A fuzzy decision making methodology based on fuzzy AHP and fuzzy TOPSIS with a case study for information systems outsourcing decisions

Many companies outsource their information systems (ISs) to share risk, reduce cost and achieve high level of performance quality. One of the most important steps in IS outsourcing is selection of the best appropriate candidate information systems for outsourcing. To address such problem, the multiple-criteria decision making (MCDM) methods could be applied. Therefore two MCDM approaches consisting of the integrated fuzzy analytical hierarchy process (FAHP) and fuzzy technique for order performance by similarity to ideal solution (FTOPSIS) for evaluating and selecting the appropriate Information System Project (ISP) can be employed. The proposed method has been applied in an actual case, an online book store in Iran. The FAHP is used to analyze the structure of the outsourcing problem and determine weights of the criteria, and FTOPSIS method is used for final ranking of ISPs. Finally to validate the obtained results, a sensitivity analysis is carried out.