APPLICABILITY OF COBIT IN MANAGING OUTSOURCED INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ACTIVITIES: AN INVESTIGATION BASED ON TWO MULTINATIONAL COMPANIES

Abstract

When a company decides for IT outsourcing, it needs to deploy efficient control mechanisms, once the third party will be working directly with one of its most important assets, i.e., its information. Among the several sets of practices that intend to help managing IT activities, COBIT stands out for making a wide range of applicable control resources available to deal with outsourcing among other issues. In this context, the goal of this research is to analyze how the COBIT framework can help improving management processes of outsourced activities for both involved companies. Methodologically, this research was conducted through interviews with specialists and a case study, analyzing how the involved organizations can improve their relationship with each other. Data collection involved interviews with managers, document analysis and observation. The authors tried to identify which COBIT dimensions, processes and detailed control objectives are more appropriate for outsourcing situations. Improvement opportunities where identified in the studied processes, as well as actions that promote the use of COBIT. The main results involve the development of a procedure for process selection, which is directly applicable to outsourcing situations, as well as recommendations on necessary improvements in the application of each COBIT process, in order to increase the effectiveness of management of the outsourcing relationship.