Finding Success Factors in IS Outsourcing Projects: A Customer Lifecycle Management Based Way

This paper carries out a research into success factors in information system outsourcing projects, based on customer life cycle management theory derived from customer relationship management. In this paper, the author firstly categorizes success factors into four periods in customer life cycle; then uses content analysis to select 52 cases from academic database, build up an analytical framework and code these cases; and finally does Chi-Square testing along with descriptive statistics to reach the conclusion as follows: (1) Find out customers´ needs and provide customized service. Out of 52 cases involved in this research, 37 (71.2%) cases mention this factor. The reason why customers´ needs and customized service are so important can be well explained by customer life cycle management theory. In the perspective of customers, through cross-buying and increased-buying, customers gradually gain experience in this outsourcing industry and begin to compare between current supplier and other potential suppliers, which means customers are no longer satisfied with current service level and want added value. (2) Be communicative. 35 (67.3%) cases of the 52 sample cases describes great outcomes from well communication situations between customers and suppliers during information systems outsourcing projects. Being communicative not only allows suppliers to know what customers want quickly but also lower operation cost and avoid all kinds of possible lost resulted from communication failures.