Chevron: Outsourcing Commodity Processes in a Commodity Business

MIT Sloan Research Paper No. 4666-07

CISR Working Paper No. 371

22 Pages Posted: 14 Oct 2007

See all articles by Cynthia Beath

Cynthia Beath

University of Texas at Austin - Department of Information, Risk and Operations Management

Jeanne W. Ross

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) - Center for Information Systems Research (CISR)

Date Written: June 2007

Abstract

Faced with a large number of impending retirements, Chevron intended to downsize by outsourcing commodity services. In 2004 management recognized that taking advantage of the growing number of services available on the market required new competencies. This case describes how Chevron learned to identify appropriate outsourcing opportunities and how the IT unit - and managers of IT-enabled processes - incrementally built skills around architecture, integration, and vendor management to enable the company to benefit from outsourcing opportunities.

Keywords: outsourcing, commodity process, IT product management

Suggested Citation

Beath, Cynthia and Ross, Jeanne W., Chevron: Outsourcing Commodity Processes in a Commodity Business (June 2007). MIT Sloan Research Paper No. 4666-07, CISR Working Paper No. 371, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1020988 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1020988

Cynthia Beath (Contact Author)

University of Texas at Austin - Department of Information, Risk and Operations Management ( email )

CBA 5.202
Austin, TX 78712
United States

Jeanne W. Ross

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) - Center for Information Systems Research (CISR)

Sloan School of Management
245 First Street, E94-15th Floor
Cambridge, MA 02142
United States
(617) 253-2348 (Phone)

HOME PAGE: http://cisr.mit.edu

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