ISEDJ

Abstract: Often, users of information systems (both automated and manual) must analyze those systems in a “black box” fashion, without being able to see the internals of how the system is supposed to work. In this case of business process outsourcing, an insurance industry customer encounters an ongoing stream of customer service issues, with both the original provider and outsourcing organization. To understand and validate what is happening with his account, the insurance customer (Edward) and his representative (Penny) must deduce the operations, business rules, and data flows of the organizations. Most importantly, have the operations of these organizations released anyone’s data inappropriately? And are these same customer service issues happening to other customers, who may not be in a position to spend the time and energy needed to catch and resolve them?

Keywords: black box, Outsourcing, Information quality, Data migration, Business Rules, case study

Download this article: ISEDJ - V14 N2 Page 4.pdf

Recommended Citation: Witman, P. D., Njunge, C. (2016). Black Box Thinking: Analysis of a Service Outsourcing Case in Insurance . Information Systems Education Journal, 14(2) pp 4-13. http://isedj.org/2016-14/ ISSN: 1545-679X. (A preliminary version appears in The Proceedings of EDSIG 2015)