Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
I
nformation technology outsourcingthe prac- General Dynamics, Inland Revenue, JP Morgan,
tice of transferring IT assets, leases, staff, and Kodak, Lufthansa, McDonnell Douglas, South Aus-
management responsibility for delivery of ser- tralian Government, Swiss Bank, Xerox, and Com-
vices from internal IT functions to third-party monwealth Bank of Australia. The IT outsourcing
vendorshas become an undeniable trend ever since market, which was worth $76 billion in 1995, grew to
Kodaks 1989 landmark decision. In recent years, pri- over $120 billion in 1997 [5].
vate and public sector organizations worldwide have As the market evolves, a number of important
outsourced significant portions of their IT functions, aspects of these IT outsourcing decisions have been
among them British Aerospace, British Petroleum, explored. These studies can be categorized as descrip-
Canadian Post Office, Chase Manhattan Bank, Con- tive case studies and surveys of the current outsourcing
tinental Airlines, Continental Bank, Enron, First City, practices, surveys of practitioners perceptions of risks
One of the questions I asked was, How do you view IT, Mr. President, particularly in
the operational center, as an asset to your corporation? Of potential value? For the most part,
business people dont see it that way. They see it as cost.The IT Manager at TCOM
describing the Presidents view of IT.
The Board could care less about IT. They treated it like they
treated the heat or electricity. CIO of UNIVERSITY.
W e interviewed 41 partici-
pants at 14 companies (See
accompanying table). The choice
included coverage of the scope of
the sourcing decision, sponsors of
the decision, the sourcing evalua-
details in which insourcing was
considered; the key participants
in the decision process; their pre-
of the case studies was based on tion process, and implementation understanding of the sourcing
the desire to have a variety of process. All participants were also options and apparent values and
sourcing experiences in terms of asked to assess the decision out- assumptions; how these values
degree of financial success come in terms of their perceptions and beliefs were manifest in the
claimed, primarily assessed a pri- of success or failure and why actual decision to insource; the
ori through the trade press and they felt the way they did about implementation of the decision;
personal contacts. We sought to the outcome. When participants and the consequences (results) of
generate insights into best sourc- expressed a viewpoint, they were insourcing.
ing practices by comparing suc- prompted to provide specific sup-
cesses and failures. The porting evidence. The evidence 2. Analyze six decision factors
organizations also represented a consisted of anecdotes as well as across the cases. Once we had a
wide spectrum of industries. In documentation such as bench- feel for each individual case, we
order to facilitate the discussion, marking reports, IT budgets, then scanned across the 14 cases
the 14 companies are referred to internal bids, outsourcing bids, to see what similarities and dif-
by pseudonyms based on their and bid analysis criteria. In cases ferences existed. We analyzed six
industry typeCHEM1, CHEM2, where opinions of participants at factors across the casesdecision
FOOD1, and so on. the same organization differed, scope, decision sponsor, evalua-
At each case site, we con- we conducted follow-up tele- tion process, year of the decision,
ducted face-to-face interviews phone calls to clarify their posi- size of the organization, and deci-
with individuals directly involved tions. sion outcome. These factors were
in sourcing decisions. Intervie- Participants were also asked derived from our previous
wees included senior business specific questions about their research on outsourcing [7].
executives and IT managers who company and IT department. Per-
sponsored the sourcing evalua- taining to their company, partici- 3. Employ a rhetorical device to
tions, consultants hired to assist pants described the generalize common themes
contract negotiations, and IT per- organizational structure, the among the cases. The use of
sonnel responsible for gathering major products and services pro- archetypes is employed to con-
technical and financial informa- duced, competition in the indus- dense and simplify a complex
tion pertaining to the sourcing try, financial situation, corporate subject matter. We are not using
decision. All interviews were con- goals, business successes and archetypes necessarily as an ana-
ducted in person at the company failures. Pertaining to IT, partici- lytical tool, rather as a rhetorical
site. All participants were assured pants described IT activity in device to convey the themes
anonymity so as to promote open terms of headcount, budget, extracted from our analysis of the
discussions. chargeback system, size of data textual data collected in the case
Interviews followed the same centers, user satisfaction, chal- studies.
protocol, proceeding from an lenges, goals, and reputation.
unstructured to a structured for- 4. Identify common lessons across
mat. During the unstructured por- Data Analysis the cases. While these archetypes
tion, participants were asked to The transcribed interviews were capture the differences among
tell their sourcing story, which analyzed using a data analysis insourcing approaches, we also
allowed them to convey their process involving the following sought to characterize common
interpretations freely. We then steps: elements, or lessons to be learned
asked semistructured questions from the body of research. These
designed to solicit information on 1. Create individual case descrip- common lessons describe stake-
specific sourcing issues that may tions. Detailed cases were written holder attitudes, perceptions, and
have been absent from their pre- up based on each interview. Each behaviors based on implicit
vious recollections. These issues case included the historical assumptions about IT sourcing. c
They are always telling us our processing for payroll is too damn expensive. Then when you
say, Well have you looked outside? Oh yes, we beat the heck out of them. So our costs are too
high but they cant get it any cheaper. Director of IT Administration at RETAIL1