Evaluating the vendor client relationship in information system outsourcing

Outsourcing of information technology services has seen a steady growth in recent years. IT Outsourcing agreements are fraught with dangers as various case studies in the IT literature have illustrated. A number of factors have been identified that influence and shape the relationship between the organisation and a third party. The success of the adoption of information technology by organisations is characterized by various social interactions – management buy-in, technology championing, communication, training, multidisciplinary teams/user involvement and most notably for this paper, the interactions with consultants and suppliers. Given the importance of the interaction with IT suppliers/vendors particularly for Small to Medium Enterprises IS research has placed little emphasis on exploring this relationship. This paper describes a study which explores the client-vendor relationship in one exploratory case study as well as a further five case studies found in the literature on outsourcing. A subset of MacNeil’s intermediate contractual norms was used as the exploratory framework of this relationship: flexibility, information exchange and solidarity, all of which are needed for sound relationship development between organisations. A continuum of client-vendor relationships is developed through the evaluation of the case studies.