Sourcing Strategies in 2012

Outsourcing of IT support, desktop support and infrastructure is relatively common, while an increasing number of organisations are now investing in outsourcing of e-commerce systems, hosting of data-centres, and software and application development, the latter of which is commonly outsourced offshore.

However, this extensive experience does not mean that organisations do not still face enormous challenges around outsourcing. One of the most common issues raised by senior IT professionals is how to maintain and drive value from outsourcing when there are cost constraints in place. With budgets being slashed because of the recession, IT departments are looking for ways to achieve more with less.

In April 2012 The Corporate IT Forum conducted a Reality Checker survey to understand how appetites were changing for outsourcing, whether different areas were being outsourcing and which suppliers were being used. Key findings show value is now a common goal over cost, many areas are being moved to the Cloud and customer contact is being brought back from India. Contributing organisations represent an annual IT spend of £8.96 billion, employ over 1 million people and have nearly 1,000 years experience with outsourcing.

Headline findings:

• Nine out of ten outsource as part of the business strategy.
• Cost is the common but not sole driver.
• Data centres most common commodity no longer outsourced.
• Many areas now in Cloud rather than 'traditional' outsourced contract.
• Continued trend for process to become less successful throughout lifecycle.
• BT still most used, praised and rebuked supplier.