Managing Dependencies in Inter-Organizational Collaboration: The Case of Shared Services for Application Hosting Collaboration in Australia

This study proposes an approach to improve understanding of dependencies in inter-organizational collaboration and so assist managers make more informed decisions. Data has been collected through a case study on shared services in the Australian financial services industry and DNDs (dependency network diagrams) employed to analyze the complex web of dependencies associated with the collaboration. The paper suggests that it is not sufficient to consider a collaboration in isolation. In particular it is noted that a change affecting one dependency may trigger a compounding and cumulative interaction with other dependencies. DNDs also surface details of the governance control associated with each de-pendency and the availability of alternative partners - enabling an organization to assess the risk associated with each dependency. Finally, a weak-ness of DNDs is noted; specifically that they are static and are unable to capture the dynamics of developing dependencies in inter-organizational collaboration.