Why Saudi Companies outsource IS Projects?

The purpose of this study is to explore Information Technology (IT) and Information System (IS) outsourcing projects in Saudi Arabia by identifying the potential advantages and disadvantages of outsourcing in an attempt to evaluate its actual impact on organizational improvements and IS industry productivity in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). Both methods of quantitative and qualitative have been integrated together with previous research in order to confirm the findings. Findings have revealed a positive impact of adopting outsourcing on IT/ IS projects in the surveyed Saudi organizations. There was a major agreement on the tested outsourcing advantage factors (core competencies skills quality and flexibility) along with maintaining time commitment and financial saving by reducing cost. Risks of processing selecting vendors or activities hidden cost employment performance and privacy were major disadvantages. Additionally Saudi government regulations and local employment system (Saudization) were considered as drivers for the outsourcing option by the majority of the research participants.