Abstract
This papers shows that the management of contractual relationships in IS/IT outsourcing is not only receiving greater attention in academic research, but that it has also moved into focus of companies with high outsourcing degrees. This shift of management attention is accompanied by observable changes in IT organizations’ design, revealing an underrepresented but promising research topic. While prior research has predominantly explored single aspects, for example, supplier selection or relationship building, this article takes a more holistic approach on IT supplier relationship management (SRM) with a focus on organizational design. A conceptual framework, covering three core elements of organizational design, strategy, structure and process, guided the multiple case study on IT SRM in five client IT organizations. One key finding from sourcing strategy is that IT organizations have in parts significantly and abruptly reduced their number of suppliers in the last years, a phenomenon typically well known in the automobile industry. With regard to structure, different organizational models are presented, varying upon their degree of centralization and mode of sourcing. The concept of a hybrid (centralized-decentralized) structure, where a central unit fulfills SRM activities, was shown to be the predominant model within our case organizations. Design and potential benefits of this barely examined model are discussed in detail and empirical examples are provided respectively. As a third organizational design component, formal processes and lateral connections are presented as a means to bridge barriers between organizational entities central to IT SRM. Finally, various opportunities for future research are illustrated.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Alsudairi, M, and Dwivedi, Y.K (2010). A Multi-disciplinary Profile of IS/IT Outsourcing Research, Journal of Enterprise Information Management 23(2): 215–258.
Aral, S, Bakos, J.Y, and Brynjolfsson, E. (2010). How Trust, Incentives and IT Shape Global Supplier Networks: Theory and evidence from IT services procurement [www document] http://ssrn.com/abstract=1635891 (accessed 16th August 2011).
Arttoa, K, Kulvika, I, Poskelab, J, and Turkulainen, V (2011). The Integrative Role of the Project Management Office in the Front End of Innovation, International Journal of Project Management 29(4): 408–421.
Bagozzi, R.P, Yi, Y, and Philips, L.W (1991). Assessing Construct Validity in Organizational Research, Administrative Science Quarterly 36(3): 421–458.
Bakos, J.Y (1991). A Strategic Analysis of Electronic Marketplaces, MIS Quarterly 15(3): 295–310.
Bakos, J.Y, and Brynjolfsson, E (1993). Information Technology, Incentives, and the Optimal Number of Suppliers, Journal of Management Information Systems 10(2): 37–53.
Brown, D, and Wilson, S (2005). The Black Book of Outsourcing: How to manage the changes, challenges, and opportunities, Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.
Campbell, D.T (1955). The Informant in Quantitative Research, American Journal of Sociology 60(4): 339–342.
Champoux, J.E (2000). Organization Behavior – Essential tenets for a new millennium, Cincinnati: South-Western College Publishing.
Chandler, A.D (1962). Strategy and Structure, New York: Wiley.
Clemons, E.K, Reddi, S.P, and Row, M.C (1993). The Impact of Information Technology on the Organization of Economic Activity: The ‘move to the middle’ hypothesis, Journal of Management Information Systems 10(2): 9–35.
Coase, R (1937). The Nature of the Firm, Economica 4(16): 386–405.
Cohen, L, and Young, A (2006). Multisourcing: Moving beyond outsourcing to achieve growth and agility, Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press.
Connaughton, P.M. (2011). Inside the Next Generation Vendor Management Office [www document] http://www.cio.com/article/678325/Inside_The_Next_Generation_Vendor_Management_Office (accessed 16th August 2011).
Cousins, P.D. (1999). Supply Base Rationalisation: Myth or reality?, European Journal of Purchasing & Supply Management 5(3): 143–155.
Cullen, S, Seddon, P.B, and Willcocks, L.P (2005). IT Outsourcing Configuration: Research into defining and designing outsourcing arrangements, Journal of Strategic Information Systems 14(4): 357–387.
Cusumano, M.A, and Takeishi, A (1991). Supplier Relations and Management: A survey of Japanese, Japanese-transplant, and U.S. auto plants, Strategic Management Journal 12(8): 563–588.
Dibbern, J, Goles, T, Hirschheim, R, and Jayatilaka, B (2004). Information Systems Outsourcing: A survey and analysis of the literature, ACM SIGMIS Database 35(4): 6–102.
Donaldson, L (2001). The Contingency Theory of Organizations, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Drazin, R, and Van De Ven, A.H (1985). Alternative Forms of Fit in Contingency Theory, Administrative Science Quarterly 30(4): 514–539.
Dubé, L, and Paré, G (2003). Rigor in Information Systems Positivist Case Research: Current practices, trends, and recommendations, MIS Quarterly 27(4): 597–635.
Eisenhardt, K.M (1989). Building Theories from Case Study Research, The Academy of Management Review 14(4): 532–550.
Feeny, D.F, and Willcocks, L.P (1998). Re-designing the IS Function Around Core Capabilities, Long Range Planning 31(3): 354–367.
Fitzgerald, G, and Willcocks, L.P. (1994). Contracts and Partnerships in the Outsourcing of IT, in International Conference on Information Systems (Vancouver, Canada, 1994), [www document] http://aisel.aisnet.org/icis1994/8/ (accessed 16th August 2011).
Galbraith, J (1973). Designing Complex Organizations, Reading: Addison Wesley.
Galbraith, J (1977). Organization Design, Reading: Addison-Wesley.
Galbraith, J.R, Downey, D, and Kates, A (2002). Designing Dynamic Organizations: A hands-on guide for leaders at all levels, New York: Amacon.
Gonzales, R, Gasco, J, and Llopis, J (2006). Information Systems Outsourcing: A literature analysis, Information and Management 43(7): 821–834.
Goo, J, Kishore, R, Nam, K, Rao, H.R, and Song, Y (2007). An Investigation of Factors that Influence the Duration of IT Outsourcing Relationships, Decision Support Systems 42(2): 2107–2125.
Goo, J (2009). Promoting Trust and Relationship Commitment through Service Level Agreements in IT Outsourcing Relationship, In R. Hirschheim, A. Heinzl, and J. Dibbern (eds.) Information Systems Outsourcing: Enduring themes, global challenges, and process opportunities, Berlin: Springer-Verlag, pp. 27–54.
Guth, S.R (2007). The Vendor Management Office: Unleashing the power of strategic sourcing, Breiningsville: Lulu Press.
Heckman, R (1999). Managing the IT Procurement Process, Information Systems Management 16(1): 61–71.
Hirschheim, R, Dibbern, J, and Heinzl, A (2008). Foreword to the Special Issue on IS Sourcing, Information Systems Frontiers 10(2): 125–127.
Jimmy, J., Seddon, P.B, and Reynolds, P. (2011). Exploring the Organizational Structure and Coordination of Multi-national IT Outsourcing Vendors, in European Conference on Information Systems, (Helsinki, Finland, 2011), [www document] http://aisel.aisnet.org/ecis2011/66/ (accessed 16th August 2011).
Johnson, P.F, Leenders, M.R, Klassen, R.D, and Fearon, H.E (2001). A Cross-sector Comparison of Purchasing Team Use, In A. Erridge, R. Fee, and J. McIlroy (eds.) Best Practice Procurement: Public and private sector perspectives, Hampshire: J. Gower Publishing.
Johnson, P.F, and Leenders, M.R (2001). The Supply Organizational Structure Dilemma, Journal of Supply Chain Management 37(3): 4–11.
Koppelmann, U (1998). Procurement Marketing: A strategic concept, Berlin: Springer-Verlag.
Lacity, M.C, Khan, S, Yan, A, and Willcocks, L.P (2010). A Review of the IT Outsourcing Empirical Literature and Future Research Directions, Journal of Information Technology 25(4): 395–433.
Lacity, M.C, and Hirschheim, R.A (1993). The Information Systems Outsourcing Bandwagon, Sloan Management Review 35(1): 73–86.
Lacity, M.C, and Willcocks, L.P (1998). An Empirical Investigation of Information Technology Sourcing Practices: Lessons from experience, MIS Quarterly 22(3): 363–408.
Lasch, R, and Janker, C.G (2005). Supplier Selection and Controlling Using Multivariate Analysis, International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management 35(6): 409–425.
Lee, J.-N., Miranda, S.M, and Kim, Y.-M (2004). IT Outsourcing Strategies: Universalistic, contingency, and configurational explanations of success, Information Systems Research 15(2): 110–131.
Lemke, F, Goffin, K, Szwejczewski, M, Pfeiffer, R, and Lohmüller, B (2000). Supplier Base Management: Experiences from the UK and Germany, International Journal of Logistics Management 11(2): 45–58.
Levina, N, and Su, N (2008). Global Multisourcing Strategy: The emergence of a supplier portfolio in services offshoring, Decision Sciences 39(3): 541–570.
Malone, T.W, Yates, J, and Benjamin, R.I (1987). Electronic Markets and Electronic Hierarchies, Communications of the ACM 30(6): 484–497.
Markides, C.C (1999). A Dynamic View of Strategy, Sloan Management Review 40(3): 55–63.
McFarlan, F.W, and Nolan, R.L (1995). How to Manage an IT Outsourcing Alliance, Sloan Management Review 36(2): 9–23.
Miles, M.B, and Huberman, M. (1994). Qualitative Data Analysis: A sourcebook of new methods, Beverly Hills: Sage Publications.
Miles, R.E, and Snow, C.C (1978). Organizational Strategy, Structure, and Process, New York: McGraw-Hill.
Monczka, R.M. (2000). New Product Development: Strategies for supplier integration, Milwaukee: ASQ Quality Press.
Monczka, R.M, Handfield, R.B, Guinipero, L.C, Patterson, J.L, and Walters, D (2010). Purchasing and Supply Chain Management, Hampshire: Cengage Learning EMEA.
Office of Government Commerce (2007). Service Design, Volume2 of ITIL Series, UK: The Stationary Office.
Office of Government Commerce (2010). Introduction to the ITIL Service Lifecycle, UK: The Stationary Office.
Ogden, J.A, and Carter, P.L (2008). The Supply Base Reduction Process: An empirical investigation, International Journal of Logistics Management 19(1): 5–28.
Peters, T.J, and Waterman, R.H. Jr. (1982). In Search of Excellence: Lessons from America’s Best-Run Companies,New York: Harper and Row.
Poppo, L, and Zenger, T (2002). Do Formal Contracts and Relational Governance Function as Substitutes or Complements, Strategic Management Journal 23(8): 707–725.
Project Management Institute (2008). A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, Newton Square: PMI.
Pugh, D.S, Hickson, D.J, Hinings, C.R, and Turner, C (1968). Dimensions of Organization Structure, Administrative Science Quarterly 13(1): 65–105.
Richardson, J, and Roumasset, J (1995). Sole Sourcing, Competitive Sourcing, Parallel Sourcing: Mechanisms for supplier performance, Managerial and Decision Economics 16(1): 71–84.
Rottman, J.W, and Lacity, M.C (2006). Proven Practices for Effectively Offshoring IT Work, MIT Sloan Management Review 47(3): 56–64.
Snow, C.C, Miles, R.E, and Miles, G (2005). A Configurational Approach to the Integration of Strategy and Organization Research, Strategic Organization 3(4): 431–439.
Sparrow, E (2003). Successful IT Outsourcing: From choosing a provider to managing the project, London: Springer-Verlag.
Trent, R.J (2004). The Use of Organizational Design Features in Purchasing and Supply Management, Journal of Supply Chain Management 40(3): 4–18.
Van Weele, A.J (2009). Purchasing and Supply Chain Management: Analysis, strategy, planning and practice, Hampshire: Cengage Learning EMEA.
Willcocks, L, Feeny, D, and Olson, N (2006). Implementing Core IS Capabilities: Feeny–Willcocks IT governance and management framework revisited, European Management Journal 24(1): 28–37.
Willcocks, L, Oshri, I, and Hindle, J. (2010). To Bundle or Not To Bundle? Effective Decision-making for Business and IT Services, London: The Outsourcing Unit/Accenture.
Willcocks, L, and Lacity, M.C (2006). Global Sourcing of Business and IT Services, New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Williamson, O.E (1981). The Economics of Organization: The transaction cost approach, The American Journal of Sociology 87(3): 548–575.
Williamson, O.E (1985). The Economic Institutions of Capitalism: Firms, markets, relational contracting, New York: The Free Press.
Yin, R.K (2003). Case Study Research, Design and Methods, Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.
Acknowledgments
This study and paper was extensively discussed in a series of meetings and extensive exchanges over a period of a year. The authors want to thank Heiko Russow, Dr. Christoph Klingenberg and Dr. Michael Frank for their valuable comments and support during this time. The authors are also grateful to Prof. Mary Lacity, Prof. Leslie Willcocks and anonymous reviewers for providing their valuable comments and suggestions, which have greatly improved the paper. Without the efforts and openness of our interview partners, whose names cannot be mentioned here without violating the anonymity of the case companies, this study would not have been possible – we are very grateful for the time each of them spent on this work.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Appendix
Appendix
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Kaiser, J., Buxmann, P. (2017). Organizational Design of IT Supplier Relationship Management: A Multiple Case Study of Five Client Companies. In: Willcocks, L., Lacity, M., Sauer, C. (eds) Outsourcing and Offshoring Business Services. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-52651-5_6
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-52651-5_6
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-52650-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-52651-5
eBook Packages: Business and ManagementBusiness and Management (R0)