Enterprise Information Systems Outsourcing: A look behind the curtain

 

Outsourcing is now a feasible mean for Enterprise Information Systems (EIS) cost savings, but do however increase the complexity substantially when many organizations are involved. We set out to study EIS outsourcing with many interorganizational partners in a large Scandinavian high-tech organization SCANDI, trying to answer the question: Why does SCANDI engage in very complex EIS outsourcing arrangements? To answer this question we observed numerous meetings and collected data from interviews in four parts of SCANDI. After transcribing and analyzing our data we found at first just the rational cost saving explanation; but then with a more careful analysis focusing on institutional factors, other explanations "behind the curtain" were revealed, such as management consultants with a "best practice" agenda, people promoting outsourcing thereby being promoted themselves, and outside training leading to a belief in outsourcing as a "silver bullet" solving everything.