What To Expect For IT Outsourcing In 2013?

Market forecasts and long-term business strategic plans are common annual markers for the early days of the New Year.  IT outsourcing experts and observers took out their crystal balls and looked to the year ahead. And if they are right, 2013 is expected to be a year of real growth of the industry. According to CIO, 2013 could be a year of growth for IT service providers and a year of progress for outsourcing buyers.

Business-Oriented Leaders Will Step In to Govern Outsourcing Deals

Tony Filippone, EVP of outsourcing analyst firm HfS Research, thinks that going forward outsourcing buyers will have zero tolerance for providers crowded with contract negotiators and SLA “number crunchers” notorious for strangling organizations of value.

“Expect to see governance upheavals as business-oriented leaders take the helm and meaty value-driven discussions with service providers dominate”, he says. On the other hand, “customers will require their suppliers to either integrate with or adopt cloud-based service management systems in order to have a common platform and single source of truth for service management activities,” says Aaron Oser, a partner in the global sourcing practice at law firm Pillsbury.

Local Support Will Be Key to Outsourcing Success

Ten years ago, every outsourcing provider had to be based in India, while in 2013 they may have to set up their offices in the UK or USA as well. Local support will be the key issue in 2013. “Sure, low cost locations will remain important, especially to European companies in desperate need of recessionary salvation,” says EVP of HfS Research. “However, the ‘new global’ really means demonstrating the capability for operations to seamlessly flow across centers around the world.”

Do-It-Yourself Outsourcing Increases

Experts say that the days when armies of consultants and lawyers influenced corporate decisions to outsource their IT solutions have passed with more and more companies trying to go on their own and performing major outsourcing transactions without help of any 3d parties in 2013.

New Outsourcing Disputes Will Spring Up

IT observers expect that in 2013 customers and suppliers will continue to close deals without fleshing out transition and transformation details and plans. Thus, failed or delayed transitions and transformations will be likely to become the main cause of disputes between customers and suppliers.

Source: CIO, 2012

About Evgenia Kutsa, Marketing Associate at Ciklum (13 Posts)

Evgenia has a journalism/media background and specializes in PR-marketing communications, content management, blogging and documentary filmmaking.