IT Sourcing Europe, a European IT outsourcing (ITO) market research and consulting organisation, 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 nearshoreTop 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 are presented in the Swiss IT Outsourcing Intelligence Report 2011 available for download in the Outsourcing Journal, the official publication of the German- Austrian- Swiss Outsourcing Association (Outsourcing Verband).
IT Sourcing Europe is a UK-based market research and advisory company specialized in the European IT outsourcing. The company’s key goal is to conduct an independent and unbiased ITO research and increase the European business communities’ awareness of the current outsourcing demands, trends, challenges and problem solving practices. IT Sourcing Europe cooperates proactively with the European ICT and Outsourcing organisations such as the Outsourcing Verband, NGI (Dutch Independent Non-Commercial Association of and for ICT Professionals), Outsourcing Portal and others in terms of free information exchangeOutsourcing Verband is German / Austrian / Swiss Outsourcing Association that represents the interests of outsourcing professionals in the German speaking region. The association aims to allocate and disseminate relevant information and to support a vital exchange between all marked attendees.
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