Insider Strategies for Outsourcing Information Systems: Building Productive Partnerships, Avoiding Seductive Traps

One of the fastest growing industries in America is the outsourcing of information systems, with huge and small companies alike employing contractors to manage their powerful information networks. But how effective is it for executives to hire outsourcers to administer the complicated information systems that are so critical to today's organizations?
As Kathy M. Ripin and Leonard R. Sayles point out, what may seem to executives like the proverbial free lunch–outside experts taking responsibility for the endless vexations associated with information systems management–is far from free. Often, new systems that are supposed to respond effortlessly to managerial commands are over-priced, clumsy, and sometimes useless. Insider Strategies for Outsourcing Information Systems offers executives and managers experience-based guidelines that will enable them to avoid the seductive myths and illusions that distort contractor selection and new system planning decisions. At the heart of the book are three extended cases studies–a famous specialty retailer, a financial services company, and a European telecom company–that highlight the most frequent sources of new system failure, as well as how a client's measured involvement in the process of fine-tuning a new system can bring superb results. In clear and precise language, Ripin and Sayles make explicit the skills and solutions that have proven effective in outsourcing a wide variety information systems, from new application software to enterprise-wide networks.
Today, insatiable corporate expectations, an unforgiving stock market, and a brutal global economy have made it imperative that managers at all levels effectively administer their information networks. Insider Strategies for Outsourcing Information Systems is the book that will help them insure that their businesses survive–and thrive–in the information age.