Worldwide IT Outsourcing to Reach $288 Billion This Year, Gartner Predicts

The global market for IT outsourcing is now forecasted by Gartner to reach $288 billion in 2013, according to a statement released today. The IT analyst firm now expects the market to grow more slowly this year than previously thought, the statement said, particularly in Western and the Asia/Pacific region.

“Planned new adoption of IT outsourcing remains positive in all service line segments. However, constrained IT budgets, an evolving IT outsourcing delivery model, economic conditions and cost-focused buyers are the limiting the growth of the IT outsourcing market,” Bryan Britz, Gartner’s research vice president, said in the statement.

In North America Gartner predicts more IT work to contracted outsourcing partners for better predictability in IT costs. Gartner said IT outsourcing will continue to grow though 2016, as large enterprises will remain inclined towards outsourcing IT work rather than make big capital investments in IT.

[See Related: Business and Technology Change Capabilities Primed for Outsourcing, Paper Argues]

Looking further down the road Gartner forecasted greater spending on both custom application outsourcing and infrastructure utility services from 2014 through 2017. The transition from desktops to mobile devices for enterprise IT needs is also reflected in the forecast, with increased spending on outsourced support for mobile end user devices and decreased spending on desktop outsourcing.

Jonathan Camhi has been an associate editor with Bank Systems & Technology since 2012. He previously worked as a freelance journalist in New York City covering politics, health and immigration, and has a master's degree from the City University of New York's Graduate School ... View Full Bio