input, process, output and outcome to improve in the ICT operations. 3. The assessment of the appropriateness and the applicability of the developed ICT outsourcing management model for private school administration resulted from the focus group discussion and the consensus of the scholars found that the developed model was useful and practical. This model was a manual guideline and described activities and steps of using the ICT partnership outsourcing. The information was presented in systematic patterns starting from the setting a goal or the future perspectives of the school, consisted of input, process, output, outcome, and feedback. (Figure 2) The process presented was a dynamic qualitative management for continuous development with graphic effects and caption which were used to effectively convey the ideas leading to practical exercise. The steps were in a straightforward, modern and adaptable format so that it can used as the instruction for ICT outsourcing management, which school can adopt or apply in relation to the context, readiness, and requirements that differed from each school. The instruction could be applied in other institutions and could be applied in other areas of management. This was acknowledged as an innovation of educational management. This school management tool facilitated decision making, and creating awareness to the importance of ICT outsourcing management, which grasps on the development of technologies that responded to the needs of society and appropriately corresponded to the second educational reform. Recommendation Strategic Policy: 1. There should be an effective communication system to clarify the policy level and to create a good attitude and understanding that illustrate the importance of ICT outsourcing management working with the school together as partners in the implementation.

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2. There should be a third party responsible for defining the standards, monitoring, and controlling the middle person in negotiation to create the confidence for the school and the ICT outsourcing agency. Application: 1. School administration should be aware of the importance of ICT outsourcing management and involved participation of all parties within the partnership. 2. There should be more supportive inference on the ICT human resources outsourcing, as sustainable development was to promote on the human resources. 3. The study on the application of ICT outsourcing management must be closely reviewed so that the school administration could better regulate the system. Further research study: 1. Study of the strategies of ICT partnership outsourcing management for school administration. 2. Study of the ICT outsourcing management model for ICT human resources. 3. Study of the results of the ICT outsourcing management model for private school administration from this research.

Reference Boonlert Watjatrakul. (2008). IT Strategic Outsourcing. Bangkok: Se-Education. Becta. (2008). A Managed Service Approach. http://schools.becta.org.uk. (15 January 2009). Corbett F.M. (2004). The Outsourcing Revolution: why it makes sense and how to do it right. Chicago: Dearborn. http://outsourcingprofessional.org. (20 October 2008). Dominguez R. L. (2006). The Managers Step-by-Step Guide to Outsourcing. New York: McGraw-Hill. Friedman L.T. (2007). The World is Flat 3.0: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century. http://www.thomaslfriedman.com. (19 February 2009). Frost, S. and Sullivan, P. (2005). Benchmarking of the Smart School Integrated Solution. http://www.mscmalaysia.my. (19 June 2009) Smith, S. (2007). Building Schools for the Future: the ICT outsourcing route. School Financial Management October 2007. http://www.teachingexpertise.com. (19 February 2009) Vatcharapol Sukhotu. (2007). Outsource: the managers step-by-step guide to outsourcing. Bangkok: E.I. Square.

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