Does IT architecture matter?

In the last two decades, many research articles have been published about outsourcing and in recent years, some research articles have been written about IT architecture [1, 2, 3, 4]. Separate research on outsourcing and IT architectures could not shed light if IT architecture maturity has any impact on outsourcing. This research article is based on the core IS capabilities framework of Feeny and Willcocks (1998). In their framework, the authors proposed that IS core capabilities are retained, enhanced and maintained by three most important constructs. These are ‘business and IT vision’, ‘IT architecture’ and ‘outsourcing’. It is very logical to agree unanimously that ‘business and IT’ vision construct is the nucleus of any IT based modern organization. Through literature review and analysis, this article will make in depth study of the proposed framework by Feeny and Willcocks, to find its relevance and validity after a decade and will address the following questions. Are ‘IT architecture’ and ‘outsourcing’ relevant and valid constructs? Are these two constructs in any way linked to each other? The focus of this article is, in general, on the IT technologies and in particular, on the IT architecture maturity. A good combination of this two should enhance the positive outcomes from outsourcing with out loosing the core competencies.