Information systems managers' view about outsourcing in Spain

Outsourcing has been growing unstoppably all over the world in recent years. It is Information Systems (IS) managers that are having to face this phenomenon most directly in their departments. For this reason, the paper has as its aim to show IS managers' assessment of outsourcing in the Spanish case.

With this purpose, the normative Delphi method with two rounds, showing the results obtained in the second round, is used. The IS managers of the largest Spanish firms were the experts interviewed in the study.

The experts interviewed suggest a widespread growth of IS outsourcing but describe a somewhat hostile environment around this phenomenon. This could be the reason why IS outsourcing has not developed in Spanish firms as much as those experts think is possible and even necessary.

This paper offers the IS managers' view about outsourcing and shows that they look at it as a way to improve their information services. The Delphi method, that has been often used in the IS field, helped us to confirm, in the second round, the conclusions that we had reached in the first round.