| dc.description.abstract | Information Technology Outsourcing has been accepted as part of modern business practices. However, the associated projects are not an easy task to manage and many projects fail even though there is a lot of research within the area. This is attributed to lack of technical capacity and need to deliver quality service at a minimal cost. In the current decade, holistic Information Technology Outsourcing appears to be losing ground and as a result other options are being considered and sought, such as selective outsourcing. This research study focused on the International Business Machines Corporation (IBM), one of the top Information Technology Enterprisers in the world and more specifically, the study was based in the operations in Nairobi. The purpose of this study was to assess determinants that contribute to effective Information Technology Outsourcing with reference to the International Business Machines Corporation (IBM). The study used descriptive design. The target population composed of 80 management staff from which stratified sampling technique was used to obtain a sample of 66 respondents. From each stratum, simple random sampling was used to select the respondents for the questionnaires. Primary data was collected using questionnaires. The quantitative data in this research was analyzed by descriptive statistics using statistical package for social sciences SPPS (V.21.0). The qualitative data took an exploratory/conceptual content analysis process. In addition the study used multiple regression analysis to assess the relationship between the variables. The study found out that partnership affects effective IT outsourcing at IBM to a great extent (54.5%) and that degree of interdependency influence effective IT Outsourcing at IBM Kenya to a very great extent ( mean score = 4.525). Mutual trust, core competencies complementation, sharing of principles, sharing of common values, cooperation ideas and exchange of organizational and managerial know-how influenced effective IT outsourcing to a great extent. The study also found out that strategic agility affected the effective IT outsourcing to a very great extent (40%). The study finally found out that technology shifts affected the success of effective IT outsourcing in IBM to a great extent (41.8%). The study concluded that The regression equation above has established that top management commitment and support had the highest influence on effective IT Outsourcing closely followed by strategic agility, then partnership, then technology shifts while communication had the lowest influence on effective of IT Outsourcing. The study recommended that corporations and companies should invest in training their employees and encourage them to participate in decision making. The study also recommended that organizations should frequently evaluate process improvement methods to ensure their effectiveness and reliability and further aim at reducing failure demand. The study also recommended that organizations should leverage their assets, resources and capabilities before entering into a partnership as this enables each party to share their knowhow to achieve synergy. The study finally recommended that this study is adopted for micro small and medium enterprises to investigate the determinants for effective Information Technology Outsourcing. Another suggestion for further research should be done on the performance level of companies/ corporations that have outsourced Information Technology | en_US |
