CASE STUDY: adidas Group: IT Multi-Sourcing at adidas

Prepare adidas case for class discussion. Prepare a brief write-up (no more than 5 pages) on the case addressing following issues:

·  Which kind of risk would diminish with multi-sourcing? Which kind of risk are enhance?

·  Multisourcing in context of automobile industry, mentioned at a few places in the case, probably means sourcing for parts from different suppliers. Is that a good parallel for IT services consumed by a firm?

·  Is the term multi sourcing applied to service delivery as well as project delivery?

·  What are IT related capabilities need to achieve goals specified on page 4? Do these capabilities were already available to adidas in 2012?

·  Is the IT governance well defined at adidas? Will you describe IT governance as centralized, decentralized, or hybrid? Did it achieve high level of business and IT alignment?

·  Would you be rather among the top ten customers of a service provider than 257 of large service provider? After all the large service provider most got to where it is by excelling in servicing its customers.

·  Why would questions “What functions or tasks should I outsource?” and “What do I want to internally?” lead to different answer? Aren’t these two questions two sides of the same coin?

·  Does adidas really need CMMI level 5 and CMMI level 4 vendors?

·  Who would bear the cost of going through the learning curve to understand clients business?

·  If the overall project is given to a single vendor who then engages other vendors, will we still call it multi sourcing? Wasn’t Adidas creating and artificial layer of bureaucracy?

Answer preview

Information technology operation is one of the fundamental services that a company should be keen on. Big firms will require well-laid strategies that will make the process effective without compromising the cost. Adidas is a firm that operates and offers its services to many countries. It deals with sports attires which are in the global market. Adidas Company has faced various challenges due to high competition for customer and input services. Multi-sourcing and outsourcing of vendors of IT services are of great concern to the Adidas Company…

(1000 words)