ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the management of information system (IS) outsourcing in the digital transformation era, by focusing on the IS provider as an essential third party in the firm’s business relationships. The chapter proposes an analytical framework to analyse the IS provider in the context of business, by considering the situation as a business relationship triad, and suggests a new perspective on the challenges related to strategic decisions about IS outsourcing. The proposed framework relates the degree of internal cohesiveness of the triad to whether it acts as an entity, in order to outline four triad types, each imposing different managerial challenges for IS outsourcing. Managing IS outsourcing through a business-relationship triad lens allows the firm’s IS strategy and IS outsourcing decisions to be more contextually situated and, hence, better adapted.
