There and Back Again: Reconfiguring IT Sourcing at ProSiebenSat.1

Könning Michael, Chasin Friedrich

Abstract

In early 2007, ProSiebenSat.1 Media SE, one of Europe’s leading independent media corporations, embarked on a journey to define a new sourcing configuration for its IT landscape. Previously operating a completely insourced IT delivery model, the company looked at outsourcing in hopes of reducing costs, leveraging economies of scale, and capitalizing on innovations. Now, after ten years and a number of major reconfiguration efforts, it is clearly apparent which expectations have materialized – and which have not. Based on interviews with the company’s top management and insights from strategy projects performed in the course of these reconfigurations, this teaching case reconstructs P7S1’s journey from its initial insourcing to complete outsourcing and back to insourcing the major areas of its IT landscape. Taking its readers through ten years of decisionmaking about IT sourcing, the case outlines a broad range of sourcing strategies. The case helps students to grasp the risks and challenges that are associated with sourcing decisions and illustrates how a company can reintegrate parts of the previously outsourced IT areas back in-house. 

Keywords
IT Strategy; IT Sourcing; Outsourcing; Backsourcing; Multisourcing; Case Study