Abstract—More and more Australian firms are outsourcing their IT – indeed, outsourcing of at least some services is the dominant pattern. Yet managing outsourced IT is difficult and outcomes are uncertain. It has been suggested that firms that adopt a formal quality framework (such as ITIL) will have better outcomes and achieve greater cost savings from their outsourcing. In a survey of 140 users, when the hypothesis that ITIL would lead to better outsourcing outcomes was tested, the data indicated that while ITIL use led to better service level agreements, these did not lead to better downstream outcomes. On average, those that had implemented ITIL, and those that had not, achieved similar outsourcing outcomes. It appears that the focus of ITIL on within-firm service delivery makes it less helpful as a strategy for managing externally provided IT services.

Index Terms—IT outsourcing, IT outsourcing relationship, ITIL, service level agreement

Cite: Moahmmed Alojail and Brian Corbitt, "Does the ITIL Service Quality Framework Improve Outsourcing Relationship Outcomes?" Journal of Advanced Management Science, Vol. 4, No. 6, pp. 452-456, November 2016. doi: 10.18178/joams.4.6.452-456