Seven challenges management must overcome when implementing IT-shared services

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to empirically explore management challenges that management must overcome in the early phase of adopting IT-shared services. Organizations to an increasing extent adopt IT-shared services as a means to providing organization-wide IT services. Design/methodology/approach – Qualitative data from 20 case studies were analysed. The data were originally collected in a variety of predominantly large-size organizations from the public and private sectors in six different countries. The data used were collected between 2002 and 2010. Findings – Our research identifies seven reoccurring themes in the collected data, all being common management challenges. These challenges are evident within the whole organization – including their service-consuming business units – as well as their service-providing IT units. The seven challenges are related to the ability to deliver IT services, communication between IT and non-IT staff, IT-service portfolios, nature of IT services, power a...