A knowledge asset management implementation framework for information systems outsourcing projects

Abstract

Organisations are increasingly outsourcing information systems (IS) to external service providers. These IS outsourcing decisions are driven by multiple organisational factors such as outsource vendor expertise and knowledge, process performance improvement due to better IS, and enabling the organisation’s ability to focus on its core capabilities. In order to harnass such vendor knowledge to achieve business outcomes, the importance of a shared knowledge asset base, between the client organisation and outsource vendor, is emphasised. However, outcomes from IS outsourcing remain poor despite consideration of experience and research. Therefore, the aim of this study is to design and propose a knowledge asset management implementation framework that may be applied in IS outsourcing projects. The proposed framework was evaluated by an experienced programme director and its applicability was tested against a large scale IS outsourcing project. The purpose of such a framework is to enable organisations to manage and institutionalise knowledge assets that are created during the IS outsourcing project and to ensure that the organisation may gain the benefit from such knowledge assets as an outcome of the IS outsourcing arrangement.