A Story of IT Outsourcing from Early Experience to Maturity

Commenting on the continuing growth of IT outsourcing, King (2004) argues that & #x201C;The sourcing issue is among the top five agenda items for IT executives, as the amount of such outsourcing grows, its impact on the economies of companies and nations increases and political controversy over the consequent jobs lost to offshore outsourcing heightens & #x201D;. By 2009, it is predicted that IT outsourcing expenditure will exceed $260 billion (Tan & Sia 2006). For the purposes of this chapter we have adopted the definition of outsourcing and selective sourcing used by Hirschheim and Lacity (2006). IS outsourcing is where an organization outsources at least 80% of their budget to a third-party provider. Selective sourcing is where an organization uses third-party vendors for some of the IT functions but still retains a substantial IT department.