There’s a growing trend in IT outsourcing towards integrated solutions. It is a reaction to a pitfall of a multi-sourcing strategy. Clients generally face the challenge of dealing with fragmented service components and the risk of ‘chaos’ in IT service delivery as IT outsourcing contracts are split between different vendors.

There’s a growing trend in IT outsourcing towards integrated solutions. It is a reaction to a pitfall of a multi-sourcing strategy. Clients generally face the challenge of dealing with fragmented service components and the risk of ‘chaos’ in IT service delivery as IT outsourcing contracts are split between different vendors. Research reveals that for clients to benefit from digital transformation in IT outsourcing relationships, there is a need for integrated service solutions as a ‘total package’.

Tensions often arose between client demands for customized and integrated IT services on the one hand and the vendors’ standardization strategies to provide IT services in an efficient way on the other hand. Addressing IT service integration in IT outsourcing from an organization design perspective is a determinant for achieving a working solution for the business. Key considerations involve an appropriate governance structure and the implementation of orchestration mechanisms to enforce the coordination of IT service integration processes across different organization units.