Designed to generate discussion on the issues of outsourcing from the perspective of a firm thinking about turning over its IS activities to a third-party vendor.

Designed to look at outsourcing from the perspective of a major computer services company trying to get into the business.

Outlines the full architecture of an outsourcing agreement and allows the class to discuss what should and should not be in such agreements.

Designed to be handed out after discussion of the (C) case.

Provides a context for the evolution of information technology in business organizations, explains the emergence of information as an important resource to be managed, and provides a framework for assessing the strategic potential of information in the firm.

Information is a critical resource in the information economy and Information Technology (IT) enables information to be managed as a strategic resource. However, IT is extremely complex and fast-changing. As a result, the general manager cannot leave IT decisions strictly to IT technologists and cannot hope to be technically competent to make the "right" IT decisions for the firm. This dilemma is resolved by the construction of an "IT architecture"--the bridge between strategy and technology.