As managers you will decide what is done internally within your company and what you will contract to others. No company does 100% of their own Information Technology work. "Make vs. Buy" decisions are now part of managing Information Technology as well as part of managing Manufacturing.

IBM started out as a hardware company, expanded into sofware, and eventually into services IBM acquired the consulting business of PriceWaterhouseCoopers.. Several of you analyzed IBM and found that IBM offers many outsouring alternatives from data center operations to application development to total management of the Information Technology function.

You also found that Accenture has a broad range of outsourcing services. Accenture is not in the hardware business and has a much smaller software business than IBM. Accenture installs and operates software from other companies such as SAP. Accenture was previously Andersen Consulting and focused mostly on systems development.

Most of you visited the Capgemini web site. Capgemini originated in France and is still based there. It has worldwide operations like Accenture and IBM. Capgemini acquired the consulting business of Ernst and Young. Amanda found an interesting diagram that puts some outsourcing services into perspective. You can view it here or see it below: