IT Off-shoring / Outsourcing Services Multiply
The new upcoming entrants to the off-shore outsourcing
market include Dell, desktop management specialist, and Lucent
Technologies that focuses on network maintenance. The services
offered by these equipment makers might be limited, but
according to IDC, each has inked contracts relevant to their
specialised expertise and low prices. At the same time, the
likes of Indian computer services firms such as Tata Consultancy
Services, Infosys Technologies and Wipro Technologies have
elbowed their way into the off-shoring / outsourcing
market with high quality low cost services.
Meanwhile, Salesforce.com, a company that offers off-site,
subscription style software is giving a new twist to outsourcing
by turning to Internet. A hosted service, Salesforce.com manages
and maintains customer systems remotely. And, if IDC is to be
believed, it won't be long before eBay, Google, Yahoo, AOL,
Travelocity and Amazon.com move into the 'on demand' business
services, as well.
Despite new competition, the top three outsourcing firms i.e.
EDS, IBM and Computer Sciences Corp. (CSC) have retained their
positions, as competitors unsuccessful in their attempts have
been unable to dislodge them. Based on revenue turn-over, IBM
occupied top spot at 15.5% of the global market last year, EDS
took second place with 11.7% and CDC's share in the third
position was 5.5%.
Among the ten biggest firms in the off-shoring / outsourcing
market, services revenue of Hewlett-Packard grew the fastest
at 22% according to IDC calculations, while Capgemini, IBM and
Northrup Grumman recorded growth in double digits.
Basing its figures on broad outsourcing contracts for data
centre management, desktop care, help desk support, network
operations, applications maintenance and disaster recovery
services, the IDC study announced its 2004 winners when the
global market for such services hit $84.6-billion. Further, the
off-shoring / outsourcing market is expected to grow 6% annually
through the decade, reaching $112.5-billion in 2009, while the
$33.8-billion US market will grow at 4.2%, according to the
research firm's predictions.
Increasing competition combined with moderate growth rate has
led to foretell more company mergers: "It's a stable set of
players, but there is going to have to be consolidation."