Despite the economic recession that started in 2008, many IT service providers didn't see the expected boon to business in 2009. Some outsourcers struggled to a degree alongside the rest of the high-tech industry, but IT services experts say they started to see a return to growth toward the end of 2009. That means 2010 could find many outsourcing providers taking advantage of hot technology trends such as cloud computing to sell their services into smaller IT shops.
Mike Slavin, partner and practice leader for Global IT Advisory Services at outsourcing industry advisory and consulting firm TPI, shares his take on the coming year and the outsourcing industry with Network World Senior Editor, Denise Dubie.
Which of the service providers came out on top in the midst of the outsourcing deals and consolidation that took place throughout 2009?
Mike Slavin (MS): Actually, we really see that the heritage Indian service providers probably made the largest gains in 2009 in both ADM [applications development and maintenance] and infrastructure services. As a group, they have moved the dial in terms of not just raw capabilities, but experience and competence, which then leads to increased market share and acceptance by CIOs and IT leaders.
What were the trends driving the sourcing industry throughout the year?
MS: The first half of 2009 seemed to be consumed with tactical actions, renegotiations and consolidation of vendor portfolios, all in an effort to reduce the cost profile. In the second half of the year, we saw a marked increase in infrastructure sourcing which signaled a return to building a sourcing strategy past just survival of 2009.
There has been a lot of focus on cloud. What will companies and IT services providers focus on in 2010?
MS: The focus will be on wrapping security around the public cloud offerings. Also, there will be focus on providing traditional tier 1 outsourcing services down into the small and midmarket via cloud services.
