Improved access to information technology and cost are the primary drivers behind outsourcing in Ireland currently. In its 2012 Outsourcing Survey, HiberniaEvros Technology Group said that 39% of respondents cited improved access to IT, followed by 29% citing costs as their primary reasons for engaging in IT outsourcing.
Among secondary drivers was better delivery of IT services and the ability for the organisation to focus on core business as a result of outsourcing IT.
"While cost remains a motivation, the outsourcing debate has moved on to how to deliver the best IT services so that organisations can respond to and focus on a challenging business environment," said John Kennedy, sales and marketing director, HiberniaEvros Technology Group.
As regards the prevalence of IT outsourcing among Irish organisations, 83% of respondents said that they outsource some part of their IT function. Half of respondents said that they outsource the maintenance of their hardware infrastructure support, followed by web hosting. Network management, monitoring of IT infrastructure and security/spam/virus protection tie for third place in terms of IT services outsourcing, according to the survey.
One in four respondents were considering outsourcing some IT services to a data centre over the next 12 months, with 18% already outsource business continuity to a data centre.
The survey was carried out his year among 75 IT decision makers, with 47% from organisations with 250 or more employees.
With regard to cloud computing, the survey found that 26% were considering using some form of cloud computing. Just 10% were considering Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), and 11% were considering outsourcing the IT service desk.
The inhibitors of outsourcing appear to be weakening too, as more than a third (35%) reported no concerns about IT outsourcing, while 17.5% reported some. The major concerns are over reliance on an outside supplier followed by the challenge in sourcing the right partner. The main reasons companies do not outsource, according to respondents, were fears of loss of control and security, followed by already having sufficient IT staff.
In seeking an outsourcing specialist, the majority would talk first to their existing supplier, more than half would ask colleagues and a third would talk to a trade or professional association. The same percentage would conduct an initial web search, while more than one in ten would put a query to a group on a social media site such as LinkedIn.
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