Top companies lead the way in IT outsourcing

By Colleen Taylor, Contributing Editor -- Electronic News, 4/4/2007

As the need for proficient information technology (IT) infrastructure services continues to grow, analysts at market research firm Aberdeen say that outsourcing is an increasingly popular option that leading companies are turning to for efficiently fulfilling IT needs.

Outsourcing IT infrastructure is nothing new; the practice has been on a steady rise since around 2003, when Aberdeen reported that worldwide IT spending began picking up from a low one percent growth in 2002. That same year, Ericsson made waves with a decision to outsource its worldwide IT infrastructure to Hewlett Packard.

But while now many companies are currently outsourcing parts of their IT infrastructures to save money, Aberdeen said in its latest report that "leading organizations" are continuing to set themselves apart by making substantial gains in worker productivity and end-user satisfaction.

"The survey results tells us clearly that outsourcing IT infrastructure is paying off big time in internal IT service delivery," Rick Saia, research analyst for IT services at Aberdeen, said in a statement. "That's very important today as companies compete for customers and rely on technology to help end users be more productive, which can lead to lower costs, higher revenues, and more profit."

The survey also found that twice as many leading, or "best in class," organizations, cite asset reduction as a driver of their infrastructure outsourcing strategies. Aberdeen said this points to the emergence of asset management as a component of IT outsourcing strategies.

In addition, best in class companies cite the service-level agreement (SLA) as an important tool in managing an infrastructure outsourcing relationship, Aberdeen said. 44 percent of the best in class surveyed by the firm believe a provider's inability to meet an SLA's provision makes it difficult to outsource a function- while only 25 percent of all other companies represented in the survey made the same assertion.

Across the board, the market for IT infrastructure services is expected to grow this year and in 2008, according to Aberdeen. 50 percent of the firm's survey respondents said their organizations will buy more services through the end of next year, while another 32 percent said they have yet to decide what their plans are.