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

This study proposes an approach to improve un-derstanding 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 fi-nancial services industry and DNDs (dependency network diagrams) employed to analyze the complex web of dependencies associated with the collabora-tion. 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 part-ners-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 de-veloping dependencies in inter-organizational collaboration.