On ICT services management and outsourcing

ICT services management and outsourcing is a topic that has been recently discussed by a number of researchers and practitioners. Still, there does not exist any universal approach to these activities. Enterprises use a variety of methodologies, frameworks, and guidelines based on various principles. These approaches ascribe different functions to the ICT services, but none of them uses any concept of specific “services architecture”. In the light of recent trends such as Software-as-a-Service, or Cloud computing, the ICT services and its management get from our point of view even more important than before. Considering the serviceization of the application software on the market, together with the subsequent potential to increase overall flexibility of enterprise IS/ICT, there is a need to use appropriate tools and techniques. The solution that we deem reasonable, is either to revise existing methodologies, or to propose and adopt a new approach. This paper examines contemporary role of ICT services within the organisation, emphasizes its importance to business and ICT alignment, and finally it proposes an approach to IS/ICT management based on ICT services and their effective outsourcing.