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Parallel Transitions in IT Outsourcing: Making It Happen

  • Conference paper
Global Sourcing of Information Technology and Business Processes (Global Sourcing 2010)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing ((LNBIP,volume 55))

Abstract

Global sourcing of IT services is growing consistently over the last decades. Along with this rapid growth, instances of failures, sore relationships or unsatisfactory performances during IT outsourcing engagements are prevalent and require management attention. Over two-thirds of the problems in these unsuccessful engagements arise due to failed or poor transition. Transition is immediately followed by contract signing and precedes service delivery phase. It sets the tone for the entire relationship and involves handover of outsourced services from either the client’s internal IT department or the incumbent service provider. Recently second and third generation outsourcing engagements are coming into existence, with offshoring and multi-sourcing as an integral component of these engagements. Multi-sourcing deals, involving several service providers are emerging and require transition to be implemented in parallel. These developments exacerbate the complexity of transitions due to the presence of multiple service providers and several distributed or offshore locations, thereby further enhancing its bearing on the success of an engagement. What are the Critical Success Factors for parallel transitions? We conducted an initial Delphi study to explore success factors for parallel transitions. The findings highlight the importance of understanding the contractual agreement including transition exit criteria. Also the implementation of a joint steering committee contributes to transition success. All the stakeholders, including representatives of the incumbent service provider(s), should be represented in the steering committee to act responsive. Finally, the findings emphasis the need to manage dependencies between the transitions not limited to time lines and availability of critical resources for knowledge transfer and balancing between business continuity and timely and effective knowledge transfer.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Tilburg University, P.O. Box 90153, 5000 LE Tilburg, The Netherlands // Accenture, The Netherlands

    Erik Beulen

  2. Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University, P.O. Box 1738, 3000, DR, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

    Vinay Tiwari

Authors
  1. Erik Beulen
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  2. Vinay Tiwari
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Rotterdam School of Management, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

    Ilan Oshri

  2. Warwick Business School, Coventry, UK

    Julia Kotlarsky

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Beulen, E., Tiwari, V. (2010). Parallel Transitions in IT Outsourcing: Making It Happen. In: Oshri, I., Kotlarsky, J. (eds) Global Sourcing of Information Technology and Business Processes. Global Sourcing 2010. Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing, vol 55. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-15417-1_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-15417-1_4

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-15416-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-15417-1

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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