Decision Support System for Strategic Outsourcing Risk Reduction

Today’s outsourcing decisions are made in complex and rapidly changing environments, which exist both within organizations and in their external environments. The dynamic nature of environments increases risk and there is a need to support outsourcing decisions with a strong and structured approach. Furthermore, ongoing support is needed to monitor decisions for their continued aptness or inaptness in a rapidly changing world. This paper considers current outsourcing activity, recognizing potential benefits as well as the various strategic and business risks. It describes the holistic approach for outsourcing decisions provided by the HABIO framework and the recent development of a decision support web tool based on the HABIO approach. The web tool development offers an easily accessible, userfriendly application of HABIO principles within organizational procedures and processes as well as supporting outsourcing decisions in dynamic socioeconomic environments.