"This book balances the positive outcomes of outsourcing, which have made it a popular management strategy with the negative to provide a more inclusive decision; it explores risk factors that have not yet been widely associated with this strategy. It focuses on the conceptual "what", "why", and "where" aspects of outsourcing as well as the methodological "how" aspects"--Provided by publisher.

This book is unique in that it does not simply discuss an author's practitioner experience or present a summary of academic research on what makes projects succeed. Rather, this book does not hide the real complexity of the issue and does not attempt to introduce the reader to some elusive nonexistent boilerplate solution. The book does include real world experience and does summarize academic research, but it also treats outsourcing for what it is -- an incredibly complex process. There are however many steps managers can take to understand outsourcing for what it really is and manage this process accordingly. It is this focus on the correct mindset, rather than the methodological steps alone, that makes this book unique, and that is why the title of the book is about outsourcing as an art and philosophy.

Four years have been passed away since the first edition of this book has been published. While certain key issues on IS sourcing like determinants and application service provision have become more mature from an academic and industry perspective, additional topics have arisen on the horizon. In particular, offshoring and business process outsourcing have led to numerous insightful publications which offer a valuable and indispensable holistic sourcing persp- tive. Thus, the second edition of our outsourcing book deals with enduring themes, new perspectives, and global challenges. In addition to classical themes like Sourcing Determinants (Part I), Relationship Aspects (Part II), and Experiences (Part III), we felt it worthwhile to add three new parts. They cover information systems outsourcing from a Vendor and Individual Perspective (Part IV), Application Service Providing (Part V) as well as Offshoring and Global Outsoucing (Part VI). Again we have thoughtfully tried to arrange a compilation of contemporary outsourcing research as a primer and a platform for scientific discourse. In contrast to the first edition, this book is not the outcome of an International Conference, but rather an update of important and relevant perspectives. Since the Third International Conference on Outsourcing of Information Services will take place 2007 in Heidelberg, Germany, it may be considered as an epilogue for further interactions and discussions.

This book walks readers through an outsourcing transaction step-by-step: analyzing the benefits, selecting vendor, structuring the deal, managing the relationship. Provides managers with an organized methodical approach to the often intimidating prospect of relinquising absolute control of every aspect of a company's business.

Information Systems and Outsourcing covers nearly 20 years of leading theoretical and practical research on IT outsourcing by the two authors and their global network of 11 distinguished contributing authors. The book is organized chronologically to clearly show the evolution of theory and practice over time. The authors comment on which findings remain critically relevant versus which findings have considerably progressed. The book explores how good IT outsourcing theories shape practice and how effective IT outsourcing practices inform theory. The authors stress, through their own empirical work, the importance of critically examining theories borrowed from economics, strategy, and sociology to study IT outsourcing. The practice studies, based on over 500 case studies, explore the decision processes and management practices associated with domestic, offshore, and global sourcing of IT services from both client and supplier perspectives.

The question of outsourcing is inherently part of organizing the information systems function of any organization. This book is intended to support organizations that are considering or have chosen to outsource. A model for IS outsourcing decision making is presented that managers can use during analysis of whether outsourcing will be sensible and beneficial for their organization.

Using case studies of 13 companies, examines the intentions, motivations, decision making, outcomes and consequences of information systems outsourcing. Proposes an outsourcing evaluation process.