USAA-IBM Partnerships in Information Technology: Managing the Image Project

Abstract

The introduction of a large-scale image processing system at United Services Automobile Association (USAA) required both external and internal partnerships. The USAA-IBM external partnership demonstrates how the traditional arms-length relationship between a vendor and a customer evolved into a close relationship of mutual benefit with blurred boundaries between buyer and seller. Two internal partnerships, one within USAA and the other within IBM, illustrate the importance of internal partnerships in making an external partnership successful. This paper discusses the “mosaic” of relationships and the “squiggly lines” of responsibility that characterized the internal and external partnerships from the perspective of senior information systems management. The article also provides conceptual frameworks that help in generalizing from the partnership arrangements within USAA’s environments to those of other organizations.

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