Developing an IT Bidding Maturity Model (ITBMM) for IT firms operating in the Gulf Region

• Main Author: Bayanouni, H.
• Published: University of Salford 2016
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.736317

A key focus of presented research is to develop a maturity assessment framework, in order to enhance the bidding process of the Information Technology (IT) firms. Area of investigation has been firms operating within the Gulf Region. Key research emphasis has been to address prevailing knowledge gap in understanding key factors that influence IT bidding capability of firms operating within Gulf region. The developed maturity framework is based on the selected areas and, that criterion that have addressed direct effect on the bidding process. The main purpose of developing this framework is to provide a clear assessment of the existing bidding process from the different perspectives, to address the existing good practices and to suggest the areas and criteria that need enhancement by providing a clear roadmap and action plan for a continuous improvement. The first stage of the research explored the literature review areas. Within state of the art review, key research in areas of bidding strategies, maturity models and areas affecting bidding progress, where the review will enrich the Ph.D. research by giving more details about the research gap and problem. The second stage of the research explores, discusses and puts forward potential solution to overcome the research gap and problem by developing a framework. The framework covers the different areas and criteria as presented in the literature review section. The areas and criteria have been linked with the deficient theory and literature behind to highlight the real practice and to validate the proposed framework. The main areas and criteria covered by the proposed framework are people, process and the environment or culture. The framework further classifies ‘people’ into staffing, training & career development and competencies & skills (experience). Besides that, ‘process’ has been classified into policy or procedure, communication, and tools. Environment or culture has been divided into management, structure, and culture. The link to the real practice was done on the third stage of the Ph.D. research by conducting three case studies and testing them with the proposed framework. Besides that, data was collected for the study and the researcher has analyzed it to test the result of the developed framework. The case studies are followed by recommendations and conclusion for future enhancement of the framework along with the suggestions for future development.