Netsourcing: Renting Business Applications and Services Over a Network

Preface

For most of the twentieth century, business managers were able to focus on their core business responsibilities while delegating the technology support to inside or outside experts. But in the new millennium, nearly every product, service, process, and function is enabled by, and embedded in, networked information technology (IT). Product design, purchasing, scheduling, manufacturing, logistics, recruiting, inventory, customer orders, delivery, customer service, finance, and accounting are all enabled by networked IT. This means that all business managers now have IT responsibilities—whether they want them or not.

Among the most important decisions business managers make is to determine the most effective way of sourcing IT solutions, and ...