Beyond The Information Systems Outsourcing Bandwagon: The Insourcing Response

Rating:
Summary: A practical review of the insourcing decision.
Review: Lacity and Hirschheim are the leading lights in looking at the outsourcing phenomenom. Unlike many who blindly push a point of view, they balance their advice through rigorous research and real case studies. This book demonstrates their immense understanding of the issues involved with the insourcing / outsourcing decision and gives page after page of practical advice on how to approach such a decision. The advice is easy to apply and works. I recommend this to information system managers and researchers who wish to review an exemplary approach to honest case studies.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting but out of date and very repetitive
Review: The book has some interesting insights, for example it says that in many cases insourcing can be just as efficient as outsourcing, but overall however the book is very out of date. Almost all the case studies involve possible outsourcing of datacenters running main frames. It discusses cost cutting measures involving automating tape loading and batch printing of reports! It only once mentions in passing today's style of outsourcing which is to countries like India and China. I also found very annoying the constant repetitions of the same arguments and quotes from people the authors had interviewed.