Product Description

Intelligent IT Outsourcing enables practitioners to focus in on the essential issues that need to be addressed so that the fundamental structure of their sourcing strategy and its implementation is sound. The authors provide insight into the challenges likely to be faced and give detailed advice on how to pre-empt and manage these.


IT and outsourcing continue to be problematic, not least because fundamental learning about this subject fails to be applied systematically, and because IT is inherently difficult to manage. The economics are not obvious and emerging technologies have to be addressed, therefore IT goes to the heart of many enterprises and interfaces with multiple business units and processes, and there are continuous skills shortages.

Unfortunately complexities are not removed in outsourced situations where additional problems come into play, for example the supplier's capabilities, whether the IT is right for an outsourcing solution, and whether the contract is robust but flexible enough to allow for outsourcing to take place. Objectives need to be realistic, and factors such as whether the internal management is mature and capable enough in this field, and the impact of prohibitive switching costs on behaviour once an outsourcing deal has been signed all have to be taken into account.

The authors have built up over two decades of research, advisory and practitioner experience that enables them to distil the fundamental challenges in IT and outsourcing and demonstrate how these can be addressed.

* Focuses on the fundamentals of what should be done and what should be avoided, based on actual experience applied in major IT outsourcing deals
* Research findings and case examples included throughout to support recommended practices
* Written by highly experienced, internationally acknowledged experts in the field

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #404925 in Books
• Published on: 2003-08-28
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

About the Author
Sara Cullen, Managing Director of Sara Cullen and Associates, is one of Australia's most experienced outsourcing practitioners and thought leaders. She has consulted to over 70 clients in 90 projects with contract values up to $1 billion per annum covering 45 business functions. She has designed innovative partnering arrangements including franchise-type agreements, shared risk/reward structures and incentive programs in addition to more traditional arrangements. Her clients are in the communications, defence, finance, manufacturing, transport and utility industries as well as local, state and federal governments.

Andersen Professor of Information Management and E-Business at Warwick University Business School, UK. Associate Fellow at Templeton College, Oxford and holds visiting chairs at Erasmus and Melbourne Universities.

Customer Reviews

A brilliant book on IT outsourcing!
Cullen and Wilcocks, leading researchers in IT outsourcing, suggest a new way of thinking when outsourcing IT related departments in a corporation. They call it Architect-Engage-Govern and recognise that the outsourcing process has a cyclic nature. Thus, the three areas are further broken down into eight 'building blocks'. The notion of dividing the outsourcing lifecycle into blocks gives greater management effectiveness.

The book is rich in examples drawn from the IT industry. It focuses on almost all aspects of the outsourcing lifecycle with some key notes being on relationship management, Key Performance Indicators, examples of target services bar graphs and matrix illustrations, example of transition responsibility matrix, auditing, benchmarking, contract management activities and a good account on transitioning principles and practices.

I highly recommend this book to any outsourcing specialists and IT professionals who are in/directly related to outsourcing projects.

Quite simply the best
I think that this is the best step-by-step management guide to IT outsourcing on the market today. Rob Aalders and Elizabeth Sparrow have also published excellent books on the subject, but Cullen and Willcocks have managed to combine academic insight with practical consulting experience - not an easy feat. This book just feels great - there is always a new gem each time you glance into the pages. The 8-step approach guides managers through the key steps required to set up a technology outsourcing deal. Business books are not meant to be this interesting, are they?

Great building blocks for outsourcing
This is one of the best framework books. It has a number of step-by-step chapters that really help with the planning process and is a real practitioner's guide to outsourcing. Highly recommended.