Enablers and Barriers of Knowledge Sharing for Offshore Outsource ISD Project: A Case Study

Offshore Outsourcing

Kern and Willcocks (2002, p. 3) define IT outsourcing as “[…] a process whereby an organisation decides to contract-out or sell the firm’s IT assets, people and/or activities to a third party supplier, who, in exchange, provides and manages these assets and services for an agreed fee over an agreed time period.” From a business perspective, outsourcing is motivated by the promise of strategic, financial and technological benefits (Lee & Kim, 1999). According to Venkatraman (2004), offshore outsourcing or “offshoring” is the practice among U.S. and European companies of migrating business processes overseas to India, the Philippines, Ireland, China and elsewhere to lower costs without significantly sacrificing quality. Cost reduction, support of companies’ growth strategies, competitive pressure, and access to qualified personnel for example, are strategic drivers for offshoring (Lewin & Peeters, 2006).