Analyzing IT maintenance outsourcing decision from a knowledge management perspective

IT outsourcing is a complex and opaque decision problem. Managers facing a decision about IT outsourcing have difficulty in framing what needs to be thought about further in their discourses. Framing is one of the most crucial steps of human decision making and needs to be assisted to better understand a decision situation. In this research, we examine a number of decision primitives in the context of an IT outsourcing decision situation. We demonstrate how the decision primitives can be employed so that managers can probe deep to better understand a decision situation and to establish a decision basis. In the organizational setting, we exemplify the use of the decision primitives in relation to the perceived outsourcing implications for the managers looking for assistance in accommodating a knowledge management perspective on IT outsourcing. Consequently, we induce insight and a guideline on how to use knowledge management for effective outsourcing in one of the leading financial institutes in Europe.