Despite a jump in the very largest outsourcing deals, it seems businesses are increasingly turning towards smaller contracts. According to analyst house Gartner, the number of outsourcing deals worth less than US USD50 million increased in 2008 while those of more than US USD50 million actually declined.

In 2008, 12 megadeals,those worth US USD1 billion or more,were struck, totalling around US USD17.1 billion in value, up from 10 worth US USD12 billion in total in 2007. However, the figure is significantly down on the period between 2000 and 2006 when the average total contract value for megadeals was US USD28 billion per year.

According to Gartner, the average duration of deals is also falling as businesses become more selective about what they outsource.

However, the total value of all outsourcing deals signed in 2008 was US USD42.2 billion,up a third on 2007s total of US USD29.5 billion, which Gartner puts down to the larger number of smaller deals signed.

Gartner VP, Allie Young, said in a statement While economic forces can change priorities, the basic drivers of outsourcing remain intact,organizations still outsource for cost, efficiency, access to skills, focus on core business, innovation, modernization and even business transformation.

The largest outsourcing contracts signed in 2008 were both worth US USD2.5 billion. One of these was awarded to TCS,the first time an Indian IT services company has secured a years largest deal.

2008 was also the first time the EMEA region overtook the Americas as the number one market for the number of deals signed, with 162 versus 158. Global deals made up 25 percent of all deals.

Young added that a tightening of IT budgets is likely to see a slowdown in the number of contracts signed during 2009 but this should recover towards the end of the year.