ABSTRACT
Engaging in partnerships involves taking certain risks, and IT outsourcing is no exception. It is these risks and their management that we will discuss in this chapter. First, in Section 7.2, the subject of risk management is treated in a general way. We look into the processes and procedures that both service providers and service recipients must set up to keep the risks of IT outsourcing relationships under control. We will see that there is a difference between the risks involved in setting up such relationships and contracts, and the risks of managing these relationships. Since the focus in this book is on partnership management and not on their acquisition, we only briefly look at the first category of risks (Section 7.3). Then, in Section 7.4, partnership management risks will be studied more thoroughly. Finally in the Section 8.5 the conclusions are listed. This chapter also includes a case study on complexities in multi-sourcing engagements. This chapter entails a subdivision into ten kinds of risks, each of which will be discussed in some detail. Once we are aware of the risks involved, we can move on to Chapter 8 to study the governance of IT outsourcing relationships.
