Recent Survey Reveals Key IT Outsourcing Trends in Switzerland in 2011

IT Sourcing Europe provides its 2011 Report of the major trends among Swiss IT and/or software development outsourcing companies observed in 1Q 2011.

IT Sourcing Europe, a European IT outsourcing (ITO) market research and consulting organization, has surveyed Swiss outsourcing and non-outsourcing companies between April and May 2011 in order to explore the following areas: outsourced versus in-house software development / IT demands, trends, challenges, problem solving techniques, costs, overall impressions as well as factors driving companies to transfer their development to the external providers onshore (i.e. within own country), offshore (more than 2 time zones away from Switzerland), and/or nearshore (1 or 2 time zones away).

The representative sample was comprised of 603 Swiss companies of which 380 (63%) were outsourcers. The survey results allow better understanding of the general profiles and behaviors of outsourcing companies in Switzerland.

As a result of the survey, the following trends are observed on the Swiss ITO market in 1Q 2011:

  • Most of outsourcing companies in Switzerland are small (less than 50 in headcount)
  • The greatest demand for the outsourcing services comes from IT/software development sector, followed by professional (e.g., accounting, legal) and financial services sectors
  • The vast majority of Swiss outsourcers expect to increase their annual revenue by 10% to 19%, while most of non-outsourcing companies anticipate 1% to 9% annual revenue growth in 2011
  • Small-value projects (EUR 0-49K) and large-value projects (EUR 500K+) are outsourced in equal proportions in Switzerland
  • A Fixed-Price Project model remains the most popular outsourcing model in Switzerland
  • Almost 50% of Swiss outsourcers transfer their IT / development nearshore
  • Top Three Drivers of ITO decisions in Switzerland are: reduction of operating costs, shortage of domestic IT skills and resources and needs to focus on core competences
  • Top Three Challenges facing Swiss outsourcers are: change management, cultural difference and poor communication with vendor’s project management
  • 50 per cent of Swiss non-outsourcing companies do not outsource due to concerns that the outsourced development will result in poorer product quality
  • 50 per cent of non-outsourcers are very likely to outsource in the near future to access better qualified and lower cost IT resources outside Switzerland, while more than 40 per cent are very  likely to outsource to speed up time to market

More thought-provoking findings will be available in the Swiss IT Outsourcing Intelligence Report 2011 to be presented soon to the Swiss business community by the Outsourcing Journal, an official publication of the German- Austrian- Swiss Outsourcing Association (Outsourcing Verband).

 
 

    Popular posts

    Related posts