IRMA-International.org: Creator of Knowledge
Information Resources Management Association
Advancing the Concepts & Practices of Information Resources Management in Modern Organizations

An Overview of IT Outsourcing in Public-Sector Agencies

An Overview of IT Outsourcing in Public-Sector Agencies
View Sample PDF
Author(s): Anne Rouse (Deakin University, Australia)
Copyright: 2010
Pages: 10
Source title: IT Outsourcing: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and Applications
Source Author(s)/Editor(s): Kirk St.Amant (East Carolina University, USA)
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-60566-770-6.ch016

Purchase

View An Overview of IT Outsourcing in Public-Sector Agencies on the publisher's website for pricing and purchasing information.

Abstract

For the past 15 years, governments in the developed, Western world have been contracting out, or outsourcing, services as a key part of publicsector reforms. Outsourcing has been argued to lead to cost savings, improved discipline, better services, access to scarce skills, and the capacity for managers to focus more time on the core business of their organizations (Domberger, 1998). Government outsourcing initiatives have encompassed a range of services, but given the large sums of money invested in IT assets, the outsourcing of IT services (IT outsourcing, or ITO) has been a major initiative for many agencies. Lacity and Willcocks (1998, p. 3) defined ITO as “handing over to a third party [the] management of IS/IT assets, resources and/or activities for required results.” For public-sector outsourcing, this handover is usually made by way of a competitive tender. Case studies have reported ITO successes and failures (e.g., Currie & Willcocks, 1998; Rouse & Corbitt, 2003; Willcocks & Currie, 1997; Lacity and Willcocks, 2001; Willcocks & Kern, 1998), but much of the evidence presented to public-sector decision makers to justify this reform is anecdotal and unsystematic, and when investigated in depth, does not necessarily support widespread conclusions.

Related Content

Donald Carpenter, Vijay Agrawal. © 2010. 18 pages.
Vanita Yadav, Rajen Gupta. © 2010. 10 pages.
Luke Ho, Anthony Atkins. © 2010. 21 pages.
Mahesh Raisinghani, Brandi Starr, Blake Hickerson, Marshelle Morrison, Michael Howard. © 2010. 21 pages.
Robin Qiu. © 2010. 18 pages.
Nicholas Beaumont. © 2010. 21 pages.
Shirish Srivastava, Thompson Teo, Partha S. Mohapatra. © 2010. 16 pages.
Body Bottom