BUSINESS
IT outsourcing to reach EUR450m in 2008
06-02-2008
by
Irish research firm iReach expects spending on business process and IT outsourcing to surge 30 percent during 2008.
The firm expects spending to top EUR450 million by the end of the year, thanks primarily to the anticipated slow-down in the Irish economy and the need for businesses to closely manage costs.
Furthermore, iReach predicts managed services to grow by 25 percent to hit EUR150 million in 2008. Managed services has been growing by around 24 percent year on year, according to Oisin Byrne, managing director of iReach, who said the success of managed services "has given IT managers the confidence to consider outsourcing business oriented tasks, such as print services, postal services, document processing, help desks and call centres."
Byrne sees this trend continuing and in fact extending into areas such as human resources, finance and customer service in the coming year.
While iReach expects the outsourcing market to grow strongly in 2008, it predicts that stakeholders will begin to opt for a multiple provider strategy as they try and diversify the risk associated with outsourcing, as well eking out additional cost savings. iReach, however, suggests that this strategy could be more complicated than its worth, and if not done successfully could lead to soaring costs.
This multi-provider strategy is at odds with the managed services deal signed on Wednesday between the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) and Fujitsu. The STG100 million deal sees the PSNI consolidate all of its ICT providers into just one provider.
Meanwhile, security concerns aren't likely to disappear anytime soon, according to iReach, which said that demand is expected to grow for managed service providers and outsourcers with solid security frameworks and policies.
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