Apart from Central/Eastern Europe which is one of the world’s most tempting ITO spots, other European regions equally show positive tendencies and expand their ITO market. To get an insight into the current state of affairs of the Nordics outsourcing market let’s turn to EquaTerra’s recently released 2010 Nordics Service Provider Performance and Satisfaction study that covers the Information Technology Outsourcing (ITO) and BPO markets, usage and service provider performance.

The sweep of the survey is impressive: the 2010 Nordic study investigated over 440 outsourcing contracts held by over 220 of the top IT spending organizations in the Nordic region. The total annual value of the contracts included in this study is over Ђ3 billion, accounting for around two-thirds of the total Nordic outsourcing market in terms of annual contract value. All commercial sectors are represented in the study.

The 2010 results reflect positive tendencies: the ITO market is growing and the buyers are considerably satisfied with the delivered services. In more detail, you can see the exact percentage ratios summarized below:

• 84% of all Nordic ITO buyers polled indicated they will continue to outsource at the same or higher levels going forward.
• 72% of Nordic ITO buyers, up 8% compared to last year, indicated that outsourcing contributes significantly or moderately positively to meeting the primary drivers and benefits sought from their efforts.
• 55% of respondents are very satisfied or satisfied with their ITO efforts, and 29 % are somewhat satisfied. Only 6% are very or somewhat dissatisfied.
• 84% of all Nordic ITO buyers are satisfied with their outsourcing service providers in terms of general satisfaction, and 91 % of buyers would recommend their service provider(s) to another outsourcing buyer organization.

The use of offshore outsourcing in the Nordics has significantly increased over the past year. 52 percent of Nordic ITO buyers are currently making use of offshore outsourcing, up 11 percent compared to last year. This complies with the global tendencies of greater use of nearshore resources with similar language skills, cultural proximity, and closer time zones.