Analysis of IT Multisourcing Practice in a Telecommunication Company

Abstract

Organizations have used numerous sourcing strategies to realize an underlying value of IT from strategic and operational perspectives. However, a number of these sourcing strategies have failed to deliver on their expected outcomes. Multisourcing has been advanced as a form of sourcing which addresses the deficiencies of other failed strategies. This research attempts to examine the notion of benefits and risks for IT multisourcing so as to explore the underpinnings of IT multisourcing practice in the telecommunication industry. By employing a case study we found that the benefits identified are mainly associated with ability to lower IT costs, improvement of IT service levels and enabling access to specialist vendors for adaptive capability. The costs and risks of IT multisourcing addressed are related to vendor management, information security in general and effective service management across organizations in particular.