Insourcing Knowledge

Abstract

The term outsourcing can be studied further by using the opposite term of insourcing. Hirschheim and Lacity (2000) define insourcing as the practice of evaluating the outsourcing option, but confirming the continued use of internal IT resources to achieve the same objectives of outsourcing. They studied six decision factors: decision scope, decision sponsor, evaluation process, year of decision, size of the organization, and decision outcome. Lacity et al. (1996) define total insourcing as the management and provision of at least 80 percent of the IT budget internally after evaluating the IT service market. The common element of the two definitions seems to be that customers evaluate the external IT services market before a sourcing decision takes place.