Where it Outsourcing is and Where it is Going: A Study across Functions and Department Sizes

Although there are forecasts of overall information technology (IT) outsourcing growth, there is no published research on which particular functions are being outsourced now or in the near future. Additionally, there is no literature on how outsourcing growth and how it may be related to department and/or firm size. The authors survey 181 upper level IT professionals across the United States to assess what they are outsourcing now and what they will likely outsource over the next three years. The results show that the areas of applications development, applications maintenance, personal computer (PC) maintenance, and systems maintenance will experience tremendous growth, while data center operations, systems development and telecommunications/LAN will experience very healthy growth. PC acquisition and project management will experience a lesser expansion. This growth will be led by what are now large IT departments. These results have implications for IT professionals and firms across the US and around the world.