Simply that Complex

Abstract: In today's highly technological society, companies are under intense pressure to digitize not only their offerings, but also the organization itself. Companies buying information technology are expecting delivery and implementation to be faster as well as to more easily understand offered solutions. Previous research has studied the phenomenon of productization, a process identified as adding value by making the complex more easily understood. The research on productization, while exploring the paradoxes on the supplying side, lacks perspective from the buying side. This is the research gap which this thesis aims to fill. By conducting a qualitative, multiple-case study on two case companies acting on the Swedish pharmacy market, this study explores and develops the research area of productization through the perspective of the buyer. 16 interviewees in total have provided valuable information that has been processed through an analytical framework in order to identify the structure of value chains' and purchasing organizations' influence on productization. The conclusion was that buyers did not agree that software could be made that simple, further complicating the simplification of information technology.