Client-Vendor Relationships Survey Data

by Cutter Consortium

IT outsourcing is one of those topics that has become a staple of conversation in both the IT shop and the academic community since the late 1980s, when the era of the full outsourcing megadeals was ushered in with Eastman Kodak contracting with IBM to restructure and manage its data center operations.

Since the Kodak deal, our understanding of outsourcing, and the structuring of outsourcing deals, has progressed significantly. However, the permanence of outsourcing at the top of many lists of critical IT management topics is a testament to both its complexity and continued potential value to businesses relentlessly seeking efficiency of operations. Outsourcing can be an important asset in the firm's arsenal, but it is no panacea, and it must be proactively managed. This very realization is what motivated our interest in an issue entirely dedicated to the client-vendor relationship in the IT outsourcing context.