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Application Outsourcing in Europe: Long-term Outcomes, Success Factors and Implications for IT Industrialisation
Kronawitter K, Wentzel C, Papadaki M
Issues in Information Systems, Volume 13, Issue 2, pp. 369 - 379, 2012
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The evolution of the information technology (IT) industry towards industrialization is a widely discussed topic. Will enterprises move permanently towards outsourcing IT services to external vendors who produce standardized IT products for an increasingly large customer group? The dramatic growth of IT-Outsourcing (ITO) points in this direction. However, the success of IT outsourcing is not guaranteed. Only if enterprises are satisfied with their ITOs in the long term, can such schemes become successful. At the moment, there is a lack of research on understanding the success factors and their impact on ITOs. This paper focuses on this research gap and presents the central findings of an intensive analysis of 8 application outsourcing case studies in 5 European banks: applications of different kinds can be successfully outsourced in the long run; Success factors exist which are basically relevant for all ITO cases (general success factors); The relevance of other success factors depends on basic conditions like the organizational form (specific success factors); An ITO model was developed with the aim to aid organizations in planning and implementing ITO solutions and to guide them step-by-step through an ITO project that comprises of the core factors relevant for sustained ITO success.

Kronawitter K, Wentzel C, Papadaki M