Future State of Outsourcing Supply Chain Information Systems: An Analysis of Survey Results

The purpose of this study is to acquire knowledge that will help clarify outsourcing trends in general and an information systems utilization perspective in particular. The authors review recent studies on outsourcing and conduct a nationwide survey. The results of the survey reveal that 60 percent of the respondents are focusing on their supply chain for cost reduction and/or competitive advantages and less than half of the respondents plan to outsource supply chain processes and information systems within the next 5 years. Results also show that major reasons for outsourcing include a lack of ability to handle in house and return on assets, while the largest barrier to outsourcing is cost followed by control concern.