ABSTRACT
Outsourcing occurs when an organization contracts with a supplier or vendor to provide specific services and support for either or both business and IT activities. Outsourcing refers to services rather than purchased products such as software. Outsourcing is considered here as a separate chapter because (I) it is so often employed in e-business and (2) it is a major cause of failure and problems in implementation and ongoing operation . Today, application service providers (ASPs) can provide many more types of services in hardware, networking, hosting, development, operations , and consulting .
