ABSTRACT
Outsourcing computer operations is not a new concept. Since the 1960s, companies have been in the business of providing computer operations support for a fee. In almost all cases, the reasons for justifying the outsourcing decision were based on financial factors. Many organizations viewed the regular monthly costs associated with the outsource contract far more acceptable than the need to justify and depreciate a major capital expense. If the executives were required to increase security and reduce response time to maintain a competitive edge, the data communications manager was expected to place the demand on the outsourced provider. While the data center operations and data communications outsourcing industries have been fairly easy to isolate and identify, the application development outsourcing business is more subtle. Despite the difficulty in viewing the clear picture of application development outsourcing, the justification was always quite clear.
