IT Sourcing Europe, a UK-based nearshore IT Outsourcing (ITO) market research and advisory firm, announced today the completion of its All-European ITO research 2010. The research was conducted between April and November 2010 and aimed to explore the major trends, challenges and problem solving among the European companies outsourcing their software development (SD) function offshore (at least 2 time zones away from the homeland), nearshore (no more than 2 time zones away) and/or within own country. As a result, 1,557 companies from eight countries – United Kingdom, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Netherlands, Denmark, Norway and Sweden – took part in IT Sourcing Europe’s study.

According to the study findings, in 2010 small companies appear to be the most active users of the outsourced software development in the following countries: Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark and Norway. United Kingdom is the only country surveyed in which mid-sized companies remain the most active adopters of SD outsourcing.

Regarding the overall SD outsourcing experience, the leading countries, most of whose companies have been outsourcing their SD function for more than 3 years now, are again United Kingdom and Germany, followed by Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark. Austria has the smallest number of companies outsourcing for more than 3 years and the greatest number of companies who first outsourced their development only less than 12 months ago.

Quite interesting findings were made with regards to the most popular destinations for the outsourced SD in 2010. Most of the German, Swiss, Austrian, Dutch, Swedish, Danish and Norwegian companies place their SD nearshore, while only the United Kingdom has the greatest ratio of companies that outsource their SD offshore.

As seen from the study findings, reduction of operating costs remains the most powerful driver of outsourcing decisions in all 8 countries surveyed. Among the other most frequently cited factors are: acceleration of time to market (UK, Germany, Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark), difficulty finding required IT resources and specific skills within own country (all surveyed countries except the UK), pressure from investor(s) and/or executive management to cut down IT/SD budgets (Switzerland and Austria), business development strategy improvement by focusing on company’s core competences (Norway) and freeing in-house resources for other critical tasks (the UK). Thus, cost efficiency and optimization and time to market acceleration are the top 2 pressures that pump up corporate decisions to outsource SD in the UK, Germany and all Nordic countries surveyed; while cost efficiency and willingness to get access to more expanded and qualified IT resource and talent pools are the top 2 outsourcing drivers in Switzerland and Austria.

More interesting and thought-provoking findings are available in IT Sourcing Europe’s “European ITO Intelligence Report 2010: Western and Northern Europe”.

Source:-http://pr-usa.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=549255&Itemid=34

The majority of talent for the IT industry lies in tier-II colleges and cities which are partially or completely ignored by companies for fresher placements in India, according to a study.

The scientific assesment team, Aspiring Minds, which compiled the study, segregated the country’s colleges into a top 100 campus list and compared their employability with the rest of the campuses (which they termed “tier II” campuses).

To calculate their “employability”, around 250,000 engineering and MCA students across the country, from more than 12 states, were tested on AMCAT, a test accepted by Indian IT/ItES companies as a standard of measuring candidates’ skills.

Campuses which fall in the top 100 campus list were segregated and their employability was compared with the rest of the campuses (tier 2 campuses) and it was discovered that the major skill deficiency between the two categories was in quantitative abilities and not in communicative abilities as presumed.

More than 70 percent of all students employable for IT product sector and more than 80 percent of all students employable for the IT services/KPO (Knowledge Process Outsourcing) sector are in tier 2 colleges, the study said.

Another interesting fact unearthed by the study is that the difference in employability for female versus male technical graduates is not more than two percentage points in any IT/ITeS sector.

Comparing their test scores it was found that while women performed better in english and computer programming, males surpassed the females in logical ability and quantitative ability.

Source:http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tech/careers/education/IT-industry-not-tapping-Indian-talent/articleshow/6915343.cms

The number of businesses adopting cloud-based security solutions will grow as they look to cut IT costs, it has been claimed.

Andy Wright, sales director at nonstopIT, said more companies will embrace the IT delivery model as its benefits become apparent.

“More and more people, as they’re slimming down their IT infrastructure and IT support departments, they’re going to want to put more in the cloud,” Mr Wright said.

He went on to say that the attitude of businesses towards the security of cloud computing is “softening” and that they are “starting to trust it more”.

This change of opinion has been driven by the need to cut costs, according to Mr Wright, as a cloud-based solution “doesn’t need such intensive resource in-house to manage it”.

Ease of deployment and external system management through an IT outsourcing provider are two of the principle benefits of cloud computing, he said.

Cloud computing services consumed through external service providers were estimated to account for 10.2 per cent of IT spending during the second quarter of 2010, according to Gartner.

Source:-http://www.ihotdesk.com/article/800101588/Rise-of-cloud-computing-to-create-work-for-IT-outsourcing-providers

A growing number of companies are investing in Ethernet switch and routers, new figures have shown.

Research published by IDC has shown that the Ethernet switching market has actually expanded by 32.7 per cent in the second quarter of the year, while the Ethernet routing market grew by 11 per cent.

Rohit Mehra, director of enterprise communications infrastructure at IDC, claimed that this performance was “very good” and followed an exceptional first three months of the year.

He explained that the market displayed a strong year-on-year growth compared to the market slowdown experienced in 2009.

“The continued adoption of Power over Ethernet and gigabit Ethernet is also being helped by the underlying networking drivers – the growth of voice and video over IP applications, network-attached devices, virtualisation and cloud computing,” Mr Mehra said.

Recent research by Techaisle found that IT spending is likely to increase by 5.2 per cent in 2010, with those companies of between 50 and 99 employees experiencing the fastest rate of growth.

Source:-http://www.ihotdesk.com/article/800037704/IT-outsourcing:-Ethernet-switch-and-router-market-expands-in-Q2

Umbrella contractors are benefiting from an increase in demand for IT freelancers amongst small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

According to new research from employment specialist PeoplePerHour.com, 61 per cent of SMEs polled said that they intend to increase the amount they spend on IT outsourcing and web technology.

The firm also found that, of the 360 SMEs it questioned, 38 per cent claimed they would invest in recruiting IT umbrella contractors in particular – more than double the number that said they would take on full time IT staff.

Moreover, 43 per cent of small businesses said that IT roles were best filled by freelancers on a temporary basis.

Xenios Thrasyvoulou, chief executive of PeoplePerHour.com, said: “The last decade has seen a boom in remote freelance working, facilitated by the internet. This has been led by the IT industry, which lends itself to freelancing.”

Ed Dawson, editor of broadband.co.uk, recently claimed that IT-related contractor services could be boosted by the deployment of universal fibre optic broadband.

Source:http://www.parasolgroup.co.uk/news/contracting-in-the-news/article/view/umbrella-contractors-benefit-from-increase-in-it-outsourcing/3613/

Social platforms are becoming a catalyst for the worldwide collaborative applications market, it has been claimed, which could affect how companies use IT outsourcing in London.

A report published by IDC has predicted that improved methods of communications have resulted from the growth in these technologies.

Michael Fauscette, group vice president for software business solutions at the analyst, highlighted the fact that these changes will impact on different businesses in various ways.

He said: “In a hyper-connected global business environment, competition is more unpredictable and the impetus for innovation is stronger as well. Not only are market factors and dynamics different, but the people are also different.”

Mr Fauscette suggested that the key steps companies should now take include identifying the market factors that generate the need for change, recognising the social goals and establishing what outputs will be measured to support these objectives.

IT outsourcing in London providers could have a key step in this process and in the phase suggested by the report, determining which platforms and applications are needed to achieve the goals.

A recent report by Gartner suggested that social media could have a key role to play in helping people to make their IT buying decisions.

Source:http://www.ihotdesk.com/article/800008403/IT-outsourcing-in-London:-Social-platforms-collaborative-app-catalyst

Educating company employees on the benefits of IT outsourcing is the key to making cost-cutting measures work with minimum disruption, an expert has said.

According to industry professional Alastair Kitching, there is an increasing demand for critical IT systems that is driving businesses towards managed services.

He noted a mood of “extreme caution” when it comes to recruitment, with a recent survey showing only three per cent of UK businesses plan to replace IT staff to fill the skills gap, while 61 per cent said they would invest in outsourcing.

“Businesses are putting IT at the heart of their recovery plans because it can provide better cost savings and efficiency than more staff,” Mr Kitching said. “Analysts predict a clear move towards managed services to make up the IT skills shortfall.”

Gartner recently forecast that worldwide cloud services will grow to around $46 billion (£30 billion) this year.

Source:http://www.outsourcing-russia.com/docs/?doc=1883