Outsourcing on the rise
Debates surrounding the pros and cons of outsourcing IT operations would appear to have come to a close, if a spate of new statistics is to be believed.
Indeed, the new year has brought with it conclusive evidence that, given the opportunity, businesses of any size would choose to enlist the help of a third party specialist when it comes to the management of varied technology-related tasks.
Most recently, a study carried out by the independent advisory firm EquaTerra found that outsourcing is growing significantly in populairy across the UK.
Of those businesses polled, 54 per cent stated that they were expecting to offshore more over the coming months in comparison to the nine per cent who feel that they will outsource less and deal with everything in-house.
More interestingly, while in the past the simple cost-cutting measures of outsourcing have been seen as the main factor driving the sector's growth, it is now apparent that money is not everything, with 54 per cent of businesses now choosing to make the move for reasons beside simple finances.
In fact, at the bottom end of the market, growing numbers of small-scale businesses are actually spending more money on outsourcing their IT operations in an effort to present a more professional image to prospective clients and partners, some industry insiders have reported.
As Geoff Kirby, spokesperson for Go response explains: "The main thing for most if they are a small start-up, they don't want to look like a small start-up, they want to present a professional appearance to the outside world and being able to offer, for example a reception service, is a way of doing this."
More worryingly, however, is the fact that outsourcing is increasingly becoming offshoring as businesses look overseas for assistance with their IT due to a perceived lack of relevant skills in the UK.
Better flexibility, the increased availability of specialist skills and a higher quality of work were all reasons cited by respondents to the EquaTerra study who admitted that they were looking to outsource to overseas providers.
"Cost is clearly significant,"; Duncan Aitchinson, partner at outsourcing advisory specialist TPI, told Computing.co.uk.
"But do not underestimate the skills issue. We generally do not have enough skilled talent in the West any more."
Despite this, the UK market for IT outsourcing remains strong, with the financial and public sectors continuing to turn to specialist providers within the UK, partly through reasons of regulatory and legislative compliance, while corporate firms with large amounts of sensitive data are still relatively reluctant to send responsibility for their operations outside of the UK.
Predictably, large venture capital firms are picking up on this reluctance and may look to shore up the UK outsourcing market, thereby making it as attractive to businesses as India currently is, Mr Aitchinson has predicted.
"By 2010, the outsourcing market will look very different to how it is today,"he concluded.
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