The impact of implementing critical success factors during information technology outsourcing: eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality case study.

Abstract

IT outsourcing is a decades-old practice that has been used by businesses. Organisations engage in this activity because they lack the necessary capabilities in-house to complete the assignment, and it is sometimes more cost-effective to outsource the work to another company. Using Duhamel's Outsourcing Technology Enactment model, the goal of this qualitative exploratory case study was to determine the influence of crucial success variables during IT outsourcing (Duhamel, Gutierrez-Martinez, et al., 2014). Snowball sampling was utilised to find study participants within the participating company who could offer information about the IT outsourcing initiatives. Members of the eThekwini Municipality's IT outsourcing project team served as the sample criteria. Project deputy heads, senior managers, specialists, analysts, developers, and project managers were among the participants in the study. The reason for the limitation is that the researcher was looking for participants that play a huge role and that are able to make managerial decision during IT outsourcing. NVivo Pro 12 research software was used to analyse the interviews. The tool was chosen because it has been widely used by researchers and scholars to analyse data (Syarifuddin et al., 2017). The result of this case study shows that the study participants from eThekwini Municipality understand the concept of outsourcing and the Municipality uses different types of outsourcing depending on the project to be implemented. The study participants, to a large extent, considered trust, shared knowledge and communication during a project. These factors are all important because they play a different role, they are intertwined. However, it is indicated by two senior participants that trust do not exist in business and the relationship is governed by a contract and a service level agreement. Institutional arrangements at the Municipality delays projects and should be reviewed to match up with the ever-changing IT environment. The outcomes of a project are measured using time, scope and budget. The findings from this study may be used by IT leaders and project teams for future and current projects when deciding to implement IT outsourcing projects.