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1. Progressive Outsourcing
The year will be marked by the inking of smaller IT services deals, many ofthem by first-time buyers who sat on the sidelines in 2011, say industry watchers. Providers, happy to have a foothold, will push such customers to expand the scope of their relationships over time—the old “penetrate and radiate” approach. Contract activity will “creep back throughout 2012, as the recover stutters and buyers pull the trigger on sourcing activity,” says Phil Fersht, founder of outsourcing analyst firm HfS Research.
2. Outsourcing, Meet Cloudsourcing
Even if some of the discussion of cloud-based offerings from IT service providers is largely hot air, it will continue to be a hot topic in the industry. “The emerging cloud sourcing market will cause the destruction of the outsourcing market as we know it today,” predicts Ben Trowbridge, CEO of outsourcing consultancy Alsbridge. “The two markets will merge and cloud sourcing will drive the rebirth of outsourcing.”
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3. Providers Embrace Mass Automation…
“It continues to become harder to turn a good profit as a third party service provider,” notes EquaTerra’s Lepeak. Pressure to keep costs down and rive performance up, outsourcers will rely more heavily on automation, says Rutchik of Pace Harmon, from optical character recognition to whole lights-out, employee-free delivery centers.
Providers will increasingly be slinging such automation tools as well. “Applications that reduce the labor a client is required to perform the services will be offered at lower implementation and running costs than they have in the past,” says EquaTerra’s Brown. “This will continue to create demand for additional opportunities and reduce the staff necessary to support critical business applications.”
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