Having a cohesive IT strategy is essential for firms looking to outsource their software development, it has been claimed.

Writing on computing.co.uk, Martin Atherton, research director at industry analyst Freeform Dynamics, said the growing propensity of businesses to adopt approaches such as service-oriented architecture shows joined-up methods are becoming key features of a more strategic treatment of IT.

“A number of new and established approaches are going to have to work in harmony to deliver improved service to the business,” he added.

“Progressive IT departments are already mixing things up to benefit their business.”

Mr Atherton went on to say companies looking to make the most of their software’s functionality and development should seek to achieve a balance between using traditional in-house systems and progressive facilities such as software-as-a-service (SaaS) and cloud computing.

Earlier this week, IT industry analyst Gartner claimed SaaS revenue in the enterprise application markets is set to top $6.4 billion (3.9 billion GBP) in 2008, a 27 per cent increase on last year.