On ICT Services Outsourcing in the Context of Small and Medium Enterprises

Research on outsourcing has been around for several decades. However, its application within small and medium enterprises (SMEs), namely the field of information technology outsourcing (ITO), is still a rather unexplored trail. A need of large-scale investments and unavailability of suitable applications resulted in a situation where large percentage of SMEs does not use advanced ICT services. This consequently lowers their competitiveness. Recent emergence of the Cloud Computing and related Software-as-a-Service concept may change the whole situation. However, absence of methodologies, guidelines, and tools that could help organisations with their IT strategies, outsourcing, and management of its ICT services, together with ad-hoc or unsound decisions might cause major complications in terms of quality, usability, integration, and consequently influence the total cost of the service. Use of high quality ICT services together with its appropriate management can be considered as a cornerstone of effectiveness in the next decade. This paper describes some of the specifics of the SME segment in terms of the information systems and technology. While analysing available outsourcing models in the literature it also presents an integrated view on IT outsourcing strategies. Mainly, following the sourcing strategies taxonomy the paper describes an original concept for decision-making about outsourcing of ICT services named SOURCER framework. This concept utilises the presented outsourcing strategies, and introduces a methodology and decision-making criteria that will assist end-user organisations with the selection of ICT services in order to maintain and manage a most suitable ICT service portfolio. (C) 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. Selection and peer review under the responsibility of Prof. Dr. Andreea Iluzia Iacob.