Information Systems Outsourcing - Enterprise Information Systems Design, Implementation and Management: Organizational Applications - page 422

• Service Provider panel: 55% of 20 invited

experts;

study that state the Service Provider performance
is the greatest distress for organizations.
This panel believes that the most important
benefit to achieve by Outsourcing is the organi-
zations focus on their core business functions.
This result is coincident with Gonzalez et al.
(2005c) conclusions from an investigation con-
ducted among the largest Spanish firms and it is
also confirmed by 50% of the participants of an
IDC (2005) study carried out among Portuguese
organizations. On the contrary on a study carried
out by Deloitte (2005) cost reduction is indicated
by 70% of participants as the main reason to
outsource; and only 35% specify focus on core
business as a reason.

• Clients group: 25% of 48 elements;

• Opinion Makers panel: 82% of 12 selected.

eMpiricAL studY resuLts
And discussion

On this section the study results, risks and ben-
efits, are presented for each participant group:
Service Providers, Clients and Opinion Makers.
The comparison of their perspectives allowed to
evaluate to what extent a common view is shared
by the market players.

results

Opinion Makers

Service Providers

The Opinion Makers group think that the risks of
most importance are: the existence of deficien-
cies on the contract, a poor cost-benefit analysis
performed by organizations and the possibility of
an organization getting in the hands of the service
provider (lock-in).
Results demonstrate that this panel consid-
ers the greatest benefits: focus on core business
functions, access to highly skilled resources and
a higher control and accuracy over the IS/IT
performance and costs.

For Service Providers group the most important
risks an organization should take under consid-
eration when adopting IS Outsourcing are: the
existence of deficiencies on the contract, a poor
cost-benefit analysis performed by the organiza-
tion and the lack of compliance with the contract
by the providers.
This panel also considers that the most im-
portant benefits to attain with IS Outsourcing
are: focus on core business functions, increase
in organization flexibility and access to highly
skilled resources. discussion

Clients Outsourcing Risks

The Clients group consider the existence of de-
ficiencies on the contract as the most concerning
risk when it comes to outsource. This study shows
that more than costs, the risk Clients fear most
is the possibility of contract deficiencies. On the
contrary, the IDC (2004) study among Portuguese
organizations describe that 50% of participants are
concerned about costs and just 40% consider the
contractual issue as a barrier to outsource. Another
conclusion is pointed out by the Deloitte (2005)

This study shows that the Portuguese market play-
ers share a common view about the most feared
risk associated to Outsourcing (Table 6). They
consider the existence of deficiencies on contract
as the risk of most importance. This apprehension
about contract is also shown on Gonzalez et al.
(2005b) investigation where bigger organizations
see a proper contract structuring as the Outsourc-
ing relationship success key. However they don't
share the same opinion about the other listed risks.