The Relationship Advantage: Information Technologies, Sourcing, and Management

European Journal of Information Systems (2003) 12, 161–162. doi:10.1057/palgrave.ejis.3000456 Information Technology (IT) outsourcing has received much attention in recent years from authors such as Lacity & Hirschheim (1995), Currie (1995), Lacity & Willcocks (2000), Pearcy & Benn (2002), and Damodaran (2002). Where, however, this book differentiates itself from others is through its longitudinal research at multinational ‘blue-chip’ companies that include British Aerospace, Esso’s selective, Xerox’s global, British Petroleum’s alliance and at the Inland Revenue in the U.K. This book focuses on identifying and exploring the significance of relationship practice management during the outsourcing life cycle contract, such that it supports professional post-contract management. The authors of this book start with a historical look at the origins of outsourcing and map its main approaches against organisational attitude, technology providers, business emphasis and level of risk/danger as perceived by the client. The purpose of this is to allow a retrospective look at what has been done, therefore allowing key findings to be extrapolated from past strategic decisions thus; supporting organisational learning in light of a potential ‘new’ wave of ‘e’ outsourcing. Then, the authors explore the fraught area of risk analysis and mitigation, which is an area that many organisations consider during their strategic decisionmaking process. In so doing, the book covers much ground leading to the presentation of two robust analytical frameworks. The first of these frameworks is focused on analysing risk and is applied to each case study, providing a consistent lens for viewing where practices have been adopted to mitigate risks. Each case study is subjected to a comprehensive analysis that views outsourcing relationship advantage and associated risk dimensions. The findings from this analysis are then pulled together across the case studies with a view to identifying common trends in decision-making strategy, mistakes and prescriptions that can be derived from an empirical insight into longitudinal case studies. Where this book does the business for me is in its uncompromising focus on relationship advantage and that regardless of context it remains important, especially when positioned within the outsourcing arena. The book therefore provides an interesting read to clients, vendors, researchers and anyone with a passing interest in understanding what supports effective outsourcing relationships, and how such relationships support IT outsourcing success.