Outsourcing Trend #1

In our discussions with customers we are seeing more and more of this pattern. Customers are keen on outsourcing commodity IT services like the network and IT infrastructure as well as the workplace, but are more and more reluctant to outsource things that make them who they are and that can help them differentiate from competition like architecture and applications.

Regarding innovation they tend to proceed with caution, starting with feasibility studies and small projects and growing as they go. Ecosystems in innovation projects tend to be a mix of large, established players with an ability to execute and niche, agile, small and medium sized players bringing in speed and agility.

There is a trend to insource brains and keep the control of the overall architecture inhouse. Consulting players are there to share best practices but also to inspire and create competitive advantage. There is also a trend to execute innovation projects outside of the company to avoid them getting slowed down by internal processes and resistance to change.